GRAND RAPIDS ^ 



and that these had been hunted by the natives until they had 

 become very wary. With Donald and Aleck I set off in a birch 

 canoe to try and bag a few of them. On our way the "boys" 

 amused themselves by firing at the muskrats, which were more 

 abundant than the ducks. More than one rat was blown to 

 pieces and the pelt ruined, of course. This seemed to afford 

 the keenest delight to my crew. We were to take our stand on 

 an island to reach which we must cross a half-mile of shallow 

 water, now covered with thin ice. Donald soon wore out a 

 paddle in breaking through it. Half way to the island we be- 

 gan to drag on the muddy bottom; the men sprang out and 

 dragged the canoe forward, breaking the ice with their bare 

 feet. I had not yet become accustomed to wading in ice 

 water, and when the canoe stuck hard and fast several hundred 

 yards from shore, I hesitated about getting into the water. 

 Donald was quite willing to carry me, but he sank so deeply in 

 the mud that I was at last compelled to wade. Two years later 

 I would have taken it as an every day matter, but at the time I 

 considered it a hardship. I gave the boys a supply of ammuni- 

 tion with which to hunt on their own account. The metis, 

 Louis, also made a "stand" near us. If the game secured had 

 been in proportion to the powder burned by the four guns that 

 day, I would have recorded here the result of our efforts,— any- 

 one wishing further information concerning the avifauna of 

 Chemawawin, on the 25th of October, 1892, is respectfully 

 referred to my private journal! 



The next morning a fair wind enabled us to set sail for home. 

 At eleven o'clock on the second day we were in sight of the 

 tramway above the Grand Rapids, when Aleck, ever on the 

 lookout for game, pointed to a moving object at the water's 

 edge a mile below, and said "mooswa." It was a young moose 

 of the season, a specimen which I was particularly desirous of 

 obtaining to complete our series. Aleck had left his gun at 

 his camp up the river, but as he had killed sixty-nine more 

 moose in the last six months than I had, I thought it surer to 

 send him after the game with my Winchester than to go my- 

 self. Aleck seemed greatly excited, not nervously so, but 

 with the eagerness of the well-trained hunter. The moose 

 entered the woods with the boy in close pursuit; soon after we 

 heard a shot and saw the wounded animal dash into the river. 



