THE TRIP TO WAHPOOSKOW 145 



At this point the issue of certificates for scrip practically 

 ended, the total number distributed being 1,843, only 48 of 

 which were for land. 



Leaving Calling Eiver before noon, we passed Riviere la 

 Biche towards evening, and camped about four miles above 

 it on the same side of the river. We were not far from the 

 Landing, and therefore near the end of our long and toil- 

 some yet delightful journey. It was pleasant and unex- 

 pected, too, to find our last camp but one amongst the best. 

 The ground was a flat lying against the river, wooded with 

 stately spruce and birch, and perfectly clear of underbrush. 

 It was covered with a plentiful growth of a curious fern-like 

 plant which fell at a touch. The great river flowed in front, 

 and an almost full moon shone divinely across it, and sent 

 shafts of sidelong light into the forest. The huge camp-fires 

 of the trackers and canoemen, the roughly garbed groups 

 around them, the canoes themselves, the whole scene, in fact, 

 recalled some genre sketch by our half-forgotten colourist, 

 Jacobi. Our own fire was made at the foot of a giant spruce, 

 and must have been a surprise to that beautiful creature, 

 evidently brimful of life. Indeed, I watched the flames 

 busy at its base with a feeling of pain, for it is difiicult not 

 to believe that those grand productions of Nature, highly 

 organized after their kind, have their own sensations, and 

 enjoy life. 



The 17th fell on a Sunday, a delicious morning of mist 

 and sunshine and calm, befltting the day. 'But we were 

 eager for letters from home, and therefore determined to 

 push on. Perhaps it was less desecrating to travel on such a 

 morning than to lie in camp. One felt the penetrating 

 power of Nature more deeply than in the apathy or indolent 

 ease of a Sunday lounge. Still there were those who had 

 to smart for it — the trackers. But the Mecca of the Landing 

 being so near, and its stimulating delights looming largely 

 in the haze of their imagination, they were as eager to go on 

 as ourselves. 

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