298 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



There were two ways that the men 

 might have gone but either one meant 

 making the circuit of several large 

 lakes and the probability was that the 

 camp would be at least a full day's trip 

 had we been able to cross the lakes and 

 much more than that under present 

 conditions and no certainty of finding 

 them at the end of the trip and, in that 

 case, without food, we should have 

 been in a bad way. I decided therefore 

 to return by the way we had come to 

 Lac Brochet and we reached a wood- 

 cutter's camp there about five o'clock 

 hungry enough to have eaten every- 

 thing in the shack. It was a filthy 

 place, about fifteen by twelve feet, with 

 a stall for a horse across one end, a 

 couple of bunks, one above the other, 

 along the side, a rough table, with a 

 few dirty dishes, in front of the only 

 w^indow, a pane of glass about fifteen 

 by twenty-four inches, and a stove and 

 bench. Being too tired to pitch a camp 

 we spread our sleeping bags on the 

 floor beside the horse and were soon 

 dead to the world. 



Next morning we left the stoves, 

 snowshoes, mail and other things we 

 had brought for the men, with the job- 

 bers knowing that the men would send 

 to a cache nearby for provisions before 

 very long. Then taking our canoe we 

 started for home, as my companion re- 

 fused to undertake the trip up again 

 and then and there resigned his job. 

 Our trip down the Chienne river "was 

 quick until we reached the first small 

 lake and this and the next one we found 

 completely frozen over. It took us un- 

 til three in the afternoon to break our 

 way through these and we reached the 

 ]\Iattawin River about half past four 

 and found this frozen too solidly to 

 admit of any further canoeing. 



We thereupon cached our canoe on a 

 staging built on four trees and taking 

 our provisions and sleeping bags 

 started down the river for an old log 

 camp where we had noticed a stove and 

 some provisions on the way up. This 

 we reached, pretty well fagged out 

 about seven. We found that the stove 

 we had noticed had no pipe, so turning 

 it upside down and proping it up on 

 four stones we made a fire and had 



some supper, losing no time afterwards 

 in getting into our bags. There was a 

 small room oft' the large one with two 

 bunks in it and my man took the upper 

 while I spread my bag on the floor. 

 Some time in the night I was roused by 

 wild cries of fire, and getting out of my 

 bag, I found that the stove had gotten 

 red hot and set fire to the floor which 

 was burning merrily. \\c soon had 

 this out and returned to our couches. 

 In the morning we congratulated our- 

 selves that my man had taken the upper 

 bunk, because the smoke had awakened 

 him, and right beside the bunks we dis- 

 covered two full boxes of dynamite. 



As it was snowing heavily we spent 

 the next morning making two small 

 sleds out of barrel staves so that we 

 could drag our baggage over the ice 

 instead of carrying it. Next morning 

 we crawled across the river, dragging 

 with us long poles in case the ice should 

 break and started down. I tried to per- 

 suade my companion to keep a little 

 away from the shore where on account 

 of the shallower w^ater the ice was not 

 so thick, but he would not and twice 

 that morning we had to build a fire to 

 dry him out. We had lunch on the 

 end of the "Long Portage" and tried 

 to use our snowshoes in the afternoon 

 but the snow was very soft and sticky 

 and my companion, being unaccus- 

 tomed to them, made very slow prog- 

 ress. We camped that night about 

 halfway over and were glad of the rest 

 for trudging through a foot of snow 

 with a pack is no fun. 



By next morning we had another 

 three inches of snow and I fairly had 

 to drive my man out of his lilankets. 

 All day we plodded along making only 

 about four miles. Soon after break- 

 fast next morning we reached Lac 

 Prudent, the end of the portage and 

 found an old scow frozen in the ice of 

 the small bay, but the rest of the lake 

 as far as we could see was open. We 

 started in to cut out the scow, which 

 took over two hours as we had to cut 

 a regular channel through the ice, and 

 putting our stuff on board we went 

 down the lake, stopping at a deserted 

 driver's camp where there w^as a stove. 

 Here we had a good supper and a good 



