nd had things
piled on to us, until nothing more would stick. Some of the backwoodsmen
carry incredible masses of stuff, and their lore is full of tales which
no one could be expected to believe. Our men did not hesitate to take
two hundred and fifty pounds over short portages, which were very rough
and stony, though they all said if they slipped they expected to break a
leg. This is largely due to the tump-line, which is laid over the head,
while persons unused to it must have shoulder-straps in addition, which
are not as good, because the "breastbone," so called, is not strong
enough.

[Illustration: 47 THE INDIANS USED 'SETTING-POLES']

We were getting day by day farther into "the beyond." There were no
traces here of the hand of man. Only Jimmie knew the way--it was his
trapping-ground. Only once did we encounter people. We were blown into a
little board dock, on a gray day, with the waves piling up behind us,
and made a difficult landing. Here were a few tiny log houses--an
outpost of the Hudson Bay Company. We renewed our stock of provisions,
after laborious trading with the stagnated people who live in the lonely
place. There was nothing to sell us but a few of the most common
necessities; however, we needed only potatoes and sugar. This was
Jimmie's home. Here we saw his poor old mother, who was being tossed
about in the smallest of canoes as she drew her nets. Jimmie's father
had gone on a hunting expedition and had never come back. Some day
Jimmie's old mother will go out on the wild lake to tend her nets, and
she will not come back. Some time Jimmie too will not return--for this
Indian struggle with nature is appalling in its fierceness.

There was a dance at the post, which the boys attended, going by canoe
at night, and they came back early in the morning, with much giggling at
their gallantries.

The loneliness of this forest life is positively discouraging to think
about. What the long winters must be in the little cabins I cannot
imagine, and I fear the traders must be all avarice, or have none at
all; for there can certainly be absolutely no intellectual life. There
is undoubtedly work, but not one single problem concerning it. The
Indian hunters do fairly well in a financial way, though their lives are
beset with weakening hardships and constant danger. Their meagre diet
wears out their constitutions, and they are subject to disease. The
simplicity of their minds makes it very difficult to see into