80 DESCRIPTION OF THE SALT SPRINGS. 



five large bags with pure and white salt, in the 

 short space of half an hour. There were no 

 mounds like those seen in 1820; but just at 

 the foot of the hill which bounds the prairie in 

 that quarter, there were three springs, varying 

 in diameter from four to twelve feet, and pro- 

 ducing hillocks of salt, from fourteen to thirty 

 inches in height. The streams were dry, but 

 the surface of the clayey soil was covered, to 

 the extent of a few hundred yards towards the 

 plain, with a white crust of saline particles. 

 The plain itself had been trodden into paths, by 

 the footsteps of buffalo and other herbivorous 

 animals. 



We returned the same way to the encamp- 

 ment at the mouth of the river, and found the 

 Indians seated in clusters round Mr. M'Leod, still 

 busy in listening to and answering his interroga- 

 tories. The information thus collected was made 

 intelligible to me by means of an outline of 

 the north-eastern country, drawn by the Cama- 

 rade. In this sketch, the Thlew-ee-choh and 

 the Teh-Ion were represented as maintaining a 

 nearly parallel direction E.N. E. to the sea; 

 though, where that sea was, whether in some of 

 the deep inlets of Hudson's Bay, or, as I fer- 

 vently hoped, more directly north, towards 

 Point Turnagain, it was altogether beyond his 

 knowledge to declare. 





