NARRATIVE. Ill 



The wind and waves still high outside. Several times the men 

 went to explore, but returned, reporting it still too rough to venture 

 out. 



Aug. 8th. This morning we heard distant reports of guns, and 

 the men thought it might be our friends of the bateau over in the 

 next bay. As our provisions were getting very low (the bulk of the 

 stores being as usual in the bateau,) they resolved to cross the ridge 

 and fetch a supply. They reached the cove after a laborious climb, 

 but found no traces of them, and so kept on to the Pic, where they 

 found them reestablished in their old quarters. 



We now reconnoitred again, but with the same results as before. 

 Towards evening, however, the men seemed to have made up their 

 minds that we should get off to-morrow. Certainly "laviette" the 

 old woman, as they called her, (a personage corresponding to our 

 " clerk of the weather,") had given us a long enough bout of it, and 

 it was time to expect a lull. Accordingly, they made all their pre- 

 parations, and being desirous no doubt to appropriate to themselves 

 the largest possible share of the good things of the wilderness, piled 

 such a huge quantity of wood upon the fire that we were driven back 

 yard by yard to the distance of some rods. 



Aug. 9th. Calm, with a slight fog, and soon cleared up very 

 warm. This afternoon, for the first time on the lake, the wind was 

 strong from the south. We encamped in a cove under a hook pro- 

 jecting from the southward. The beach of large stones covered with 

 lichens, whence the name of Campement du Pays de Mousse, 

 which the cove bears. It is terraced up to a dividing ridge, and 

 thence clown in like manner to the lake on the other side. 



We had been struck for some distance back, and particularly to- 

 day, with a falling off in the luxuriance of the vegetation, as com- 

 pared with the country further north. This may be owing to the 

 greater exposure to the northerly winds ; the more northern shore 

 being protected on that side by a lofty and continuous barrier. In a 

 very sheltered cove where we landed to lunch, the trees were of con- 

 siderable size. One larch measured seven feet two inches in girth, 

 three feet from the ground, and we judged its height to be at least 

 sixty feet. 



