CHAPTER VII.
August 1st.—My little party quitted Boat Extreme on foot at 8 A.M. Our provisions consisted of pemican and flour; besides which, each man carried his blanket, spare shoes, gun, and ammunition. A single kettle and a couple of axes sufficed for us all; and a few trinkets were added for the natives. I carried a sextant and artificial horizon; and one man was charged with a canvass canoe, stretched on its wooden frame, which proved not the least important part of our arrangements. The whole amounted to forty or fifty pounds per man—about a quarter of the weight carried by the voyageurs across the portages of the interior. The day was dark and dismal in the extreme, a cutting north wind bearing on its wings a fog that hid every object at the distance of a hundred yards. We were, therefore, under the necessity of closely following the coast-line,
