INDIAN" GENEROSITY. 



73 



sufficiently extensive to give to this region any value in 

 an agricultural point of view. 



We met an Indian in a canoe near Elm Point, and 

 Whiteway, at my request, told him we were starving. 

 I wished to ascertain the truth of the statement so often 

 made respecting the liberality of these Indians in cases of 

 necessity. The answer was a happy one ; approaching 

 our boat in his canoe, the Indian said, " Look, if you see 

 anything to eat, take it." In his canoe were sixty fine 

 white-fish and a few pike. I gave him some potatoes, 

 tobacco, and tea, and accepted a dozen white-fish which 

 he pressed us to take. 



The shore continues low as far as Sandy Point ; it is 

 bounded by beaches fringed with fine aspen forests in the 

 rear of marshes filled with rushes, which occupy part of 

 every sheltered cove and bay open to the lake. We 

 camped at Monkman's Point, where one of the family has 

 a fishing station. They were catching their winter supply 

 of white-fish. Monkman * pointed out a marsh in the 

 rear of our camp, which he said was once dry ground, 

 and afforded splendid pasturage for horses. This probably 

 occurred during a period of low water. The marsh is 

 separated from the lake by a gravelly beach ; and a fall 

 in the level of the lake, to the extent of two feet, would not 

 only drain and dry this marsh, but many hundred square 

 miles of marshy areas formed under similar circumstances 

 and at the same period. Mr. Mackenzie, of Manitobah 

 House, told me that former residents at that Post had 

 seen the lake for a long period of time two feet lower 

 than at present. In fact, before the floods of 1852 the 

 lake was at its lowest level, and the swamps and marshes 



* The brother of John Monkman, of Oak Point, a celebrated character at 

 Selkirk Settlement. More will be said of this individual in a future 

 chapter. 



