OF THE POLAR SEA. 



47 



merely of a few channels, winding amongst extensive mud banks, 



which are overflowed during the spring floods. We landed at an 



Indian tent, which contained two numerous families, amounting to 



thirty souls. These poor creatures were badly clothed, and reduced 



to a miserable condition by the ravages of the hooping-cough and 



measles. At the time of our arrival they were busy in preparing a 



sweating-house for the sick. This is a remedy, which they consider, 



with the addition of singing and drumming, to be the grand specific 



for all diseases. Our companions having obtained some geese, in 



exchange for rum and tobacco, we proceeded a few more miles, and 



encamped on Devil's Drum Island, having come, during the day, 



twenty miles and a half. A second party of Indians were encamped 



on an adjoining island, a situation chosen for the purpose of killing 



geese and ducks. 



On the 16th we proceeded eighteen miles up the Saskatchawan . 



Its banks are low, covered with willows, and lined with drift timber. 

 The surrounding country is swampy, and intersected by the nume- 

 rous arms of the river. After passing for twenty or thirty yards 

 through the willow thicket on the banks of the stream, we entered 

 upon an extensive marsh, varied only by a distant line of willows, 

 which marks the course of a creek or branch of the river. The 

 branch we navigated to-day is almost five hundred yards wide. The 

 exhalations from the marshy soil produced a low fog, although the 

 sky above was perfectly clear. In the course of the day we passed 

 an Indian encampment of three tents, whose inmates appeared to be 

 in a still more miserable condition than those we saw yesterday. 

 They had just finished the ceremony of conjuration over some of 

 their sick companions ; and a dog, which was recently killed as a 

 sacrifice to some deity, was hanging to a tree, where it would be left 

 ( I was told) when they moved their encampment. 



We continued our voyage up the river to the 20th with little va- 

 riation of scenery or incident, travelling in that timejgabout thirty 



