_Algonquin_
Wiske-djak was traveling about, looking for adventures. He never
succeeded in anything he tried to do, and he was always hungry. In
his travels he came to Turn-back Lake. White men call it Dumoine
Lake. He had no canoe, but he was a good swimmer, yet when he came
to Turn-back Lake, he found it too broad to swim. Therefore he
started to walk around it.
Wiske-djak wanted to hunt beaver. On one side of the lake he came to
a high mountain, very round, which looked just like a beaver lodge.
And a little way offshore, in the lake, was a small island, with
many grasses. “Hm-m-m!” said Wiske-djak, “This must be the home of
Big Beaver.” And so it looked, with the great, round lodge and the
island of grasses.
Wiske-djak tried to think how to catch Big Beaver. At last he went
to the lower end of the lake and broke down the dam, so the water
would run off. He lingered there while the lake drained. He even
took a nap. When it was low enough for him to get at Big Beaver, he
found that Beaver was gone. But as he looked about, he saw Big
Beaver just going over the dam. So he began to chase him.
Wiske-djak followed Big Beaver past Coulonge River and the Pembroke
Lakes. But when Big Beaver reached the Calumet Chutes, he was afraid
to go through and took to the portage. When Wiske-djak got to the
lower end of the portage, however, he had lost sight of Big Beaver
and started back up the Ottawa River. When he got to the upper end,
he saw fresh tracks.
“Somebody has been here,” he said very quickly. “I wonder if I might
be able to trail him? I might get something to eat.”
Wiske-djak followed the tracks to the lower end of the portage, and
found they turned toward the upper end, so he raced back there. He
did not see any beaver, however, so he turned back again to follow
other fresh tracks to the lower end of the portage. Then he saw he
had been following his own trail.
Even today one can see Wiske-djak’s footprints in the stone on the
Calumet portage.