114 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



profuse in their thanks and compliments to the " old ladj," and in 

 addition to the tarpaulin, must needs rig a spritsail, which they made 

 of a blanket extended between an oar and the fish-spear. 



We reached Michipicotin at about five P. M. One of our first 

 questions was as to the flies. Mr. Swanston said they were " all 

 gone," which we found, comparatively speaking, true, but at the old 

 camping-ground there were a few left to remind us of our former 

 sufferings. 



We held a council this evening as to the advisability of making an 

 excursion to Michipicotin Falls, six miles up the river. The majority 

 were decidedly in favor of pushing on, and the Professor did not like 

 to leave them. So it was settled that two of us who wished to go, 

 should remain behind with the small canoe, and endeavor to overtake 

 the rest by forced marches. 



On opening this evening a tin case in which bird-skins were packed, 

 I found the inside covered with drops of water, and some of the skins 

 so wet that I had much difficulty in drying them. As the case was 

 surrounded by an India-rubber covering, and the whole put into a 

 wooden box, which was perfectly dry, the moisture could have come 

 only from the condensation occasioned by the great and sudden 

 changes of temperature. Metal, therefore, is to be avoided here, if 

 dryness is requisite. 



The dogs disturbed us somewhat in the night by their antics with 

 a frying-pan and a tea-kettle, Avhich Henry had unfortunately omitted 

 to place out of reach. A troop of mongrel curs seems to be a gene- 

 ral characteristic of an Indian village, though they neither make use 

 of them nor seem to take any care of them,* and one does not see 

 why they should keep them, unless it be for an occasional dog-feast, 

 an observance which, to judge by the lean condition of the dogs, is 

 rather gone out of fashion. 



Aug. 12th. — Warm and cloudy. While our friends were making 

 ready for departure, we set off for the falls, with an Indian lad for 

 guide, paddled a few hundred yards up the river, and having pulled 

 the canoe up on the scanty beach on the opposite side, climbed up 



* One Indian, however, who readily sold his dog for a trifle, revoked the bargain 

 when he understood that the skeleton only was wanted. "Whether this was from any 

 feeling for the dog, or only from some superstition, we could not learn. 



