104 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



The route we pursued, from a point near the north-west 

 corner of the lake, lay through a labyrinth of islands in 

 a north-east by north direction for a distance of twenty- 

 eight miles. Six miles more, nearly due north, through 

 scenery of the same description but of a bolder character, 

 brought us to Eat Portage, on one of the numerous 

 mouths of the rocky Winnipeg. Much good pine timber 

 was seen on the larger islands, near the northern part of 

 the Lake of the Woods, and if conclusions may be drawn 

 from the accounts which the Indians gave us of their 

 gardens, it is very probable that extensive areas of 

 excellent land exist on the great promontory, and on 

 some of the large islands. They spoke of growing 

 Indian corn to a far greater extent than seen by us 

 on Garden Island. 



During our voyage from Garden Island to Eat Portage 

 we met with six small canoes one after the other ; four of 

 them contained only women and children, who had been 

 gathering berries on the islands. W e exchanged tea and 

 tobacco for a birch bark basket of blue-berries ( Vaccinium 

 Pennsylvanicam), of which they had collected a large 

 supply. 



Sturgeon are very numerous in the Lake of the Woods ; 

 they were repeatedly seen leaping out of the water in their 

 gambols at the approach of evening. The Indian in my 

 canoe told me that in calm weather they could be seen 

 lying on the bottom in deep water, among the beautiful 

 islands with which the narrows between the Lake of the 

 Sand Hills and the true Lake of the Woods are studded. 

 Whenever we landed to dine or camp before reaching 

 Eat Portage we found hosts of grasshoppers ; they covered 

 the bare rocks, and rose in small clouds from the grass at 

 my approach. We succeeded in securing a large pike 

 which lay basking in the sun at the surface of the water, 



