ddition of singing and drumming, to
be the grand specific for all diseases. Our companions having obtained
some geese in exchange for rum and tobacco, we proceeded a few more miles
and encamped on Devil's Drum Island, having come during the day twenty
miles and a half. A second party of Indians were encamped on an adjoining
island, a situation chosen for the purpose of killing geese and ducks.

On the 16th we proceeded eighteen miles up the Saskatchewan. Its banks
are low, covered with willows, and lined with drift timber. The
surrounding country is swampy and intersected by the numerous arms of the
river. After passing for twenty or thirty yards through the willow
thicket on the banks of the stream we entered an extensive marsh, varied
only by a distant line of willows which marks the course of a creek or
branch of the river. The branch we navigated today is almost five hundred
yards wide. The exhalations from the marshy soil produced a low fog
although the sky above was perfectly clear. In the course of the day we
passed an Indian encampment of three tents whose inmates appeared to be
in a still more miserable condition than those we saw yesterday. They had
just finished the ceremony of conjuration over some of their sick
companions; and a dog which had been recently killed as a sacrifice to
some deity was hanging to a tree where it would be left (I was told) when
they moved their encampment.

We continued our voyage up the river to the 20th with little variation of
scenery or incident, travelling in that time about thirty miles. The near
approach of winter was marked by severe frosts which continued all day
unless when the sun chanced to be unusually bright and the geese and
ducks were observed to take a southerly course in large flocks. On the
morning of the 20th we came to a party of Indians encamped behind the
bank of the river on the borders of a small marshy lake for the purpose
of killing waterfowl. Here we were gratified with the view of a very
large tent. Its length was about forty feet, its breadth eighteen, and
its covering was moose-deer leather with apertures for the escape of the
smoke from the fires which are placed at each end; a ledge of wood was
placed on the ground on both sides the whole length of the tent, within
which were the sleeping-places, arranged probably according to families;
and the drums and other instruments of enchantment were piled up in the
centre. Amongst the Indians there were a g