186 PERMANENTLY APPOINTED TO GOVERNMENT 



Next day, I arranged with a man to take my party and pro- 

 visions to Manitoba House on the upper part of Lake Manitoba, 

 in his sail boat. Early in the morning, we started and had dinner 

 somewhere on the shore of the lake. After we started from our 

 dining place, the wind arose and the boat went through the water 

 so fast that the canvas canoe, that I had brought all of the way 

 with me from Belleville, was swamped and everything was lost 

 that was in it excepting our bedding, which floated. We gathered 

 up things and righted the canoe and were soon on our way again. 

 Some time after, a thunder-storm struck us, when the man told 

 me there was no harbor along that shore for the next ten miles. 

 We worked in towards the shore, however, and I saw by the con- 

 dition of the atmosphere that an awful storm was approaching. 

 After some talk with the owner of the boat and my promise to 

 make good if we were wrecked, he agreed to make for the shore. 

 The roar of the storm overhead was so great that we could hardly 

 hear, but, before it descended to the water, we were almost on 

 shore and, when the first wave struck the boat, I was sitting in 

 the stern and it came on my back and I broke its force. By the 

 time the next wave came, the boat struck the shore, head on, and 

 the boys jumped out and, two on each side, grasped the gunwale 

 and, when the third wave struck, it lifted us with great force and 

 sent the men and the boat straight over the sand bank that lined 

 the shore and we found ourselves actually in a lagoon of the lake 

 while the lake itself was in an awful turmoil just a few yards from 

 us. The storm soon passed and we found ourselves in perfect 

 security. We camped there and, in the morning, we had to dig 

 down three or four feet of the sand bar to get out to the lake, and 

 we sailed up to Manitoba House without further mishap. 



We spent some time at Manitoba House and obtained all the 

 information possible regarding matters pertaining to Manitoba 

 Lake. After a few days, the gentleman with whom I had made a 

 bargain to take us to Swan Lake House put in an appearance and 

 we started off with him. 



Our experiences after this were on the sail boat and were 

 very pleasant and not very exciting as we had plenty of time and 

 my young men collected many birds' eggs and enjoyed the eating 



