e calm
water, a yard or two from shore, with the exception of the guide's boat,
the stern of which still rested on the sand awaiting Mr Park.

"Who does this belong to?" shouted that gentleman, holding up a cloth
cap, part of which was of a mottled brown and part deep blue.

Harry instantly tore the covering from his head, and discovered that
among his numerous mistakes he had put on the head-dress of one of the
Indians who had brought him to the camp. To do him justice, the cap was
not unlike his own, excepting that it was a little more mottled and
dirty in colour, besides being decorated with a gaudy but very much
crushed and broken feather.

"You had better change with our friend here, I think," said Mr Park,
grinning from ear to ear, as he tossed the cap to its owner, while Harry
handed the other to the Indian, amid the laughter of the crew.

"Never mind, boy," added Mr Park, in an encouraging tone; "you'll make
a voyageur yet.--Now then, lads, give way;" and with a nod to the
Indians, who stood on the shore watching their departure, the trader
sprang into the boat and took his place beside the two boys.

"Ho! sing, mes garcons," cried the guide, seizing the massive sweep and
directing the boat out to sea.

At this part of the lake there occurs a deep bay or inlet, to save
rounding which travellers usually strike straight across from point to
point, making what is called in voyageur parlance a _traverse_. These
traverses are subjects of considerable anxiety and frequently of delay
to travellers, being sometimes of considerable extent, varying from four
to five, and in such immense seas as Lake Superior to fourteen miles.
With boats, indeed, there is little to fear, as the inland craft of the
fur-traders can stand a heavy sea, and often ride out a pretty severe
storm; but it is far otherwise with the bark canoes that are often used
in travelling. These frail craft can stand very little sea--their
frames being made of thin, flat slips of wood and sheets of bark, not
more than a quarter of an inch thick, which are sewed together with the
fibrous roots of the pine (called by the natives _wattape_), and
rendered water-tight by means of melted gum. Although light and
buoyant, therefore, and extremely useful in a country where portages are
numerous, they require very tender usage; and when a traverse has to be
made, the guides have always a grave consultation, with some of the most
sagacious among the men, as to