404 ASSINNIBOIXE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



" April 4dh. — The Indians are still carrying on their 

 dance and feasting : they are preparing some more places 

 for dancing in. Their great dance, the goose dance, is 

 not yet commenced. This dance is repeated every 

 spring and fall, in honour to the gods for preserving 

 the Indians. 



" April 6th. — The Indians are now at the height of the 

 goose dance : that over, there will be several ceremonies 

 of less importance to be performed, before the Indians 

 are considered to be in a proper state for enjoying their 

 summer. 



" April 12th. — We could see some of the Indian tents 

 stripped of their covering, nothing but the bare poles stand- 

 ing, which intimates that those are going away." 



During the whole of the afternoon of the 10th we 

 passed through a good farming country. The remains of 

 aspen forests, in which trees of large growth are numer- 

 ous, are still to be seen standing in groves, or with 

 blackened trunks he hidden in the long luxuriant herbage 

 until rudely encountered by the carts and horses as they 

 push their way through the rank and tangled grass. 

 Easpberries were abundant in patches but not yet ripe ; 

 they were fully ripe a fortnight since - on the Qu'appelle, 

 200 miles south. 



Some of the small aspens had been nipped at the ex- 

 tremities of the branches by frost when in full leaf ; the 

 tops of many were black and drooping. 



About four miles from Long Creek, and perhaps ten 

 from the South Branch, a low range of hills running 

 north-east and south-west, are still covered with an aspen 

 forest of the same age as the blackened poles which stand 

 in clumps on all sides. These poles are from nine to 

 twelve inches thick ; the young aspens are from four to 

 six inches in diameter. "The fire" was here last year, 



