Except for some stains on the rocks, it was as if it had never happened, as if there had never been what Leif decided was a battle. A battle for food and he realized suddenly that aside from the whales and possibly the ravens – both of which seemed to have other things happening for them, like humour, thoughtfulness, slyness, affection – hunger, pure raw hunger was the driving force of everything in nature. Anger, of course, but anger based on hunger, and in the same thought, looking down at the dead salmon he had speared and would eat, he decided he did not want only that in his life. For his life.

Did not want to be only hungry.

Go north, be north, but see and be more than just what I shove in my stomach.

See past the hunger.

See past.

See . . .

The Cook Camp

Another island – away from the mass of land to the east and across the channel to the dark loom of the big island on the west that was so huge it didn’t really seem like an island – hopefully, probably, safe from the bears.

This island, though small enough to stand alone, was large enough to have several small inlets of its own, and Leif picked one on the north side and nosed into it. It was only two or three stone’s throws deep but at its end there was a small pebble beach and a trickle of a stream filtering through the rocks. Above the rocks there was a sand-gravel pan, and he pulled the canoe up, well out of the water, upside down on this sand-and-gravel mix.

He had noticed the canoe seemed to be getting heavier, the cedar was soaking up water, and he wanted to give it a chance to dry out a bit during the two or three days he would be here smoking fish.

First a camp.

It was starting to get foggy and he took time to gather firewood before it became difficult to see well. This took a while and then it started to drizzle and he spent still more time finding a dry mouse nest to use for tinder under a large piece of bark.

Everything felt damp and he had trouble getting the spark to flame in the nest and he had to make new sparks four times to get a small bit of fire. When at last it did flare up he had more trouble getting the flame to feed and grow on twigs so that he could make a decent fire with larger pieces.