PURSUE OUR ROUTE. 43.5 



was carefully covered up again for the benefit of 

 the first marauder, biped or quadruped, that 

 might have the luck to fall upon it. At this 

 spot the boat was cobbled up ; and, again pur- 

 suing the route, we reached Escape Rapid, 

 where we found a piece of the oar which had 

 been broken in the descent, and was now lying 

 by a drowned deer in one of the eddies. The 

 falls were too heavy to haul up, and it was late 

 before we had carried every thing to the south 

 end. A fair wind, however, was not to be lost ; 

 and, after taking up another cache in excellent 

 order, we proceeded as far as Sinclair's Falls, 

 near which some ice yet lingered on the banks, 

 and the grass and moss were still of a brownish 

 hue. The season, indeed, had been generally 

 untoward ; for there was not a single berry, and, 

 what was more surprising, scarcely a mosquito 

 or a sand-fly — a proof that the summer must have 

 been an extraordinary one, and altogether differ- 

 ent from such as had been formerly experi- 

 enced. Three or four musk-bulls were seen 

 grazing singly and apart, under the lee of rocks 

 or sand-hills : they were not much scared at our 

 approach ; but, as they were not eatable, we did 

 not molest them. Towards evening, two white 

 wolves trotted past, evidently on the scent of a 

 poor wounded deer that had taken refuge on an 

 island about a mile from them. Having made 



f f 2 



