270 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



out in such an advanced era of civilisation, in an 

 age so justly celebrated for its inventions and its 

 progress in those arts and sciences which now enter 

 so largely into the organisation of armies, and yet 

 that it should not be possible to enlist into its services 

 the aid either of steam or of the electric telegraph. 

 The sail and the oar were to be our means of pro- 

 pulsion, as they had been those of the Greeks and 

 Eomans in classic times; and when arrived at the 

 end of our 600 miles' journey, we should have as 

 much difficulty and as far to send in order to 

 communicate with even the nearest telegraph office, 

 as Caesar's messenger to Eome, who carried the 

 news of the successful descent upon our shores 

 more than 1900 years ago. 



All sorts of melancholy prophecies had been pub- 

 lished in the papers as to the dangers we should have 

 to encounter. We \vere to be devoured by mosquitoes 

 and other flies. It was said the Indians themselves 

 could not live in the woods during July ; others who 

 knew the country declared that the heat was then so 

 stifling that the most acclimatised hunters had to 

 forsake them, and seek for air and breath along the 

 shores of Lake Superior. Many asserted that the 

 Indians would never permit us to pass through their 

 country without enforcing the payment of a large 

 subsidy ; whilst many laughed at the notion of ever 

 attempting to make the journey to Fort Garry in 

 anything except bark canoes manned by Indians. 



