GP PAA N 10 “BLACK. LAKE. 69 
and seek rest where alone it could be found, beneath 
our mosquito awnings at camp. 
By the way, there is an Indian tradition which says 
that it was on these very portages that the Great Spirit 
first made these black flies, and our experience, we 
thought, would tend to bear out that belief. 
On the afternoon of the 7th we started out in a north- 
easterly direction, following the shore of Black Lake 
(explored by my brother in 1892) for a distance of about 
sixteen miles, until we reached the hunting trail, of which 
INDIAN RAFTS LOADED WITH VENISON. 
he had been informed by the Indians, leading away to 
the northward. This place until now had been our 
objective point, and the way to it was known; but 
beyond this point we knew nothing of the road, or of the 
country through which it would lead us, excepting for 
the first few days’ travel, to which the Indians’ descrip- 
tion, quoted at the beginning of this narrative, would 
apply. From this point northward, for a distance of 
one hundred miles, or thereabouts, we had expected to 
be guided by that old humbug Moberly, but he having 
deserted us we were now dependent on our own resources. 
