information about its habits. Norman knew the animal as one of the most
common in the "trade"; and in addition to what we have recorded, also
related many adventures and stories current among the voyageurs, in
which this creature figures in quite as fanciful a manner as he does in
the works either of Olaus Magnus, or Count de Buffon.

CHAPTER XV.

A GRAND SUNDAY DINNER.

After remaining a day at their first camp on the lake, our voyageurs
continued their journey. Their course lay a little to the west of north,
as the 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.

Among the low bushes and shrubs there w