184 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



person was incessantly slipping into deep holes, and floundering in 

 vain for footing at the bottom ; a scene highly diverting, notwith- 

 standing our fatigue. We were detained in Sandy Lake, till one 

 P.M., by a strong gale, when the wind becoming moderate we 

 crossed five miles to the mouth of the river, and at four P. M. left 

 the main branch of it, and entered a little rivulet called the Grassy 

 Eiver, running through an extensive reedy swamp. It is the nest of 

 innumerable ducks, which rear their young, among the long rushes, 

 in security from beasts of prey. At sunset we encamped on the 

 banks of the main branch. 



At three A. M. June 28th, we embarked in a thick fog occasioned 

 by a fall of the temperature of the air ten degrees below that of the 

 water. Having crossed Knee Lake, which is nine miles in length 

 and a portage at its western extremity, we entered Primeau Lake, 

 with a strong and favourable wind, by the aid of which we ran 

 nineteen miles through it, and encamped at the river's mouth. It is 

 shaped like the barb of an arrow, with the point towards the north, 

 and its greatest breadth is about four miles. 



During the night, a torrent of rain washed us from our beds, 

 accompanied with the loudest thunder I ever heard. This weather 

 continued during the 29th, and often compelled us to land, and turn 

 the canoes up, to prevent them from filling. We passed one portage, 

 and the confluence of a river, said to afford, by other rivers beyond a 

 height of land, a shorter but more difficult route to the Athabasca 

 Lake than that which is generally pursued. 



On the 28th we crossed the last portage, and at ten A. M. en- 

 tered the Isle a la Crosse Lake. Its long succession of woody 

 points, both banks stretching towards the south, till their forms 

 were lost in the haze of the horizon, was a grateful prospect to us, 

 after our bewildered and interrupted voyage in the Missinnippi. 

 The gale wafted us with unusual speed, and as the lake increased in 

 breadth, the waves swelled to a dangerous height. A canoe running 



