54 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



afterwards, though the Indians had a low monotonous chant which 

 the J occasionally grumbled to themselves. 



We were looking for a stream called Flea River, where there were 

 said to be falls of 90 feet, but not finding it, we decided to encamp 

 on a sandy beach at the bottom of the bay, where we heard the noise 

 of rapids. This was the Riviere aux Crapauds, or Toad River. There 

 seems to be about this continent some pervading obstacle to the giving 

 of reasonable names to places. In this region, indeed, one is not 

 troubled with the classicality of New York, for instance, but, as in the 

 case of those just mentioned, there is nothing very happy in the choice ; 

 and as for repetition, it is fully as bad as anywhere. There seems to 

 be no end to Black Rivers and White Rivers and Montreal Rivers, 

 occasionally varied into Little Black and Large Black, and so on. 



As we neared the shore several canoes of Indians came out to 

 sell fish. Their appearance as they squatted in their canoes, wrapped 

 in their blankets, brought to mind the pictures of the South Sea 

 Islanders. Their faces were round, full and rather flat, with no great 

 projection of the cheek bones, the mouth very wide, with thickish lips, 

 and gaping like a negro's. The hair brownish, and not so straight 

 and coarse as that of the Indians in general. They were very filthy, 

 and their clothing in general ragged. They seemed, however, good 

 natured and happy, and grinned widely as they accosted us with 

 the customary salutation of "Boojou, boojou ! " (^Bonjour, honjour). 

 Their canoes are very small, generally not more than nine to twelve 

 feet in length, yet each usually contains a whole family ; the man 

 in the stern, the squaw in the bow, and the intermediate space filled 

 up with two or three children of various ages, and generally at least 

 one dog. In exchange for their fish they prefer flour or tobacco to 

 money, of which they do not know the value very well. Indeed in 

 any case they seem to regulate their demands rather by what the 

 buyer offers than according to any notion of relative values. Thus 

 when we offered in exchange for some fish a quantity of flour 

 that would have overpaid it at the Sault, they thought it too little. 

 On the other hand, a fifteen-pound trout was bought for a small 

 fish-hook. We were afterwards told at Michipicotin (^Mishi-picotn) 

 that an Indian came there once from a distance to buy supplies, and 

 produced a bundle, in which, after taking off wrapper after wrapper, 



