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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9376-8.txt b/9376-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbea5c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/9376-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5966 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest, by Stewart Edward White + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Forest + +Author: Stewart Edward White + +Posting Date: August 11, 2012 [EBook #9376] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 26, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE +MOMENT] + +THE FOREST + +BY + +STEWART EDWARD WHITE + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE CALLING +II. THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT +III. THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE +IV. ON MAKING CAMP +V. ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT +VI. THE 'LUNGE +VII. ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING +VIII. THE STRANDED STRANGERS +IX. ON FLIES +X. CLOCHE +XI. THE HABITANTS +XII. THE RIVER +XIII. THE HILLS +XIV. ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS +XV. ON WOODS INDIANS +XVI. ON WOODS INDIANS _(continued)_ +XVII. THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH +XVIII. MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT +XIX. APOLOGIA + +SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE MOMENT + +THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR AGAIN THE FLAG +OF HIS COUNTRY + +AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES + +EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT +SWAMPING + +WATCHED THE LONG NORTH-COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A GRAY CLOUD FROM +THE EAST + +IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF THAT MORNING + +NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE PEOPLE + +THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THE BATTLE + + + + + +THE FOREST + + + + + +I. + +THE CALLING. + +"The Red Gods make their medicine again." + + +Some time in February, when the snow and sleet have shut out from the +wearied mind even the memory of spring, the man of the woods generally +receives his first inspiration. He may catch it from some companion's +chance remark, a glance at the map, a vague recollection of a dim past +conversation, or it may flash on him from the mere pronouncement of a +name. The first faint thrill of discovery leaves him cool, but +gradually, with the increasing enthusiasm of cogitation, the idea gains +body, until finally it has grown to plan fit for discussion. + +Of these many quickening potencies of inspiration, the mere name of a +place seems to strike deepest at the heart of romance. Colour, mystery, +the vastnesses of unexplored space are there, symbolized compactly for +the aliment of imagination. It lures the fancy as a fly lures the +trout. Mattágami, Peace River, Kánanaw, the House of the Touchwood +Hills, Rupert's House, the Land of Little Sticks, Flying Post, +Conjuror's House--how the syllables roll from the tongue, what pictures +rise in instant response to their suggestion! The journey of a thousand +miles seems not too great a price to pay for the sight of a place +called the Hills of Silence, for acquaintance with the people who dwell +there, perhaps for a glimpse of the saga-spirit that so named its +environment. On the other hand, one would feel but little desire to +visit Muggin's Corners, even though at their crossing one were assured +of the deepest flavour of the Far North. + +The first response to the red god's summons is almost invariably the +production of a fly-book and the complete rearrangement of all its +contents. The next is a resumption of practice with the little pistol. +The third, and last, is pencil and paper, and lists of grub and duffel, +and estimates of routes and expenses, and correspondence with men who +spell queerly, bear down heavily with blunt pencils, and agree to be at +Black Beaver Portage on a certain date. Now, though the February snow +and sleet still shut him in, the spring has draw very near. He can +feel the warmth of her breath rustling through his reviving memories. + +There are said to be sixty-eight roads to heaven, of which but one is +the true way, although here and there a by-path offers experimental +variety to the restless and bold. The true way for the man in the woods +to attain the elusive best of his wilderness experience is to go as +light as possible, and the by-paths of departure from that principle +lead only to the slightly increased carrying possibilities of +open-water canoe trips, and permanent camps. + +But these prove to be not very independent side paths, never diverging +so far from the main road that one may dare hope to conceal from a +vigilant eye that he is _not_ going light. + +To go light is to play the game fairly. The man in the woods matches +himself against the forces of nature. In the towns he is warmed and fed +and clothed so spontaneously and easily that after a time he perforce +begins to doubt himself, to wonder whether his powers are not atrophied +from disuse. And so, with his naked soul, he fronts the wilderness. It +is a test, a measuring of strength, a proving of his essential pluck +and resourcefulness and manhood, an assurance of man's highest potency, +the ability to endure and to take care of himself. In just so far as he +substitutes the ready-made of civilization for the wit-made of the +forest, the pneumatic bed for the balsam boughs, in just so far is he +relying on other men and other men's labour to take care of him. To +exactly that extent is the test invalidated. He has not proved a +courteous antagonist, for he has not stripped to the contest. + +To go light is to play the game sensibly. For even when it is not so +earnest, nor the stake so high, a certain common-sense should take the +place on a lower plane of the fair-play sense on the higher. A great +many people find enjoyment in merely playing with nature. Through +vacation they relax their minds, exercise mildly their bodies, and +freshen the colours of their