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.