nstance, an Indian called Nepapinase--"A Wandering Bolt of
Night-Lightning"--lost his son when Mr. Ross was there taking
adhesion to the Treaty, and spread the report that he had brought
"bad medicine." Polygamy was practised, and even polyandry was
said to exist; but we had no time to verify this gossip, and no
right to interfere if we had.

On the 6th, a lovely fall morning, we bade good-bye to Wahpooskow,
its primitive people, and its simple but ample pleasures. Autumn
was upon us. Foliage, excepting in the deep woods, was changing
fast, the hues largely copper and russet; hard body-tints, yet
beautiful. There were no maples here, as in the East, to add a
glorious crimson to the scene; this was given by shrubs, not by
trees. The tints were certainly, in the larger growths, less
delicate here than there; the poplar's chrome was darker, the
willow's mottled chrome more sere. But there was the exquisite
pale canary of the birch, the blood-red and yellow of the wild
rose, which glows in both hues, the rich crimson of the red
willow, with its foil of ivory berries, and the ruddy copper
of the high-bush cranberry. These, with many other of the berry
bearers and the wild-flowers, yielded their rich hues; so that
the great pigments of autumn, crimson, brown and yellow, were
everywhere to be seen, beneath a deep blue sky strewn with
snowy clouds.

We were now on the return to Pelican Landing, with but few incidents
to note by the way, aside from those already recorded. But having
occasion to take a declaration at a cabin on our passage along the
first lake, we had an opportunity of visiting a hitherto unobserved
stratum of Wahpooskow's society.

The path to the cabin and its tepees led up a steep bank, beaten
as hard as nails and as slippery as glass; nevertheless, by
clutching the weeds which bordered it, mainly nettles, we got
on top at last, where an interesting scene met the eye.

This was a half-breed family, the head of which, a shrivelled
old fellow, was busy making a paddle with his crooked knife,
the materials of a birch-bark canoe lying beside him--and most
beautifully they make the canoe in this region. His wife was
standing close by, a smudged hag of most sinister aspect; also a son
and his wife. On stages, and on the shrubs around, were strewn nets,
ragged blankets, frowsy shawls, and a huddle of other shreds and
patches; and, everywhere else, a horde of hungry dogs snarling and
pouncing upon each other li