After leaving our encampment at the White Fall, we passed through several small lakes connected with each other by narrow deep, grassy streams, and at noon arrived at the Painted Stone.
Numbers of musk-rats frequent these streams; and we observed, in the course of the morning, many of{11} their mud-houses rising in a conical form to the height of two or three feet above the grass of the swamps in which they were built.
The Painted Stone is a low rock, ten or twelve yards across, remarkable for the marshy streams which arise on each side of it, taking different courses.

On the one side, the water-course which we had navigated from York Factory commences.

This spot may therefore be considered as one of the smaller sources of Hayes' River.

On the other side of the stone the Echemamis rises, and taking a westerly direction falls into Nelson River.

It is said that there was formerly a stone placed near the centre of this portage on which figures were annually traced, and offerings deposited, by the Indians; but the stone has been removed many years, and the spot has ceased to be held in veneration.