INDIAN TRIBES OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY. 243 
frozen over until the middle of April. The snow is deep, the months of December, 
January, and February very cold, the thermometer seldom nsing above zero, but rang- 
ing from that point to 40° below it. During the winter north and northwest winds 
prevail, which always bring snow, while at that season south and west winds indicate 
clear weather. All travelling and hunting by the Indians and halfbreeds in the winter 
season is done with dog-sleds, horses not being able to wade through the deep snow. ‘The 
hunters travel about on snow-shoes. ‘The snow is never permitted when it falls to lie 
quietly on the ground, but is soon drifted by the winds into immense banks, and every 
valley and ravine becomes almost impassable. Thus large areas are left bare, exposing the 
grass to the animals. The climate is quite healthy; fevers are almost unknown, but ex- 
posure for a long time in the cold air brings on catarrh, rheumatism, quinsy, and diseases 
of the lungs. 
On one of the branches of Red River, and near the new settlement of Pembina, is a 
small lake, from which two hundred barrels of salt have been obtained by the inhabitants. 
Lignite occurs quite abundantly over a large portion of the Cree country, and may at some 
future period be employed for the purposes of fuel. 
These immense plains and forests are alike silent as to their having been anciently the 
abode of any race differing from the present occupants. Nothing is ever seen that would 
indicate that this country had ever been the residence of other nations of savages, much 
less any works of human industry of civilized beings at a remote period. ‘The only ob- 
jects worthy of attention in this respect, are the mounds of earth raised. by the interments 
of the dead; but these have been formed within the last century, and are known to con- 
tain the bedies of those Indians who died of the small-pox in 1776 or 1777. 
Hundreds or bodies have been buried beneath them, or, rather, the mounds are com- 
posed of many separate burials, alongside, and over each other; and persons are yet 
living who contributed to their structure, by interring their parents or friends. During 
the second visitation of this disease in 1838, several smaller depositories of this kind were 
made by the Crees; a comparatively small number of people having died at that time. 
These facts may throw light upon the origin of these formations in other parts of our 
country. Ordinarily, Indians are not buried in heaps; because, when not visited by 
severe maladies, they rove in quest of game, are a healthy people, and seldom more than 
one or two graves are seen near any one of their transient encampments; and even where 
large villages have wintered, the interments do not often exceed ten or a dozen. But, 
when a pestilence like the small-pox prevails, attacking the whole nation at the same 
time, they are disabled from travel, obliged to remain stationary until the disease abates, 
and thus hundreds are consigned to the same burial-ground. In former years, the Indians 
could not excavate to a sufficient depth, for want of proper tools; and, therefore, as each 
