lakes teeming with fish. In Lake St. Anne alone were caught, last autumn, more than 70,000 white-fish, the most delicious of the kind; they are taken with the line at every season of the year.
Notwithstanding the rigor and duration of the winter in this northern region, the earth in general appears fertile; vegetation is so forward in the spring and summer, that potatoes, wheat and barley, together with other vegetables of Canada, come to maturity. Fall wheat would, in my judgment, yield better than spring wheat, which they sow at present. Lake St. Anne forms one of a chain of lakes; I counted eleven of them, which flow into the Saskatchewan by the little Sturgeon river. Innumerable republics of beavers formerly existed there; each lake, each marsh, each river, bears even to this day proofs of their labors. What I here say of beavers is applicable to almost all the Hudson territory. When the reindeer, buffalo and moose abounded, the Crees were then peaceful possessors; the animals have disappeared, and with them the ancient lords of the country. Scarcely do we meet with a solitary but -but now and then the tracks of some large animal. Seventeen families of half-breeds, descendants of English Canadians and savages, have assembled and settled around their missionaries. The Crees have gained the buffalo plains, and they contend for them with the Blackfeet, whose mortal foes they have become.
In proportion as the rigors of winter began to give place to the cheering dawn of spring, simultaneously did my pulse beat to approach nearer the mountain, there to await a favorable opportunity to cross it, so that I might arrive as early as possible at the mission of St. Ignatius.
The 12th of March, I bade farewell to the respectable Rowand family and to all the servants of the fort. I was accompanied by three brave half-breeds, whom Mr. Thibault was so kind as to procure me. At this season the whole country lies buried in snow, and voyages are made in sledges drawn by dogs. Our provisions and baggage were con-