OHIPEWYAN TO BLACK LAKE 



were a large number, ranged in weight from six to ten 

 pounds. I may add, in deference to a suspicion which state- 

 ments of this nature sometimes give rise to, that these facts 

 can be amply verified. Towards evening we looked for the 

 return of the four natives who had promised us their assist- 

 ance, but they came not. 



Following this day of rest came one of most laborious, 

 exhausting work. Our camp was not only at the foot of a 

 beautiful fall, but in consequence was at the lower end of a 

 rough, rocky portage, found to be three miles in length, and 

 the canoes were all heavily loaded, containing some four 

 thousand pounds of cargo to be transported. One of our men, 

 Corrigal, was unfortunately laid up for the time with an 

 ugly gash in the knee, so we had only five packers ; but being 

 fresh and in good spirits, they went at their work with a rush, 

 notwithstanding a rocky hill of two hundred feet which had 

 to be climbed, and a deep muskeg which obliged them to 

 wade. Before nightfall, however, their spirits were away 

 down as a result of this slavish work. Feet were fearfully 

 blistered, and all complained of pains in one place or another ; 

 but each man had carried six loads to the upper end of the 

 portage, which represented a walk of thirty-three miles, 

 eighteen of which were travelled with one-hundred pound 

 loads upon their backs, over rocky hills and through swamps 

 knee-deep with mire. This was disheartening work at the 

 outset, but it was good training for what was to follow. 



The next morning the weather was hot and the flies were 

 out in swarms, as on the day before. The men were all foot- 

 sore and stifle, but without a grumble resumed their work. 

 They were obliged to make two more trips before everything 

 was across, and by that time it was nearly noon ; still, with- 

 out a pause for rest, they loaded the canoes, pushed out into 

 the lake — a small expansion of the river — and headed for the 

 opposite shore, where we soon discovered the "mouth of the 

 river we were to ascend. While yet far out on the lake we 



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