Volume 1

THE TRAVERSE OF RAINY LAKE.
I9
put ashore. We passed the rest of the day on an island,
where we found plenty of ripe hurtleberries.
Au^. 1st. The wind continued strong ahead. At ten
o'clock a canoe arrived from the Saskatchewan with six
Indians, on their way to Montreal, with a few packs of furs
of their own dressing. By this opportunity, the last this
season, I once more wrote to my friends in Canada. At
three o'clock they passed on. The wind now abating a
little,
we embarked, and with great difficulty reached Petit
Detroit" some time after dark. Just at this moment a
black thunder-storm was collecting ; we
could not land, as
a reef of rocks prevented approach to the shore ; and,
before we could reach a proper landing, the storm burst
upon us, with thunder, lightning, rain, and a terrible
squall from the W. We got under the lee of a large stone,
where, all hands clinging to it, with much trouble we kept
our canoes from being blown out upon the lake, where we
must inevitably have perished. The thunder and lightning
were horrid ;
every flash served but to show us our danger,
and instantly left us in utter darkness. Toward day the
storm abated, but we did not think proper to
large stone till
daybreak.
stir from our
Ati£: 2d. This morning we had fine weather, when we
put ashore to refresh ourselves after our night's fatigue.
At ten o'clock we embarked, and having passed through the
lake came to the entrance of Riviere du Lac la Pluie, down
which we went to Chaudiere portage, which is about 200
paces. We embarked below this and proceeded to the fort
here nothing to do, and of a long extension, nearly E. and W., subdivided into
two parts at the Brule Narrows. The course is practically the same as the international
boundary through these two last-named parts, from main inlet to main
outlet of the lake, and in a direction but little N. of W. The air-line distance
we go is about 34 m. ; the actual distance is perhaps 40 m. , as we wind through
several straits and among many of the islands with which the lake is for the most
part crowded ; still the course is on the whole pretty direct.
"^^
This " little strait " is apparently the Brule Narrows, already mentioned as
separating the easternmost extension of Rainy I. from the main central portion
yet to be traversed.