d, therefore, received whatever
she said with implicit faith. To maintain her influence during peace,
the lady thought proper to invent the above-mentioned prediction, which
was quickly spread through the whole northern district. At a later
period of her life, our heroine undertook to convey a packet of
importance from the Company's Post on the Columbia to that in New
Caledonia, through a tract of country which had not, at that time, been
passed by the traders, and which was known to be infested by several
hostile tribes. She chose for her companion another woman, whom she
passed off as her wife. They were attacked by a party of Indians, and
though the Manlike Woman received a wound in the breast, she
accomplished her object, and returned to the Columbia with answers to
the letters. When last seen by the traders, she had collected volunteers
for another war excursion, in which she received a mortal wound. The
faith of the Indians was shaken by her death, and soon afterwards the
whole of the story she had invented fell into discredit.

In the Athabasca department, which includes Slave Lake and Peace River,
as well as in the more southern districts, the autumn of 1826, and the
following winter, were unusually mild. Near the Saskatchawan River,
there was so little snow before the middle of January, that the sledges
could not be used; but at Bear Lake, and throughout the Mackenzie, the
weather was severe during the same periods, and the snow came early;
hence it would appear, that even in this climate the meteorological
register kept at any one place, affords no index from whence we can
judge of the season at another. In my journey from Slave Lake to the
Athabasca we had a snow-storm for three days, which we found did not
extend beyond sixty miles; and on our arrival at Fort Chipewyan, we
learned there had not been a single shower during these days. The only
coinciding circumstance, at the different stations this year, was the
prevalence of north-east winds.

[Sidenote: Sunday, 15th.] We welcomed the appearance of two of the
large-sized swans on the 15th April, as the harbingers of spring; the
geese followed on the 20th; the robins came on the 7th May; the house
martins appeared on the 12th, and in the course of a week were busily
employed repairing their nests; and the barn or forked-tail swallows
arrived on the 20th; and on the same day, the small-sized swans were
seen, which the traders consider the latest of the migrat