North-Western America 15

the eye looks down on the course of the little river, by some
called the Swan River, and by others the Clear-Water and
Pelican River, beautifully meandering for upwards of thirty
miles. The valley which is at once refreshed and adorned by
it, is about three miles in breadth, and is confined by two
lofty ridges of equal height, displaying a most beautiful
intermixture of wood and lawn, and stretching on till the
blue mist obscures the prospect. Some parts of the inclining
heights are covered with stately forests, relieved by promon-
tories of the finest verdure, where the elk and buffalo
find pasture.

‘“‘From this elevated position I beheld my people, dimi-
nished, as it were, to half their size, employed in pitching
their tents in a charming meadow, and among the canoes,
which, being turned upon their sides, presented their reddened
bottoms in contrast with the surrounding verdure. At the
same time the process of gumming them produced numerous
small spires of smoke, which as they rose, enlivened the
scene and at length blended with the larger columns that
ascended from the fires where the suppers were preparing.
It was in the month of September when I enjoyed this scene,
of which I do not presume to give an adequate description,
and as it was the rutting season of the elk, the whistling of
that animal was heard in all the variety which the echoes
could afford it.”

Descending the Clearwater River past the present rail-
head of the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway and the
location where Fort McMurray now stands, Pond reached
the Athabasca River and continued down past the great
deposits of tar-sands which outcrop on the river, to within
thirty miles of its mouth where he pitched his tents and
built what came to be known as “The Old Establishment,”
his headquarters for the next six years. According to