116 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



in respect of area. Some distance from the river the 

 extensive rice grounds cover many thousand acres, and 

 continue for miles on either bank. Here the game con- 

 gregates, and reveling in the midst of such an abundant 

 supply of nutritious food, vast nocks of ducks, geese, and 

 all kinds of aquatic birds common in these regions, are to 

 be found. It is here too that the Indians assemble at stated 

 periods amidst the rice-grounds, procuring without any 

 difficulty, in favourable seasons, a large supply of food 

 for winter consumption. 



The falls of the Portage du Bois, where we arrived on 

 the following day, are exceedingly beautiful ; they let the 

 river down ten and a half feet, and are divided into four parts 

 by three prettily wooded islands ; the whole breadth of the 

 river here is about one-third of a mile. The portage path 

 passes over a fertile oasis sustaining oak, ash, and cherry, 

 with rosebushes, honeysuckle, and a great variety of sweet 

 scented flowering plants, which fill the air early in the morn- 

 ing with delicious fragrance. Succeeding this romantic 

 break in the river, the Point aux Chiens falls and rapids let 

 the river down nineteen feet. It is succeeded by the Eoche 

 Brule Portage and then by the Slave Falls, the scene 

 of one of those terrible incidents in Indian life formerly 

 of frequent occurrence in these inhospitable wilds. Tra- 

 dition tells that a slave of a ferocious master, maddened 

 by long continued cruelt}^, calmly stepped into a canoe 

 above these falls in the presence of the tribe, and sud- 

 denly pushing off from shore, wrapped her deer-skin robe 

 round her face and glided over the crest of the cata- 

 ract, to find rest in the surging waters below. 



Above the Barriere Falls, which are next approached, a 

 clay cliff comes on the river, and exposes a section about 

 fourteen feet high ; its breadth is not great, as in the rear 

 bare rocks can be seen from the river ; it occupies, how- 



