hold of bushes for fear of descending a slope too rapidly or of falling into a rim: and as they are one mass of small poisonous thorns from stem to root which break off directly they are get 1/2 an inch into the hand causing the hand to swell and holes where thorns have catered to [?]: are consequently most annoying and are most aptly termed. May 4th. Still working away in a most uninteresting country nothing but [?] timber and rocks containing only iron none of that precious mineral we would like to strike. One of our men while going for a pack of provisions gets chased by a she-bear and has to make fast time for a distance of two hundred yards; a more frightened looking man never entered camp; hair two shades lighter; and quite curly now whereas