duct of the children of the Orkney men employed by the Hudson’s
Bay Company, and those of the Canadian voyagers. Some trouble
is occasionally bestowed in teaching the former, and it is not thrown
away ; but all the good that can be said of the latter is, that they
are not quite so licentious as their fathers are.
Many of the half-breeds, both male and female, are brought
up amongst, and intermarry with, the Indians; and there are few
tents wherein the paler children of such marriages are not to be
seen.
It has been remarked, I do not know with what truth, that half-
breeds shew more personal courage than the pure Crees*.
The girls at the forts, particularly the daughters of Canadians,
are given in marriage very young; they are very frequently wives at
twelve years of age, and mothers at fourteen. Nay, more than
one instance came under our observation of the master of a post
having permitted a voyager to take to wife a poor child that had
scarcely attained the age of ten years. The masters of posts and wintering
partners of the Companies deemed this criminal indulgence to
the vices of their servants, necessary to stimulate them to exertion
for the interest of their respective concerns. Another practice may
also be noticed, as shewing the state of moral feeling on these subjects
amongst the white residents of the fur countries. It was not
very uncommon, amongst the Canadian voyagers, for one woman ta
be common to, and maintained at the joint expense of, two m en;
nor for a voyager to sell his wife, either for a season or altogether;
for a sum of money, proportioned to her beauty and good qualities»
but always inferior to the price of a team of dogs.
* A singular change takes place in the physical constitution of the Indian females,
who become inmates of a fort; namely, they bear children more frequently, and longer,
but, at the same time, are rendered liable to indurations of the mamma and prolapsus of
the uterus; evils from which they are, in a great measure, exempt whilst they lead a
wandering and laborious life.
The country around Cumberland House is flat and swampy, and
is much intersected by small lakes. Limestone is found every where
under a thin stratum of soil, and it not unfrequently shows itself
above the surface. It lies in strata generally horizontal, but in one
spot near the fort, dipping to the northward at an angle of 46°
Some portions of this rock contain very perfect shells. With respect
to the vegetable productions of the district the populus trepida,
or aspen, which thrives in moist situations, is perhaps the most
abundant tree on the banks of the Saskatchawan, and is much prized
as fire-wood, burning well when cut green. The populus balsami-
fera, or tacchamahac, called by the Crees matheh metoes, or ugly
poplar, in allusion to its rough bark and naked stem, crowned in
an aged state with a few distorted branches, is scarcely less plentiful.
It is an inferior fire-wood, and does not burn well, unless when
cut in the spring, and dried during the summer ; but it affords a great
quantity of potash. A decoction of its resinous buds has been
sometimes used by the Indians with success in cases of snow-blindness,
but its application to the inflamed eye produces much pain.
Of pines, the white spruce is the most common here: the red
and black spruce, the balsam of (Jilead fir, and Banksian pine,
also occur frequently. The larch is found only in swampy spots'
and is stunted and unhealthy. The canoe birch attains a considerable
size in this latitude, but from the great demand for its wood to
make sledges, it has become rare. The alder abounds on the margin
of the little grassy lakes, so common in the neighbourhood. A
decoction of its inner bark is used as an emetic by the Indians, who
also extract from it a yellow dye. A great variety of willows occur
on the banks of the streams ; and the hazel is met with sparingly
in the woods. The sugar maple, elm, ash, and the arbor vita*,
termed by the Canadian voyagers cedar, grows on various parts of the
Saskatchawan ; but that river seems to form their northern bound-
Thuya occidentalis.