Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/78

 The next day, Sunday, we spent in camp at the foot of a wild and beautiful cataract. The weather was warm, and the black flies and mosquitos swarmed in the woods and about camp so thickly that we could nowhere escape from their ceaseless hum and dreaded bite. In this neighborhood they did not appear to have the customary respect for the smudge. Dense smoke was made about camp, but the flies only appeared to revel in it.

At camp the men were variously employed. A fishing net had been put out in an eddy at the foot of the rapids the previous night, and when taken up in the morning some of the finest fish I have ever seen were found in it. Two salmon trout measured three feet one inch and three feet two inches in length respectively, and the white fish, of which there were a large number, ranged in weight from six to ten pounds. I may add, in deference to a suspicion which statements of this nature sometimes give rise to, that these facts can be amply verified. Towards evening we looked for the return of the four natives who had promised us their assistance, but they came not.

Following this day of rest came one of most laborious, exhausting work. Our camp was not only at the foot of a beautiful fall, but in consequence was at the lower end of a rough, rocky portage, found to be three miles in length, and the canoes were all heavily loaded, containing some four thousand pounds of cargo to be transported. One of our men, Corrigal, was unfortunately laid up for the time with an ugly gash in the knee, so we had only five packers; but being fresh and in high spirits they went at their work with a rush,