196 SCENERY AROUND ESQUIMAUX ISLAND. 



and almost straight passage to the open sea beyond. About seven 

 miles inland the river narrows, passes some rapids, then enlarges 

 again to the next series of rapids, beyond which I have not been. 

 The waters are covered with ice the greater part of the time from 

 November to June. The broad bay-like portion, on which we now 

 entered, is everywhere surrounded with high hills which resemble 

 those inland. Several deep indentations, formerly the sites of one 

 or more houses, but which have been abandoned from unknown 

 causes, are to be seen on the left, as we enter the western side and 

 observe Esquimaux Island in the near distance in front of us ; 

 while the water reaches the sea on the right, and the tops only of 

 several little islands appear to relieve in summer the otherwise open 

 sea, and in winter the level ice. It is a wild scene, — nothing but 

 snow-capped hills, in the distance, above and around, while huge 

 heads of rocks jut out in long, stubbed, and rounded points of land, 

 dividing the bay-like river bend into several smaller pond-like bends 

 or bays. We skim along over the ice, in our hobgoblin team of 

 dogs with sled, enjoying the beauty of nature thus opened to us in 

 her icy realm, and drink in the fresh, yet not too cold, air that 

 stings our ears and gives us ruddy faces. 



The usual path to the mission is soon traversed, and we pass on 

 our right the long, even, low sloping ridge on the north side of 

 Esquimaux Island with rather higher crests on either side, extend- 

 ing still further north, the whole looking as if it might once have 

 been the terminus of some glacial mass that swept over it, as well 

 probably as of most of these regions, and on our left the group of 

 some eight or ten houses which, with the church, constitute the 

 winter quarters of the inhabitants of the neighborhood. Now we 

 enter a small bend in that side of the river directly ahead of us, 

 which leads to a gorge-like opening between either two very high 

 hills (high for this region) or a single hill cleft in twain by some 

 mighty force, the latter of which is more probable, and begin to 

 climb the steep bank above covered with short spruce and fir trees, 

 by a narrow and winding portage. Up, up the bank we cHmb, 



