ACKOSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA 



more receding, but by a gradual slope rising, beneath dense 

 foliage, to an e<jual elevation. 



At this season of the year the water being high and the 

 current swift, we made good time, coveriug a distance of 

 sixty miles for the first fuU day's travel. About noon on the 

 2nd, having reached a narrow part of the river, very remark- 

 able massive walls of ice were found upon either bank, some 

 distance above the water's edge. These walls were of irreg- 

 ular thickness, and from eight to ten feet in height ; but the 

 most striking feature about them was that they presented 

 smooth vertical faces to the river, although built of blocks of 

 every shape and shade from clear crystal to opaque mud. 

 They extended thus more or less continuously for miles down 

 the river, and had the appearance of great masonry dykes. 

 The explanation of their existence is doubtless as follows: 

 Earlier in the season the narrowness of the channel had 

 caused the river ice to jam and greatly raised the water level. 

 After a time, when the water had reached a certain height 

 and much ice had been crowded up on the shores, the jam 

 had given way and caused the water to rapidly lower to a 

 considerable extent, leaving the ice grounded above a certain 

 line. Thus the material for the wall was deposited, and the 

 work of constructing and finishing the smooth vertical face 

 was doubtless performed by the subsequent grinding of the 

 passing jam, which continued to flow in the deeper channel. 

 After the passing of the first freshet, and the formation of 

 these great ice walls, the water had gradually lowered to the 

 level at which we found it. 



Late in the afternoon the first rapid of the trip was sighted, 

 but the water being high we had no difiiculty in running it. 

 In the evening camp was made on a beautiful sandy beach. 

 During supper-time we had a visit from an old Cree Indian, 

 who came paddling up the river in a little bark canoe. Of 

 course, he landed at our camp, for it is a principle strictly 

 observed by every Indian to lose no opportunity of receiving 



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