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136 THROUGH T H E MACKENZIE BASIN
waves seething around our bows. Small patches of potato**/
met the eye at every house, making our mouths water with -
expectation, for we had now been a long time without them,
and it is only then that one realizes their value. In the
far distance we discerned the Roman Catholic Mission
church, the primitive building showing up boldly in the
offing, whilst our canoemen, now nearing their own home,
broke into an Indian chant, and were in high spirits. They
expected a big feast that night, and so did we! I had been,
a bit under the weather, with nagging appetite, but felt again
the grip of healthy hunger. .
We were now in close contact with the most innocently
wild, secluded, and apparently happy state of things imagine
able— a real Utopia, such as Sir Thomas More dreamt not
of, being actually here, with no trace of abortive polities or
irritating ordinance. Here was contentment in the savage
wilderness— communion with Nature in all her unstained
purity and beauty. One thought of the many men of mind
who had moralized on this primitive life, and, tired of
towns, of " the weariness, the fever and the fret " of civilization,
had abandoned all and found rest and peace in the
bosom of Mother Nature.
The lake now narrowed into a deep but crooked stream,
fringed, as usual, by tall reeds and rushes and clumps of
flowering water- lilies. A four- mile paddle brought us to a
long stretch of deep lake, the second Wahpooskow, lined on
the north by a lovely shore, dotted with cabins, the central
tall buildings upon the summit of the rising ground being
those of the English " Church Mission Society," in charge
of the Reverend Charles R. Weaver. Here we were at last,
at the inland end of our journey, at Wahpooskow— this, not '
the " Wabiscow " of the maps, being the right spelling and-'
pronunciation of the word, which means in English ^- SEjb*
Grassy Narrows." . • , iu
The other Missions of this venerable Society in Athabasca,
it may be mentioned, were at the time as follows: AthahaselR '„
Object Description
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| Title | Page 156 |
| OCR | 136 THROUGH T H E MACKENZIE BASIN waves seething around our bows. Small patches of potato**/ met the eye at every house, making our mouths water with - expectation, for we had now been a long time without them, and it is only then that one realizes their value. In the far distance we discerned the Roman Catholic Mission church, the primitive building showing up boldly in the offing, whilst our canoemen, now nearing their own home, broke into an Indian chant, and were in high spirits. They expected a big feast that night, and so did we! I had been, a bit under the weather, with nagging appetite, but felt again the grip of healthy hunger. . We were now in close contact with the most innocently wild, secluded, and apparently happy state of things imagine able— a real Utopia, such as Sir Thomas More dreamt not of, being actually here, with no trace of abortive polities or irritating ordinance. Here was contentment in the savage wilderness— communion with Nature in all her unstained purity and beauty. One thought of the many men of mind who had moralized on this primitive life, and, tired of towns, of " the weariness, the fever and the fret " of civilization, had abandoned all and found rest and peace in the bosom of Mother Nature. The lake now narrowed into a deep but crooked stream, fringed, as usual, by tall reeds and rushes and clumps of flowering water- lilies. A four- mile paddle brought us to a long stretch of deep lake, the second Wahpooskow, lined on the north by a lovely shore, dotted with cabins, the central tall buildings upon the summit of the rising ground being those of the English " Church Mission Society," in charge of the Reverend Charles R. Weaver. Here we were at last, at the inland end of our journey, at Wahpooskow— this, not ' the " Wabiscow " of the maps, being the right spelling and-' pronunciation of the word, which means in English ^- SEjb* Grassy Narrows." . • , iu The other Missions of this venerable Society in Athabasca, it may be mentioned, were at the time as follows: AthahaselR '„ |
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