for a while; they went away weeping. Our brothers are burning with impatience to see you." We thanked the Lord together for having preserved us thus far in the midst of so many dangers, and implored his protection in the long journey that we had yet to make.
I had stayed four days on Green river to allow my horses time to recover from their fatigue, to give good, wholesome advice to the Canadian hunters, who seem to be in great need of it, and to talk with the Indians of various nations. On the 4th' of July, I resumed my travels, with my Flatheads; ten brave Canadians also chose to accompany me. A good Fleming from Ghent, Jean-Baptiste de Velder, an old grenadier of Napoleon, who had left his fatherland thirty years ago, and had passed the last fourteen in the mountains in the capacity of beaver-hunter, generously offered to serve and aid me in all my journey
ings. He was resolved, he told me, to pass the rest of his days in the practice of his holy religion. He had almost forgotten the Flemish language, except his prayers and a hymn in Flemish verses in honor of Mary, which he had learned as a child on his mother's knees, and which he recited every day.
Three days we ascended Green river, and on the 8th we crossed it, heading for an elevated plain which separates the waters of the Colorado from those of the Columbia. In this plain, as in all mountain valleys that I have traversed, flax grows in the greatest abundance; it is just the same as the flax that is cultivated in Belgium, except that it is an annual; the same stalk, calix, seed and blue flower, closing by day and opening in the evening. On leaving this plain, we descended several thousand feet by a trail and arrived in Jackson's Hole.' The slope of the surrounding mountains abounds in the rarest plants, and offers the amateur botanist a superb collection. The val4 6th in one of the English letters.
a This was not Jackson's Hole, but a much smaller valley near the head of Hoback river, called Jackson's Little Hole.