Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/372

 We continued our journey on the 4th, sometimes seated in our canoes, sometimes marching along the river on foot, and encamped in the evening, excessively fatigued.

{311} CHAPTER XXV

Red Deer Lake—Antoine Déjarlais—Beaver River—N. Nadeau—Moose River—Bridge Lake—Saskatchawine River—Fort Vermilion—Mr. Hallet—Trading-Houses—Beautiful Country—Reflections.

The 5th of June brought us to the beautiful sheet of water called Red Deer lake, irregular in shape, dotted with islands, and about forty miles in length by thirty in its greatest width. We met, about the middle of it, a small canoe conducted by two young women. They were searching for gulls' and ducks' eggs on the islands, this being the season of laying for those aquatics. They told us that their father was not far distant from the place where we met them. In fact, we presently saw him appear in a canoe with his two boys, rounding a little isle. We joined him, and learned that his name was {312} Antoine Déjarlais; that he had been a guide in the services of the Northwest Company, but had left them since 1805.[180] On being made acquainted with our need of provisions, he offered us a great quantity of eggs, and made one of our men embark with his two daughters in their little canoe, to seek some more substantial supplies at his cabin, on the other side of the lake. He himself accompanied us as far as a portage of about twenty-five yards formed at the outlet of the lake by a Beaver dam. Having performed the portage, and passed a small pond or marsh, we encamped