e edge of the lake trended in that direction. Their usual
plan, as already stated, was to keep out in the lake far enough to shun
the numerous indentations of the shore, yet not so far as to endanger
their little craft when the wind was high. At night they always landed,
either upon some point or on an island. Sometimes the wind blew "dead
ahead," and then their day's journey would be only a few miles. When
the wind was favourable they made good progress, using the skin of the
wapiti for a sail. On one of these days they reckoned a distance of
over forty miles from camp to camp. It was their custom always to lie
by on Sunday, for our young voyageurs were Christians. They had done so
on their former expedition across the Southern prairies, and they had
found the practice to their advantage in a physical as well as a moral
sense. They required the rest thus obtained; besides, a general
cleaning up is necessary, at least, once every week. Sunday was also a
day of feasting with them. They had more time to devote to culinary
operations, and the _cuisine_ of that day was always the most varied of
the week. Any extra delicacy obtained by the rifle on previous days,
was usually reserved for the Sunday's dinner. On the first Sunday after
entering Lake Winnipeg the "camp" chanced to be upon an island. It was
a small island, of only a few acres in extent. It lay near the shore,
and was well wooded over its whole surface with trees of many different
kinds. Indeed, islands in a large lake usually have a great variety of
trees, as the seeds of all those sorts that grow around the shores are
carried thither by the waves, or in the crops of the numerous birds that
flit over its waters. But as the island in question lay in a lake,
whose shores exhibited such a varied geology, it was natural the
vegetation of the island itself should be varied. And, in truth; it was
so. There were upon it, down by the water's edge, willows and
cottonwoods (_Populus angulata_), the characteristic _sylva_ of the
prairie land; there were birches and sugar-maples (_Acer saccharinum_);
and upon some higher ground, near the centre, appeared several species
that belonged more to the primitive formations that bounded the lake on
the east. These were pines and spruces, the juniper, and tamarack or
American larch (_Laryx Americana_); and among others could be
distinguished the dark cone-shaped forms of the red cedar-trees. Among
the low bushes an