DAUPHIN RIVER SWAMPYS. 



27 



them. As it was, the guns they fired upon our arrival had 

 been heard, so that at sunset several canoes came swiftly 

 down the stream, filled with men and women to " learn 

 the news." The whole body camped close to us, and 

 what with talking, shouting, screaming of children and 

 howling of dogs, we enjoyed no rest until late in the 

 night. 



Eising at day-break on the following morning, Sept. 

 26th, a few hours were occupied in examining the country 

 in the rear of the camp. The banks of the river are 

 here about twenty feet above the present level of the 

 river, but the country is very marshy, and clothed with 

 tamarac and spruce behind the belt of aspens which 

 fringe the river banks. After breakfast, the wind being 

 fair, we hoisted sail, and in company with our Swampy 

 friends proceeded up the river. A little fleet of twenty- 

 three canoes, each with a birch bark sail, glided quickly 

 ahead of us, but the breeze freshening, we soon caught 

 and passed them one by one. About nine miles from the 

 mouth, the banks of the river are not more than ten 

 feet above its present level, but are rarely flooded. They 

 consist of alluvial clay, and sustain many groves of fine 

 spruce and aspen. At some of the bends there is a large 

 accumulation of boulders, consisting chiefly of the un- 

 fossiliferous rocks. The colouring of the trees, at this 

 season of the year, was unusually delicate and beautiful, 

 nearly all the aspens in front being yellow, while those 

 in the rear, protected in some measure from the night 

 frosts, still retained their green. 



About five miles from St. Martin Lake, a wide-spread- 

 ing marsh begins, on the edge of which we camped, our 

 Indian friends soon closing with us ; when the wind 

 failed, the squaws towed their canoes with fines made of 

 twisted cedar bark. Some of the old men were anxious 



