epanach, a branch of the Saskatchewan
forming an island extending thirty miles above and forty below Cumberland
House. We turned to the westward on the Root River which enters the
Sepanach and halted on its banks, having made in direct distance not more
than twenty miles since the 23rd.

We passed the Shoal Lake on the 25th and then marched twelve miles
through woods and swamps to a hunting tent of the Indians. It was
situated in a grove of large poplars and would have been no unpleasant
residence if we could have avoided the smoke. A heavy gale from the
westward with snow confined us for several days to this tent. On the 30th
two Indians arrived, one of whom, named the Warrior, was well known at
the House. We endeavoured to prevail upon them to set out in quest of
moose which they agreed to do on receiving some rum. Promises were of no
avail; the smallest present gratification is preferred to the certainty
of ample reward at another period; an unfailing indication of strong
animal passions and a weak understanding. On our compliance with their
demand they departed.

The next day I went to the Warrior's tent distant about eleven miles. The
country was materially changed: the pine had disappeared and gentle
slopes with clumps of large poplars formed some pleasing groups: willows
were scattered over the swamps. When I entered the tent the Indians
spread a buffalo robe before the fire and desired me to sit down. Some
were eating, others sleeping, many of them without any covering except
the breechcloth and a blanket over the shoulders, a state in which they
love to indulge themselves till hunger drives them forth to the chase.
Besides the Warrior's family there was that of another hunter named
Long-legs whose bad success in hunting had reduced him to the necessity
of feeding on moose leather for three weeks when he was compassionately
relieved by the Warrior. I was an unwilling witness of the preparation of
my dinner by the Indian women. They cut into pieces a portion of fat
meat, using for that purpose a knife and their teeth. It was boiled in a
kettle and served in a platter made of birch bark from which, being
dirty, they had peeled the surface. However the flavour of good moose
meat will survive any process that it undergoes in their hands except
smoking.

Having provided myself with some drawing materials I amused the Indians
with a sketch of the interior of the tent and its inhabitants. An old
woman who was relati