﻿96 BLACK-BEAR ISLAND LAKE. June, 



palustre are also chewed and applied to burns, which 

 are said to heal rapidly under its influence. The 

 cake of chewed leaves is left adhering to the sore 

 until it falls oiF. 



In the course of the forenoon we ascended four 

 rapids, occasioning short portages, then the Great 

 Devil's Portage, of fourteen hundred paces ; and in 

 the afternoon several other rapids were passed, 

 among which were the Steep Bank, Little Rock, 

 and Trout portages. At the Steep Bank Portage 

 (Portage des Ecores), which is one hundred and sixty 

 paces long, gneiss and mica-slate occur interleaved 

 irregularly with each other, and intersected in every 

 direction by reticulating quartz veins; the prevail- 

 ing rock in the neighbourhood being gneiss, and 

 the hills low and barren. 



June 2lst. — Soon after starting we crossed the 

 Thicket Portage (Portage des Flaliers) of three 

 hundred and sixty paces, and entered Black-bear 

 Islands Lake, a very irregular piece of water, 

 intersected by long promontories and clusters of 

 islands. After four hours' paddling therein we 

 came to a rapid, considered by the guide as the 

 middle of the lake ; in three hours more we 

 came to another strong rapid, and after another 

 three hours to the Broken-Canoe Portage, which 

 is at the upper end of this dilatation of the 

 river. Granite is the prevailing rock in the lake, 



