74 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
upon an extensive marsh, varied only by a dis- 
tant 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 conjura- 
tion over some of their sick companions ; and a 
dog, which had been 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. ape 
We continued our voyage up the river to the 
20th with little variation of scenery or incident, 
travelling in that time about thirty miles. The 
near approach of winter was marked by severe 
frosts, which continued all day unless when the 
sun chanced to be unusually bright, and the 
geese and ducks were observed to take a south- 
erly course in large flocks. On the morning of 
the 20th we came to a party of Indians, encamped 
behind the bank of the river on the borders of a 
small marshy lake, for the purpose of killing 
water-fowl. Here we were gratified with the 
