140 A STORM. 



spread rapidly over the sky, threatening to break 

 up the long calm which we had enjoyed across 

 the two lakes. Before I could reach the tent, 

 indeed, the storm burst with such violence, as 

 almost to carry it away ; and but for the support 

 which, on my arrival, I lent to the poles, it would 

 assuredly have gone. The canoe was whirled 

 over and over, and was at last arrested by a 

 rock. Malley's cooking apparatus was thrown 

 right and left ; while my sextant and instruments, 

 scattered about the tent, reminded me most 

 forcibly of poor Hearne's misfortune on a similar 

 occasion. Happily, I saved them by throwing 

 my cloak over them, and then again propped up 

 the tent, until the squall was over. 



August 28th. — I went along a range of sand- 

 hills with my glass, but could see nothing of the 

 men. The country was formed of gently un- 

 dulating hills, whose surfaces were covered with 

 large fragments of rocks, and a coarse gravelly 

 soil, which afforded nutriment to some miserable 

 dwarf birch. The tea plant, crow, and cran- 

 berry shrubs also grew there, but were entirely 

 unproductive. In the swamps, occupying every 

 valley, the plant of the whortleberry was occa- 

 sionally found, but* as in the former case, without 

 fruit. 



A chain of sand-hills, embracing two thirds 

 of a small lake with a pretty rocky island in its 



