Upon the boards and posts, beasts and birds were carved in
a curious but crude manner, and pretty well proportioned. Returning to
the river, when the worst of the rapids were passed, they descended it
rapidly, helped by a strong current, and at length entered a lake
where they saw seals, which showed that they had got near to the
Pacific Ocean. They also beheld a round mountain, the now celebrated
Mount Baker, which is visible from so much of the surrounding country
of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. The trees were splendid,
junipers thirty feet in circumference in their trunks and two or three
hundred feet high. Mosquitoes, however, were in clouds. Nearer to the
coast the Indians often appeared in the distance like white men, for
the very literal reason that they had covered their skins with white
paint. Their houses were built of cedar planks, and were six hundred
and forty feet long by sixty feet broad, all under one roof, but of
course separated into a great number of partitions for different
families. On the outside the boards (as Mackenzie had noticed) were
carved with figures of men, beasts, and birds as large as life. Simon
Fraser, however, when he reached sea water, near the site of New
Westminster, was greatly disappointed that any view of the main ocean
should be obstructed by distant lands. He had believed all along that
he was tracing the far-famed Columbia River to its entrance into the
Pacific Ocean; and now that, instead of this, he had discovered an
entirely new river, henceforth to be called after him but without so
long a course as the Columbia, his vanity was hurt.
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