Finding great quantities of moss in the neighborhood, several large piles of it were collected, tied up into bundles and taken back with us to camp for fuel. Two varieties of this moss fuel were commonly found growing upon the stony hill-tops, the one, reindeer moss (lichen rangiferinus), being almost white, and the other, black and wiry looking, and the better fuel of the two. Either variety, of course, had to be dry in order to burn, and that was a condition in which we seldom found it, as incessant wet weather had been experienced since entering the Barren Grounds.
When dry moss was found, therefore, it was our custom to keep the kettles boiling all or most of the night, in order to cook enough meat to supply camp for several days.
FRENCH-CREE HALF-BREED.
CHAPTER VIII.
ON THE LOWER TELZOA.
Until the evening of the 15th of August, we paddled on through varied scenes of ice and open water, following the barren shore-line in search of the outlet of Tobaunt Lake.
In addition to game already mentioned, two young broods of wild geese, not yet able to fly, were seen. It is commonly said that the breeding place of the wild goose has never been discovered, but here, at any rate, was the breeding place of these.
On the morning of the 16th we were early aroused by the voice of a howling gale and the pelting rain, which was freely beating through our flapping tents. Of these, our meagre shelters, some of the guys were broken, and the tent occupied by my brother and myself was only prevented from being blown away by the unpleasant performance of scrambling out in the darkness, exposing ourselves to the piercing wind and driving rain, and securing it with new ropes and piles of stones. Upon this occasion, also, blankets and clothing not yet dry since the last wetting were again saturated. Everything in the way of instruments, photographic supplies, note books, etc., were piled together at one side of the tent and well covered by a rubber sheet, and at the other side we made ourselves as comfortable as possible, which was in truth pretty miserable.