The McLeod is a fine stream, about 150 yards broad, flowing over a rocky, pebbly bed, and clear and shallow like the Pembina. The channel of the latter where we crossed it was clean cut through soft strata, with perpendicular cliffs on either side; whilst the banks of the McLeod are wider apart, rising steeply, but not vertically, to a greater height, and richly clothed with pine and aspen. The McLeod is subject to great floods at certain seasons, as evidenced by the great boulders strewn high along the shore, and the collections of driftwood accumulated at different points and turns of the river. On the following day we forded it without difficulty, and sending the men forward with the pack animals, hitched our horses to a tree, and stopped to prospect for gold. After washing two or three pans of “dirt,” we found but slight and doubtful traces of the precious metal, and re-ascended the bank to follow our party. Our horses had, however, broken loose and disappeared, but after a short distance, we discovered Milton’s, pulled up by the bridle, which had caught on a stump. The other horse was not to be found. We came up with the train, resting at a beaver swamp, and found that Cheadle’s horse had joined the rest, but without bridle. The large axe, too, had tumbled out of one of the packs, and we were compelled to delay a couple of hours whilst the men went back in search of the missing articles. The bridle was found, but the axe--far more important, since it was the only large one we possessed--we did not recover. The heat was very great, and the mosquitoes and gad-flies--called “bull-dogs” by the half-breeds--tormented the horses to such an extent that, in spite of the large green-wood fire which we made for their benefit--the smoke keeping off the insects--they were unable to feed, and rushed madly about in their distress. The “bull-dog,” or _tabanus_, is a large fly, about twice the size of a “bluebottle,” with a long body, banded with yellow, like that of the wasp, and its mouth is armed with a formidable cutting apparatus of four lancets. They are very numerous in wooded or swampy country, and are very fierce and persistent in their attacks on both men and animals. The “bull-dog” settles lightly and unnoticed on any exposed portion of the skin, and the first warning of his presence is a sharp stab, like that of a needle, which makes the sufferer wince again. There is, however, no after-irritation or swelling, as is the case with the sting of a mosquito. The horses suffer dreadfully from these creatures in the summer, and their necks--a part which they cannot reach with either head or tail to brush off their tormentors--are covered with great clusters of these vampires, and dripping with blood.