Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/90

 *bosomed his trouble. He said that if he were a single man he would not feel so badly, but having a family dependent on him he could not run into such destruction as he now learned awaited us. Most of the men, excepting, perhaps, François, who cared for nothing, were equally affected, and it was with some difficulty we managed to reassure them. We told them that these Indians were a set of miserable liars, and were only trying to prevent us from going into their hunting grounds; that I had lived with the Eskimos for nearly two years, and had found them to be far better people than these Indians who were trying to deceive them. We referred them to Moberly, the untrustworthy and false, as a sample of their tribe, and at length persuaded them into disbelieving the stories.

On the morning of the 18th, accompanied by five native Indians, we arrived at our portage near the northern extremity of the lake, and about fifty miles from the rapids where we had entered it. The portage led, as we had been informed by the Indians, over the Height of Land to the northward. It was found to be a mile and a quarter long. Its northern end terminated on the shore of another large lake, the level of which was ascertained to be about fifty feet lower than Selwyn Lake. Separating the two lakes, rocky hills rose to elevations of two or three hundred feet (fourteen or fifteen hundred feet above sea level), and between them wound the trail, which was comparatively level and easy. With the help of the natives, our stuff, already considerably reduced, was soon portaged, and the canoes again launched and loaded. Before these operations