4 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



"Presently you'll see Fort Consolation and the Indian 

 village beyond. Spearhead is just across the lake, and by the 

 bye, my boy, I forgot to tell you that Spearhead is just my log 

 shack. But it's a nice little place, and you'll like it when you 

 pay us a visit, for I want you to meet my wife." 



Then our canoe passed a jutting point of land and in a mo- 

 ment the scene was changed — we were no longer on a river, but 

 were now upon a lake, and the wilderness seemed suddenly left 

 behind. 



AT FORT CONSOLATION 



On the outer end of a distant point a cluster of poplars 

 shaded a small, clapboarded log house. There, in charge of 

 Fort Consolation, hved the Factor of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company. Beyond a httle lawn enclosed by a picket fence 

 stood the large storehouse. The lower floor of this was used as 

 a trading room; the upper story served for a fur loft. Behind 

 were seen a number of shanties, then another large building in 

 which dog-sleds and great birch-bark canoes were stored. Far- 

 ther away was a long open shed, under which those big canoes 

 were built, then a few small huts where the half-breeds lived. 

 With the exception of the Factor's house, all the buildings were 

 of rough-hewn logs plastered with clay. Around the sweeping 

 bend of the bay was a village of tepees in which the Indian fur 

 hunters and their families spend their midsummer. Crowning 

 a knoll in the rear stood a quaint httle church with a small tin 

 spire glistening in the sun, and capped by a cross that spread its 

 tiny arms to heaven. On the hiU in the background the time- 

 worn pines swayed their shaggy heads and softly whispered to 

 that, the first gentle touch of civilization in the wilderness. 



Presently, at irregular intervals, guns were discharged along 

 the shore, beginning at the point nearest the canoe and running 

 round the curve of the bay to the Indian camp, where a brisk 

 fusillade took place. A moment later the Hudson's Bay Com- 



