Half a mile past heavy rapids, at the second
of which the river drops fifty feet to flow between high, sandy
banks, the hills on either side standing back from the river, their
broken faces red with a coating of iron rust. The intervening
spaces were strewn with boulders of unusual size.
Fresh caribou tracks, the only ones seen since leaving the head of
Long Lake, were found on the first portage, and on the second I
gathered my first moss berries. A heavy shower passed late in the
afternoon and the sky remained overcast; but we were not delayed,
and towards evening arrived at the point, twenty miles below
Thousand Island Expansion, where a large tributary comes in from
the west, and the George River turns abruptly northward among the
higher hills.
The proposal to go into camp had already been made when George
discovered some ptarmigan high up the bank. There was a brisk hunt
and eleven were taken. So again we supped on ptarmigan that night.
I took mine in my tent on account of the mosquitoes, which were so
thick that, as George expressed it, it was like walking in a
snowstorm to move about outside.
CHAPTER XVI
THE BARREN GROUND PEOPLE
On Sunday morning, August 20th, I awoke in a state of expectancy.
We had slept three times since leaving the Montagnais camp, and
unless the Barren Grounds People were not now in their accustomed
camping place, we ought to see them before night. Many thoughts
came of how greatly Mr. Hubbard had wished to see them, and what a
privilege he would have thought it to be able to visit them.
It seemed this morning as if something unusual must happen. It was
as if we were coming into a hidden country. From where the river
turned into the hills it flowed for more than a mile northward
through what was like a great magnificent corridor, leading to
something larger beyond.
When Joe and Gilbert, who were usually the first to get off,
slipped away down the river, I realized how swift flowing the water
must be. It looked still as glass and very dark, almost black.
The quiet surface was disturbed only by the jumping of the fish.
We saw the canoe push off and turned to put a few last touches to
the loading of our own. When we looked again they were already far
away. Soon, however, we had caught them up and together the two
canoes ran out into the widening of the river. Here it bent a
little to the northeast, but two miles farther on it again bore
away to the north. In the distance we could see the mountain tops
standing far apart and knew that there, between them, a lake must
lie.
