Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/63

 The grey mists of morning were curling up its rugged sides when it first broke gratefully on our sight. At its base issue several saline springs, where the freemen manufacture salt, for sale to the Company at Norway-house. The oak region terminates here; but the shores of the lake are tolerably well clothed with elm, poplar, and a few ash, birch, and pine trees. This is particularly the case with Red Deer Island, which is large, and affords shelter to many of the fleet and graceful animals from which it derives its name. As we approached it, on the 11th, we perceived a red fox sporting upon the beach. He stood for a while looking at us, till, the dogs getting scent of him, off they went, cariole, sledges, and all, in full chase, utterly regardless of their drivers' cries; but reynard was unencumbered, and soon plunged into the thickest of the wood, where the sledges became entangled, and the laughable pursuit ceased. Crossing an arm of Duck Bay, twenty miles broad, where the ice, having become fixed in a gale of wind, was piled up in high sharp ridges, we encamped in a wood of pines, the first we had yet met with. Their evergreen branches form the favourite bed of the winter voyager—a comfort we did not fail to enjoy. A river that empties itself into this bay, and bears the same name, is much resorted to by