These cut-banks carry layers of stone here and there, and are specked with boulders, and in some places massed into projecting crests, which threaten destruction to the passer-by.

Otherwise the scenery is desolate, mountainous always, and wooded, but with much burnt timber, which gives a dreary look to the region.

The cut-banks are unique, however, and would make the fortune of an Eastern river, though here little noticed on account of their number.
It was now the 18th, and the weather was intensely hot, foreboding change and the August freshet.

We had camped about eight miles below the Burnt Rapid, and the men were very tired, having been in the water pretty much since morning.

Directly opposite our camp was a colossal cliff of clay, around which, looking upward, the river bent sharply to the south-west, very striking as seen beneath an almost full moon breaking from a pile of snowy clouds, whilst dark and threatening masses gathered to the north.