“Here I may remark that I have invariably found it difficult to get reliable or definite information from Indians.  The reasons for this are many.  Most of the Indians it has been my lot to meet are expecting to make something, and consequently are very chary about doing or saying anything unless they think they will be well rewarded for it.  They are naturally very suspicions of strangers, and it takes some time, and some knowledge of their language, to overcome this suspicion and gain their confidence.  If you begin at once to ask questions about their country, without previously having them understand that you have no unfriendly motive in doing so, they become alarmed, and although you may not meet with a positive refusal to answer questions, you make very little progress in getting desired information.  On the other hand I have met cases where, either through fear or hope of reward, they were only too anxious to impart all they knew or had heard, and even more if they thought it would please their hearer.  I need hardly say that such information is often not at all in accordance with the facts.

“I have several times found that some act of mine when in their presence has aroused either their fear, superstition or cupidity.  As an instance:  on the Bell River I met some Indians coming down stream as I was going up.  We were ashore at the time, and invited them to join us.  They started to come in, but very slowly, and all the time kept a watchful eye on us.  I noticed that my double-barrelled shot gun was 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.