70 ON THE GREAT CHURCHILL RIVER 



Morning very dull and chilly, with wind from 

 the east — it looked like rain, but the sky cleared 

 later in the day and there was none. In early 

 morning entered the north channel of the two 

 riverways which run past the large island which 

 lies between Trout and Dead Lake. Here we 

 had to pass four rapids ; at the first two, Trout 

 and Rock Trout Rapids, it was necessary to run 

 ashore above and portage the canoe and kit 

 overland to quiet water below — laborious work 

 over the rough ground with the huge loads we 

 piled on our backs to lessen as far as possible 

 the number of journeys back and forth on the 

 portage trail. After we had finished at the 

 second rapid I put up my rod and fished the 

 deep, swirling pool at the top with a small 

 minnow, hoping that I might see trout. Here I 

 hooked two great fish, not trout, alas ! but pike. 

 The first one finally broke, taking the whole of 

 my tackle ; the second, after some twenty minutes' 

 play on my trout rod, I landed — a pike weighing 

 18 lbs., measuring 3 ft. 5 J in. in length. Hitherto, 

 until that canoe voyage, I had always looked 

 upon pike as an unclean, poor-quality-food fish ; 

 but on the Churchill River, and elsewhere, we 

 caught those fish almost daily at times, and 

 thoroughly relished eating them. Of course, 

 living as they did in clean cold water, those fish 

 were of particularly good quality, and, besides, 

 real hunger cures many a fanciful aversion. 



Resuming our journey we ran Light Rock 

 Rapid and the nameless one below, having some 

 exciting moments on the latter, which was 

 stony and very rapid, and somewhat dangerous, 



