Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/61

 level country. Our route led chiefly through a little archipelago, which conducted us at noon to a small trading post, called Manitobah-house. There we were delighted to cast off, for the remainder of the day, our galling iron shoes—real instruments of torture, which, long before we had done with them, forced us with groans to acknowledge that our feet were, indeed, made of clay.

In soil and climate this place equals Red River; barley, wheat, and potatoes, yielding, in most seasons, excellent returns. The lake produces very fine white-fish (coregonus albus); on some of its tributary streams tolerable salt is obtained by the freemen from saline springs, and the wild hop grows in many places in great profusion, and of good quality. In the evening a warm couch was spread for me in the corner of a large room, round which, on wooden bedsteads, lay my host Richard, his wife, and half a dozen grown-up daughters!

At noon of the following day we passed through a narrow strait, that gives to the whole lake the name of Manitobah, or Evil Spirit, by which the Saulteaux Indians believe it to have been formerly haunted. According to their account, terrible sounds used to be heard here, and fearful sights seen ; among others, huge