38 SEEKING THE SANDHILL CRANE 



To begin with, our task was to blaze and clear 

 a trail back to our camp on He a la Crosse Lake ; 

 so we set out on the back-trail, seeking the line 

 of clearest passage, and cutting out saplings and 

 overhead branches whenever they would inter- 

 fere with a clear way for man and shoulder-high 

 canoe. At intervals a clean white " blaze " was 

 sliced on the homeward side of a spruce, pine 

 or tamarac tree, to show clearly our way ahead 

 when we came to return with the canoe. Our 

 small hand-axes struck out quickly and unerr- 

 ingly as onward we pressed. 



By late afternoon a long distance had been 

 cleared and blazed, by constant toiling, and we 

 thought we were near to our old camp. Here 

 we were at fault, however, and for an hour could 

 not find our proper course nor come out on the 

 shores of Lake lie a la Crosse. Although we 

 did not know it at the time, we had got too far 

 round to the north not much, mind you, but 

 just enough to change the whole aspect of the 

 country and lead to confusion. 



At dusk, after crossing a spongy muskeg bog 

 with difficulty, we came out on the inner end of a 

 far-reaching inlet bay of the lake. Joe was put 

 out by this time and candidly lost. I, assisted by 

 the compass, was convinced we were north of our 

 camp, but for once Joe was "at sea," and could 

 in no way back up my opinion. 



However, after a rest, my counsel having pre- 

 vailed as to direction, we cut south-east into the 

 woods again. 



We had not been on the fresh trail more than 

 an hour before we found ground we knew and 



