88 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



inundation produced, is almost incredible. 

 There is strong reason to believe that they 

 outlive the severity of winter. They have 

 often been found frozen and revived by 

 warmth, nor is it possible that the mul- 

 titude, which incessantly filled our ears 

 with its discordant notes, could have been 

 matured in two or three days. 



The fishermen at Beaver Lake, and the 

 other detached parties, were ordered to 

 return to the post. The expedients to 

 which the poor people were reduced, to 

 cross a country so beset with waters, pre- 

 sented many uncouth spectacles. The in- 

 experienced were glad to compromise, with 

 the loss of property, for the safety of their 

 persons, and astride upon ill-balanced rafts, 

 with which they struggled to be uppermost, 

 exhibited a ludicrous picture of distress. 

 Happy were they who could patch up an 

 old canoe, though obliged to bear it half 

 the way on their shoulders, through miry 

 bogs and interwoven willows. But the 

 veteran trader, wedged in a box of skin, 

 with his wife, children, dogs, and furs, 



