The Lure of the Labrador Wild

appetites had returned. It is true that my legs and feet were much swollen from the continuous work in the cold river, but the swellin

of rain. At night the rain kept up a steady drop, drop, drop through our tent. On the 2d, owing to the inclemency of the weather, we did not travel; but the morning of the 3d brought brilliant sunshine and with the perfume o

bank we saw a beaver house, and George

camp to-night, I'm comin' down with a rifle and watch for 'em. They com

m?" I asked. "What could you d

They're the finest kind of eatin', and I'd go a good way for a piece of

ng on many a "good snack" of it that he had consumed. However, he did not return

e branches had for its origin a lake, the two bodies of water from which they flowed being close together some three miles to the westward. Apparently th

hought we had reason to believe that the poles marked what had been a permanent trail rather than the course of a hunting expedition. Hubbard was particularly observant of these old Indian signs. He was anxious to find them, and delighted when he did find them. "Here are the si

ds of bacon remained. "We must hustle for grub, boys," Hubbard frequently remarked. Our diet, excepting on particular occasions, was bread and tea, fish when we could get them, and sometimes a little pea soup. The pea meal, plain and

that had survived the winter. Every day while we were on Goose Creek we caught a few small trout. When we halted for any purpose, Hubbard always whipped the stream. He was a tireless as well as an expert fisherman. He would fish long after I had become discouraged, and catch them in p

t below a little pond expansion, Hubbard saw four geese swimming slowly down the stream. He and George had just lifted their packs from the canoe, while I, some little distance off, had mine on my back. Hubbard had his rifle in his hands. George, who caught sight of the geese almost as soon as H

ing his head hanging by two little bits of skin. The other bullet bored a hole through his body, breaking both wings. I did not blame him when he keeled over. The leader disposed of, Hubbard and George again fired in quick succession, and two of the other geese dropped just as they were

pping upstream. That brought the goose between him and George, and the bird was so bewildered that Hubbard had time to fire at him twice with his pistol and kill him, while George effectually disposed of the wounded goose by swatting him over th

, cast a fly, and almost immediately landed a half-pound trout. Then, as fast as I could split them and George fry them, another and ano

e reminded us that it would take a good while to roast a goose. Our camp was pitched at the foot of a semi-barren ridge a half-mile above the junction of the brooks. George built a big fire-much bigger than usual. At the back he placed the largest green log

, leaving the ends to protrude on each side. Through the legs he stuck a similar pin in a similar fashion. This being done, he slip

s sides might have reason to complain at not receiving its share of the heat. The lower end roasted first, seeing which, George took the goose o

one goes through the kitchen dead

!" I co

Hubbard and I watched him anxiously. White juice followed

cle on the thick moss in the light of the bright-blazing fire. Many of the rules of etiquette were waived. We stood not on the order of our falling to, but fell to at once. We eat, and we eat, at first ravenously, then more slowly. With his mouth full of the succulent bird, George allowed he would rather have goose

ea. At first, silence; and then, while George and I puffed complacently on our pipes, Hubbard, who never smoked, entertained us with m

e is opened, now the H

f Spring go up t

rts are troubled for th

ds make their

een the be

hed the black

lone to hear th

hosen water where the

t's jumping-cra

-go-go awa

side the worl

is clear before

ret come

d Gods cal

bove us. We thought of the lake ahead with its old wigwams, and the promise it held out of an easy trail to Michikamau made us feel sure that the worst part of our journey was ended. Thus

use the Mountaineer Indians had been there. Besides numerous cuttings and the remains of wigwams, we found the ruins of a drying stage where they had cured meat or fish. From Goose Camp to the lake shore George carried the canoe, and Hubbard and I each a pack. Then

because both rifles were back with the last loads at Goose Camp, and his pistol was in his bag. Needless to say, we were bitterly disapp

discovered another and much larger lake, which in honour of him we shall call Lake Elson. An old trail led from Mountaineer Lake to Lake Elson, which George pronounced to be a caribou trail,

t was swimming in the lake, but George did not cook it, as he said the flesh would be too strong at that season. It was raining again and the mosquitoes were out in millions, but with

was continually streaming behind in the wind and getting caught in the bushes, despite his efforts to keep it in place with

d partially hidden by the timber, and as they were approaching him, he waited, believing he would get a better shot. But, while he was waiting, what he called a "cussed little long-le

-like islands of drift, with two or three irregular, rocky islands, all completely wooded. It was a beautiful sheet of water, and, like all the lakes in Labrador, as clear as

through a pass in another low ridge that ran parallel with the first as far as we could see. Between the two ridges was a marsh that extended westward for many miles. The ridges and the hills surrounding the lakes were covered w

heir zone and in a country that apparently no white man and no breed had ever viewed. We selected a site for our camp near the outlet at the southern end of the lake. In the afternoon Hubbard

grey of the twilight George returned. When he hailed me, I was fishing in the o

e made no distinctions as to master and servant; we were all

o more trout,"

ne that excited my curiosity; he seemed all of a sudden to have acquired

," he returned. "Come

note of any guiding signs, he would go directly to it again. I was with him one pitch-dark night when he left a pack among alders and willows in the depth of a marsh

happen, Geor

grub, and I didn't have a pistol, or a fishhook, or any way

ow how you got lo

t got lost. But I found myself pre

mitted his thoughts to wander. I asked him what he woul

with a grin, "and made the biggest smoke I could mak

to boil and preparing water for tea. The twilight deepened, and ere we realised it

concealed the anxiety George and I both felt; we knew that Hub

a twig. At length I took my rifle and fired at intervals half a dozen shots; but the reports echoed and d

ard night out there in

now before morning; and when a man is lost in this wild co

is return. However, at five o'clock in the morning he appeared. He had spent a miserable night on a ridge two miles to the southward, wet and shivering, with no fire, and tormented by mosqui

iction that his turn would come; but when George confessed to having gone astray also, he made a clean breast of it, telling us he was "lost good

l times should have on his person an emergency kit, to consist of matches, a piece of fish line,

ld eat, and we dried and smoked forty-five large ones. The scouting proved that Hubbard's "big river" was an important discovery. It lay two miles to the south of us, flowing t

and cuttings near it, indicating the possibility of its being part of a trail, we seriously considered the advisability of following it up. From a knoll near by we could see to the northwest other lakes int

the big river was none other than the Beaver-an importa