away from their young, by coming very
near the canoe. The young loons made frequent dives, but we succeeded
in catching one of them. Finally, however, we restored it to its
parents, and when the loon family was re-united there was great
rejoicing in the household. In the pool at the foot of the last rapid
we spent an hour fishing, and caught eighty-one trout, averaging,
perhaps, a half-pound each. Upon our return to camp in the evening we
dressed our catch and hung the fish to dry over a slow, smoky fire.

The river having come to an end, our only course now was to cross the
mountains, and on Friday (August 21), with "Michikamau or Bust!" for
our slogan, we began our portage along the stream that flowed through
the pass near our camp. A heavy rain was falling. During the first
part of the day, in the course of which we crossed three small ponds,
the travelling was fairly good; but during the latter part it was
exceedingly rough and difficult. We pitched our tent that night on the
divide; in other words, we had reached the place where small streams
flowed both east and west.

The cold rain continued when we broke camp the next morning (Saturday,
August 22). For a time we again encountered rough work, forcing a
passage over rocks and through thick brush and scrambling down high
banks, and then, as we neared the end of the pass, the portage became
less difficult. Before noon we came upon a lake of considerable size
and unmistakable signs that in directing our course through the pass we
had kept upon the old Indian trail. On the edge of the lake--we shall
call it Lake Hope--trees had been blazed to make plain the exact point
where the portage trail left the water, and near this place were sweat
holes where the medicine men had given baths to the sick. Much drift
wood showing axe cuttings was on the shore, and we picked up an old
canoe paddle of Indian make. All this led us to believe we were on
waters connected directly with Lake Michikamau (which was the fact),
and we thought that possibly we had reached a deep bay said to extend
from the main body of the lake some thirty miles in a southeasterly
direction.

Where we launched our canoe the mountain pass was very narrow, and on
the southerly side, rising almost perpendicularly from the water to a
height of eight or nine hundred feet, stood a hill of absolutely bare
rock. The wind was blowing the rain in sheets over its face, and,
despite the wet and chill, w