an extensive and parched forest, and where millions of half-consumed trees lay extended in every direction. Not a trace of vegetation remained, and never had I contemplated so dismal and destructive a conflagration!
We reached the River des Arcs or Askow, in the evening, and pitched our solitary tent upon the shore.[114] Here we discovered some vestiges of a savage party. Five days previous, nine lodges of Indians had encamped upon the very spot. We made a careful search, and my guides imagined they were the formidable Black-feet![115] We, the same day, saw two smokes at the extremity of the plain over which these barbarians had travelled. My companions seemed to hesitate, as we drew near the vicinity {148} of these fearful Black-feet. They recounted to me their inauspicious dreams, and wished to deter me from proceeding. One said: "I saw myself devoured by a wild bear;" another, "I saw ravens and vultures, (ill-omened birds), hovering over the head of our father;" a third saw a bloody spectacle. I gave them, in my turn, the history of one of my sentries, the archetype of vigilance, courage and simplicity.; these two then form the great South Saskatchewan. The name Rivière des Arcs is thought to have been given from its course, as it was first applied to the entire South Saskatchewan which takes a crescent course. More probably it arose from its frequent curves or "ox-bows," especially in the upper reaches, above Banff. The earliest explorers of this stream were the French, who under Lieutenant de Niverville, sent out by Legardeur de St. Pierre (1752), erected Fort La Jonquière not far from the modern town of Calgary. David Thompson explored Bow River valley for the North West Company in 1800. The upper Bow is now the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway.—Ed.]
