60 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS (OF CANADA, 
ing grounds. With a guide who knew the shore we 
should be expected to do so, but with a guide such 
as ours, who was commonly several, miles behind, his 
connection with the party made little difference, except- 
ing in the consumption of “ grub.” 
Three more days passed, and despite the unfavorable 
weather, seventy miles of shore-line were surveyed. 
Then a discovery of some interest was made. Just east 
of the Beaver Hills we found a veritable mountain of 
iron ore, and that of the most valuable kind, hematite. 
Coal to smelt it is not found in the vicinity, though 
there is plenty of wood in the forest. The shore of this 
part of the lake was very much obscured by islands, 
upon the slopes of which the remains of the last winter's , 
snow banks could still be seen. 
We made an early start on the morning of the 18th, 
breaking camp at five o'clock, but before we had made 
any distance a fog settled over the lake so dense that 
we could not see ten yards from the canoes. For some 
time we groped along in the darkness, every little while 
finding our way obstructed by the rocky wall of some 
island or point of land, and finally, meeting with a 
seemingly endless shore, we were obliged to wait for the 
weather to clear. All hands landed and climbed the 
precipitous bank, with a view to discovering something 
about the locality, but all was obscurity. Toward noon 
the fog lifted, and we were able to make out our position, 
which was on the mainland and north of Old Man 
Island. On this point we observed a solitary grave, 
and near by the remains of an old log house. As to 
who had been the occupant of this solitary hut, or whose 
remains rested in the lonely grave, we knew not, but 
