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 was carried along
the western shore, and while so engaged I determined the width of the
upper wide part by triangulation at two points, the width of the narrow
middle part at three points, and the width of the lower part, at three
points. Dr. Dawson on his way out made a track survey of the eastern
shore. The western shore is irregular in many places, being indented by
large bays, especially at the upper and lower ends. These bays are, as a
rule, shallow, more especially those at the lower end.

"Just above where the lake narrows in the middle there is a large