1944-1945 Year Book - the Gatineau Valley Historical Society

72
GIFTS
COSTUME
JEWELRY
LINEN
CHINA WARE
·--·
SILK
......
CLOISONNE
EMBROIDERIES
&
CARViNGS
GIFTS THAT ARE
FROM THE FAR EAST
BROUGHT NEAR
·--·
TO YOU
at
167 Sparks St.
CHINESE GIFT SHOP
Ottawa Ski Club Year Book 1944-45
Major Hancock (British Army,
· retired) and his good wife.
Even had I been unfamiliar
with the terrain, I could have
easily found the lodge, for the
air was filled with the grating
of saws and the piercing ring of
hammers. Parking my bike, I
followed the path to the lodge.
Bill and six of his disciples were
. working with a speed that would
have shocked the local union
officials; they wore only bathing
trunks or shorts and running
shoes, and were as brown as
Indians. ·
Being afraid that Bill would
hand me a saw or a hammer (to
which instruments I am distinctly
.allergic), I left .the lodge
and proceeded down the valley,
where the pine-and-juniper
scented air gave way to the dank
smell of ferns and bracken .
Suddenly the trees parted
and I had my first view of Pink
Lake in summer-time! It 'lay
translucent in an amphitheatre
of wooded hills and towering,
precipitous cliffs of solid rock.
The high bank of the opposite
shore reared up majestically in
the afternoon sun . . . in the
rocky wall the white trunks of
the birches and poplars stood
out vividly among the dark
green of the pines and the lighter
green of the cedars. The
water was clear as crystal and
the entire lake was ringed with
low ledges of rock that in places
were so smooth and sheer that
they looked like man-made, retaining
walls of cement.
When I got back to the lodge
the boys had finished for the
afternoon and were preparing
to go for a swim. One of them
lent me a pair of trunks, so I