NARRATIVE. 121 



Sault, and we could reach it easily from here. Our men were as 

 eager to be gone as we, for they had worked long enough at one job 

 to be glad of a change. Then at this season it was as like as not to 

 blow for a week, and harder, and our provisions would not hold out 

 many days. 



So the canoe was set afloat, and held head to sea by a man on 

 each side, standing up to his middle in the water. In this position it 

 was carefully loaded, and we got on board over the stern. Finally 

 the men contrived to get in and push off without serious accident, 

 though not without shipping a good deal of water. As the wind 

 was directly off shore, matters improved as we proceeded, and before 

 long we were under the lee of Gros-Cap. 



The thickets of white flowering-raspberry were now full of fruit ; the 

 berries averaging about three quarters of an inch in length, by two 

 thirds in diameter, and rather firmer and more symmetrical than 

 the common cultivated species. The taste is slightly acid, but 

 agreeable. Probably they were not entirely ripe. There was also 

 an abundance of the common wild raspberries. 



From Gros-Cap to the mouth of the river, the water was not more 

 than three or four feet deep ; the bottom gravel. Farther out 

 it is deeper, but the amount of water that leaves the lake is 

 small, as is shown by the moderate rate of the current at the, 

 entrance of the river, notwithstanding the narrowness of the outlet. 

 At the Pointe-aux-Pins, where the shores from being over two 

 miles apart suddenly approach to within half a mile of each other, 

 we did not perceive any acceleration of the current. The fact is 

 the channel has only this width all the way down to the Sault ; the 

 rest being very shallow. The banks are low, so that a very slight 

 elevation of the surface of the lake would give an outlet of five or 

 ten miles in width down to the Sault, and expanding below. 



Arriving at the head of the portage, we found some of our friends 

 awaiting us. Both the boats had got in just before us, and they 

 had hastened to get on their civilized costume and run back to meet 

 us. Singularly enough, the " Dancing Feather " had arrived that 

 morning, about two hours before us ! So here we were all on the 

 day appointed for meeting, although we had paddled four hundred 

 miles, and they twice as far since we parted. 



