Our horses were so weak that we left them at Old St. Paul’s to recruit for a few days, and then brought them across the river. This was nearly fatal to poor Bucephalus, who was too exhausted to swim, and narrowly escaped drowning in the passage. They soon improved on the rich bunch-grass, and we made a present of them to The Assiniboine, for his use in re-crossing by the Kootanie Pass next spring. Numbers of Shushwaps frequented Kamloops, and their love of finery made them very conspicuous amongst the roughly-dressed miners. The men delighted in scarlet leggings, red sashes, and bright-coloured ribbons in their caps; the women affected the gaudiest skirts, and the most vivid-coloured handkerchiefs on their heads. They are beginning to appreciate the advantages of agriculture, and grow potatoes with great success; are keen traders, thoroughly acquainted with the value of money, and by their labour alone as packmen, the miners were supplied with necessaries for a long time, until a mule trail was cut open. But although of superior industry to the Indians of the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, they compare very disadvantageously with them in physique and intelligence, and presented many points of difference from their relations we met at The Cache. They are of smaller stature and less powerful build than the former; their faces are broader and rounder; the cheek-bones higher; the nose smaller, less prominent, and the nostrils more dilated. Their complexion is darker, and of a more muddy, coppery hue than that of the true Red Indian, and their general appearance so strange to our eyes when we first encountered a party of them on our way down the North Thompson, that we never suspected they were Indians, but took them for Mexicans, or some immigrants from the east.[18] They are also talkative and mercurial, and exhibit none of the dignity and conscious power which marks the Red Indian of the plains.