Canoeing in the wilderness

reminded him that my companion had had neither breakfast nor supper. We were obliged first to carry our canoe and baggage over into another stream, the main East Branch, abo

I had little expectation that I could

ed and fell heavily once, and lay for a moment silent as if in pain. I hastily stepped forward to help him

n after saw him standing on a point where there was a clearing a quarter of a mile below, and the smoke of his fire was rising nea

ing, and I was shouting to the Indian across the river, he, being nearsighted, had not seen the Indian nor his canoe, and when I went back to the Indian's assistance, did not see which way I went, and supposed that we were below and not above him, and

e of hours. If he had not found us soon he had some thoughts of going back in search of the solitary hunter whom we had met at Telos Lake, ten miles behind, and, if successful, hire him to take him to Bangor. But if this hunter had moved as fast as

te to cook here, and then, having partially dried our clothes

wo or three miles long, with high mountains on the southwest side. The morning was a bright one, and perfectly still, the lake as smooth as glass, we making the only ripple as we paddled into it. The dark mountains about it were seen through a glaucous mist, and the white stems of canoe birches mingled with the other

on let down for fish. In the midst of our dreams of giant lake trout, even then supposed

t was in one direction, I thought it was in another. He said, "I bet you fourpence i

, standing in the water by the side of the outlet, partly behind some fallen timber and bushes, and at that distance she did not look very large. She was flapping her large ears, and from time to time poking off the flies with her nose from some part of her bod

expose her side, and he improved this moment to fire, over our heads. She thereupon moved off eight or ten rods at a moderate pace across a shallow bay to the opposite shore, and she stood still again while the Indian hastil

into the outlet,-for he had fired over the neck of a peninsula between it and the lake,-t

ng the

eceive the last shots. Using a tape, I found that the moose measured six

t being flat alluvial ground, covered with red maples, etc., this was no easy matter. We searched far and wi

as almost impossible to find a slender, straight pole ten or twelve feet long in those woods. You might search half an hour in vain. They are commonly spruce, arbor-vit?, fir,

ounds were now added, which made our quarters still more narrow, and considerably increased the danger on the lakes and rapids as well as the labor of the carries. The skin was ours according to custom, since the Indian was in our employ, but we did not think of claiming it. He being a sk

here we were obliged to land sometimes in order to get the canoe over a log. It was hard to find any channel, and w

ndians had recently camped here, and accidentally burned over the western end of the island. Polis picked up a gun-case of blue broadcloth, and said that he knew the Ind

f their ancestors, and, indeed, we found here the point of an arrow-head, such as they have not used for two centuries and now know not how to make. The Indian picked up a yellowish curved bone by the side of our firep

tly where the outlet was, and he went feeling his way by a middle course between two probable points, from which he could diverge either way at last without losing much distance. In

heard the water falling over the dam there. Here was a considerabl

from his moose-hide, and so lightened and prepared it for drying. I noticed at sever

e, when, on account of the windings of the stream, we did not know where the shore was, but he did not call often enough, forgetting that we were not Indians. He seemed to be very saving of his breath-yet he would be surprised if we went by, or did not strike the

we overtook the canoe, and glided down the stream in smooth but swift water for several miles. I here obse

y beach, some five miles below the outlet of the lake. Two steps from the water on either side, and you come to the abrupt, bushy, and rooty, if

rods of the river, the marks of the axe, made by lumberers who have either camped here or driven logs past in pr

orary frame between two small trees, half a dozen feet from the opposite side of the fire, lashing and stretching it with arbor-vit? bark. Asking for a new

ed me how to write on the under side of birch bark with a black s

short distance just before night, and, co

that?" w

forty, I didn't count 'em. I guess In

d have chanced to walk to and look under th

s, but my companion tried in vain to catch them. I heard

explore or look around you before it is dark. You may penetrate half a dozen rods farther into that twilight wilderness after some dry bark to kindle your fire with, and wonder what mysteries lie hidden still deeper in it, or you m

the while-and at a hundred rods you might be lost past recovery and have to camp out. It is all mossy and moosey. In some of those dense fir and spruce woods there is hardly room for the smoke to go up. The trees are a standing night, and every fir and spruce which you f

then as usual rolled up his head in his blanket. We with our veils and our wash were tolerably comfortable, but it would be difficult to pursue any sedentary occupation in