7% 
1771. 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
and her two children joined us next morning, 
.—— before we had taken down our tent and madé 
January, 
ready for moving. Thofe people were the firft 
ftrangers whom .we had met fince we left the _ 
Fort, though we had travelled feveral hundred 
miles; which is a proof that this part of the coun- 
try is but thinly inhabited. It is a truth well 
known to the natives, and doubtlefs founded on 
experience, that there are many very extenfivé 
tracts of land in thofe parts, which are incapable 
of affording fupport to any number of the human 
tace even during the fhort time they are pafling 
through them, in the capacity of emigrants, from 
one place to the other; much lefs are they capa- 
ble of affording a conftant fupport to thofe who 
might wifh to make them their fixed refidencé 
at any feafon of the year. It is true, that few 
rivers or lakes in thofe parts are entirely deftituteé 
of fifh; but the uncertainty of meeting with a 
fufficient fupply for any confiderable time toge- 
ther, makes the natives very cautious how they 
put their whole dependance on that article, as it 
has too frequently been the means of many hun- 
dreds, being ftarved to death. 
By the twenty-third, deet were fo plentiful 
that the Indians feémed to think that, unlefs thé 
feafon, contrary to expectation and general ex- 
perience, fhould prove unfavourable, there would 
be no fear of our being in want Of provifions 
during the reft of the Winter, as deer had al- 
ways 
