Beavers, martens, foxes, and muskrats are caught in numbers in the vicinity of this great body of water.

The mosquitoes here were still a serious annoyance to us but less numerous than before.

They were in some degree replaced by a small sandfly, whose bite is succeeded by a copious flow of blood and considerable swelling but is attended with incomparably less irritation than the puncture of the mosquito.
On the 27th of July we embarked at four A.M.and proceeded along the south shore of the lake through a narrow channel, formed by some islands, beyond the confluence of the principal branch of the Slave River; and as far as Stony Island, where we breakfasted.

This island is merely a rock of gneiss that rises forty or fifty feet above the lake and is precipitous on the north side.

As the day was fine and the lake smooth we ventured upon paddling across to the Reindeer Islands, which were distant about thirteen miles in a northern direction, instead of pursuing the usual track by keeping farther along the south shore which inclines to the eastward from this point.