Notes of an Egging Expedition to Shoal Lake, West of Lake Winnipeg 2
by Elizabeth CampbellThe expedition members rise the next morning and spend the day travelling toward Shoal Lake. On the way they meet the Indian man of the day before and a Métis woman who is returning to Oak Point with a load of pine planks that were likely made in the saw-pits of the Red River Settlement. Gunn remarks that she
can, with wonderful dexterity, avail herself of all the resources of the forest and the lake. Here she made a few snares, chased the rabbits into them, and in a very short space of time had a number of them boiling and roasting, and after hunting, cooking and eating her dinner, was ready to start as soon as any of us.
He describes geographical and geological features he sees along the route, including two ridges that he assumes to be old beaches of Lake Winnipeg, but which may have been far more ancient beaches of Lake Agassiz.
By evening, the party has reached Shoal Lake.
As we passed along the lake, I observed a stone pillar, or cairn, formed of small granite boulders thrown loosely together, and on inquiry of my companions from the lake “What mean ye by these stones?” I was informed, here in 1843, in passing from Red River to Manitowaba to establish a mission among the natives, the Rev. Abraham Cowley and party passed their first Sabbath in the wilderness, and these stones were set up to commemorate the sermon preached on the occasion.
On the third day of the expedition, a First Nations man informs them that the route they plan to take is boggy and completely unsuitable for their ox-carts. When they reach this reputedly quagmirish portion of the way, Gunn discovers that the man was misinforming them, “only showing the Indian jealousy of intruders on their hunting grounds.”
Tags: Donald Gunn, First Nations, hunting, Lake Agassiz, Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg, Métis, monuments, Oak Point, Rev. Abraham Cowley, RRS & First Nations relations, Shoal Lake, trapping, travel
