“There iss no doubt,” remarked MacSweenie, as he surveyed the banks of the river, “that the place is no’ that bad, but in my opeenion the summer will be short, whatever, an’ the winter it will be long.”
“Ye may be sure that you are not far wrong if it’s like the rest o’ this country,” replied Mowat.
“There now, look at that,” cried MacSweenie, who was a sketcher, and an enthusiast in regard to scenery; “did ever you see a prettier spot than that, Tonal’? Just the place for a fort—a wee burn dancin’ doon the hull, wi’ a bit fa’ to turn a grindstone, an’ a long piece o’ flat land for the houses, an’ what a grand composeetion for a pictur’,—wi’ trees, gress, water, sky, an’ such light and shade! Man, it’s magneeficent!”
“I’m thinkin’ that it’ll be a bad job if that keg o’ screw-nails we forgot at our last camp is lost—”
“Hoot, man, never mind the screw-nails. We can easy send back for it. But, wow! there’s a far grander place we’re comin’ in sight of—an’—iss that an Indian tent I see?”
“Ay, an’ there’s more than wan tent,” said Mowat, giving his steering oar a sweep that sent the boat farther out into the stream, and enabled them better to see what lay beyond the bend of the river in front of them.
“Hold on, lads; stop pullin’!”
The men lay on their oars and turned round to look ahead. The view presented there was indeed a pleasant and inspiring one, though it was scarcely entitled to the appellation “magneeficent,” which MacSweenie applied to it.
The river at that place made a wide sweep on the right, round a low cliff which was crowned with luxuriant foliage. The stream opened out into something like a miniature lake, and the water was so calm that the cliff and its foliage made a clear dark reflection. The left bank was edged by a wide grass plateau some fifty yards wide, beyond which was a background of bushes and trees, with another “wee burn,” which doubtless suggested to MacSweenie the useful as well as the picturesque. The distance was closed by ground varied in form as well as in character, indicating that a stream of considerable size joined the Ukon at that point.
But that which interested the beholders most of all was a number of Indian wigwams, which were pitched on the grassy plateau above referred to.