182 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



paddled to the western extremity of the 

 lake, and there found a small river, which 

 flows out of it to the S.W. To avoid a 

 strong rapid at its commencement, we made 

 a portage, and then crossed to the north 

 bank of the river, where the Indians recom- 

 mended that the winter establishment should 

 be erected, and we soon found that the 

 situation they had chosen possessed all the 

 advantages we could desire. The trees 

 were numerous, and of a far greater size 

 than we had supposed them to be in a dis- 

 tant view, some of the pines being thirty or 

 forty feet high, and two feet in diameter at 

 the root. We determined on placing the 

 house on the summit of the bank, which 

 commands a beautiful prospect of the sur- 

 rounding country. The view in the front 

 is bounded at the distance of three miles by 

 round-backed hills ; to the eastward and 

 westward lie the Winter and Round-rock 

 Lakes, which are connected by the Winter 

 River, whose banks are well clothed with 

 pines, and ornamented with a profusion of 

 mosses, lichens, and shrubs. 



