SCOUTING ALONE— INDIANS APPRECIATION 65 



spirit which the North makes known to you, and 

 approves. And, beyond the pleasure it gives 

 to be able to go where you list through the 

 wilderness, and risk what you list, the extra 

 labour you undertake has behind it, as all labour 

 that is difficult must have, a spiritual satisfaction 

 and reward : for among red men or black in 

 British colonies, the prestige of our race is surely 

 upheld by those who, when occasion arises, can 

 stand up alone, endure alone, and accomplish 

 alone, admitting no weakness to the eye of the 

 critical native. Many an Indian expressed great 

 surprise at my travelling unguided through their 

 boundless country. Foolhardy it must have 

 seemed to them who knew the difficulties and 

 dangers ; yet none called me a fool. Rather 

 were they ready to be my friends — not on account 

 of myself, but because their simple imagination 

 painted me like the adventurous White Chiefs of 

 our earliest settlement, who wandered far and 

 had great knowledge, and whom they were 

 willing to serve as subjects. 



June 13. — Having secured some specimens 

 yesterday — among them an adult Northern Bald 

 Eagle — I was busily employed skinning all 

 morning. 



After lunching we again pushed forward, our 

 course swinging well into the north-east up the 

 lake-like expansion that lies between Sandfly 

 Lake and Black Bear Island Lake. Passing the 

 neighbourhood of the mouth of the Foster River 

 — a river of considerable size flowing from the 

 north — no sign of its outlet was seen, and I have 

 since learned that that was because it empties 



