cottages, prettily screened by young trees.
Immediately beyond this was the beginning of the Chippewa settlement of
which we had been told. Log-houses, at the distance of nearly a quarter of
a mile from each other, stood in a long row beside the river, with
scattered trees about them, the largest of the forest, some girdled and
leafless, some untouched and green, the smallest trees between having been
cut away. Here and there an Indian woman, in a blue dress and bare-headed,
was walking along the road; cows and horses were grazing near the houses;
patches of maize were seen, tended in a slovenly manner and by no means
clear of bushes, but nobody was at work in the fields. Two females came
down to the bank, with paddles, and put off into the river in a birch-bark
canoe, the ends of which were carved in the peculiar Indian fashion. A
little beyond stood a group of boys and girls on the water's edge, the
boys in shirts and leggins, silently watching the steamer as it shot by
them. Still further on a group of children of both sexes, seven in number,
came running with shrill cries down the bank. It was then about twelve
o'clock, and the weather was extremely sultry. The boys in an instant
threw off their shirts and leggins, and plunged into the water with
shouts, but the girls were in before them, for they wore only a kind of
petticoat which they did not take off, but cast themselves into the river
at once and slid through the clear water like seals.

This little Indian colony on the edge of the forest extends for several
miles along the river, where its banks are highest and best adapted to the
purpose of settlement. It ends at last just below the village which bears
the name of Fort Saranae, in the neighborhood of which I was shown an
odd-looking wooden building, and was told that this was the house of
worship provided for the Indians by the government.

At Fort Huron, a village on the American side, opposite to Fort Saranae,
we stopped to land passengers. Three Indians made their appearance on the
shore, one of whom, a very large man, wore a kind of turban, and a white
blanket made into a sort of frock, with bars of black in several places,
altogether a striking costume. One of this party, a well-dressed young
man, stopped to speak with somebody in the crowd on the wharf, but the
giant in the turban, with his companion, strode rapidly by, apparently not
deigning to look at us, and disappeared in the village. He was scarcel