CHAP. vin. CONTEASTS. 129 



they are small, but anything is better than this unearthly 

 stillness ; and we can't be always racing.' 



No sooner said than done. A delicate little spoon, 

 about the size of a tea-spoon, ornamented with a single 

 crimson feather, and armed with a treble hook, was 

 dropped into the water and dragged along by the canoe. 

 One small trout, not half a pound, was the reward of this 

 suggestion ; but it served to show us there were fish 

 which would be caught even by spoons, and that was 

 something. 



At length we got to the end of the lake, which is 

 about two miles long, and hastened across the succeeding 

 portage. 



The ' Lake where the Sand lies ' is 330 feet above the 

 sea ; in order to reach it from the Moisie it is necessary 

 to rise 293 feet above Cold-water Eiver, and descend 

 110. In making the passage of the Cold-water Portage, 

 a second rise of sixty feet over a small carrying-place 

 round the Cold-water Falls, about 150 yards long, fol- 

 lowed by a mile of river, leads into the lake. 



If we complained of no life on the water, there was 

 enough of it on land, for no sooner had we stepped on 

 shore than the mosquitoes and black flies began to tor- 

 ment us, and a kingfisher flew screaming from one leafless 

 branch to another, on the dead larches near the head of 

 the lake. High up on the portage, which rises 292 feet, 

 we obtained a fine view of the surrounding country. The 

 ' Lake where the Sand lies ' was seen to have many deep 

 bays, and to join with another lake occupying a valley to 

 the north-west of our course, and consequently lying be- 

 tween us and the Moisie. White streams of water tumbling 



VOL. i. K 



