76 



EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



siderable size. This lake, perhaps the Lower Carp Lake of 

 Franklin, is bordered upon the north by the "ironstone" for- 

 mation and on the south by cliffs exceeding five hundred feet 

 in height, containing conspicuous bands of feldspar and, in 

 places, considerable quantities of mica. We encamped at the 

 extremity of the lake. Our net yielding no fish, we moved the 

 next morning to the river, which enters the lake near the 

 middle of the south shore and camped at the foot of a short 

 rapid. The next morning we found nothing in the net. We 

 had a gull for breakfast, however, a sharp-tailed grouse for 

 lunch and for dinner the staff of (Northern) life — dried meat. 



Continuing our journey, we followed the channel of irregular 

 width for a couple of miles to a large lake extending toward 

 the southward. The sound of rapids directed us to the river, 

 two miles down the east shore, where the chute is at least fifty 

 feet in height. A few trees cut during the preceding winter 

 were the only sign that the place had ever been visited. The 

 portage of two hundred yards on the left was quite open. A 

 spruce standing just above the rapids measured five feet in cir- 

 cumference and was of fair height, but it was noticeably larger 

 than any other that I saw on the trip. The timber was much 

 smaller than near the big lake, and the summits of the hills 

 nearly barren. We followed the lake a distance of three miles 

 eastward, then six miles northward, where from the summit of 

 a high hill, which we ascended, we could trace its course for 

 several miles toward the hills of the Barren Ground, which the 

 Indians afterward assured us that we would have reached by 

 crossing two more lakes. They never follow that route them- 

 selves in going to the Barren Ground. The site of Fort Enter- 

 prise must have been within our horizon. 



The caribou were beyond our reach. The net yielded no 

 fish and our supply of dried meat was nearly gone. I had 

 become convinced that any attempt to collect birds in that 

 region would prove unprofitable, and as geographical explora- 

 tion was not one of the "scientific objects" enumerated in my 

 instructions, I decided to go no further in that direction. I 

 cut a lop-stick 1 on the shore of the last lake to commemorate 



1 A lop-stick is made by trimming the upper branches from an isolated 

 spruce, leaving a tuft at the top. These are the guide boards of the country. 

 Such a tree usually marks the halfway points between trading stations, the 

 beginning of side trails, or wayside fisheries. 



