ACROSS THE SUB-AKCTICS OF CANADA 



or two had already been knocked off when, happily, I arrived 

 on the scene in time to prevent its destruction and preserve 

 our good name with the natives. 



To the Eskimo who owned the sled it was an invaluable 

 possession, and for us to have destroyed it for one " mess of 

 pottage " would have been a flagrant shame. It was therefore 

 repaired, and carried back to where it had been found; and 

 for a peace-offering a plug of tobacco was left upon it.* 



Erom our camp at White Mountain, on the morning of the 

 23rd, we again entered the river, which for ten or twelve 

 miles carried us off to the eastward ; then, turning sharply to 

 the northward and flowing swiftly between high, steep banks 

 of sandj it widened out into what has been named Lady Mar- 

 jorine Lake, a body of water about ten miles long by three or 

 four wide. Through this we passed and at its north-western 

 extremity regained the river. 



It began with a rough, rocky rapid, in running which 

 my canoe struck a smooth rock, was badly injured, and 

 nearly filled with water. Though the contents were soaked, 

 everything was landed without serious damage. After a 

 delay of some two hours we were again in the stream and 

 being borne away to the westward, the direction opposite to 

 that we were now anxious to follow. 



The river was here a noble stream, deep and swift, with a 

 well-defined channel and high banks of rock or sand. Near 

 the north banli there extended for some miles a high range 

 of dark but snow-capped trappean hills of about five hundred 

 feet in height. 



On the night of the 24th we camped at the base of two 

 conspicuous, conical peaks of trap, named by us the Twin 

 Mountains. 



*My brother In revisiting the Barren Lands during the summer of 

 1894 was hailed by the natives many miles south of the scene of this 

 Incident as the " Kudloonah Peayouk " (good white man) who had 

 regard for the goods of an Eskimo, and left on his " kometic " a 

 piece of tobacco. 



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