94 ACROSS: THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANAL 
where a most dreary and chilling scene opened to his 
vision. To the east and northward not many miles 
away, and extending as far as the eye could reach, there 
appeared a vast white plain shrouded in drifting clouds 
of mist. It was evidently a great lake, still covered in 
the month of August with a field of ice, and was prob- 
ably the Doobaunt or Tobaunt Lake, known in a legen- 
TOBAUNT LAKE. 
dary way to the Athabasca Indians, and sighted over 
one hundred years ago by Samuel Hearne when on his 
journey to the Copper Mine River. Its re-discovery was 
now a matter of the deepest interest to us. Was it to 
form an insurmountable obstacle in our path was the 
question at once suggested, and judging from appear- 
ances, most of the men were of opinion that it would. 
On Monday morning, the 7th of August, all undis- 