outlook on life. Such people like to live +comfortably, work little, and enjoy existence lazily. Instead of +modifying themselves to fit the life of the wilderness, they modify +their city methods to fit open-air conditions. They do not need to +strip to the contest, for contest there is none, and Indian packers are +cheap at a dollar a day. But even so the problem of the greatest +comfort--defining comfort as an accurate balance of effort expended to +results obtained--can be solved only by the one formula. And that +formula is, again, _go light_, for a superabundance of paraphernalia +proves always more of a care than a satisfaction. When the woods offer +you a thing ready made, it is the merest foolishness to transport that +same thing a hundred miles for the sake of the manufacturer's trademark. + +I once met an outfit in the North Woods, plodding diligently across +portage, laden like the camels of the desert. Three Indians swarmed +back and forth a half-dozen trips apiece. An Indian can carry over two +hundred pounds. That evening a half-breed and I visited their camp and +examined their outfit, always with growing wonder. They had tent-poles +and about fifty pounds of hardwood tent pegs--in a wooded country where +such things can be had for a clip of the axe. They had a system of +ringed iron bars which could be so fitted together as to form a low +open grill on which trout could be broiled--weight twenty pounds, and +split wood necessary for its efficiency. They had air mattresses and +camp-chairs and oil lanterns. They had corpulent duffel bags apiece +that would stand alone, and enough changes of clothes to last out +dry-skinned a week's rain. And the leader of the party wore the +wrinkled brow of tribulation. For he had to keep track of everything +and see that package number twenty-eight was not left, and that package +number sixteen did not get wet; that the pneumatic bed did not get +punctured, and that the canned goods did. Beside which, the caravan was +moving at the majestic rate of about five miles a day. + +Now tent-pegs can always be cut, and trout broiled beautifully by a +dozen other ways, and candle lanterns fold up, and balsam can be laid +in such a manner as to be as springy as a pneumatic mattress, and +camp-chairs, if desired, can be quickly constructed with an axe, and +clothes can always be washed or dried as long as fire burns and water +runs, and any one of fifty other items of laborious burden could have +been ingeniously and quickly substituted by any one of the Indians. It +was not that we concealed a bucolic scorn of effete but solid comfort; +only it did seem ridiculous that a man should cumber himself with a +fifth wheel on a smoothly macadamized road. + +The next morning Billy and I went cheerfully on our way. We were +carrying an axe, a gun, blankets, an extra pair of drawers and socks +apiece, a little grub, and an eight-pound shelter tent. We had been out +a week, and we were having a good time. + + + + +II. + +THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT. + +"Now the Four-Way lodge is opened--now the smokes of Council rise-- +Pleasant smokes ere yet 'twixt trail and trail they choose." + + +You can no more be told how to go light than you can be told how to hit +a ball with a bat. It is something that must be lived through, and all +advice on the subject has just about the value of an answer to a +bashful young man who begged from one of our woman's periodicals help +in overcoming the diffidence felt on entering a crowded room. The reply +read: "Cultivate an easy, graceful manner." In like case I might +hypothecate, "To go light, discard all but the really necessary +articles." + +The sticking-point, were you to press me close, would be the definition +of the word "necessary," for the terms of such definition would have to +be those solely and simply of a man's experience. Comforts, even most +desirable comforts, are not necessities. A dozen times a day trifling +emergencies will seem precisely to call for some little handy +contrivance that would be just the thing, were it in the pack rather +than at home. A disgorger does the business better than a pocket-knife; +a pair of oilskin trousers turns the wet better than does kersey; a +camp-stove will burn merrily in a rain lively enough to drown an open +fire. Yet neither disgorger, nor oilskins, nor camp-stove can be +considered in the light of necessities, for the simple reason that the +conditions of their use occur too infrequently to compensate for the +pains of their carriage. Or, to put it the other way, a few moments' +work with a knife, wet knees occasionally, or an infrequent soggy meal +are not too great a price to pay for unburdened shoulders. + +Nor on the other hand must you conclude that because a thing is a mere +luxury in town, it is nothing but that in the woods. Most woodsmen own +some little ridiculous item of outfit without which they could not be +happy. And when a man cannot be happy lacking a thing, that thing +becomes a necessity. I knew one who never stirred without borated +talcum powder; another who must have his mouth-organ; a third who was +miserable without a small bottle of salad dressing; I confess to a pair +of light buckskin gloves. Each man must decide for himself--remembering +always the endurance limit of human shoulders. + +A necessity is that which, _by your own experience_, you have +found you cannot do without. As a bit of practical advice, however, the +following system of elimination may be recommended. When you return +from a trip, turn your duffel bag upside down on the floor. Of the +contents make three piles--three piles conscientiously selected in the +light of what has happened rather than what ought to have happened, or +what might have happened. It is difficult to do this. Preconceived +notions, habits of civilization, theory for future, imagination, all +stand in the eye of your honesty. Pile number one should comprise those +articles you have used every day; pile number two, those you have used +occasionally; pile number three, those you have not used at all. If you +are resolute and singleminded, you will at once discard