gable part of the river. The men with
the baggage then coming up, we entered the thicket single file, and were
conducted by this path, in a very short time, to the river, on the banks
of which were visible the traces of an old camping ground. The night was
coming on; and soon after, the canoes arrived, to our great
satisfaction; for we had begun to fear that they had already passed. The
splashing of their paddles was a welcome sound, and we who had been wise
enough to keep behind, all encamped together.

Very early on the 8th, I set out accompanied by one of the hunters, in
quest of Messrs. D. Stuart, Clarke and Decoigne, who had gone on ahead,
the night previous. I soon found MM. Clarke and M'Gillis encamped on the
shore of the lake. The canoes presently arrived and we embarked; MM.
Stuart and Decoigne rejoined us shortly after, and informed us that they
had bivouacked on the shore of Lac _Puant_, or Stinking lake, a pond
situated about twelve miles E.N.E. from the lake we were now entering.
Finding ourselves thus reunited, we traversed the latter, which is about
eighteen miles in circuit, and has very pretty shores. We encamped, very
early, on an island, in order to use old Nadeau's fishing net. I visited
it that evening and brought back three carp and two water-hens. We left
it set all night, and the next morning found in it twenty white-fish.
Leaving camp at an early hour, we gained the entrance of a small stream
that descends between some hills of moderate elevation, and there
stopped to breakfast. I found the white-fish more delicious in flavor,
even than the salmon. We had again to foot it, following the bank of
this little stream. It was a painful task, as we were obliged to open a
path through thick underbrush, in the midst of a rain that lasted all
day and kept us drenched. Two men being left in each canoe, conveyed
them up the river about thirty miles, as far as Long lake--a narrow
pond, on the margin of which we spent the night.

On the 10th, we got through this lakelet, and entered another small
stream, which it was necessary to navigate in the same manner as the
preceding, and which conducted us to Bridge lake. The latter received
its name from a sort of bridge or causeway, formed at its southern
extremity, and which is nothing more than a huge beaver dam. We found
here a lodge, where were a young man and two women, who had charge of
some horses appertaining to one of the Hudson's Bay trading houses. We
b