136 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



waves seething around our bows. Small patches of potatoes 

 met the eye at every house, making our mouths water with 

 expectation, for we had now been a long time -without them, 

 and it is only then that one realizes their value. In the 

 far distance we discerned the Roman Catholic Mission 

 church, the primitive building showing up boldly in the 

 offing, whilst our canoemen, now nearing their own home, 

 broke into an Indian chant, axid were in high spirits. They 

 expected a big feast that night, and so did we ! I had been 

 a bit under the weather, with flagging appetite, but felt again 

 the grip of healthy hunger. 



We were now in close contact with the most innocently 

 wild, secluded, and apparently happy state of things imagin- 

 able- — a real Utopia, such as Sir Thomas More dreamt not 

 of, being actually here, with no trace of abortive politics or 

 irritating ordinance. Here was contentment in the savage 

 wilderness — communion with Nature in all her unstained 

 purity and beauty. One thought of the many men of mind 

 who had moralized on this primitive life, and, tired of 

 towns, of " the weariness, the fever and the fret " of civiliza- 

 tion, had abandoned all and found rest and peace in the 

 bosom of Mother Nature. 



The lake now narrowed into a deep but crooked stream, 

 fringed, as usual, by tall reeds and rushes and clumps of 

 flowering water-lilies. A four-mile paddle brought us to a 

 long stretch of deep lake, the second Wahpooskow, lined on 

 the north by a lovely shore, dotted with cabins, the central 

 tall buildings upon the summit of the rising ground being 

 those of the English " Church Mission Society," in charge 

 of the Reverend Charles R. Weaver. Here we were at last 

 at the inland end of our journey, at Wahpooskow — this, not 

 the " Wabiscow " of the maps, being the right spelling and 

 pronunciation of the word, which means in English " The 

 Grassy Narrows." 



The other Missions of this venerable Society in Athabasca, 

 it may Ipe mentioned, were at the time as follows : Athabasca 



