162 RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



the Lac la Pluie Indians, who had been engaged to 

 convey us through it, before the intervention of the tribe 

 at Garden Island, narrated in Chapter IV. He had been 

 ten days on the road, but might have accomplished the 

 journey thus far in shorter time, had he not found it 

 necessary to hunt for his family, who accompanied him. 

 At my request he drew a chart of the route, which 

 was, in almost all particulars, similar to that furnished by 

 the Indian at Fort Frances. He ascended a small river, 

 marked on the map Eeed Eiver, from the Lake of the 

 Woods, for a distance of thirty miles to the Great Muskeg 

 at the height of land, He was two days dragging his 

 canoe through the Muskeg, which is here nine miles 

 broad. He then descended the rapid stream, forty to 

 fifty miles long, before noticed, which is called by the 

 Indians Muskeg Eiver, and found himself among the 

 rushes or reeds of Eoseau Lake. In his canoe we found 

 his wife and two children. The half-naked little savages 

 were busily engaged in plucking a goose for their noon- 

 day meal. I offered him some tea in exchange for the 

 bird, and when the transfer was made, asked him what 

 they intended to eat for their own dinner ; he replied by 

 pointing to the bow of his canoe, addressing at the same 

 time a word or two to his wife, who raised a piece of birch 

 bark and disclosed two more geese, which he had shot a 

 few minutes before we saw him. Having bartered for 

 them also, with a small plug of tobacco, I asked the 

 guide what he would take for a new stone pipe which one 

 of the children was playing with ; to my astonishment the 

 Indian replied, three beaver skins (about five shillings), 

 but at the same time casting his eyes upon our cups and 

 saucers which lay on the grass, he said he would prefer a 

 cup, worth about four-pence. He really knew nothing 

 of the value of money or of cups, although he was quite 



