480 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



beaches, which separate marshes from the lake, we camped 

 nearly opposite Caribou Island, on a coast similar to that 

 which we left in the morning. The Indians came up with 

 us, and erected their lodges in our neighbourhood. They 

 were .now quite friendly, but at first their chief and prin- 

 cipal men looked upon us with suspicion, especially while 

 noting or making any observations. They seemed to be 

 under the impression that there was something going on 

 which would ultimately deprive them of their country. 

 The failure of their summer fishery at the Grand Eapid 

 had rendered them badly off for provisions, and the only 

 food they could get on this inhospitable coast was an 

 occasional gull. Whoever had the good fortune to 

 obtain one of these sea-birds was soon surrounded by 

 a group of Indian children, watching with anxious eyes 

 for the intestines of the animal, which they threw upon 

 a fire for a few minutes, and then ate apparently with 

 great relish. 



August 29th.- — Embarking this morning at daylight, we 

 reached Limestone Point about eleven o'clock, after 

 making a traverse of three miles against a strong head 

 wind. On this point there is a very fine exposure of 

 light-coloured limestone, containing numerous fossils, some 

 of which I succeeded in procuring. The outcrop on the 

 point is fourteen feet in thickness above the lake, in mas- 

 sive horizontal layers, overlaid by two and a half feet of 

 drift and fragments of limestone that have evidently been 

 broken up by ice. This headland is the abrupt termi- 

 nation of a narrow ridge of limestone clothed with aspen, 

 spruce, and birch ; it is about two miles long, running 

 nearly north and south. On the west side of it is Portage 

 Bay, so called by the Indians, as they sometimes make 

 a portage from the foot of it, across the neck of the 

 point. 



