FORT RAE 



77 



the visit of an Iowan to that desolate lake, never before visited, 

 I believe, by a white man. Franklin had followed the Indian 

 route more to the northward. 



We camped for the night at the head of the Nine Lakes, 

 where the net, set below the falls, yielded, next morning seven 

 yellow suckers, three whitefish, three jackfish, and a lake trout. 

 A head wind prevented traveling that day. I occupied the 

 time in taking photographs of the surrounding country and in 

 collecting land birds, as I had done on several windy days dur- 

 ing the trip. Another day's paddling brought us to Prospect 

 Lake, where we found the Indians scattered along the whole 

 length of the west shore. Only a few could use the portage 

 path above their old camp at one time, so that they had been all 

 day in getting under way. There were sixty canoes in all; 

 some of them were new, some were old but patched with bright 

 new pieces of bark, some were without the bark deck and 

 seemed so old and fragile that one involuntarily looked to see 

 how far the occupant would have to swim to reach the shore. 



The men had lighter loads than the women. They paddled 

 about in the bays after waterfowl. Shotguns were used, though 

 wounded birds were often killed with steel-pointed arrows. 

 Nearly every canoe contained two or three dogs, which were 

 poor and thin, and naturally of inferior size, so that they added 

 little to the load. The canoes contained a heterogeneous col- 

 lection of muskemoots (bags of woven babiche), blankets, nets, 

 lodges and other personal property. An occasional clean 

 blanket or a powder keg indicated that a recent visit had been 

 made by the owner to Resolution. They had been given a 

 large amount of "debt" and had an abundance of tea, tobacco, 

 and ammunition ; yet every man that was not ashore came along- 

 side to beg for these articles and many others. 



We camped on the portage near the deserted camp, the lodge 

 poles of which remained standing. All property not required 

 upon the hunt had been cached on tripods of long poles, the 

 lower half of which had been peeled to prevent the carcajous 

 from climbing them. An abandoned Indian camp is not an 

 attractive spot with its smoke-begrimmed skeletons of former 

 lodges, its rags, heaps of hair, ashes, bones and trampled pine- 

 tops. 



That day we had nothing but boiled suckers to eat, but the 



