474 ASSINNIB01NE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



expectation of procuring some sturgeon, but were unsuc- 

 cessful — the fishery carried on here by the Indians 

 having failed this year. This encampment of two 

 lodges was the only one we saw on the main Saskatche- 

 wan. It had been a larger camp, but eight families had 

 just left it, previous to our arrival, for their winter 

 quarters at the Little Saskatchewan. They are Swampy 

 Indians, and generally winter at Fairford, whence they 

 proceed in summer to the Grand Eapid ; where, by 

 assisting in dragging the boats and portaging, they get a 

 small recompence in the shape of tea, tobacco, or 

 pemmican. They occupy the time between the arrivals of 

 the different brigades of boats, in catching and drying 

 fish, and generally leave after the last fleet has passed up 

 in the autumn. 



We entered Lake Winnipeg at sunset, and camped not 

 far from the mouth of the Saskatchewan, upon a narrow 

 spit of gravel, separated from the wooded shores by a 

 marsh. The night was clear and beautiful, and the lake 

 wonderfully calm. From our bivouac, where we lay 

 with cramped hmbs outstretched on the shingle-beach, 

 could be seen the great headland " Kitchi-nashi," vanish- 

 ing away to the south-east in the far distant horizon. A 

 view very extensive and beautiful, but which betokened 

 many hours of paddling and tracking out of the direct 

 course to Eed Eiver. To the east and north the only 

 limit to our gaze was the dim horizon of the great lake 

 which lay tranquilly outspread before us like an unruffled 

 sea. 



