132 INDIAN ACCOUNT OF 



of about eighty miles. As to the course of 

 the principal river itself, little seemed to be 

 accurately known ; for the Indians never pene- 

 trated far, perhaps not more than twenty miles, 

 beyond the part which has been just described. 

 There it was said to maintain a uniform di- 

 rection towards the north-east. 



Proceeding by the western shore of the lake 



which we had entered, we cut across from point 



to point, coasting by islands so extensive, that 



we not unfrequently mistook them for the main. 



The water was of a dark indigo colour, but very 



clear; and the occasional and almost noiseless 



rising of a fish at a water-fly was the only sound 



which broke the stillness and serenity around. 



Whether it were owing to continued calms, or to 



the limited time during which this lake is liberated 



from its icy fetters, I am not prepared to say ; 



but certain it is, that I no where observed those 



successive banks, or layers of sand, along the 



beach, so common in the lakes to the southward, 



— the joint effect of the action of the waves and of 



the rise and fall of the water. Neither were there 



any of those horizontal lines on the base of the 



rocks, which force themselves on the notice of 



the traveller in other parts of this country, and 



which indicate, with the nicest precision, the 



fluctuations of the level at different seasons. 



Being somewhat bewildered among the nu- 



