extraordinary country in which we now found ourselves. What are here called plains, consist of a collection of barren hills and hollows, tossed together in a wild wave-like form, as if some ocean had been suddenly petrified while heaving its huge billows in a tumultuous swell. Sinclair, one of my men, informed me that he had from Fort Pelly traversed, in the summer season, a similar country, extending to the borders of the Missouri. From our elevation we could discern, due north, our eagerly looked-for mark, the Birch Hill, by which lay our lost route. Being thus re-assured, a smart walk of thirteen miles brought us to the external fringe of underwood, in which we halted at sunset. The loose snow made the walking this day irksome; but we had many a capital race, as the sledges shot down the steep hillsides. It was rather dangerous footing on these declivities, garnished as they were with badger-holes, which, being concealed by the snow, repeatedly entrapped our legs, and capsized us, though we fortunately escaped without fractures. The country is completely intersected by buffalo-roads: we saw many skeletons and one or two recent tracks of these animals; but no living creature, except a fox that started from his burrow on the top of one of the bare hills,
Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/75
