170 RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



clumps, such as balsam poplar, aspen, tamarack, balsam 

 spruce, cedar, and oak. The whole country has been 

 burnt some years ago ; the remains of the timber every- 

 where to be found indicate that there was once a vast 

 forest of large trees. 



"The Indian guide now said he had come • to the 

 boundary of his own country, and could not bring me 

 further ; and though I tried to induce him by every 

 available means, he remained firm to his resolution. He 

 was unwilling for some time even to give me a descrip- 

 tion of the country beyond ; but finally I procured from 

 him the following account : — 



" At half a day's journey on snow shoes, or a distance 

 of fifteen miles from where we were, there is a mountain 

 or ridge thickly covered with trees stretching towards the 

 Lake of the Woods. A part of this intervening space is 

 a swamp in which grow tamarack, cedar, and spruce ; the 

 remainder is dry ground covered with small aspens and 

 willows. Passing along the 6 mountain ' you come to a 

 marsh which extends to the c Lake of the Woods ; ' but 

 through it there flows a river up which large canoes 

 could come within the hearing of a gun-shot, or about 

 two miles from the mountain. The entire length of the 

 way I had come was seventy miles ; fifty miles, at least, of 

 this distance, being fit for settlement, and throughout the 

 whole of it a road could be made without the slightest 

 difficulty, and at little cost. If time and means had per- 

 mitted, I would have pushed through to the lake, but 

 under the circumstances I considered it better not to 

 attempt it. 



" From the description given by the Indians of the 

 country, and which I think may be relied on as correct, 

 I am of the opinion that a road can be easily made 

 through it." 



