wing
the state of moral feeling on these subjects amongst the white residents
of the fur countries. It was not very uncommon, amongst the Canadian
voyagers, for one woman to be common to, and maintained at the joint
expense of, two men; nor for a voyager to sell his wife, either for a
season or altogether, for a sum of money, proportioned to her beauty and
good qualities, but always inferior to the price of a team of dogs.

The country around Cumberland House is flat and swampy, and is much
intersected by small lakes. Limestone is found every where under a thin
stratum of soil, and it not unfrequently shows itself above the surface.
It lies in strata generally horizontal, but in one spot near the fort,
dipping to the northward at an angle of 40 deg.. Some portions of this rock
contain very perfect shells. With respect to the vegetable productions
of the district the _populus trepida_, or aspen, which thrives in moist
situations, is perhaps the most abundant tree on the banks of the
Saskatchawan, and is much prized as fire-wood, burning well when cut
green. The _populus balsamifera_, or taccamahac, called by the Crees
_matheh meteos_, or ugly poplar, in allusion to its rough bark and naked
stem, crowned in an aged state with a few distorted branches, is
scarcely less plentiful. It is an inferior fire-wood, and does not burn
well, unless when cut in the spring, and dried during the summer; but it
affords a great quantity of potash. A decoction of its resinous buds has
been sometimes used by the Indians with success in cases of
_snow-blindness_, but its application to the inflamed eye produces much
pain. Of pines, the white spruce is the most common here: the red and
black spruce, the balsam of Gilead fir, and Banksian pine, also occur
frequently. The larch is found only in swampy spots, and is stunted and
unhealthy. The canoe birch attains a considerable size in this latitude,
but from the great demand for its wood to make sledges, it has become
rare. The alder abounds on the margin of the little grassy lakes, so
common in the neighbourhood. A decoction of its inner bark is used as
an emetic by the Indians, who also extract from it a yellow dye. A great
variety of willows occur on the banks of the streams; and the hazel is
met with sparingly in the woods. The sugar maple, elm, ash, and the
_arbor vitae_[10], termed by the Canadian voyagers _cedar_, grow on
various parts of the Saskatchawan; but that river seems to form the