rough portage of three-quarters of a mile was completed some time
before noon, and beyond this the canoes were kept in the water most
of the day. At lunch Gilbert brought me a dandelion. I was
greatly pleased to get it, and later I saw several of them. I
found also blue and white violets, one of the blue ones a variety I
had never seen before.

Towards evening the hills had melted away. We had come up to the
top of those which, twenty miles back, had looked high, and now we
could look back and down to those which there had also seemed high.
A new thrill came with this being up among the hilltops, and I
began to feel like an explorer.

The tents were pitched near a pool of smooth water, deep and
darkened by shadows of the evergreens on either shore. On the
farther side of the river were low, wooded hills, and opposite our
camp a brook came tumbling through the wall of evergreens into the
river. Just above the brook a high, dead stub, with a big blaze on
it, showed where we were to leave the Wapustan to cross to Seal
Lake.



It was not until noon on Saturday, July 15th, that we left our
pretty camp, for it rained steadily in the meantime. Then we
started on our cross-country trip, working up to the north, from
which direction the brook flows. A two-mile carry brought us out
on Saturday evening to a lake at its head. After dinner on Sunday
we again went forward with a whole mile of paddling to cheer us on
our way. From the head of the lake another mile of good portaging