The whole plain was covered with a luxuriant crop of the vetch or wild pea, almost as nutritious a food for cattle and horses as oats. As we drew near to the Saskatchewan, we had to cross as many as five creeks with steep and lofty banks, the last in particular being a stream scarcely twenty feet in span between rugged declivities about two hundred feet in height.... On arriving in front of Edmonton, which was on the opposite bank of the Saskatchewan, we notified our approach by a volley of musketry, which was returned by the cannon of the fort.... Edmonton is a well-built place, something of a hexagon in form. It is surrounded by high pickets and bastions, which, with the battlemented gateways, the flagstaffs, etc., give it a good deal of a martial appearance; and it occupies a commanding situation, crowning an almost perpendicular part of the bank, about two hundred feet in height. The river is nearly as wide as at Carlton, while the immediate banks are well wooded, and the country behind consists of rolling prairies. This fort, both inside and outside, is decorated with paintings and devices to suit the tastes of the savages that frequent it. Over the gateways are a most fanciful variety of vanes; but the hall, of which both the ceiling and the walls present the gaudiest colours and the most fantastic sculptures, absolutely rivets the astonished natives to the spot with wonder and admiration. The buildings are smeared with a red earth found in the neighbourhood, which, when mixed with oil, produces a durable brown. The vicinity is rich in mineral productions. A seam of coal, about ten feet in depth, can be traced for a very considerable distance along both sides of the river.... 41. THE MOHAWK INDIANS IN ONTARIO (1842). =Source.=--_Letters from America_, by John Robert Godley. London, 1844.