126 SUCCESSION OF STREAMS AND LAKES. 



grateful, they are yet right-minded enough to 

 know, and candid enough to acknowledge, their 

 errors. In the present instance, the lad smiled 

 as he went away, and observed, that " it was just, 

 for he did not deserve better treatment." 



August 23. — The operation of carrying be- 

 gan with the first dawn of day ; and, though 

 tormented by the mosquitos from the time that 

 the sun began to have any power, and drenched 

 with hail and rain as soon as it declined, yet we 

 managed to get over fifteen portages before 

 night compelled us to encamp. 



August 24. — The thermometer fell to 32°, 

 and a cold sheet of vapour rose from innumerable 

 watercourses, which dispersing as the sun ap- 

 peared above the grey cloud that walled the 

 horizon in the east, allowed us to resume our 

 tedious occupation. A succession of lakes and 

 portages took us to a small stream, which I was 

 glad to observe ran easterly ; and at its termin- 

 ation, in an open space of water, I saw some 

 sand hills about north-west, which led me to con- 

 clude that we could not be far off the height of 

 land. The bark of the canoe, however, had been 

 split by the frost, and a short delay was necessary 

 to repair it. This completed, we began to make 

 a traverse to gain some hills, whose eastern sides, 

 as Maufelly asserted, were washed by the large 

 lake ; but a question now arose, as to the pro- 



