ountry swarms with bisons, and varieties of deer, bears,
etcetera, which they hunt, shoot, snare, and kill in various ways. Some
of these tribes are well supplied with horses, with which they hunt the
buffalo. This is a wild, inspiriting chase, and the natives are very
fond of it. They use the gun a good deal, but prefer the bow and arrow
(in the use of which they are very expert) for the chase, and reserve
the gun for warfare,--many of them being constantly engaged in
skirmishing with their enemies. As the Crees were the Indians with whom
I had the most intercourse, I shall endeavour to describe my old friends
more at length.

The personal appearance of the men of this tribe is not bad. Although
they have not the bold, daring carriage of the wilder tribes, yet they
have active-looking figures, intelligent countenances, and a peculiar
brightness in their dark eyes, which, from a constant habit of looking
around them while travelling through the woods, are seldom for a moment
at rest. Their jet-black hair generally hangs in straight matted locks
over their shoulders, sometimes ornamented with beads and pieces of
metal, and occasionally with a few partridge feathers; but they seldom
wear a hat or cap of any kind, except in winter, when they make clumsy
imitations of foraging-caps with furs--preferring, if the weather be
warm, to go about without any head-dress at all; or, if it be cold,
using the large hood of their capotes as a covering. They are thin,
wiry men, not generally very muscular in their proportions, but yet
capable of enduring great fatigue. Their average height is about five
feet five inches; and one rarely meets with individuals varying much
from this average, nor with deformed people, among them. The step of a
Cree Indian is much longer than that of a European; owing, probably, to
his being so much accustomed to walking through swamps and forests,
where it is necessary to take long strides. This peculiarity becomes
apparent when an Indian arrives at a fort, and walks along the hard
ground inside the walls with the trader, whose short, bustling, active
step contrasts oddly with the long, solemn, ostrich-like stride of the
savage; which, however appropriate in the woods, is certainly strange
and ungraceful on a good road.

The summer dress of the Indian is almost entirely provided for him by
the Hudson Bay Company. It consists chiefly of a blue or grey cloth, or
else a blanket capote reaching bel