doubtedly soon should come upon lakes and other good water that
would carry us through; and the discoveries of the scouting trip buoyed
up our spirits wonderfully.

On Monday morning (July 20) George took an axe and cut us a portage
route from our camp through a swamp a mile and a half to the foot of a
hill. This route we covered three times. It was impossible for one
man alone to carry the canoe through the swamp, and in addition to it
and the firearms we had at this period to transport about five hundred
pounds of baggage made up into packs of about seventy-five pounds each.
At first Hubbard and I found seventy-five pounds a pretty good load to
carry, and neither of us could get even that on his back without help
from George; but later on we learned to back and carry with comparative
ease a hundred pounds or more. In packing we never used either
shoulder or chest straps, relying solely upon the head strap, which
passes across the forehead.

When, after much groaning and sweating, we finally arrived with all of
our outfit at the foot of the hill, it took the combined efforts of all
three of us to get the canoe to the top, whence we followed an old
caribou trail for a mile along the summit, camping just above the
smooth water that Hubbard and George had seen on Sunday. We were all
completely exhausted when we reached camp. While staggering along with
the canoe a hundred yards from the tent, I became so weak that I
suddenly sank to the ground and the others had to come to my rescue and
bring in the canoe. But the night was cool and starry, and we sat long
by our fire and talked and drank pea soup and tea, and when it came
time for us to turn in to our soft bed of fragrant spruce boughs, our
troubles had been quite forgotten.

The good water that Hubbard and George thought was two miles long
shortened down, when we actually came to it the next morning, to less
than half a mile, affording us only a meagre opportunity to make use of
the canoe. For a little distance we again bucked the rapids, and then
left the river for a rough portage of a mile and a half over the hills
on the shore. Again at night we were exhausted, but again we had a
fine camp on a point overlooking the river. The crisp air came laden
with the perfume of spruce and balsam. On the surrounding hills the
fir trees were darkly silhouetted against the sky, radiant with its
myriads of stars. The roar of the river could be heard dying away into
a me