OF THE POLAR SEA. 285 
breadth varies from three to five, yet it is so 
choaked with islands, that no channel is to be 
found through it, exceeding a mile in breadth. 
At sunset we landed, and encamped on an 
island, and. at six A.M. on the 24th, left the 
lake and crossed three portages into another, 
which has, probably, several communications 
with the last, as that by which we passed is 
too narrow to convey the whole body of the Mis- 
sinippi. At one of these portages called the 
Pin Portage is a rapid, about ten yards in length, 
with a descent of ten or twelve feet, and beset 
with rocks. Light canoes sometimes venture 
down this fatal gulf; to avoid the portage, un- 
appalled by the warning crosses which overhang 
the brink, the mournful records of former failures. 
The Hudson’s Bay Company’s people whom 
we passed on the 23rd, going to the rock house 
with their furs, were badly provided with food, 
of which we saw distressing proofs at every 
portage behind them. They had stripped the 
birch trees of their rind to procure the soft pulpy 
vessels in- contact with the wood, which are 
sweet, but pag He insufficient to satisfy a craving 
ite. 
ieThe lake to the euneen of the Pin Portage, 
is called’ Sandfly Lake; it is seven miles long; 
and a wide channel connects it with the Serpent 
