Play green lakes.

Reembarking at the upper end of the portage we ran before a fresh gale through the remainder of Sea River, the lower part of Play Green Lake and, entering Little Jack River, landed and pitched our tents.  Here there is a small log hut, the residence of a fisherman who supplies Norway House with trout and sturgeon.  He gave us a few of these fish which afforded an acceptable supper.  Our voyage this day was thirty-four miles.

October 6.

Little Jack River is the name given to a channel that winds among several large islands which separate Upper and Lower Play Green Lakes.  At the lower end of this channel Big Jack River, a stream of considerable magnitude, falls into the lake.  Play Green is a translation of the appellation given to that lake by two bands of Indians who met and held a festival on an island situated near its centre.  After leaving our encampment we sailed through Upper Play Green Lake and arrived at Norway Point in the forenoon.

Lake Winnipeg.

The waters of Lake Winnipeg and of the rivers that run into it, the Saskatchewan in particular, are rendered turbid by the suspension of a large quantity of white clay.  Play Green Lake and Nelson River, being the discharges of the Winnipeg, are equally opaque, a circumstance that renders the sunken rocks, so frequent in these waters, very dangerous to boats in a fresh breeze.  Owing to this one of the boats that accompanied us, sailing at the rate of seven miles an hour, struck upon one of these rocks.  Its mast was carried away by the shock but fortunately no other damage sustained.  The Indians ascribe the muddiness of these lakes to an adventure of one of their deities, a mischievous fellow, a sort of Robin Puck, whom they hold in very little esteem.  This deity, who is named Weesakootchaht, possesses considerable power but makes a capricious use of it and delights in tormenting the poor Indians.  He is not however invincible and was foiled in one of his attempts by the artifice of an old woman who succeeded in taking him captive.  She called in all the women of the tribe to aid in his punishment, and he escaped from their hands in a condition so filthy that it required all the waters of the Great Lake to wash him clean; and ever since that period it has been entitled to the appellation of Winnipeg, or Muddy water.

Norway Point forms the extremity of a narrow peninsula which separates Play Green and Winnipeg Lakes.  Buildings were first erected here by a party of Norwegians who were driven away from the colony at Red River by the commotions which took place some time ago.  It is now a trading post belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company.  On landing at Norway House we met with Lord Selkirk’s colonists who had started from York Factory the day before us.  These poor people were exceedingly pleased at meeting with us again in this wild country; having accompanied them across the Atlantic they viewed us in the light of old acquaintances.  This post was under the charge of Mr. James Sutherland, to whom I am indebted for replacing a minutehand on the chronometer which was broken at the White Fall, and I had afterwards the satisfaction of finding that it went with extraordinary regularity.