May % 19&4.I 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
881 
5 •■30 P. M., and we were sorry indeed that we had done 
so next morning, because a very high wind made us 
prisoners on the island until 3:30 P. M. 
Aug. 21. Aleck, the sober and sad, is developing; 
We had no regular cook, and made each guide take 
his day. "The silent, smoky Indian" part of Aleck 
looked on at the various attempts at cooking for two 
days without saying a word, until a reward was offered 
of a kind that both half-breed and Indian find it hard 
to resist. This he could not resist. "Me try make 
bread," he said, and he made white bread and corn 
bread so well that ever after the others awarded him 
the prize without a contest. On the first attempt I 
read to him from the admirable little publication sup- 
plied by the R. R. Co. gratis, "Hints on Camping," 
"three parts of corn meal, one pint," etc., but he did 
not listen long before putting his hands to his ears and 
saying, "me do it alone, not know that way," and he 
did it alone. He opened a bag of flour and mixed up 
in the bag a quantity of flour the size and shape of a 
large cocoanut, with hot bacon fat as a mixer, then 
added corn meal. The bag was his only bread pan. 
A very little sugar and baking powder was added, and 
then he kneaded the whole for one minute inside the 
bag. Next he lifted the mass out of the bag and 
Abandoned Hudson Bay Post — Upper Green Lake. 
kneaded it down flat into the pan. He had washed his 
hands conscientiously as the initial action. Twenty 
minutes in a Baxter stove and it was done to a turn. 
When it had been broken and tasted all the contestants 
admitted that they were out of the game, and we all 
began to like silent Aleck very much. The little he does 
'say is well worth listening to; and is it not so in civ- 
ilized life? The man who speaks much may be enter- 
taining for a little while, but generally it grows upon 
us that what we took for sparkling burgundy is only 
a poor lot of vin ordinaire. 
Noon. Our storm-bound day promises to last from 
daylight to dark. We tried the lake in a light canoe, 
but found it such wet work that the most eager of us 
had to admit that the loaded canoes would not be very 
safe and that at the best all our dufBe would be soaked. 
We waited, wrote up our journals, sharpened our axes 
and ate our grub, to reduce our packs to the smallest 
"A charming day we have had.' 
possible size for the many portages ahead of us. The 
Cornell boy proved to be quite an expert at bridge 
whist, and was by this time a general favorite. An 
enthusiastic spirited boy is an indispensable constituent 
of a successful camping party. 
Toward afternoon the wind changed to the west, and 
we moved on from Round Island, in Canoe Lake, to 
the eastern shore of Sulphur Lake, making only one 
portage. The camping ground is not a bad one. There 
is plenty of pickerel in the lake. It is an ideal moose 
and red deer country, but one needs to leave the beaten 
track a half mile or so and to keep quiet. We were 
not in hunting season, and were careless, and we are 
here on a very old highway. The Indians were travel- 
ing here by the same route in bark canoes, shooting, 
fishing, and probably long before the Romans landed in' 
Britain. 
There are lake trout in nearly all these lakes, and 
plenty of them. 
On Saturday, Aug. 22, we left our comfortable camp 
about 7:30 A. M., crossed the lake and made a small 
portage. We realized here our wisdom in taking plenty 
of tump lines or carrying straps, pack baskets and handy 
carry-alls generally, so that we had no loose things 
around us. We had one big spade and a pick-ax that 
received full, choice and frequent condemnation from 
those who had to carry them across the portages when- 
ever I bappeagd Xp »S faU loaded without thenj. J 
had brought them to dig out prehistoric Indian 
mounds, of whose existence I had been assured by our 
guides. I hung on to this spade with religious fervor, 
through the bustle and turmoil of every portage, in 
spite of jeer and grumbles many and loud. When we 
discovered that the only Indian mounds that our guides 
knew about were of comparatively recent date and that 
"Comparing them to the Palisades.' 
the grandchildren of the dead reds were living around, 
we decided that it was wiser to make no excavations 
just then or there. 
After leaving Sulphur Lake there is a small portage 
into Kawin-Kago Lake. Kawin-Kago is good Ojib- 
way for no name. 
Then came one of the two longest portages on the 
route. Three-quarters of a mile of hill and dale satis- 
fied our carrying ambition for a few hours, but we had 
had this portage held out to us as the terror of the 
route, and we were, after all, agreeably disappointed 
with the carry, and rather pleased with ourselves at the 
end of it, although some of us would have sold out 
cheaper just before we reached the summit of the 
"We took one shot at tlie bluff opposite our camp." 
divide. We were all getting hardened to the work. W<> 
had eaten our bulkiest foods first, such as fruit, canned 
goods, etc., and had got down to fish, bacon, and other 
more enduring edibles. We were too good sportsmen 
to shoot the ducks out of season.' They were there 
always, and the temptation was great. W e carried our 
packs, which averaged about seventy-five pounds, with 
ease and not without enjoyment. One" feels like being 
in it whatever may be going on. 
Each one of us paddled all day and carried at least 
half loads over the portages; wind, muscle and appe- 
tite were growing fitter every day. 
