298 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



Indian potato -gardens; but there were very few 

 families there as we passed, every one that could 

 being away from the ordinary hunting-grounds at 

 this season, for the purpose of collecting wild rice, 

 which abounds in some neighbouring localities. 



In every part of Rainy Eiver sturgeon are found 

 in great abundance, one of fifty, sixty, or more 

 pounds being no extraordinary fish. It is very good 

 eating, and is a great staple of food amongst the poor 

 half-starved Indians. 



The land upon each side is low and marshy at the 

 mouth of Rainy River, from which rose up quantities 

 of wild duck, disturbed at their feast upon the wild 

 rice by the noise of our oars, and by the cheery 

 laughter and songs of our men. A large sand-bar 

 has formed in the Lake of the Woods immediately 

 across the mouth of the river, upon which great seas, 

 rolling in from the ocean-like lake beyond, broke 

 with a loud roar, sending up clouds of spray in an 

 angry fashion. Looking out westward as we passed 

 into the space between the bar and the shore, where 

 the water was calm as in a harbour, the lake was 

 covered with " white-horses " bespeaking, as the 

 breeze was freshening, by no means a pleasant day's 

 work for us. No open boat could have crossed the 

 bar; so we turned northward, keeping near shore, 

 but between it and a line of sandy dunes, which 

 seemed to be a continuation of the bar at the en- 

 trance to the river, and which had been formed most 



