CHAP. xn. 



MOSQUITO LAKE. 



made a way through the boulders for the canoes after 

 having carried the baggage over. 



From Trout Lake to Lake Nipisis we descended 

 through four sheets of water and their connecting rivers, 

 having to carry everything over four portages, which 

 separated them. 



The lakes are all small, and, according to Michel, have 

 no Indian names. The first we called Mosquito Lake, from 

 the extraordinary numbers of that troublesome . insect, 

 which tormented us when crossing it and the succeeding 

 portage. 



The little connecting streamlet swarmed with trout, and 

 in it we caught a large number with the fly. The foliage 

 of the spruce and Banksian pine were remarkably beau- 

 tiful in the second of these secluded sheets of water ; 

 but the insect pests were as bad as ever, and scarcely 

 permitted us to enjoy the rocks, trees, and lichens. All 

 the men were compelled to wear veils, their faces and 

 necks were becoming very much swollen, and as they 

 paddled mournfully across these little lakes they looked 

 from a distance like veiled sufferers from snow-blindness 

 in the spring of the year, fearing and shunning the light. 



The most ardent sportsman could scarcely stand the 

 attacks of the mosquitoes, even when three fine trout 

 would rise and hook themselves on separate flies at every 

 third or fourth cast. We fished until we caught enough 

 for supper, and then gathered round a ' smudge.' 



The last portage before reaching Lake Nipisis was long, 

 being nearly one mile, and letting us down 177 feet, 

 the difference in level between Trout and Nipisis Lakes 

 being 233 feet. On a small island in one of the lakes we 



