98 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



destitute of provisions, as the remains of hares, and of sundry bean- 

 barrels marked " Montreal Mining Company," testified ; — they no 

 doubt had cards, and perhaps, if they were Canadians, led pretty 

 much the sort of life they liked best. The question of copper or 

 no copper might be indifferent to them, if they were mere day- 

 laborers, and for the rest, perhaps our commiseration was groundless. 



One of the men having broken the stem of his clay pipe to-day, re- 

 paired it as follows ; having cut a chip from a spruce log, he whittled 

 it round, and cut a notch about the middle, leaving the ends connected 

 by a thin spindle of wood. Then after burying it for some time in 

 the hot ashes under one of the fires, he withdrew it, and twisting it in 

 his hands one side came loose, and he drew it off, leaving a tube sev- 

 eral inches in length, into which he inserted the stump of his pipe- 

 stem. I afterwards saw this repeated, and both times, I may remark, 

 the division of the wood had nothing to do with the amiual rings, for 

 the piece was taken near the outside of the log. 



Towards sunset it seemed to clear off, and some of the party paid 

 a visit to a deserted shaft, a mile or two distant, where they found 

 small quantities of copper associated with chlorite, which from its 

 greenish color had probably been mistaken for ore. In retui'ning 

 they got a ducking from a sudden shower. 



July 31s^. — We got off at five o'clock, the weather unsettled, and 

 the wind high from N.N.W. We were in hopes to get round the 

 point of St. Ignace, and then keep away before the wind. The pros- 

 pect to windward was grand and striking. We were enclosed in an 

 inner sea, a lake within the Lake : St. Ignace behind us, and on 

 each side ridges of granite a thousand feet high. A sea of hills, 

 rising from the rocky islands a few miles off, one over the other to 

 the mountain chain far behind in the bottom of the bay. It v^as in 

 fact an epitome of all the most remarkable scenery of the lake. 

 The wind however increased so much that we judged it prudent to 

 return. Accordingly we hoisted sail, and the canoe, right before the 

 wind, swaying gently from side to side, like a sea-bird changing wings, 

 made a comparative calm by its rapid flight ; occasionally we struck 

 a wave as it drew back, and then some care was required to keep 

 from running bows under. 



We encamped this tune somewhat beyond the place we had left, 



