The valley of the Saskatchewan and southward to the waters of the Missouri was a region frequented by many tribes, rich in game, and one from which the Hudson's Bay Company derived quantities of furs. The Blackfeet, who, as already mentioned, occupied in recent years the country about the headwaters of the Missouri, formerly lived farther north, and about the close of the eighteenth century were encountered near the Saskatchewan, neighbors of the Assiniboin and Cree. About the year 1790 Mackenzie traversed the country, and wrote, regarding the number and distribution of the tribes then claiming that northern region: "At Nepawi, and South-Branch House, about thirty tents of Knisteneaux, or ninety warriors; and sixty tents of Stone-Indians, or Assiniboins, who are their neighbors, and are equal to two hundred men; their hunting ground extends upwards to about Eagle Hills. Next to them are those who trade at Forts George and Augustus, and are about eighty tents or upwards of Knisteneaux: on either side of the river, their number may be two hundred. In the same country are one hundred and forty tents of Stone-Indians; not quite half of them inhabit the West woody country; the others never leave the plains, and their numbers cannot be less than four hundred and fifty men. At the Southern headwaters of the North branch dwells a tribe called Sarsees, consisting of about thirty-five tents, or one hundred and twenty men. Opposite to those Eastward, on the head-waters of the South Branch, are the Picaneaux, to the number of from twelve to fifteen hundred men. Next to them, on the same water, are the Blood-Indians, of the same nation as the last, to the number of about fifty tents, or two hundred and fifty men. From them downwards extend the Black-Feet Indians, of the same nation as the two last tribes; their number may be eight hundred men. Next to them, and who extend to the confluence of the South and North branch, are the Fall, or Big-bellied Indians, who may amount to about six hundred warriors." (Mackenzie, (1), p. lxx.) "South-Branch House" of this narrative stood between the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan, near the present town of Dalmeny, in the Province of Saskatchewan. The Picaneaux, who probably possessed from 200 to 300 skin-covered lodges, were the Piegan, the Piekann Indians of Maximilian, whose village as it appeared in 1833 was painted by Bodmer. Likewise the Fall or Big-bellied Indians, whose habitat about the year 1790 was near the junction of the two branches of the Saskatchewan, were the Atsina, the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, and their village or camp in 1790 was probably quite similar to the one visited by Maximilian 43 years later, when it was sketched by Bodmer.