During the evening most of the Indians paddled across to where we were, and from some of them sketch-maps and useful information were obtained; but their attention was chiefly devoted to filling the men with stories of the fearful dangers and certain disasters which we would encounter should we attempt to descend the Telzoa River. They said we would meet with great impassable canyons, and that the country through which it flowed was inhabited by savage tribes of Eskimos, who would undoubtedly eat us. These and similar stories produced a deep impression on the minds of some of our men, and might have given rise to serious trouble or even the disorganizing of the whole party. Jim went to my brother, and with a sad face unbosomed 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 were completed, realizing the fact that we had now reached a summit of the continent, it seemed to me a most suitable place to leave the emblem of our country. Selecting, therefore, a tall, straight tamarack, and providing myself with bunting and hatchet, I climbed to the top of the tree and there nailed securely the flag of Canada. As I descended, I lopped off the branches and thus made of the tree an excellent flag-pole.
SCOTCH-CREE HALF-BREED.
CHAPTER VI.
THE HOME OF THE REINDEER.
From Lake Athabasca to the Height of Land our course had constantly been up stream, but from this point to the sea the way must ever be with the current. Having launched our little fleet in the lake on the north side of the watershed, the new stage of the journey was begun with a strong, fair breeze.
The lake is a large one, and has been named Daly Lake—after the Hon. T. M. Daly, then Minister of the Interior for Canada. Towards the centre of it was discovered a peninsula, which is connected with the west shore only by a very narrow neck of land, across which a portage was made. For a day and a half we were delayed here by a gale, the most severe we had so far encountered. So wild was the lake during this storm that water-spouts were whirled up from its billows and carried along in great vertical columns for considerable distances.
Certain remarkable physical features in the shape of great sand “Kames,” or high ridges, were also observed at this locality. They were composed of clear sand and gravel, were sixty or seventy feet in height, trended in a north-easterly and south-westerly direction, were quite narrow on top, and so level and uniform that they might well be taken to be the remains of the embankments of ancient railways. Geologists, however, have another theory accounting for their origin, namely, that they were formed by fissures or splits in the ancient glaciers.
On the sheltered southerly slopes of these ridges many new varieties of plants were found, and some others which had been collected farther south were here seen for the last time on the journey. Notable among the latter was the aspen, of which several stunted, gnarled specimens were observed. When the storm had abated sufficiently the traverse of the lake shore was resumed, when other notable features appeared.