unless they think they will be well rewarded for it. They are
naturally very suspicions of strangers, and it takes some time, and some
knowledge of their language, to overcome this suspicion and gain their
confidence. If you begin at once to ask questions about their country,
without previously having them understand that you have no unfriendly
motive in doing so, they become alarmed, and although you may not meet
with a positive refusal to answer questions, you make very little
progress in getting desired information. On the other hand I have met
cases where, either through fear or hope of reward, they were only too
anxious to impart all they knew or had heard, and even more if they
thought it would please their hearer. I need hardly say that such
information is often not at all in accordance with the facts.

"I have several times found that some act of mine when in their
presence has aroused either their fear, superstition or cupidity. As an
instance: on the Bell River I met some Indians coming down stream as I
was going up. We were ashore at the time, and invited them to join us.
They started to come in, but very slowly, and all the time kept a
watchful eye on us. I noticed that my double-barrelled shot gun was
lying at my feet, loaded, and picked it up to unload it, as I knew they
would be handling it after landing. This alarmed them so much that it
was some time before they came in, and I don't think they would have
come ashore at all had they not heard that a party of white men of whom
we answered the description, were coming through that way (they had
learned this from the Hudson's Bay Company's officers), and concluded we
were the party described to them. After drinking some of our tea, and
getting a supply for themselves, they became quite friendly and
communicative.

"I cite these as instances of what one meets with who comes in contact
with Indians, and of how trifles affect them. A sojourn of two or three
days with them and the assistance of a common friend would do much to
disabuse them of such ideas, but when you have no such aids you must not
expect to make much progress.

"Lake Labarge is thirty-one miles long. In the upper thirteen it varies
from three to four miles in width; it then narrows to about two miles
for a distance of seven miles, when it begins to widen again, and
gradually expands to about, two and a-half or three miles, the lower six
miles of it maintaining the latter width. The survey w