ckly
through the water: in a moment it came out with a beautiful white-fish,
upwards of a foot long, glittering like silver as it struggled in the
meshes. In the space of half an hour he had caught half a dozen in this
manner, and we bought three or four of the finest for a few plugs of
tobacco. His wigwam and family were close at hand; so, while our men
crossed the portage, I ran up to see them.

The tent, which was made of sheets of birch bark sewed together, was
pitched beneath the branches of a gigantic pine, upon the lower limbs of
which hung a pair of worn-out snow-shoes, a very dirty blanket, and a
short bow, with a quiver of arrows near it. At the foot of it, upon the
ground, were scattered a few tin pots, several pairs of old moccasins,
and a gun; while against it leaned an Indian cradle, in which a small,
very brown baby, with jet-black eyes and hair, stood bolt upright,
basking in the sun's rays, and bearing a comical resemblance to an
Egyptian mummy. At the door of the tent a child of riper years amused
itself by rolling about among the chips of wood, useless bits of
deer-skin, and filth always strewn around a wigwam. On the right hand
lay a pile of firewood, with an axe beside it, near which crouched a
half-starved, wretched-looking nondescript dog, who commenced barking
vociferously the moment he cast eyes upon me. Such was the outside.
The interior, filled with smoke from the fire and Indians' pipes, was,
if possible, even dirtier. Amid a large pile of rabbit-skins reclined
an old woman, busily plucking the feathers from a fine duck, which she
carefully preserved (the feathers, not the duck) in a bag, for the
purpose of trading them with the Company at a future period. Her dress
was a coat of rabbit-skins, so strangely shaped that no one could
possibly tell how she ever got it off or on. This, however, was
doubtless a matter of little consequence to her, as Indians seldom take
the trouble of changing their clothes, or even of undressing at all.
The coat was fearfully dirty, and hung upon her in a way that led me to
suppose she had worn it for six months, and that it would fall off her
in a few days. A pair of faded blue cloth leggins completed her
costume--her dirty shoulders, arms, and feet being quite destitute of
covering; while her long black hair fell in tangled masses upon her
neck, and it was evidently a long time since a comb had passed through
it. On the other side sat a younger woman