296 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



lake was long and narrow, being snel- 

 tered by high hills, we were sure it 

 would be frozen too. The place where 

 we expected to find the men camped 

 was only five miles away in a straight 

 line and I decided to push on and join 

 them and bring back enough men to 

 take all the baggage up in one load. 



It had begun to snow again quite 

 heavily and as the survey line we 

 wanted to follow in order to take the 

 most direct route ran up over a high 

 clifi^ we started to go around it. After 

 travelling about fifteen minutes I saw 

 w'hat I thought w-as the creek which 

 ran out of the next lake above and we 

 went down so as to find easier walking 

 on its frozen surface. After following 

 it for about one hundred yards we 

 passed a place where the ice was thin 

 and I noticed that the water was run- 

 ning the wrong way. This is a very 

 uncanny sensation in the woods and it 

 is hard to make one's self believe the 

 evidence of one's senses. I realized 

 however that in the fog and snow I 

 had made a circuit and come back to 

 the very creek from which we had 

 started. Beginning again and with 

 more care in travelling w^e reached the 

 next lake and ate a couple of hardtack 

 which we had brought for lunch. 



The line we were following went 

 right up the side of a mountain now 

 and my companion was travelling so 

 slowly, not being accustomed to the 

 woods, that I told him to follow my 

 trail and I would push on ahead. Com- 

 ing to a little creek, I saw a grouse and 

 tried, but without success, to get him 

 with my pistol. About four o'clock we 

 reached a small marshy lake and in 

 crossing it T went through the ice up 

 to my armpits. Crawling out and on 

 shore, I stripped ofif my clothes and 

 wrung them out as dry as possible and 

 although they felt pretty chilly, started 

 off again as we were anxious to reach 

 the camp before it was too dark. The 

 going was very rough and I had to 

 wait several times for my man, so that 

 it was seven when we reached Lac 

 Crapaud. a small lake about three hun- 

 dred yards from Grand Lac Chienne, 

 at the head of which the men were 

 camped. 



Crossing the portage to the big lake, 

 we found it open, so fired several shots 

 and called, in the hope that some one 

 in the camp would hear us and come 

 for us with a canoe. There was quite 

 a wind blowing and we heard no an- 

 swer, so started along the shore in the 

 dark for camp. There was no trail and 

 the going was very bad. After about 

 half an hour, however, we reached the 

 long sandy beach at the head of the 

 lake and with a sigh of relief went to 

 the camping place. We had been talk- 

 ing all afternoon of the supper we 

 would have, for the cook was famous, 

 so that you can imagine our surprise 

 when we found no sign of a camp. 

 Only the empty fireplace of stones and 

 the table of rough hewn logs. 



I looked everywhere for a note or 

 some sign to tell us wdiere the men had 

 moved but there was absolutely noth- 

 ing, and it was hard to see anything 

 in the dark. We made up a fire and 

 built a rough lean-to of boughs, and a 

 pile of them to sleep on and curled up 

 close to the fire and were soon asleep. 

 I woke up after a splendid night's sleep 

 to find my companion shivering over 

 the embers of the fire, the poor chap 

 had not slept a wink and again com- 

 plained of feeling ill. I sat down on a 

 log to pull on my boots and as one side 

 of me seemed rather chillier than the 

 other I felt of my breeches only to find 

 that I had slept too close to the fire 

 and had a hole as big as my two hands 

 burnt right through my heavy macki- 

 naws. After making up a good fire I 

 looked all around for a note or some 

 sign which might tell us where the 

 camp was, but in vain. Xo birch bark 

 note, as was usual, had been left and 

 the snow had effectually covered all 

 tracks. 



Food was of course the first consid- 

 eration and I searched thoroughly to 

 see if a cache had been left but found 

 nothing. Then I remembered that on 

 the western shore of the lake an old 

 Indian had a tepee where he spent part 

 of each year hunting and I tramped 

 around the shore in the snow to it, but 

 found nothing eatable, only a few old 

 cooking utensils. 



