We continued our journey on the 4th, sometimes seated in our canoes, sometimes marching along the river on foot, and encamped in the evening, excessively fatigued.
{311} CHAPTER XXV
Red Deer Lake—Antoine Déjarlais—Beaver River—N.
Nadeau—Moose River—Bridge Lake—Saskatchawine
River—Fort Vermilion—Mr. Hallet—Trading-Houses—Beautiful
Country—Reflections.
The 5th of June brought us to the beautiful sheet of
water called Red Deer lake, irregular in shape, dotted with
islands, and about forty miles in length by thirty in its
greatest width. We met, about the middle of it, a small
canoe conducted by two young women. They were searching
for gulls' and ducks' eggs on the islands, this being
the season of laying for those aquatics. They told us
that their father was not far distant from the place where
we met them. In fact, we presently saw him appear in a
canoe with his two boys, rounding a little isle. We joined
him, and learned that his name was {312} Antoine Déjarlais;
that he had been a guide in the services of the Northwest
Company, but had left them since 1805.[180] On being
made acquainted with our need of provisions, he offered
us a great quantity of eggs, and made one of our men embark
with his two daughters in their little canoe, to seek
some more substantial supplies at his cabin, on the other
side of the lake. He himself accompanied us as far as
a portage of about twenty-five yards formed at the outlet
of the lake by a Beaver dam. Having performed the
portage, and passed a small pond or marsh, we encamped
