is nothing else in the world that bears to it the slightest resemblance. -Can I say any thing that Will give the reader an idea of its sufficing quality?  Yes, I think I can.  A dog that will eat from four to six pounds of raw fish a day when sleighing, will only devour two pounds:  of pemmican, if he be fed upon that food; yet I have seen Indians and half-breeds eat four pounds of it in a single day-but this is anticipating.  Pemmican can be prepared in many ways, and it is not easy to decide which method is the least objectionable.  There is rubeiboo and richot, and pemmican plain and pemmican raw, this last method being the one most in vogue amongst voyageurs; but the richot, to me, seemed the best; mixed with a little flour and fried in a pan, pemmican in this form can be eaten, provided the appetite be sharp and there is nothing else to be had—­this last consideration is, however, of importance.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

The Expedition—­The Lake of the Woods—­A Night Alarm—­A close Shave—­Rainy River—­A Night Paddle—­Fort Francis—­A Meeting—­The Officer commanding the Expedition—­The Rank and File—­The 60th Rifles—­A Windigo—­Ojibbeway Bravery—­Canadian Volunteers.

The feast having been concluded (I believe it had gone on all night, and was protracted far into the morning), the sails and oars were suddenly reported ready, and about midday on the 31st July we stood away from the Portages du Rat into the Lake of the Woods.  I had added another man to my crew, which now numbered seven hands, the last accession was a French half-breed, named Morrisseau.  Thomas Hope had possessed himself of a flint gun, with which he was to do desperate things should we fall in with the French scouts upon the lake.  The boat in which I now found myself was a large, roomy craft, capable of carrying about three tons of freight; it had a single tall mast carrying a large square lug-sail, and also possessed of powerful sweeps, which were worked by the men in standing positions, the rise of the oar after each stroke making the oarsman sink back upon the thwarts only to resume again his upright attitude for the next dip of the heavy sweep.

This is the regular Hudson Bay Mackinaw boat, used for the carrying trade of the great Fur Company on every river from the Bay of Hudson to the Polar Ocean.  It looks a big, heavy, lumbering affair, but it can sail well before a wind, and will do good work with the oars too.

That portion of the Lake of the Woods through which we now steered our way was a perfect maze and network of island and narrow channel; a light breeze from the north favoured us, and we passed gently along the rocky islet shores through unruffled water.  In all directions there opened out innumerable channels, some narrow and winding, others straight and open, but all lying’-between shores clothed with a rich and luxuriant vegetation; shores that curved and twisted into mimic bays and tiny promontories,