04 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA. 



where a most dreary and chilling scene opened to his 

 vision. To the east and northward not many miles 

 away, and extending as far as the eye could reach, there 

 appeared a vast white plain shrouded in drifting clouds 

 of mist. It was evidently a great lake, still covered in 

 the month of August with a field of ice, and was prob- 

 ably the Doobaunt or Tobaunt Lake, known in a legen- 



TOBAUNT LAKE. 



dary way to the Athabasca Indians, and sighted over 

 one hundred years ago by Samuel Hearne when on his 

 journey to the Copper Mine River. Its re-discovery was 

 now a matter of the deepest interest to us. Was it to 

 form an insurmountable obstacle in our path was the 

 question at once suggested, and judging from appear- 

 ances, most of the men were of opinion that it would. 

 On Monday morning, the 7th of August, all undis- 



