ng just low enough to be exhilarating and
bracing. Game and fish were abundant, and two black bears were
killed by the party.]

The declining sun of August 20 beheld our small craft glide into the
smooth waters of Lake Wanakopow. The first view of the lake was
beautiful, and most grateful to our eyes after the long struggle with
the rapids. Even Geoffrey and John, usually indifferent to scenic
effects, could not conceal their admiration as we glided by towering
cliffs and wooded headlands, and beheld at intervals cascades leaping
from the rocks into the lake, their silvery outlines glistening in the
sun and contrasting distinctly with the environment of dark evergreen
foliage. This romantic sheet of water stretches in a northeasterly and
southwesterly direction a distance of about thirty-five miles, and has
an elevation above sea-level, according to my aneroid observations, of
four hundred and sixty-two feet. Low mountains of granite and gneiss
rise on both sides, and the average width of the lake is less than one
mile. A sounding taken near the middle showed a depth of four hundred
and six feet. This narrow elevated basin is probably of glacial origin,
the presence of great numbers of boulders and the rounded appearance of
the hill summits pointing to a period of ice movement.

[They finally reached a point beyond the previously stated
location of the falls, and on August 27 attained the head of
boat navigation in a wide, shallow rapid.]

While at the Northwest River Post we had learned from a reliable Indian
that the old trail, long disused, led from this point on the river to a
chain of lakes on the table-land. By following these lakes and crossing
the intervening "carries," the rapid water which extends for fifteen
miles below the Falls could be circumvented, and the traveller brought
finally to the waters of the Grand River, many miles above the Grand
Falls. Our plan was to follow this old trail for several days, and then
to leave the canoe and strike across country in a direction which we
hoped would bring us again to the river in the vicinity of the Falls.
It was deemed best to follow this circuitous canoe route rather than to
attempt to follow the banks of the river on foot, in which case
everything would have to be carried on our backs through dense forests
for many miles.

After a long search the old trail was found, and, leaving Geoffrey in
charge of the main camp on the river, th