OF THE POLAR SEA. 



105 



has, probably, several communications with 

 the last, as that by which we passed is too 

 narrow to convey the whole body of the 

 Missinippi. At one of these portages called 

 the Pin Portage is a rapid, about ten yards 

 in length, with a descent of ten or twelve 

 feet, and beset with rocks. Light canoes 

 sometimes venture down this fatal gulf, to 

 avoid the portage, unappalled by the warn- 

 ing crosses which overhang the brink, the 

 mournful records of former failures. 



The Hudson's Bay Company's people 

 whom we passed on the 23d, going to the 

 rock house with their furs, were badly pro- 

 vided with food, of which we saw distress- 

 ing proofs at every portage behind them. 

 They had stripped the birch trees of their 

 rind to procure the soft pulpy vessels in 

 contact with the wood, which are sweet, 

 but very insufficient to satisfy a craving ap- 

 petite. 



The lake to the westward of the Pin 

 Portage, is called Sandfly Lake ; it is seven 

 miles long ; and a wide channel connects it 

 with the Serpent Lake, the extent of which 



