(_See page 281._) ] The rest of the day was fruitful in difficulties and mishaps. The trail had been made by the Canadians when the river was low, and was now frequently lost in deep water. At these points we were obliged to cut a new line for ourselves, along steep, timber-strewn hill-sides. The forest was as dense as ever, and the trees of the largest. “Muskegs” occupied the hollows between the pine-clad hills, which ran up at short intervals with steep front towards the river. The horses mired and were dragged out--walked into the river, and were hauled back--entangled themselves in fallen timber, and were chopped out--or hid themselves in the thick wood, and had to be sought. At night The Assiniboine was fairly done, and all of us thoroughly tired out. We met with similar country and the same difficulties until the afternoon of the second day after leaving the island, when we came upon two camps, where were strewn pack-saddles and harness, and great cedars cut down on every side, with heaps of chips and splinters, showing that they had been used to make rafts and canoes. An inscription in pencil on a tree told us this was the emigrants’ “Slaughter Camp.” We searched in every direction, but no trail forward could be discovered. The truth, serious enough, now plainly forced itself upon our minds, that the whole band of emigrants had given up in despair the idea of cutting their way through forests so dense and encumbered, abandoned their horses, killed their oxen for provisions, and made large rafts in order to drop down the river to Kamloops. We were in a very disheartening position. Before crossing the Fraser a fortnight before we had lost nearly everything we possessed. Our provisions were now reduced to about ten pounds of pemmican, and the same of flour, or not three days’ rations for the six persons. Game of all kinds--as is always the case in vast forests--was exceedingly scarce, and if it had been plentiful, we could have killed but little with the few charges of powder we had left. Our clothes were already in rags, and we were obliged to patch our moccasins with pieces of the saddle-bags. The horses were weak and in wretched condition, having had little proper pasture since leaving Edmonton two months before, and for the last fortnight had subsisted upon leaves and twigs, with an occasional mouthful of marsh grass, or equisetum.