They then received baptism, with all the marks of sincere piety and gratitude. Gregory, their chief, who had not ceased to exhort his people by word and example, had the happiness to receive baptism in 1838 from the hands of the Reverend Mr., now Archbishop, Blanchet. The worthy and respectable chief was now at the height of his joy, in seeing at last all his children brought under the standard of Jesus Christ. The tribe of these Lake Indians are a part of the Kettle Fall nation. They are very poor and subsist princi
pally on fish and wild roots. As soon as we shall have more means at our disposal, we will supply them with implements of husbandry and with various seeds and roots, which I have no doubt will thrive well in their country; this will be a great assistance to these destitute people.
The second lake is about six miles distant from the first. It is of about the same length, but less wide. We passed under a perpendicular rock, where we beheld an innumerable number of arrows sticking out of the fissures. The Indians, when they ascend the lake, have a custom of lodging each
an arrow into these crevices. The origin and cause of the custom is unknown to me. This is the reason why the first voyageurs called these lakes the Arrow lakes.
The mouth of the river McGilvray or Flatbow is near the outlet of the Lower Lake. It presents a beautiful situation for the establishment of a future reduction or mission, and I have already marked out a site for the construction of a church. About twenty miles lower, we passed the Flathead or Clark's river, which contributes largely to the Columbia. These two beautiful rivers derive a great portion of their waters from the same chain of the Rocky Mountains, from which a great number of the forks of the south branch of the Saskatchewan and of the Missouri are sup
plied. For a distance of about thirty miles from their junction with the Columbia are they obstructed by insurmountable falls and rapids. Among the many lakes connected with the Flathead river, three are very conspicuous, and measure from thirty to forty miles in length and from four