BEAUTY OF REINDEER LAKE 93 



shores, with the strong character of dark-peaked 

 Spruce and Scrub Pine, and a few Tamarac and 

 Birch. The island shores, which are bordered 

 with Willows at the fringes of the forest, are 

 rugged and grey with rock and boulders, brightly 

 relieved for occasional stretches with long low 

 bays and points of spotless, warm-toned sand. 

 Distant stretches of water open up between -the 

 islands, low smoke-blue hills show faintly in the 

 distance, miniature traceries of dark trees rise, 

 like masted ship, out of reflecting shadows on the 

 far lake surface where hidden islands lie, and 

 right out, as if at the end of the world, the waters 

 die away into the clouds where no land is in 

 sight. It is a wonderful lake of hidden distances 

 which appear and disappear in all directions 

 behind the foreland, as onward you travel through 

 a truly bewitching fairyland. And over the 

 clear blue waters of the lake, reaching far into 

 the great distances, reaching even beyond into 

 unseen but imaginable places, there reigns im- 

 pressively the weight and solemnity of an unseen 

 Spirit. It is the Spirit of the North silent 

 grandeur, and vastness, and untouched purity 

 of a Virgin Land lending awe and greatness to 

 Creation. It is the dominance of that Spirit which 

 makes man feel, when in the great grave presence 

 of it, how impotent, how insignificant a part of 

 the Universe he is, and how humble he should be. 

 There are two Trading Posts on Reindeer Lake : 

 one, a winter post, is on Big Island at the south 

 end at the head of Reindeer River; the other, 

 Fort l)u Brochet, the chief Post of the territory, 

 is on the north mainland near the mouth of the 

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