fair valley without feeling that it is
destined to become, sooner or later, the happy home of civilised men,
with their bleating flocks, and their lowing herds--with their schools
and their churches--with their full garners, and their social hearths.
At the time of our visit, the great obstacle in the way of so blessed a
consummation was the hopeless wilderness to the eastward, which seemed
to bar for ever the march of settlement and cultivation, but which will
soon be an open road to the far west with all its riches. That
wilderness, now that it is to yield up its long-hidden stores, bids fair
to remove the impediments which hitherto it has itself presented. The
mines of Lake Superior, besides establishing a continuity of route
between the East and the West, will find their nearest and cheapest
supply of agricultural produce in the valley of the Kaministaquoia."

One of the especial hazards of the forest now encountered them. Passing
down a narrow creek near _Lac le Pluie_, fire suddenly burst forth in
the woods near them. The flames crackling and clambering up each tree,
quickly rose above the forest; within a few minutes more the dry grass
on the very margin of the waters, was in "a running blaze, and before
they were clear of the danger, they were almost enveloped in clouds of
smoke and ashes. These conflagrations, often caused by a wanderer's
fire, or even by his pipe, desolate large tracts of country, leaving
nothing but black and bare trunks, one of the most dismal scenes on
which the eye can look. When once the fire gets into the thick turf of
the primeval wilderness, it sets every thing at defiance. It has been
known to smoulder for a whole winter under the deep snow."

Another Indian display quickly followed. After traversing the lake, they
were hailed by the warriors of the Salteaux, a band of about a hundred,
the fighting men of a tribe of five hundred. Their five chiefs presented
a congratulatory address on their safe arrival, requesting an audience,
which was appointed, at the rather undiplomatic hour of _four_ next
morning. But, while the Governor was slumbering, the Indians were
preparing means of persuasion more effective, in their conceptions, than
even the oratory on which they seem to pride themselves very
highly--"while they were napping, the enemy were pelting away at them
with their incantations."

In the centre of a conjuring tent--a structure of branches and bark,
forty feet in length by ten i