When the showers had passed we had supper, and as we sat at our meal the sun came out again, throwing a golden glow over all.  Clouds lay like delicate veils along the hill-sides, sometimes dipping almost to their feet.  Walking back along the edge of the terrace I watched till they gathered thick again and darkness came down over all.  It was very wild and beautiful, but as an exquisite, loved form from which the spirit has fled.  The sense of life, of mystery, and magic seemed gone, and I wondered if the time could come when beauty would cease to be pain.

When I returned to camp the men had gone to their tent.  A tiny fire was still burning, and I sat watching it till the rain came and drove me to my little shelter again.

CHAPTER VI

CROSS COUNTRY TO SEAL LAKE WATERS

It was still raining Tuesday morning, and camp was not moved till afternoon, when we crossed the river.  Though smooth here, it flowed with fearful rapidity, and in midstream carried the canoe, as if it had been a feather, at locomotive speed.  Three-quarters of a mile above where we crossed the course of the river bent away to the east, and we could see the water leaping and tossing in a wild rapid as it came round through the opening in the hills.  I had a great wish to see the fifteen miles of it which flows between this point and Seal Lake.  I would have given much not to have to leave the river at all, but above that point it could not be travelled in the canoes, and I dared not take the time to portage which indeed would also have been impossible.

The region we were now to traverse, I learned from Gilbert, was great marten country, and so I named the tributary stream we followed, Wapustan [Marten] River.  Our way led along a continuation of the river terrace we had travelled since leaving the head of North Pole Rapid.  During the earliest part of that day’s march it was particularly hard work to get over the windfalls.  At first it seemed as if I could not; but after a struggle they were passed, and we had again a bear trail to follow.  On the way we passed great beds of blossoming cloudberries, which with blossoms of the bunchberry, the Labrador tea, and the pale laurel, made up the list of flowers found so far.  Towards evening we stopped to make camp at the edge of rougher country, a mile and a quarter up the Wapustan.  The map grew slowly during these days, and the desire to reach Seal Lake grew stronger and stronger.

Near the camp was a big boulder, and lying round and over it were numbers of wigwam poles.  They were very old, and looked as if it might have been many years since they had been used.  George said it was a winter camp.  In the winter time the Indians, in making their camps, dig down into the snow to a rock to build their fire.  At a number of places on our journey we found poles lying round a boulder in this way.