THE SAUTEAUX INDIANS. 467 



where we provided ourselves with a stronger 

 canoe, better adapted for ascending the river. 



As we approached Rainy Lake, numerous 

 deserted huts of the Sauteaux Indians were seen 

 on each side of the river, generally near rapids, 

 where they spear the sturgeon as it struggles to 

 ascend the current. The arrival of these fish is 

 their season of feasting ; for the large animals 

 being nearly extinct, they often experience great 

 difficulty in procuring food enough for subsist- 

 ence ; and, indeed, were it not for the wild rice, 

 which happily grows spontaneously round the 

 lake, and which they have prudence enough to 

 gather up for winter consumption, their condition 

 w r ould be most deplorable. In proof of the 

 wretchedness to which they are reduced, it is 

 only necessary to look at the many young trees 

 which have been stripped of their bark to afford 

 them sustenance. Still these people are, or 

 rather, when we saw them, were more than 

 commonly robust, and had an air and car- 

 riage greatly superior to the more peaceable 

 tribes of the north. The almost constant state of 

 warfare existing between them and the Sieux 

 Indians makes them daring, and gives them a 

 peculiar strut, assumed, probably, for the pur- 

 pose of intimidating their adversaries. On one 

 occasion, as we were crossing a portage close to 

 the American lines, some of these Indians came 



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