CHAPTER IV 



THE APPROACH OF WINTER 



THE summer of 1865 was not as hot as usual, according 

 to the Indians. I, however, was surprised to find so 

 great a degree of heat in so high a latitude ; but it is to 

 be remembered that at this time I was an inexperienced 

 boy, knowing nothing of the land whither I had come to 

 pitch my tent, and every experience was to me new and 

 striking to the point of the wonderful. According to the 

 same authority the whiter set hi late. The lake was 

 almost completely covered with thin ice on the 4th 

 October. It is said that fogs are almost unknown to 

 Canada, but there was a dense one here on the 6th. It 

 cleared away at noon, and for a week there was great 

 heat again ; yet I noticed that nearly every small bird, 

 and most of the larger ones, had migrated by the first 

 week of the month. On the night of the llth there was 

 a sharp frost, and when I arose in the morning the scene 

 was one of surprising beauty. The frost had completely 

 changed the appearance of the forest, the leaves of which 

 were now rich with every tint of red, yellow, and orange, 

 presenting a sight which, for richness of colour and variety, 

 cannot be described. Frost succeeded frost, and in three 

 days there was a sheet of ice over the pond strong 

 enough to permit of its being traversed in all directions. 

 There was no snow till the 23rd, when several light 

 showers fell, just covering the ground. Thenceforward 

 there was more daily, till, at the end of the month, it 

 was perhaps a foot deep, and the Indians prepared to 

 start on the first of their hunting expeditions. 



