46 A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



and with great caution, through the woods. Their fears, however, 

 were fortunately, on this occasion, groundless. 



By noon, on the 12 th, the boats and their cargoes having been 

 conveyed across the portage, we embarked, and pursued ovir course. 

 The Saskatchawan becomes wider above the Grand Rapid, and the 

 scenery improves. The banks are high, composed of white clay and 

 limestone, and their summits are richly clothed with a variety of 

 firs, poplars, birches, and willows. The current runs with great 

 rapidity, and the channel is, in many places, intricate and dangerous, 

 from broken ridges of rock jutting into the stream. We pitched our 

 tents at the entrance of Cross Lake, having advanced only five miles 



and a half. 



Cross Lake is extensive, running towards the N.E., it is said, for 

 forty miles. We crossed it at a narrow part, and pulling through 

 several winding channels, formed by a group of islands, entered 

 Cedar Lake, which, next to Lake Winipeg, is the largest sheet of 

 fresh water we had hitherto seen. Ducks and geese resort hither in 

 immense flocks in the spring and autumn. These birds are now 

 beginning to go off, owing to its muddy shores having become quite 

 hard through the nightly frosts. At this place the Aurora Borealis 

 was extremely brilliant in the night, its coruscations darting, at 

 times, over the whole sky, and assuming various prismatic tints, of 

 which the violet and yellow were predominant. 



After pulling, on the 14 th, seven miles and a quarter on the lake, 

 a violent wind drove us for shelter to a small island, or rather a 

 . ridge of rolled stones, thrown up by the frequent storms which agi- 

 tate this lake. The weather did not moderate the whole day, and 

 we were obliged to pass the night on this exposed spot. The delay, 

 however, enabled us to obtain some lunar observations. The wind 

 having subsided, we left our resting-place the following morning, 

 crossed the remainder of the lake ; and, in the afternoon, arrived at 

 Muddy Lake, which is very appropriately named, as it consists 



