THE CAT HEAD, LAKE WINNIPEG. 



489 



Some of the Swampys say Cat Head is so named 

 because an Indian hunter was killed there by falling over 

 the precipice while chasing a wild-cat or lynx. The pro- 

 file of the upper, or overhanging portion of the cliff, 

 bears a singular resemblance to the " cat-head " of a 

 ship. 



The wind becoming more foul we were compelled to 

 camp on a point about a mile and half south-east of the 

 Cat Head, at the extremity of the north-western side of 

 Kinwow (Long) Bay. 



During the next day (7th September) the wind blew 

 hard from the east, and the waves on the lake rolled 

 mountains high, so that we could not venture out, having 

 a long traverse before us. The narrow point or penin- 

 sula upon which we were detained, is of a peculiar cha- 

 racter, consisting of a straight barrier or ridge of boulders 

 about three-quarters of a mile long, running at right 

 angles to the coast, and connecting it with a small area 

 or island of limestone a few feet high ; this barrier re- 

 sembles very much a railway embankment, or a rip-rap 

 breakwater ; although it is twenty to twenty-five feet high, 

 the waves wash over it during the great storms on the 

 lake in the fall of the year. A spruce tree growing on this 

 peninsula has been trimmed into a " lopstick," by Angus 

 Macbeth, from which the locality has derived the name 

 of Macbeth's point, There are also two high cairns of 

 stones on the point, but whether they were erected by 

 the Indians, or by half-breeds I did not ascertain. 



The morning of the 8th dawned, but there still seemed 

 to be little chance of our getting off, and our prospects 

 now began to look cheerless enough ; we had but a handful 

 of pemmican and one charge of ammunition left ; while 

 deliberating whether to eat the last remnant of our food, 

 a bald-headed eagle came wheeling in great circles over 

 us ; he poised himself for an instant as if about to descend 



