the Red Indians in Newfoundland. 321 



At HalPs Bay we got no useful information, from the three 

 (and the only) English families settled there. Indeed we 

 could hardly have expected any ; for these, and such people, have 

 been the unchecked and ruthless destroyers of the tribe, the 

 remnant of which we were in search of. After sleeping one night 

 in a house, we again struck into the country to the westward. 



In five days we were on the high lands south of White Bay, 

 and in sight of the high lands east of the Bay of Islands, on the 

 west coast of Newfoundland. The country south and west of 

 us was low and flat, consisting of marshes, extending in a south- 

 erly direction more than thirty miles. In this direction lies the 

 famous Red Indians' Lake. It was now near the middle of No- 

 vember, and the winter had commenced pretty severely in the 

 interior. The country was every where covered with snow, 

 and, for some days past, we had walked over the small ponds 

 on the ice. The summits of the hills on which we stood had 

 snow on them, in some places., many feet deep. The deer were 

 migrating from the rugged and dreary mountains in the north, 

 to the low mossy barrens, and more woody parts in the south ; 

 and we inferred, that if any of the Red Indians had been at 

 White Bay during the past summer, they might be at that 

 time stationed about the borders of the low tract of country be- 

 fore us, at the deer-passes, or were employed somewhere else in 

 the interior, killing deer for winter provision. At these passes, 

 which are particular places in the migration lines of path, such 

 as the extreme ends of, and straights in, many of the large lakes, 

 — the foot of valleys between high or rugged mountains,^ — fords 

 in the large rivers, and the like, — the Indians kill great num- 

 bers of deer with very little trouble, during their migrations. 

 We looked out for two days from the summits of the hills adja- . 

 cent, trying to discover the smoke from the camps of the Red 

 Indians ; but in vain. These hills command a very extensive 

 view of the country in every direction. 



We now determined to proceed towards the Red Indians' Lake, 

 sanguine that, at that known rendezvous, we would find the ob- 

 jects of our search. 



Travelling over such a country, except when winter has 

 fairly set in, is truly laborious. 



In about ten days we got a glimpse of this beautifully majes- 

 tic and splendid sheet of water. The ravages of fire, which we 



