The house, which is built on the summit of a steep bank, rising almost perpendicular to the height of one hundred and eighty feet, commands an extensive prospect along this fine river, and over the plains which stretch out several miles at the back of it, bounded by hills of considerable height, and apparently better furnished with wood than the neighbourhood of the fort, where the trees grow very scantily.

There had been an establishment belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company on the opposite bank of the river, but it was abandoned in December last, the residents not being able to procure provision, from their hunters having been disabled by the epidemic sickness, which has carried off one-third of the Indians in these parts.

They belong to the Northern Crees, a name given them from their residing in the Athabasca department.

There are now but few families of these men, who, formerly, by their numbers and predatory habits, spread terror among the natives of this part of the country.
There are springs of bituminous matter on several of the islands near these houses; and the stones on the river-bank are much impregnated with this useful substance.

There is also another place remarkable for the production of a sulphureous salt, which is deposited on the surface of a round-backed hill about half a mile from the beach, and on the marshy ground underneath it.