Canoeing in the wilderness

clear, shrill ah, te te, te te, te of the white-throated sparrow, repeated at short intervals,

rocks, the shore looked like washing-day at home. The Indian, taking the hint, borrowed the soap, and, wal

e, his gun and ammunition, and a blanket, which would do for a sail or knapsack, if wanted, and strapping on his belt, which contained a large sheath-knife, he walked off at once, ready to be gone all summer. This looked very independent-a few simple and effective tools, and no rubber clothing. He was always the first ready to start in the morning. Instead of carrying a large

tion northeastly about four miles to the outlet. The Indian name, Apmoojenegamook, means lake that is crossed, because the usual course lies across and not along it. W

t not allow himself to fall asleep in the canoe lest he should upset us; adding, that when Indians want to sleep in a canoe, they lie d

ge, was concealed and destroyed. We coasted westward along the north side, searching for the outlet, about quarter of a mile distant from this savage-looking shore, on which the waves were breaking violently, knowing that it might easily be concealed amid this rubbish, or by th

They have thus dammed all the larger lakes, raising their broad surfaces many feet, thus turning the forces of Nature against herself, that they might float their spoils out of the country. They rapidly run out of these immense forests all the finer and more accessible pine timber, and then leav

nto the nearest stream, till, the fairest having fallen, they scamper off to ransack some new wilderness, and all is still again. It is as when a migrating army of mice girdles a forest of pines. The chopper fells trees from the sa

tame deer, with a yoke binding them together, the brazen-tipped horns betraying their servitude, taking their stand on the stump of each giant pine in succession throughout this whole forest, and chewing their cud there, until it is nothing but an ox-pas

big that I cut it down, and then a yoke of oxen could stand on its stump." He admires the log, the carcass or corpse, more than the tree. Why, my de

e cannot read the poetry and mythology which retire as he advances. He ignorantly erases mythological tablets in order to print his handbills and town-meeting warrants on them

ghten the canoe. I made it a rule to carry my knapsack when I walked, and also to keep it ti

ound which I had associated only wit

e entered Heron Lake, scaring up forty or fifty young sheldrakes, at the ent

e Indian said was called Peaked Mountain, and used by explorers to look for timber from. The shores were in the same ragged and unsightly condition, encumb

glad to kill and eat. But it flew away long before we were near; and also a flock of summer ducks that were about the rock with

about a mile from the shore, and they evidently fly over the whole lake. On Moosehead I had seen a large devil's-needle half a

d camped there not long before and left the frame on which they stretched a moose-hide. The Indian proceeded at once to cut a canoe birch, slanted it up aga

ermit, at that dam, to take care of it, who spent his time tossing a bullet from one hand to the other, for want of employment. This s

spot, in the midst of the otherwise uninterrupted forest, only reminded us how uninhabited the country was. You would sooner expect to meet a bear than an ox in such a clearing. At any rate, it must have been a surprise to the bears when they came across it. Such,

e log huts at Chesuncook, and the blind Canadian's at the Mud Pond carry, without stopping to communicate with the inhabitants, he took occasion now to suggest that the usual way was, when you came near a house, to g

we took the canoe out to prevent its drifting away. We did not know but we should be compelled to spend the rest of the day and the night there. At any rate, the Indian went to sleep again, m

r bark of the aspen was good for sore eyes; and so with various other plants, proving himself as good as his word. According to his account, he had acquire

his lake now, though there used to be many, and, pointing to the belt of dead tr

ake and distant forest, he observ

len trees. "Oh," said he, "in winter all covered

ur mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns, without hotels, only a dark mou

Nicketow, ever pushing the boughs of the fir and spruce aside, with his load of furs, contending day and night, night and day, with the shaggy demon vegetation, traveling through the mossy graveyard of trees. Or he could go by "that rough tooth of the sea" Kineo,

that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway. I am told that in the Aroostook country

now the darkness rapidly increasing, and a fresh breeze rustling the forest, we hastily put up the plants which we had been drying, and with one consent made a rush for the tent material and s

lump, bang, bang, bang, in succession, like artillery from some fortress in the sky; and the lightning was proportionally brilliant. The Indian said, "It must be good powder." All for the benefit of the

had almost instantaneously flattened the waves, and, it clearing off,

e southwest, and heard thunder there. We embarked, ne

the Indian peeping out from beneath his canoe to see what had become of the rain. When we had taken our respective places thus once or twice, the rain not coming down in earnest, we commenced rambling about the neighborhood, for the wind had by this time r

e thunder-storm was just over, and the waves which it had raised still running with violence, and another storm was now seen coming up in

t, others prostrate, and criss-across, above or beneath the surface, and mingled with them were loose trees and limbs and stumps, beating about. We could not have landed if we would, without the greatest danger of being swamped; so b

ffee to it. Here was a clearing extending back from the lake to a hilltop, with some dark-colored log buildings and a storehouse in it, and half a dozen men standing in front of the principal hut, greedy for news. Among them was the man who tended the dam on the Allegash and tossed the bullet. He

orehouse to get it,-since they only kept a little for such cases as this, and they

e and arbor-vit? twigs for a bed. I preferred the arbor-vit? on account of its fragrance, and spread it particularly thick about the shoulders. It is remarkable with what pure satisfaction the traveler in those woods will reach his camping-ground on the eve of a tempestuous night like this, as if h

g is not to be had. You can much sooner dry you by such a fire as you can make in the woods than in anybody's kitchen, the fireplace is so m

been kept awake, but we were soon lulled asleep

TNO

by the Hungarian patriot, Kossuth, on