CHAPTEE VI. 

 ON THE TRAIL TO PEACE EIVEB. 



By the afternoon of the 12th we had finished our work at 

 the lake, and in the evening left the scene of so much amuse- 

 ment, and its lively and intelligent people, not without regret. 

 Having said good-bye to Bishop Glut and his clergy, and to 

 the Hudson's Bay Company's people, and others, we passed 

 on to Salt Creek, which we crossed at dusk, and then to the 

 South Heart River — Otaye Sepe — where we camped for the 

 night. This affluent of the lake has a broad but sluggish 

 current, its grassy banks sloping gently to the water's edge, 

 like some Ontario river — the beau ideal of a pike stream. 

 The Church of England Mission was established here in 

 charge of the Reverend Mr. Holmes, who had shown us every 

 kindness during our long stay. As boats can ascend in high 

 water to this point, the Hudson's Bay Company had a couple 

 of large warehouses close by, standing alone, and filled with 

 all kinds of goods. The trail led for many miles up a long, 

 easy ascent, through a timber country, to an upper plateau, 

 with, after passing the Heart River, occasional small patches 

 of prairie on the wayside. The plateau itself is the anticlinal 

 down which the Iforth Heart flows to Peace River, which it 

 joins at the crossing. 



The trail so far had been good, but after crossing Slippery 

 Creek it proved to be almost a continuous mud-hole, due to 

 its extreme narrowness and the wet weather, closely bor- 

 dered, as much of it was, by dense forests. It revealed a 

 good farming country, however, free from stones, and the 

 soil a rich, loamy clay throughout. It was weU timbered, in 

 some places, with the finest white poplar I had yet seen. 

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