102 In the Canadian Forests v 



hops, and with a charming garden, even now 

 bright with flowers ; the other two, old stores, stone- 

 built and iron -shuttered for a siege, if siege there 

 was to be. In front, a grass plot with plank paths 

 laid down, and enclosed by white palings ; behind, 

 a marshy field or two stretching away to the 

 limitless forest. A few wooden shanties, a store, 

 with every requisite for trapper or traveller, some 

 Indian hunters lounging about in store clothes 

 and with bright " Six Nation " girdles, some jolly 

 dogs trained for winter work, a hearty welcome, 

 and a sweet, pretty rose of a face to give it — and 

 there you have Fort William. 



' We only lingered there for dinner, and had no 

 time to wait and see the first white wedding on the 

 N.W. shore of Lake Superior, as the tug whistled 

 impatiently for us to go back in her to the granite, 

 glacier -scratched promontory at the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie River, where is our camp. 



* We are camped on the bare granite, with the 

 lake before us, and the forest, filled with the roar 

 of the Mackenzie River, behind. We have a shanty 

 with the unwonted luxury of a stove for cooking, 

 two tents and an old log hut shelter us, and when 

 a layer of spruce branches is made and covered with 

 the warm, blue blankets in use in this part of the 

 world, we have beds which are not to be despised. 

 One end of our tent is open to the forest, and 

 strange animals peep in at us in the gloaming. 

 The other night a skunk paid us a visit, and tried 



