‘ Back-Fackine > to the Paciiic: 163

fear as to have lost the power of utterance. When the fears
of their prisoners were finally calmed, one of the women
informed them that from the mountains ahead the sea was
visible. The man was finally induced to return, and after
some parleying was engaged as guide.

Gaining the summit of a hill,! a river? of some size, which
the guide said was navigable for canoes, was seen about three
miles away flowing from the south-east. A second summit
was reached which gave a view of a new snow-clad range
of mountains ending, according to the guide’s information,
at tide-water.

A building constructed of timbers squared on two sides,
with a roof projecting ten feet in front, attracted their notice,
as it seemed to have some connection with a nearby burial-
place surrounded with boards neatly arranged and covered
with bark.® “‘Beside them several poles had been erected,
one of which was square, and all of them painted. Several
hieroglyphics and figures done with a red earthy pigment
decorated the house inside and out.”

At the end of an exhausting day the guide encouraged
them with the hope that “in two days of similar exertion
we should arrive among people of another nation.” A travel-
ling party of five men and their families received the ex-
plorers with great kindness. They were the people the guides
had been expecting to meet. ‘The new people were of a very
pleasing aspect. “The women had adorned their hair with
beads, and had it arranged in large loose knots over the ears,
and plaited with great neatness from the division of the head.
‘The men were clothed in leather, their hair was neatly
combed, and they were more cleanly than any natives we
had yet seen. ‘Their eyes were of a grey hue with a tinge

1 Between the Blackwater and Dean Rivers. 2 The Dean.
’On Gatcho Lake. See Appendix A.