66 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA. 



The next day, Sunday, we spent in camp at the foot 

 of a wild and beautiful cataract. The weather was 

 warm, and the black flies and mosquitos swarmed in 

 the woods and about camp so thickly that we could no- 

 where escape from their ceaseless hum and dreaded bite. 

 In this neighborhood they did not appear to have the 

 customary respect for the smudge. Dense smoke was 

 made about camp, but the flies only appeared to revel 

 in it. 



At camp the men were variously employed. A fish- 

 ing net had been put out in an eddy at the foot of the 

 rapids the previous night, and when taken up in the 

 morning some of the finest fish I have ever seen 

 were found in it. Two salmon trout measured three 

 feet one inch and three feet two inches in length re- 

 spectively, and the white fish, of which there were a 

 large number, ranged in weight from six to ten pounds. 

 I may add, in deference to a suspicion which statements 

 of this nature sometimes give rise to, that these facts 

 can be amply verified. Towards evening we looked for 

 the return of the four natives who had promised us 

 their assistance, but they came not. 



Following this day of rest came one of most labor- 

 ious, exhausting work. Our camp was not only at the 

 foot of a beautiful fall, but in consequence was at the 

 lower end of a rough, rocky portage, found to be three 

 miles in length, and the canoes were all heavily loaded, 

 containing some four thousand pounds of cargo to be 

 transported. One of our men, Corrigal, was unfortu- 

 nately laid up for the time with an ugly gash in the 

 knee, so we had only five packers ; but being fresh and 

 in high spirits they went at their work with a rush. 



