Volume 1

THE ASSINIBOINE RIVER HOUSE. 415
a considerable bend at which it receives the waters of one
of the Placotte [Rib Bone] lakes, and then courses about
E. [nearer N. E.] into the Assiniboine. Having got safely
over, we unloaded and gave our horses some time to rest,
while we cooked a kettle of pounded corn, and at five
o'clock were again on the march. The Moose Head was in
sight, and we soon saw the woods of the Assiniboine.
Night came on while we were still at a distance from it ; but
having a beaten path, to which my horse was accustomed,
I gave him the loose rein, being determined to get in. We
drove on hard in the dark, and the first object that struck
my attention was the block-house of the fort, close under
which my horse was passing. The gate was instantly
opened, and we entered at half-past eleven.
Here we found those peevish fellow-travelers, who had
arrived before us, having walked day and night and fallen
upon Riviere la Souris at Plumb river. One of them, however,
was so completely knocked up that he remained at
the Moose Head, and Mr. La Rocque was obliged to send a
man with a horse to bring him in ; he had arrived just before
me, scarcely able to crawl. We also found here a
troublesome set of Indians, all drinking. A wash, shave,
the remarkable course of the stream ; but any good map will put them " onto
its curves," as the saying goes in baseball. In coming on his general N. course,
Henry passed it : (i) At its bight or elbow nearest the Missouri, where he
went from its right to its left bank, as it was flowing E. (2) At Wood End,
where he went from its left to its right bank, as it was flowing W. (3) In the
present place, where he went from its right to its left bank, as it was flowing
E. The river was thus first ahead of him ;
next on his right, then ahead of
him again ;
next on his left ; fifth, ahead of him ;
and after the third crossing,
he finally leaves it behind and off to the right. The present road from Whitewater
1. to Mouse r. runs N. E. through places called Nimitaw, Haviland,
Alceste, and Margaret ; this is not far from Henry'^ route, but he seems to have
held more nearly N., in the line of Abigail, Dunallen, and Heaslip, as he says
he struck the river "a few miles" above the point where it receives the
discharge of some of the Placotte or Rib Bone lakes ;
for these, see note ^,
p. 81. Their drainage is mostly eastward, from Turtle and Pembina mts. ; but
W. of the largest one (Pelican 1.) are some small ones which discharge the
other way, into Mouse r., at the sharp elbow it makes in Tp. 6, R. xviii, W. of
the princ. merid. ; vicinity of Margaret and Langvale.