262 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



It is scarcely necessary to remind the mercantile 

 reader that this "breaking bulk" so repeatedly in- 

 jured the stores considerably, and entailed much 

 labour on the soldiers. 



The only recreations enjoyed by our men were 

 bathing and fishing. Of the former, whilst working 

 in the boats, all had more than enough, for the men 

 had constantly to work in the water ; but whilst em- 

 ployed at road-making or moving stores on shore, a 

 swim after the day's work was most enjoyable. 

 The water in Lake Superior is always very cold; 

 but that in some of the rivers the Matawan, 

 for instance was positively tepid, so that the men 

 would roll about in it for a length of time without 

 feeling any ill effects. The strangest phenomenon 

 was in M 'Neil's Bay, on Lake Shebandowan, where, 

 in swimming, at one moment you passed through a 

 narrow strip of very cold water, and the next instant 

 you were in water as warm as the human body. The 

 effect was most curious, and is supposed to come from 

 springs rising from the bottom of the lake in that 

 shallow portion of it. When encamped at Prince 

 Arthur's Landing the men caught immense quanti- 

 ties of lake trout, many of them weighing ten or 

 twelve pounds, those of five or six being considered 

 small They are without exception the most taste- 

 less of the finny tribe. There is nothing repulsive 

 about them, either in appearance or in flavour ; but 

 still, as food, we know of nothing which is less pala- 



