180 A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



we secured the canoes, we incurred a personal evil of much greater 

 magnitude, in the torments inflicted by the musquitoes, a plague 

 which had grown upon us since our departure from Cumberland 

 House, and which infested us during the whole summer ; we found 

 no relief from their attacks by exposing ourselves to the utmost 

 violence of the wind and rain. Our last resource was to plunge 

 ourselves in the water, and from this uncomfortable situation we 

 gladly escaped at day-light, and hoisted our sails. 



The Woody Lake is thirteen miles in length, and a small grassy 

 channel at its north-western extremity, leads to the Frog Portage, 

 the source of the waters descending by Beaver Lake to the Sas- 

 katchawan. The distance to the Missinnippi, or Churchill Kiver, is 

 only three hundred and eighty yards ; and as its course crosses the 

 height nearly at right angles to the direction of the Great River, it 

 would be superfluous to compute the elevation at this place. The 

 portage is in latitude 55° 26' 0" N., and longitude 103° 34' 50" W. 

 Its name, according to Sir Alexander Mackenzie, is derived from 

 the Crees having left suspended a stretched frog's skin, in derision 

 of the Northern Indian mode of dressing the beaver. 



The part of the Missinnippi, in which we embarked, we should 

 have mistaken for a lake, had it not been for the rapidity of the 

 current against which we made our way. At four P.M. we passed 

 a long portage, occasioned by a ledge of rocks, three hundred yards 

 in length, over which the river falls seven or eight feet. After 

 crossing another portage we encamped. 



On the 18th we had rain, wind, and thunder, the whole day; but 

 this weather was much preferable to the heat we had borne hitherto. 

 We passed three portages, and, at six P.M., encamped on the north 

 bank. Below the third portage is the mouth of the Rapid River, 

 flowing from a large lake to the southward, on which a post was 

 formerly maintained by the North- West Company. Next morning 

 we found ourselves involved in a confused mass of islands, through 



