374 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



chief man of the party, which consisted of six families, 

 invited me in the most polite and hospitable manner to 

 go to his lodge and have something to eat ; but I had to 

 decline as he had told me previously, in answer to a ques- 

 tion as to how many days' journey it was to Fort Ellice, 

 that we would have to sleep four or five times before we 

 reached it, and this was now our fourth day from the 

 Mission ; and, moreover, I thought that the interior of a 

 wigwam would not be a very agreeable place on such a 

 hot day. 



While we were speaking, the young ladies, whom we 

 had so unintentionally disturbed, came down one by one 

 to see us. Although their toilets were quite completed, 

 so very modest were they that they remained behind the 

 bushes and peeped at us through the branches. Having 

 given the men some tobacco, and received in return a 

 large supply of Pembina berries (High-bush cranberries), 

 we wished them good-bye and resumed our journey. We 

 went at the average rate of four miles an hour for two 

 hours and a half, and camped before sunset at the foot of 

 a bluff on the south side of the valley, of which I had 

 taken a bearing from the end of the lake, and close to a 

 creek about ten feet wide called Nipimenan sepesis, or 

 Summer Berry Creek. 



The valley is here of the same breadth as heretofore, 

 that is, about one mile, and its depth is from 250 to 300 

 feet. The bottom is covered with willows interspersed 

 with young sugar maples, with here and there an open 

 patch of long luxuriant grass. With some difficulty I 

 made my way to the level of the prairie through a dense 

 and tangled mass of aspens and underwood of willows, 

 dog-wood, and rose trees ; but the beauty of the glorious 

 sunset, and the cool refreshing breeze that came across 

 the plains, more than repaid the trouble. I need not try 



