138 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



dred Indians received head-money, and all were not paid, 

 and the half-breeds seemed quite as numerous. About a 

 quarter of the whole number of Indians were said to be 

 pagans, and the remainder Protestants and Roman Catholics 

 in fair proportion. In the latter denomination, Father 

 Giroux told me, the proportion of Indians and half-breeds, 

 including those of the first lake, was about equal. The 

 latter, he said, raised potatoes, but little else, and lived like 

 the Indians, by fishing and hunting, especially by the former, 

 as they had to go far now for fur and large game. 



The Hudson's Bay Company had built a post near Mr. 

 Weaver's Mission, and there was a free-trader also close 

 by, named Johnston, whose brother, a fine-looking • native 

 missionary, assisted at an interesting service we attended in 

 the Mission church, conducted in Cree and English, the 

 voices in the Cree hymns being very soft and sweet. Mr. 

 Ladoucere was also near with his trading-stock, so that busi- 

 ness, it was feared, would be overdone. But we issued an 

 unexpectedly large number of scrip certificates here, and the 

 price being run up by competition, a great deal of trade 

 followed. 



Wahpooskow is certainly a wonderful region for fish, par- 

 ticularly the whitefish and its cousin-german, the tuUabee. 

 They are not got freely in winter in the first lake, but are 

 taken in large numbers in the second, where they throng at 

 that season. But in the fall the take is very great in both 

 lakes, and stages were seen in all directions where the fish 

 are hung up by their tails, very tempting to the hungry dogs, 

 but beyond their ' reach until the crows attack them. The 

 former keep a watchful eye on this process, and when the 

 crows have eaten off the tails, which they invariably attack 

 first, the dogs seize the fish as they drop. When this perform- 

 ance becomes serious, however, the fish are generally removed 

 to stores. 



One night, after an excellent dinner at Mr. Weaver's, that 

 grateful rarity with us, we adjourned to a ball or " break- 



