places intricate and dangerous, from broken ridges of
rock jutting into the stream. We pitched our tents at the entrance of
Cross Lake, having advanced only five miles and a half.

Cross Lake is extensive, running towards the N.E. it is said, for forty
miles. We crossed it at a narrow part, and pulling through several
winding channels, formed by a group of islands, entered Cedar Lake,
which, next to Lake Winipeg, is the largest sheet of fresh water we had
hitherto seen. Ducks and geese resort hither in immense flocks in the
spring and autumn. These birds were now beginning to go off, owing to
its muddy shores having become quite hard through the nightly frosts. At
this place the Aurora Borealis was extremely brilliant in the night, its
coruscations darting, at times, over the whole sky, and assuming various
prismatic tints, of which the violet and yellow were predominant.

After pulling, on the 14th, seven miles and a quarter on the lake, a
violent wind drove us for shelter to a small island, or rather a ridge
of rolled stones, thrown up by the frequent storms which agitate this
lake. The weather did not moderate the whole day, and we were obliged to
pass the night on this exposed spot. The delay, however, enabled us to
obtain some lunar observations. The wind having subsided, we left our
resting-place the following morning, crossed the remainder of the lake,
and in the afternoon, arrived at Muddy Lake, which is very
appropriately named, as it consists merely of a few channels, winding
amongst extensive mud banks, which are overflowed during the spring
floods. We landed at an Indian tent, which contained two numerous
families, amounting to thirty souls. These poor creatures were badly
clothed, and reduced to a miserable condition by the hooping-cough and
measles. At the time of our arrival they were busy in preparing a
sweating-house for the sick. This is a remedy which they consider, with
the addition of singing and drumming, to be the grand specific for all
diseases. Our companions having obtained some geese, in exchange for rum
and tobacco, we proceeded a few more miles, and encamped on Devil's Drum
Island, having come, during the day, twenty miles and a half. A second
party of Indians were encamped on an adjoining island, a situation
chosen for the purpose of killing geese and ducks.

On the 16th we proceeded eighteen miles up the Saskatchawan. Its banks
are low, covered with willows, and lined with drift timber. T