took out Nature's returns--the Indian's output--ever since the
trade first penetrated these endless solitudes.

The forest scenery now became very striking; primeval masses of
poplar and birch foliage, which spread away and upward in smoothest
slopes, like vast lawns, studded with the sombre green of the pine
tops which towered above them. Here and there the bends of the
river crossed at such angles as to enclose a lake-like expanse
of water. The river also took a fine colouring from its tributaries,
a sort of greenish-yellow tinge, and now became flecked with
bubbles and thin foam, so that we feared the freshet, which would
have been disastrous.

At mid-day we reached Shoal Island--Pakwáo Ministic--and here the
poles were got out and the trackers took the middle of the river
for nearly a mile, until deep water was reached. Placer miners
had evidently been at work here, but with poor results, we
were told. Below Baptiste Creek, however, the yield had been
satisfactory, and several miners had made from $2.00 to $2.50 a
day over their living expenses. Above the Baptiste there was
nothing doing; indeed, we did not pass a single miner at work
on the whole route, and it was the best time for their work.
The gold is flocculent, its source as mysterious as that of the
Saskatchewan, if the theory that the latter was washed out of
the Selkirks before the upheaval of the Rockies is astray.

A fresh moose head, seen lying on the bank, indicated a hunting
party, but no human life was seen aside from our own people.
Indeed, the absence of life of any kind along the river, excepting
the song-birds, which were in some places numerous, was surprising.