ays in the forest, hunting and fishing. Thus, through the whole course
of the Winnipeg, from lake to lake, I could glean no tale or tidings of
the great Ogima or of his myriad warriors. It was quite dark when we
reached, on the evening of the 30th July, the northern edge of the Lake
of the Woods and paddled across its placid waters to the Hudson Bay
Company's post at the Rat Portage. An arrival of a canoe with six
strangers is no ordinary event at one of these remote posts which the
great fur company have built at long intervals over their immense
territory. Out came the denizens of a few Indian lodges, out came the
people of the fort and the clerk in charge of it. My first question was
about the Expedition, but here, as elsewhere, no tidings had been heard
of it. Other tidings were however forthcoming which struck terror into
the heart of Hope. Suspicious canoes had been seen for-some days past
amongst the many islands of the lake; strange men had come to the fort at
night, and strange fires had been seen on the islands-the French were out
on the lake. The officer in charge of the post was absent at the time of
my visit, but I had met him at Fort Alexander, and he had anticipated my
wants in a letter which I myself carried to his son. I now determined to
strain every effort to cross with rapidity the Lake of the Woods and
ascend the Rainy River to the next post of the Company, Fort Francis,
distant from Rat Portage about 1400 miles, for there I felt sure that I
must learn tidings of the Expedition and bring my long solitary journey
to a close. But the Lake of the Woods is an immense sheet of water lying
1000 feet above the sea level, and subject to violent gales which lash
its bosom into angry billows. To be detained upon some island,
storm-bound amidst the lake, %would never have answered, so I ordered a
large keeled boat to be got ready by midday it only required a few
trifling repairs of sail and oars, but a great feast had to be gone
through in which my pemmican and flour were destined to play a very
prominent part. As the word pemmican is one which may figure frequently
in these pages, a few words explanatory of it may be useful. Pemmican,
the favourite food of the Indian and the half-breed voyageur, can be made
from the flesh of any animal, but it is nearly altogether composed of
buffalo meat; the meat is first cut into slices, then dried either by
fire or in the sun, and then pounded or beaten out into a thick flak