A PECULIAR LANDSCAPE. 329 



ately ; kept repeating the words ; talked quickly among themselves, and 

 seemed greatly delighted. They were supplied with presents for my old 

 friends Akaitcho and his brother Humpy," and the same evening they set 

 out for the headquarters of their chief. On the shores of Artillery Lake, 

 an expansion of the shallow water- course that connects Clinton-Golden 

 Lake and Slave Lake proper, a number of dwarf pines were observed ; and 

 rejoicing in the prospect of a comfortable camp-fire — a rare luxury in these 

 high latitudes — the voyagers landed and set up their encampment on the 

 night of the 5th. The night was calm, and the sky was illumined by the 

 coloured streamers of a bright aurora; but amid the stillness and the beauty 

 of the night there were not wanting premonitions of swift-coming winter. 

 From an immense height, out of the darkness overhead, came the cries of 

 flocks of geese flying southward. Back now knew that the season was 

 closing, and that the long Arctic night was gathering, and it was not without 

 sincere gratitude that he thought of the home — now near at hand — which 

 he knew was being erected for him, under Mr M'Leod's superintendence, at 

 the eastern extremity of Slave Lake. 



The river by which Artillery Lake discharges its waters into Great Slave 

 Lake, is interrupted by numerous and dangerous rapids. Three of these 

 were safely run, but in running a fourth the bark canoe was fixed against 

 a sharp rock, and seriously cut. Fortunately it twirled round, wore off the 

 rock, and floated till it was paddled to the shore. The Indians now de- 

 clared it impossible to proceed down the foaming stream, and Back order- 

 ing them to place the canoe en cache, divided the baggage among the men, 

 and set out to finish the remainder of the journey on foot. The path was 

 difficult and perilous,, and, on the evening of the 6th, when the party halted 

 to encamp at sunset, the country around presented the most singular and 

 striking aspect. " It was a sight," says Back, " altogether novel to me ; I had 

 seen nothing in the Old World at all resembling it. There was not the stern 

 beauty of Alpine scenery, and still less the fair variety of hill and dale, 

 forest and glade, which makes the charm of an English landscape. There 

 was nothing to catch or detain the lingering eye, which wandered on with- 

 out a check, over endless lines of round-backed rocks, whose sides were rent 

 into indescribably eccentric forms ! It was hke a stormy ocean suddenly 

 petrified. Except a few tawny and pale-green lichens, there was nothing to 

 relieve the horror of the scene, for the fire had scathed it, and the grey and 

 black stems of the mountain pine, which lay prostrate in mournful confu- 

 sion, seemed like the blackened corpses of departed vegetation. It was 

 a picture of ' hideous ruin and combustion ! ' " 



Early on the morning of the 7th the encampment was broken up, and 

 the party proceeded, walking in Indian file and without the exchange of a 

 syllable. Every man was too busily and anxiously engaged picking his way on 

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