MANITOBAH HOUSE. 



67 



elm grow ; tliey are the favourite camping grounds of the 

 Indians who hunt and fish in the country about Lake 

 Manitobah. The land in the rear of the House is stony, 

 but good, and there is an area of many thousand acres 

 in extent, well adapted for a settlement. The timber 

 consisting almost altogether of aspen on the mainland, 

 is of fair dimensions, trees from twelve inches to fifteen 

 inches in diameter being common. Near the Post, but 

 on the opposite side of the lake, there is a considerable 

 quantity of balsam-spruce and tamarac. There are no 

 rock exposures visible near the Post, but in making an 

 excavation for a cellar under the new house, the work- 

 men came upon limestone rock, four feet below the sur- 

 face. It was apparently horizontal, but in the fragments 

 procured no organic remains were visible ; its lithological 

 aspect was similar to the rock on Manitobah Island, to be 

 hereafter described. When the surface of the exposed 

 rock was cleaned with a bucket or two of water, well 

 preserved ice groves were visible ; their direction was N. 

 10° W.— S. 10° E. 



I visited the house of a freeman named John Camp- 

 bell a few hundred yards south of the Post, and found 

 there two comfortable log shanties, a potato field, two 

 or three haystacks and some cattle. Campbell's son in- 

 formed me that it was much easier to live here than at 

 the Settlements. He stated as a proof of the abundance 

 of natural pasture in the swamps that he allowed some of 

 his cattle to remain in the woods and swamps all winter, 

 but they became very poor towards spring. White-fish * 

 are abundant and of excellent quality ; they are the main- 

 stay of the people attached to the Post, who cure them 

 for winter consumption by the simple process of drying 

 in the sun. The fishing season had already commenced 



* Coreyonus albus, 



F 2 



