Cross swampy lake.

At six on the morning of the 21st we left our encampment and soon after arrived at the Mossy Portage where the cargoes were carried through a deep bog for a quarter of a mile.  The river swells out above this portage to the breadth of several miles and as the islands are numerous there are a great variety of channels.  Night overtook us before we arrived at the Second Portage, so named from its being the second in the passage down the river.  Our whole distance this day was one mile and a quarter.

On the 22nd our route led us amongst many wooded islands which, lying in long vistas, produced scenes of much beauty.  In the course of the day we crossed the Upper Portage, surmounted the Devil’s Landing Place, and urged the boat with poles through Groundwater Creek.  At the upper end of this creek, our bowman having given the boat too great a sheer to avoid a rock, it was caught on the broadside by the current and in defiance of our utmost exertions hurried down the rapid.  Fortunately however it grounded against a rock high enough to prevent the current from oversetting it, and the crews of the other boats having come to our assistance we succeeded after several trials in throwing a rope to them with which they dragged our almost sinking vessel stern foremost up the stream and rescued us from our perilous situation.  We encamped in the dusk of evening amidst a heavy thunderstorm, having advanced two miles and three-quarters.

About ten in the morning of the 23rd we arrived at the Dramstone which is hailed with pleasure by the boats’ crews as marking the termination of the laborious ascent of Hill River.  We complied with the custom from whence it derives its name and soon after landing upon Sail Island prepared breakfast.  In the meantime our boatmen cut down and rigged a new mast, the old one having been thrown overboard at the mouth of Steel River, where it ceased to be useful.  We left Sail Island with a fair wind and soon afterwards arrived at a depot situated on Swampy Lake where we received a supply of mouldy pemmican.* Mr. Calder and his attendant were the only tenants of this cheerless abode, and their only food was the wretched stuff with which they supplied us, the lake not yielding fish at this season.

(Footnote.  Buffalo meat, dried and pounded and mixed with melted fat.)

Jack river.

After a short delay at this post we sailed through the remainder of Swampy Lake and slept at the Lower Portage in Jack River; the distance sailed today being sixteen miles and a half.