The Residents Have To Send Nearly The Same Distance For Their Fish And On This Service Horse-Sledges Are Used.

Nets are daily set in Pine Island Lake which occasionally procure some fine sturgeon, tittameg and trout, but not more than sufficient to supply the officers' table.

December 1.

This day was so remarkably fine that we procured another set of observations for the dip of the needle in the open air; the instrument being placed firmly on a rock the results gave 83 degrees 14 minutes 22 seconds. The change produced by reversing the face of the instrument was 12 degrees 50 minutes 55 seconds.

There had been a determined thaw during the last three days. The ice on the Saskatchewan River and some parts of the lake broke up and the travelling across either became dangerous. On this account the absence of Wilks, one of our men, caused no small anxiety. He had incautiously undertaken the conduct of a sledge and dogs in company with a person going to Swampy River for fish. On their return, being unaccustomed to driving, he became fatigued and seated himself on his sledge where his companion left him, presuming that he would soon rise and hasten to follow his track. He however returned safe in the morning and reported that, foreseeing night would set in before he could get across the lake, he prudently retired into the woods before dark where he remained until daylight, when the men who had been despatched to look for him met him returning to the house, shivering with cold, he having been unprovided with the materials for lighting a fire, which an experienced voyager never neglects to carry.

We had mild weather until the 20th of December. On the 13th there had been a decided thaw that caused the Saskatchewan, which had again frozen, to reopen and the passage across it was interrupted for two days. We now received more agreeable accounts from the Indians who were recovering strength and beginning to hunt a little; but it was generally feared that their spirits had been so much depressed by the loss of their children and relatives that the season would be far advanced before they could be roused to any exertion in searching for animals beyond what might be necessary for their own support. It is much to be regretted that these poor men, during their long intercourse with Europeans, have not been taught how pernicious is the grief which produces total inactivity, and that they have not been furnished with any of the consolations which the Christian religion never fails to afford. This however could hardly have been expected from persons who have permitted their own offspring the half-casts to remain in lamentable ignorance on a subject of such vital importance. It is probable however that an improvement will soon take place among the latter class, as Governor Williams proposes to make the children attend a Sunday school and has already begun to have divine service performed at his post.

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