Temporary, if they would remain;
but after taking a few pictures, for which they posed easily and
without sign of self-consciousness, I bade them farewell and we
returned to the canoes. They did not accompany us to the landing.
With the prospect of so long a journey before me I had to resist
the impulse to share my provisions with them; but before we left,
George carried a few ounces of tea up the hill. There was a merry
chase as each tried to possess herself of the treasure. They were
like children in their delight. A pair of moccasins was offered in
return; but the gift of tea was too slight and they were not
accepted. Soon we were slipping slowly away towards the river with
an occasional glance back to the group on the hill. When a few
rods from shore, Job, who had the faculty of making his English
irresistibly funny whenever he chose, stood up in the stern of the
canoe, and taking off his hat to them with a very elaborate bow
called, "Good-bye, good-bye, my lady."
The directions we had received enabled us to find the river without
difficulty, and passing down through a succession of small
expansions with low, swampy shores where the wood growth was almost
altogether tamarack, we camped in the evening ten miles below
Resolution Lake, at the point where the river drops down through
three rocky gorges to flow with strong, swift current in a distinct
valley.
The lakes of the upper country were here left behind, and when we
resumed our journey the following morning it was to be carried
miles on a current in which the paddles were needed only for
steering. Stretches of quiet water were succeeded by boisterous
rapids, and sometimes I walked to lighten the canoe where the rapid
was shallow. Tributaries entered on either hand, the river
increased in force and volume, and when we halted for lunch some
ten miles below Canyon Camp, the George had come to be a really
great river.
We were getting down to the hills now and the country, which had
been burned over, was exceedingly barren and desolate. On the
slopes, which had been wooded, the grey and blackened tree trunks
were still standing like armies of skeletons, and through their
ranks the hills of everlasting rock showed grey and stern, stripped
even of their covering of reindeer moss. Heavy showers passed
during the day, but it was otherwise beautiful and we made good
progress. When we camped that evening below Thousand Island
Expansion it was with twenty-two miles to our credit.
It seemed very fine to have another good day's work behind and I
felt less heavy hearted. Some thinking had convinced me that the
two months' estimate for the journey to Ungava was far from
correct; but I still feared it was useless to entertain hope of
being in time for the ship.
