Mackenzie, further, declares this “enchanting scenery” to be a “wonderful display of uncultivated nature.”
Harmon, writing in 1800, gives us the following as his impression of this view:—“About a mile from this end of the portage is a hill, which towers majestically to the height of a thousand feet above the plain below, and which commands a most extensive and delightful prospect. Two lofty and extensive ridges enclose a valley about three miles in width, which stretches far as the eye can reach. Little river, which is also, by different persons, denominated Swan, Clearwater, or Pelican river, winds in a most delightful manner along this charming valley. The majestic forests, which wave upon these ridges, the delightful verdure of the intervening lawn, and the beautiful stream which wanders along through it, giving a pleasing variety to the scene, until these objects become blended with the horizon, form, on the whole, the most delightful natural scenery that I ever beheld.”
Sir John Franklin, in his account of his expeditions, writing of the view from the heights above the Clearwater at Methye portage, describes it as “the most picturesque and romantic prospect we had yet seen in this country. Two ranges of high hills run parallel to each other for several miles until the faint blue haze hides their particular characters, when they slightly change their course and are lost to the view.”
Captain (later Sir) George Back makes enthusiastic references to this beautiful view, for instance the following:—“A thousand feet below, the sylvan landscape lay spread before us, to the extent of thirty-six miles, in all the wild luxuriance of its summer clothing. Even the most jaded of the party, as he broke from the gloom of the wood on this enchanting scene, seemed to forget his weariness, and halted involuntarily with his burden
with a sort of wondering admiration, on a spectacle so novel and magnificent. . . . . . . . . . . There is something appalling in the vastness of a solitude like this.”
Sir George Simpson, in his narrative, speaks of “that noble view of Clearwater river which has been drawn with so much truth and beauty by Sir George Back.”
Bishop Tache, in the accounts of his travels, writes of the Clearwater:—“This delightful little stream, rising to the east of Methye portage has, up to the present time, and in spite of the difficulties of navigation, enjoyed almost the exclusive privilege of supplying a route to Athabaska-Mackenzie. On descending the heights of Methye portage one takes boat on this little river which, in order to keep the traveller in the midst of the beauties it presents to his view, places obstructions in the way, necessitating the portages of White Mud, the Pines, Bigstone, the Horse and the Cascades.”