66 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA. 
The next day, Sunday, we spent in camp at the foot. 
of a wild and beautiful cataract. The weather was 
warm, and the black flies and mosquitos swarmed in 
the woods and about camp so thickly that we could no- 
where escape from their ceaseless hum and dreaded bite. 
In this neighborhood they did not appear to have the 
customary respect for the smudge. Dense smoke was. 
made about camp, but the flies only appeared to revel 
in it. 
At camp the men were variously employed. A fish- 
ing net had been put out in an eddy at the foot of the 
rapids the previous night, and when taken up in the 
morning some of the finest fish I have ever seen 
were found in it. Two salmon trout measured three 
feet one inch and three feet two inches in length re- 
spectively, and the white fish, of which there were a 
large number, ranged in weight from six to ten pounds. 
I may add, in deference to a suspicion which statements 
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 assistance, but they came not. 
Following this day of rest came one of most labor- 
ious, 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 unfortu- 
nately laid up for the time with an ugly gash in the 
knee, so we had only five packers; but being fresh and 
in high spirits they went at their work with a rush, 
rae 
