ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA 



dashed upon a great flat rock and broken in the bottom. Its 

 occupants, by jumping out upon the rock, managed to hold 

 it until assistance could be given them. The load of the 

 disabled canoe was safely landed by one of the others, and 

 the damage soon repaired. 



We were now fairly beyond the limit of woods, which for 

 some time past had been gradually becoming thinner, more 

 scattered and of more stunted growth. On this account it 

 is impossible to lay down any definite line as the limit of 



the forest. Outlying 

 patches of spruce and 

 tamarack might still 

 be found here and 

 there in the most 

 favored localities, but 

 as a whole the coun- 

 try was now a vast 

 rolling, treeless wil- 

 derness. 



On the evening of 



the 28th of July we 



reached the north end 



of an expansion of 



Our supply of meat was 



quite unable to carry 



whole trip, we had, in 



RAPIDS, DUBAWNT RIVER. 



the river named Barlow Lake, 

 already running low. Being 

 provisions with us for the 

 starting, taken only a limited quantity of this kind of food, 

 trusting to our ability to replenish the supply from time to 

 time by the way. Up to this time, however, we had seen 

 nothing in the shape of game since leaving Lake Athabasca, 

 excepting the one black bear which had made good his escape. 

 Plenty of old deer-tracks were to be seen, but not a single 

 deer, and in consequence we were beginning to feel some 

 anxiety. If game should- not be found within a week or ten 



76 



