260 OUR RETURN JOURNEY 



blay's, the lighthouse keeper of Portneuf , who re- 

 ceived us in a most hospitable manner. Over 

 eighteen inches of snow fell during the night. 



Towards morning the wind moderated and I 

 had decided to start on snowshoes, but Mr. Trem- 

 blay thought we had better take the horse to Sault 

 au Cochon, which was and is still the terminus of 

 the road on this coast. We left at about 8 a.m. 

 Where there were obstructions near the road the 

 snow had piled in immense drifts through which 

 the poor horse floundered two or three times. I 

 felt like taking him back, but, however, as this 

 meant considerable delay, we kept on. On the 

 first hill east of Portneuf river there was no ap- 

 pearance of any track and we had to unharness 

 the poor brute and break a slight road before we 

 could get him up with the sleigh. Once on top of 

 the hill we had no more drifts, as the road ran 

 through the woods. With only our packs and 

 guns in the sleigh we let the horse break the road, 

 following ourselves, on our snowshoes. 



It was just noon when we reached Sault au 

 Cochon, having taken over four hours to make 

 nine miles. Here we left our rig. Mr. W. For- 

 rest, the Manager of the lumber mills, invited us 

 to lunch with him and stay overnight. We ac- 

 cepted only the first part of his invitation, as we 

 wished to try and reach Bersimis the next day. 

 Our objective point that night was a lumber camp 

 on the Laval River which I knew of, five or six 



