140 



hakmon's journal. 



have no difficulty in killing any number of thena, 

 that Ave please. We now subsist entirely on these 

 fish ; and they are excellent food. 



Thursday, 13. Portage la Prairie, or Plain 

 Portage. Here the North West company have a 

 miserable fort, the local situation of which, is beau- 

 tiful, beyond any thing that I have seen in this 

 part of the world. Opposite the fort, there is a 

 plain, which is about sixty miles long, and from one 

 to ten broad, in the whole extent of which, not the 

 least rise of ground is visible. — To this place, the 

 Natives resort every spring, to take and dry stur- 

 geon. 



Saturday, 15. We are now encamped under 

 a beautiful range of oaks, which separate the riv- 

 er from a pretty extensive plain. Ever since we 

 left Mouse River, the soil on each side of the Up- 

 per Red River, down which we are passing, ap- 

 pears to be excellent, and the timber is very dif- 

 ferent from what it is near its source. We here 

 find oak, elm, walnut, basswood, &c. and I am in- 

 formed that there are grapes and plums in this 

 vicinity. 



Tuesday, 18. Not far from the place where 

 we are now encamped, there is a considerably 

 large camp of Sauteux. Among them I saw an- 

 other of my unfortunate countrymen, who, like 

 one of whom I have already spoken, was taken 