We~had an interesting dinner camp to-day at the. 
abandoned Hudson Bay Co. post at Upper Green Lake. 
"Sensational recollections of swift water." 
One of our guides had been trader in charge of this 
post for the Hudson Bay Co., and had two children 
buried here. He spent an hour in arranging their 
graves. Near them were the graves of many Indians, 
but all of historic date. We carried the spade, notwith- 
standing the scofifs, hoping to find prehistoric mounds 
lower down. The Indian Christian is only half con- 
verted, and we found here pipes and tobacco, bottles of 
medicine,^ and all kinds of necessary articles lying by the 
graves of the \u^\m de^d for tljejr ys§ on t^eir joufj^i^ 
to the "Happy Hunting Grounds." It was very touching. 
One could not but admire the aflfection (while we be- 
moaned the loss of artistic ideas) of the Indians who 
went a hundred and fifty miles to the nearest sawmill 
and carried sawn lumber for palings on their backs over 
all the portages to inclose the remains of their dead. 
There is a beautiful sand beach at Upper Green Lake, 
and a glorious sailing stretch on the lake. Some day il„ 
may be a fashionable summer resort. The afternooK 
journey gave us a pleasant paddle through a chain of 
lakes with easy portages. We camped at about the fourth 
portage, near a pretty fall at a small lake enlargement 
of the Mississippi River. We had a just sufficient amount 
of honest fatigue to make us enjoy our rest, and that 
night as I sat watching the halfbreed cook getting the 
btans ready for tomorrow's breakfast, and heard the 
shout of approval as our sportsman hauled out three-- 
pound fish of the gamy black and pink flesh variety, and' 
Lmklater told me that he had porcupine for breakfast, 
and the odor of Aleck's corn bread in the oven reached 
my nostrils, I realized what were the pleasures of the 
Indian in the old days. He had all these things as well 
as wild rice, berries, venison, and many edible roots and 
grasses to eat. He had artistic skin clothes and furs for 
"Aubrey Falls, 165ft. high and broken.' 
winter. He lived in the most picturesque and hygienic of 
residences, the wigwam, and never had trouble with the 
servant question. There were no bald heads and no 
bought teeth among them. 
At 10 P. M. cedar and balsam boughs and fragrant 
ferns lend delicious odor to the restful springiness which 
they contribute to my bed ; in what better place under the 
sun could I be ? I am fifty-two and a half years old ; I 
have no rheumatism, no indigestion, no fatigue more than 
the youngest. I feel that I owe it all to my used oppor- 
tunities for taking fresh air and exercise and plain food, 
given to all of us by the Great Unknown, who would take 
c::re of us all. Why are these opportunities unimproved 
by so many? 
This is Saturday, the 22d of August, our fourth day 
out, and we find that our larder is well and wisely 
stocked. I will give the bill of purchases, with Montreal 
Shannon's Floating Camp — Bisco Lake. 
prices, for our party, which numbered seven, including 
tlie three guides : 
Beets, 10 cents; peck of apples, 25 $ 35 
Two dozen corn, 30 cents; parsnips, 10 cents 40 
Tomatoes, 35 cents; melon, 40 cents 75 
Two cauliflowers, 20 cents; carrots, 10 cents 30 
Eggplant, 10 cents; marrow, 17 cents 27 
Half pai! of jam, 50 cents; three tins of beans, 25 cents: 75 
Three tins beans, 30 cents; 6 pkgs Malta Vita, 90 cents 1 20 
Twenty-five pounds corn meal, $1; 49!bs. salt pork, $5 6 00 
One peck beans, 60 cents, '^k peck onions, 25 cents 85 
Twentj'-five pounds butter. $5.75; 201bs. gran, sugar, $1 6 75 
One gallon maple s^'rup, $1.20; bag of salt, 20 cents 1 40 
Pepper, 20 cents; 2 tins mustard, 50 cents 70 
One quart vinegar 15 
Beets, SO cents; 3 packages baking powder. 75 cents 1 05 
Two bottles of pickles, 70 cents; 4 doz. candles, 60 cents 1 30 
Six candle lanterns, $2.20; 6 bars soap, 30 cents 2 50 
Three pounds coffee, 80 cents; 31bs. tea, $1,50 2 30 
Ten tins of condensed milk 1 50 
One and one half dozen assorted soups ] 2 75 
Box of fruit, 60 cents; SOlbs. bacon, $5.40 S 00 
Plum puddings, $1.20; marmalade, 75 cents 1 95 
Fifty pounds sea biscuits, $3.25; lOlbs. prunes, $1 4 25 
$44 37 
The box of fruit — which" came to us by a happy error — 
proved to_ be a very welcome addition. I wor.ld recom- 
mend buying fruit in Montreal, Sault Ste Marie, or in the 
last city in which it can be done. A bag full of whole- 
wheat bread, each loaf done in oil paper, is a good thing 
10 take. It will last a week or two, and is a great feature. 
One always gets biscuits enough. 
iWe 1^94 ^ish for supper b^coti and corn meal frit- 
