OR, THE LAKE LANDS OF CANADA. 



57 



deer-hunting. We were never left in camp without at- 

 tendants. These guides remained with us night and day, 

 although they were unprovided with tents or other shelter 

 than their canoes. I frequently saw them sit with their 

 backs supported by trees, sleeping soundly while their 

 clothing was thoroughly drenched with water and the rain 

 still pouring down on them. Their canoes, when turned 

 bottom side up, — bows placed on a log or rock so as to 

 admit air and light, — afforded them very fair protection 

 against a storm, while the space beneath them was ample 

 to enable them to turn or move as much as was necessary 

 during sleeping hours. 



The attendance in camp and the guidance while in 

 search of game was now all that we could wish. We 

 found Dr. Pokorney well versed in deer-hunting, and at 

 the same time intelligent and companionable. His son, 

 a lad of sixteen, brave and hardy, frequently amused me 

 by the narration of his exploits in the Canadian forests at 

 mid-winter, while engaged as a companion to an old beaver- 

 trapper. His story, although not entirely new, was indeed 

 very interesting. The boy said, " It was in the latter part 

 of the month of January that I started, in company with 

 old Ben, to go back into the bush about seventy-five miles 

 in order to trap beaveo The weather was very cold and 

 the snow was nearly three feet deep, and we were com- 

 pelled to use snow-shoes. The hardest part of our work 

 consisted in carrying in our provisions, traps, and other 

 things required in trapping. When we started from this 

 lake I carried a pack which weighed about fifty pounds. 

 The first day out we travelled about ten miles, halted for 



