SHAGWENAW LAKE 47 



doubtful of direction. It was an invigorating 

 day in early June ; cool, almost cold. Bright 

 sunlight lit up the full deep green of the peak- 

 topped forests of spruce and pine and glinted 

 along the bleached, disfigured trunks of storm- 

 wrecked, long-dead trees, uprooted and thrown 

 down here and there at the forest edge in an- 

 gular disorder. Broad earth and broad water 

 were beautiful : so also the heavens, beyond 

 Space of remarkable atmospheric clearness grey 

 islands of cloud lying low along the northern 

 horizon, a few faint white puffs and shallows to 

 the east, and to the south a heavy pillowed 

 gathering of white and grey clouds, sun-touched 

 on their bankings with the south-east morning 

 sun overhead a great wide dome of clearest, 

 softest blue. 



Without difficulty we found the outlet from 

 Shagwenaw Lake and entered a long stretch 

 of river, wide and deep, and, for the greater part, 

 gently flowing. During the afternoon two rapids 

 were encountered : the first, not having excessive 

 fall and having a feasible-looking course down 

 the edge of the rough centre volume of water, 

 we attempted to navigate, and successfully ran, 

 after first going above, and walking down on the 

 rocks, to make a critical examination of the 

 rapid, for both of us were complete strangers to 

 the river and had not the almost essential native 

 advantage of knowing where lay each ugly 

 water-covered rock and disconcerting whirlpool. 

 The second rapid on examination offered no 

 canoe passage, so we portaged the canoe and kit 

 overland, and camped for the night at the lower 



