LAKE MACDOUGALL. 3oJ 



tionless, and gave no clue to the current ; nor 

 was it until I imagined that I caught the faint 

 sound of a fall, that we reluctantly pulled along 

 a border of firm ice which took us away due 

 south, a direction the very opposite of that to 

 which my wishes tended, and looking directly 

 towards Chesterfield Inlet, — the proximity of 

 which, I will not deny, began to give me serious 

 uneasiness. Still keeping south, we threaded a 

 zigzag passage through a barrier of ice, and 

 were then led by the increasing noise to the end 

 of the lake, which received the name of " Lake 

 Macdougall," after my friend the Lieutenant- 

 Colonel of the gallant 79th Highlanders. 



Bending short round to the left, and in a 

 comparatively contracted channel, the whole 

 force of the water glided smoothly but irresist- 

 ibly towards two stupendous gneiss rocks, from 

 five to eight hundred feet high, rising like islands 

 on either side. Our first care was to secure the 

 boat in a small curve to the left, near which the 

 river disappeared in its descent, sending up 

 showers of spray. We found it was not one 

 fall, as the hollow roar had led us to believe, but 

 a succession of falls and cascades, and whatever 

 else is horrible in such " confusion worse con- 

 founded. ,, It expanded to about the breadth of 

 four hundred yards, having near the centre an in- 

 sulated rock about three hundred feet high, having 



aa 3 



