FAMINE ON THE WINNIPEG. 



119 



a stick. The waters of the river and marshes were 

 unusually high, so as to check the growth of the rice to 

 an extent which, when coupled with other deficiencies, 

 threatened them with famine during the coming winter. 



The same cause which originated the partial failure 

 of the wild rice led also to a great scarcity in fish. In 

 general, the Winnipeg teems with fish, among which are 

 sturgeon, pike, two kinds of white fish, perch, suckers, 

 &c, affording a bountiful supply to the Indians who hunt 

 and five on or near the lower portion of this majestic 

 river. The extraordinary height of its waters during the 

 summer of 1857 had so extended the feeding grounds 

 of the fish, that they were with difficulty caught in suffi- 

 cient numbers to provide the Indians with their staple 

 food. 



The unlooked-for short supply of wild rice and fish 

 were more severely felt in consequence of the unaccount- 

 able disappearance and death of the rabbits, which are 

 generally found in vast multitudes in the region of the 

 Lake of the Woods and Winnipeg River. During the 

 spring and summer, large numbers of rabbits were 

 found dead in the woods, owing probably to the 

 exhaustion which followed a severe winter, prolonged 

 this year to an unprecedented length in these regions. 

 With a partial failure in the rice, great scarcity of fish, 

 and the prospect of a very limited supply of rabbits, 

 the anticipations of the coining winter on the part of 

 those who cared to think of the sufferings of the wretched 

 Indians of the Winnipeg, were gloomy indeed. 



The Pennawa enters Bonnet Lake between high and rug- 

 ged rocks, the termination of a range of dome-shaped hills, 

 which decline from an altitude of 250 feet to small island 

 bosses in the lake. The strike of the range is nearly north 

 and south, curving slightly to the south-east ; the summit 



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