he Indian
in his native state would expect. The plan is evidently taken from the
Indian houses on the coast, which appear to me to be a poor copy of the
houses which the Hudson's Bay Company's servants build around their
trading posts. These houses do not appear to have been used for some
time past, and are almost in ruins. The Tagish Indians are now generally
on the coast, as they find it much easier to live there than in their
own country. As a matter of fact, what they make in their own country is
taken from them by the Coast Indians, so that there is little inducement
for them to remain.

"The Lewes River, where it leaves Marsh Lake, is about 200 yards wide,
and averages this width as far as the canon. I did not try to find
bottom anywhere as I went along, except where I had reason to think it
shallow, and there I always tried with my paddle. I did not anywhere
find bottom with this, which shows that there is no part of this stretch
of the river with less than six feet of water at medium height, at which
stage it appeared to me the river was at that time.

"From the head of Lake Bennet to the canon the corrected distance is
ninety-five miles, all of which is navigable for boats drawing 5 feet or
more. Add to this the westerly arm of Lake Bennet, and the Takone or
Windy Arm of Tagish Lake, each about fifteen miles in length, and the
Taku Arm of the latter lake, of unknown length, but probably not less
than thirty miles, and we have a stretch of water of upwards of one
hundred miles in length, all easily navigable; and, as has been pointed
out, easily connected with Taiya Inlet through the White Pass.

"No streams of any importance enter any of these lakes so far as I know.
A river, called by Schwatka "McClintock River," enters Marsh Lake at the
lower end from the east. It occupies a large valley, as seen from the
westerly side of the lake, but the stream is apparently unimportant.
Another small stream, apparently only a creek, enters the south-east
angle of the lake. It is not probable that any stream coming from the
east side of the lake is of importance, as the strip of country between
the Lewes and Teslintoo is not more than thirty or forty miles in
width at this point.

"The Taku Arm of Tagish Lake, is, so far, with the exception of reports
from Indians, unknown; but it is equally improbable that any river of
importance enters it, as it is so near the source of the waters flowing
northwards. However, this is