INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM THE NATIVES. 81 The relative bearings of several lakes, which many of their number had frequently visited, and of which, in fact, they knew every winding, were equally involved in doubt and obscurity. In one point alone were they positive and unanimous; and that was, the superiority and many advantages of the Teh-lon over the Thlew-eechoh. The former was described as being a broad and noble stream, decorated on either bank with tall pine and birch, and flowing in uninterrupted tranquillity to its journey's end. The latter was graphically pourtrayed, as originating in rapids -narrow, shoal, and dangerous-destitute of wood, even for fuel-full of dangerous cascades and falls-and after a course more tortuous than that of any river known to the oldest and most experienced of their tribe, tumbling over its northern barrier in a foaming cataract into the sea. They also affirmed agreeing in this respect with the information which had previously been given me at Lake Winnipeg, that the distance between the mouths of the rivers was inconsiderable; and concluded by saying, that if the Great Chief was determined on going to the Thlew-ee-choh, it would be without an escort of Indians, who, inured as they were to privation, would not expose themselves to the suffering which, in a district so sterile, was inevitable. To say the G |