PRIMITIVE SIMPLICITY 77 



If this description of a hostel, which is not ex- 

 aggerated, is likely to deter any sportsman from going 

 to Wanikewin, let me assure him that of the places 

 that I visited in the province, it was one of the most 

 charming. The crude structure possessed all the 

 conveniences that an explorer might desire : a post- 

 office for dispatch and delivery of letters ; a store 

 amply provided with provisions ; camping tents of 

 the latest and most comfortable design ; canoes 

 adapted to all the exigencies of the rivers ; Indian 

 guides, true children of the wilds ; and a motor boat 

 to shoot up the river and reach the nearest portage 

 through the forest where human footsteps were almost 

 unknown. 



It is because this primitive simplicity is all too 

 rapidly disappearing from Eastern Canada, and the 

 modern hotel is taking its place, that one involuntarily 

 exclaims. Oh, Wanikewin ! keep thy wooden walls, 

 thine unglazed windows, thine odorous skunks, and 

 untutored Indians, and we shall love thee all the 

 better ! 



It was something to be handed over to the charge 

 of an Indian with royal blood in his veins. Ellick, 

 my guide, had that particular distinction to commend 

 him. His father, a chief of the Ojibwa tribe, died 

 twelve years ago. The heir-presumptive to a 

 disbanded kingdom possessed all the solemnity of 

 a fallen magnate. He would sit on a ledge of rock, 

 and look out across the surging river as if awaiting 



