e
scene, the country being low and swampy, and no hills rose on the
horizon or cast their shadows on the lake; but it was pleasing and
tranquil, and enlivened by one or two boats sailing about on the water.

We spent an agreeable evening; and early on the following morning
started again on our journey, having received an agreeable addition to
our party in the person of Miss Jessie Russ, second daughter of Mr
Russ, from whom we had just parted.

On the evening of the first day after our departure from Norway House,
we encamped on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. This immense body of fresh
water is about three hundred miles long by about fifty broad. The
shores are generally flat and uninteresting, and the water shallow; yet
here and there a few pretty spots may be seen at the head of a small bay
or inlet, where the ground is a little more elevated and fertile.

Nothing particular occurred during our voyage along the shores of the
lake, except that we hoisted our sails oftener to a favourable breeze,
and had a good deal more night travelling than heretofore. In about
five days after leaving Norway House we arrived at the mouth of Red
River; and a very swampy, sedgy, flat-looking mouth it was, covered with
tall bulrushes and swarming with water-fowl. The banks, too, were low
and swampy; but as we ascended they gradually became more woody and
elevated, till we arrived at the Stone Fort--twenty miles up the river--
where they were tolerably high.

A few miles below this we passed an Indian settlement, the cultivated
fields and white houses of which, with the church spire in the midst,
quite refreshed our eyes, after being so long accustomed to the shades
of the primeval forest.

The Stone Fort is a substantial fortification, surrounded by high walls
and flanked with bastions, and has a fine appearance from the river.

Here my friend and fellow-traveller, Mr Carles, hearing of his wife's
illness, left us, and proceeded up the settlement on horseback. The
missionaries also disembarked, and I was left alone, to be rowed slowly
to Fort Garry, nearly twenty miles further up the river.

The river banks were lined all the way along with the houses and farms
of the colonists, which had a thriving, cleanly appearance; and from the
quantity of live stock in the farmyards, the number of pigs along the
banks, and the healthy appearance of the children who ran out of the
cottages to gaze upon us as we passed, I inferred that the