Читать книгу Arctic Searching Expedition (Sir John Richardson) - comprehensive & illustrated - (Literary Thoughts Edition) онлайн

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Embarking at daylight on the 27th, we crossed the remainder of the lake, being about fourteen miles, and entered the Methy River, which we found to our satisfaction higher than usual; as in so shallow a stream the navigation is very tedious in dry seasons. The watermarks on the trees skirting the river showed that the water had fallen at least five feet, since the spring floods. The moschetoes are more numerous in seasons of high water, and this year was no exception to the general rule.

At the Rapid of the Tomb (La Cimetiere) several pitch or red pines (Pinus resinosa) grow intermixed with black spruces, one of them being a good-sized tree. This is the most northerly situation in which I saw this pine, and the voyagers believe that it does not grow higher than the River Winipeg.

An Indian, who has built a house at the mouth of the river, keeps fifteen or twenty horses, which he lets to the Company's men on Methy Portage, the charge being "a skin," or four shillings, for carrying over a piece of goods or furs weighing ninety pounds. From him we received the very unpleasant intelligence, that not only had his horses died of murrain last autumn, but that all the Company's stock employed on the portage had likewise perished. This calamity foreboded a detention of seven or eight days longer on the portage than we expected, and a consequent reduction of the limited time we had calculated upon for our sea-voyage. I had used every exertion to reach the sea-coast some days before the appointed time, expecting to be able to examine Wollaston's Land this season;—this hope was now almost extinguished. Another stock of horses had been ordered from the Saskatchewan, but they were not likely to arrive till the summer was well advanced.