LOST IN THE WILDERNESS 203 



other lake. This appeared to surprise him. "We 

 must have gone wrong," he said. "There should 

 be no lake so close in our way. We must follow the 

 shore of the lake," he said, till he recognized it 

 and then he would know where we were. This was 

 plainly the best thing to do, so on we went again. 

 Ten minutes later we came to our tracks, where we 

 had entered the wood over an hour before. We 

 knew too much to take them for somebody else's 

 tracks and follow them. Ploute looked at me and 

 smiled. "My head has gone around," he said, 

 "and we must camp," which we did. It was 

 then about noon and as we had lots of time we 

 made a somewhat better shelter, making it higher 

 in the rear to protect ourselves from the falling 

 snow. In the afternoon the Indian went out 

 along the lake shore for some distance, but as 

 it was still snowing heavily, he failed to recog- 

 nize it, he said. During the night the weather 

 cleared up and in the morning when we went out 

 on the lake the Indian was quite surprised to see 

 that it was one with which he was quite fam- 

 iliar, but which it had been impossible for him to 

 place the day previous. We had gone out of our 

 course about five miles in the storm. This, cou- 

 pled with the heavy walking, delayed us so much 

 that we only reached Thibeau's on the fifth day. 

 We had taken provisions for only three days, but 

 as I had shot two hares and four ruffed grouse on 

 the way, we had plenty to eat and could have got 



