Volume 1

208 ROUND TRIP TO VARIOUS POSTS.
dogs, and my men each a train with three dogs, for our
baggage and provisions. The snow was very deep, but
in the plains hard enough to bear a man on snowshoes, and
my dogs also. Our first stage was two days to [Augustin]
Cadotte's house at Pinancewaywining [in Pembina
mountains] ;
thence four days' hard marching to Riviere la
Souris [Mouse river], where Mr. [C. J. B.] Chaboillez is
wintering. Thence our course was N. for three days to the
foot of Fort Dauphin mountain, where Joseph St. Germain
had built on a branch of White [Terre Blanche or White
Mud] river. Thence our course was N. E. through a low
marshy country overgrown with willows, reeds, stunted poplars,
and lastly epinettes [tamarac, Larix americana] that
had been so tossed down across each other, that it was hard
work to reach Lake Manitouaubanc [Manitoba] in two
days. Here we found Mr. [J.]
McDonnell, Junior, starving
with buffalo at his door. Thence we took the ice on our
return, and had terribly stormy weather on the lake. Our
course was about S. for three days to Portage la Prairie, and
thence about S. E. for four hard days to Panbian river,
where we arrived Feb. 3d. Through all this country we
never marched a day without passing herds of buffalo ;
even
along the shore of the lake they were very numerous.
On arrival I found some of Mr. Cameron's men from
above ; they have lately been up as far as Goose river, and
^
times Prairie 1., Meadow 1., Lake of the Meadows ;
also, Assiniboine 1., in various
forms of the term ;
also, Swan 1. ; Henry gives Rush 1., beyond ;
and Harmon
calls the N. division Muddy 1., p. 51. The forms of the word Manitoba are
numerous ;
Henry or his copyist gives us several, McKenzie maps Manitaubos,
i8or, and I have noted Manito (without the end element), Manitoban, Manethowaubane,
Manithoaubang, etc. Bell, /. c, has :
" The word is said by Pere
Lacombe, an excellent authority on the Cree language, to be derived from
Manitowapaw, supernatural or god-like. Other authorities say it means ' the
place where the spirit dwells,' alluding to the Narrows of Lake Manitoba, where
the water seldom, if ever, freezes over, owing to the presence of springs or its
rapid motion at that place." Henry does not locate McDonnell's house closely;
but as he was three days in reaching Portage la Prairie, it must have been
pretty high up toward the Narrows — perhaps at or near present Manitoba house
and settlement
;
present Kinosota in that vicinity.