Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/108

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where a most dreary and chilling scene opened to his vision. To the east and northward not many miles away, and extending as far as the eye could reach, there appeared a vast white plain shrouded in drifting clouds of mist. It was evidently a great lake, still covered in the month of August with a field of ice, and was probably the Doobaunt or Tobaunt Lake, known in a legendary way to the Athabasca Indians, and sighted over one hundred years ago by Samuel Hearne when on his journey to the Copper Mine River. Its re-discovery was now a matter of the deepest interest to us. Was it to form an insurmountable obstacle in our path was the question at once suggested, and judging from appearances, most of the men were of opinion that it would.

TOBAUNT LAKE.

On Monday morning, the 7th of August, all undis-