Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/81

 and seek rest where alone it could be found, beneath our mosquito awnings at camp.

By the way, there is an Indian tradition which says that it was on these very portages that the Great Spirit first made these black flies, and our experience, we thought, would tend to bear out that belief.

INDIAN RAFTS LOADED WITH VENISON.

On the afternoon of the 7th we started out in a northeasterly direction, following the shore of Black Lake (explored by my brother in 1892) for a distance of about sixteen miles, until we reached the hunting trail, of which he had been informed by the Indians, leading away to the northward. This place until now had been our objective point, and the way to it was known; but beyond this point we knew nothing of the road, or of the country through which it would lead us, excepting for the first few days' travel, to which the Indians' description, quoted at the beginning of this narrative, would apply. From this point northward, for a distance of one hundred miles, or thereabouts, we had expected to be guided by that old humbug Moberly, but he having deserted us we were now dependent on our own resources.