THE QU'APPELLE MISSION. 



321 



The Qu'appelle Mission is situated between the second 

 and third Fishing Lakes. The situation is beautiful, and 

 the country on all sides of a very novel and peculiar cha- 

 racter. Here the Qu'appelle valley is 1^ miles broad and 

 250 feet deep. On the south a vast level prairie extends 

 to the Indian Head Hills, fertile, inviting, but treeless ; 

 towards the north the country is studded with groves of 

 aspen over a light and sometimes gravelly soil. Most 

 beautiful and attractive, however, are the lakes, four in 

 number, which from the rich store of fish they contain, are 

 well named the Fishing Lakes. A belt of timber fringes 

 their sides at the foot of the steep hills they wash, for they 

 fill the entire breadth of the valley. Ancient elm trees 

 with long and drooping branches bend over their waters ; 

 the ash-leaved maple acquires dimensions not seen since 

 leaving the Eed Eiver, and the Me-sas-ka-to-mi-na (la Poire) 

 (Amelanchier Canadensis) is no longer a bush, but a tree 

 eighteen to twenty feet high, and loaded with the most 

 luscious fruit. 



The Qu'appelle Mission was established last year (1858). 

 For some time past, however, Charles Pratt, the catechist, 

 has resided where the Mission is situated, and has con- 

 structed a comfortable log-house, fenced in a garden, and 

 now possesses six or seven cows and calves. An old half- 

 breed, whose name is obliterated in my note-book, took 

 up his residence with Pratt ; he had been engaged for the 

 better part of his life at different fishing stations belonging 

 to the Hudson's Bay Company throughout Eupert's Land, 

 and he declared that in all his experience he had never 

 seen the white fish (Coregonus albus) so large, numerous, 

 and well flavoured as in the Qu'appelle Fishing Lakes. 



The Eev. James Settee, the missionary, a native of 

 Swampy Cree origin, occupied Pratt's house ; he arrived 

 at the Mission last autumn. In the garden where we 



VOL. I. Y 



