NARRATIVE. 95 



ders, like a gigantic pavement, whilst there are rarely large detached 

 rocks on the beaches, doubtless owing to the violence of the waves, 

 clearing out the smaller stones from the bottom, and heaping them 

 up on the beach, and at the same time rounding the rocks below. 



We made about fifty miles to-day. 



July 2dth. — We started at sunrise, the weather clear and 

 autumnal ; the wind northerly. Breakfasted on a barren island ter- 

 raced with ancient beaches, strewn with drift-wood, all of it showing 

 strong action of the waves. Some logs of a foot or more in diame- 

 ter had been thrown to the distance of fully a hundred and fifty 

 yards from the water's edge, and thirty or forty feet above its level. 

 Soon afterwards we entered a straight, narrow, river-like channel, 

 some twelve or fifteen miles long, leading inside of Fluor Island and 

 St. Ignace, whose dark wooded sides made a purple background to 

 the vista. The banks were covered with birch, presenting an unbro- 

 ken fringe of green ; not a glimpse of the rock, and hardly, at inter- 

 vals, the white line of sand at the edge of the water. 



After passing through this channel we came out into Neepigon 

 Bay, and had to keep round to the left to a deserted mining station 

 at Cape Gourgan, before we could get a good camping ground. 

 There we found a clearing and a convenient landing place. One of 

 our companions two years before, in the month of October, had seen 

 a large party of miners set ashore here from the propeller, to open 

 the works. The marks of their labors, with the approaching winter 

 before them, were everywhere visible. Wood had been cut and 

 piled up ; several log-cabins built and the cracks stuffed with moss 

 and mud ; and the paths through the woods showed where they went 

 for fuel or to hunt. The ground was strewed with fur and bones of 

 hares, and several lynx skulls were picked up by the men. Hunting 

 must have formed the principal occupation of their days, since their 

 mining operations had not been carried further then a few shallow 

 pits, which doubtless soon convinced them of the fruitlessness of their 

 errand. 



It rained hard in the night, and we were somewhat incommoded 

 by the leaking of our tent. 



Jidi/ 30^/i. — The rain continuing this morning, we did not think it 

 •worth while to start. The Professor took advantage of the opportu- 