the latter two. + +Throughout the following winter you will be attacked by misgivings. To +be sure, you wore the mosquito hat but once or twice, and the fourth +pair of socks not at all; but then the mosquitoes might be thicker next +time, and a series of rainy days and cold nights might make it +desirable to have a dry pair of socks to put on at night. The past has +been _x_, but the future might be _y_. One by one the discarded creep +back into the list. And by the opening of next season you have made +toward perfection by only the little space of a mackintosh coat and a +ten-gauge gun. + +But in the years to come you learn better and better the simple woods +lesson of substitution or doing without. You find that discomfort is as +soon forgotten as pain; that almost anything can be endured if it is +but for the time being; that absolute physical comfort is worth but a +very small price in avoirdupois. Your pack shrinks. + +In fact, it really never ceases shrinking. Only last summer taught me +the uselessness of an extra pair of trousers. It rains in the woods; +streams are to be waded; the wetness of leaves is greater than the +wetness of many rivers. Logically, naturally, inevitably, such +conditions point to change of garments when camp is made. We always +change our clothes when we get wet in the city. So for years I carried +those extra nether garments--and continued in the natural exposure to +sun and wind and camp-fire to dry off before change time, or to hang +the damp clothes from the ridge-pole for resumption in the morning. And +then one day the web of that particular convention broke. We change wet +trousers in the town; we do not in the woods. The extras were relegated +to pile number three, and my pack, already apparently down to a +minimum, lost a few pounds more. + +You will want a hat, a _good_ hat to turn rain, with a medium +brim. If you are wise, you will get it too small for your head, and rip +out the lining. The felt will cling tenaciously to your hair, so that +you will find the snatches of the brush and the wind generally +unavailing. + +By way of undergarments wear woollen. Buy winter weights even for +midsummer. In travelling with a pack a man is going to sweat in +streams, no matter what he puts on or takes off, and the thick garment +will be found no more oppressive than the thin. And then in the cool of +the woods or of the evening he avoids a chill. And he can plunge into +the coldest water with impunity, sure that ten minutes of the air will +dry him fairly well. Until you have shivered in clammy cotton, you +cannot realize the importance of this point. Ten minutes of cotton +underwear in cold water will chill. On the other hand, suitably clothed +in wool, I have waded the ice water of north country streams when the +thermometer was so low I could see my breath in the air, without other +discomfort than a cold ring around my legs to mark the surface of the +water, and a slight numbness in my feet when I emerged. Therefore, even +in hot weather, wear heavy wool. It is the most comfortable. +Undoubtedly you will come to believe this only by experience. + +Do not carry a coat. This is another preconception of civilization, +exceedingly difficult to get rid of. You will never wear it while +packing. In a rain you will find that it wets through so promptly as to +be of little use; or, if waterproof, the inside condensation will more +than equal the rain-water. In camp you will discard it because it will +impede the swing of your arms. The end of that coat will be a brief +half-hour after supper, and a makeshift roll to serve as a pillow +during the night. And for these a sweater is better in every way. + +In fact, if you feel you must possess another outside garment, let it +be an extra sweater. You can sleep in it, use it when your day garment +is soaked, or even tie things in it as in a bag. It is not necessary, +however. + +One good shirt is enough. When you wash it, substitute the sweater +until it dries. In fact, by keeping the sweater always in your +waterproof bag, you possess a dry garment to change into. Two +handkerchiefs are enough. One should be of silk, for neck, head, or--in +case of cramps or intense cold--the _stomach_; the other of +coloured cotton for the pocket. Both can be quickly washed, and dried +_en route_. Three pairs of heavy wool socks will be enough--one +for wear, one for night, and one for extra. A second pair of drawers +supplements the sweater when a temporary day change is desirable. Heavy +kersey "driver's" trousers are the best. They are cheap, dry very +quickly, and are not easily "picked out" by the brush. + +The best blanket is that made by the Hudson's Bay Company for its +servants--a "three-point" for summer is heavy enough. The next best is +our own gray army blanket. One of rubber should fold about it, and a +pair of narrow buckle straps is handy to keep the bundle right and +tight and waterproof. As for a tent, buy the smallest shelter you can +get along with, have it made of balloon silk well waterproofed, and +supplement it with a duplicate tent of light cheesecloth to suspend +inside as a fly-proof defence. A seven-by-seven three-man A-tent, which +would weigh between twenty and thirty pounds if made of duck, means +only about eight pounds constructed of this material. And it is +waterproof. I own one which I have used for three seasons. It has been +employed as tarpaulin, fly, even blanket on a pinch; it has been packed +through the roughest country; I have even pressed it into service as a +sort of canoe lining; but it is still as good as ever. Such a tent +sometimes condenses a little moisture in a cold rain, but it never +"sprays" as does a duck shelter; it never leaks simply because you have +accidentally touched its under-surface; and, best of all, it weighs no +more after a rain than before it. This latter item is perhaps its best +recommendation. The confronting with equanimity of a wet day's journey +in the shower-bath brush of our northern forests requires a degree of +philosophy which a gratuitous ten pounds of soaked-up water sometimes +most effectually breaks down. I know of but one place where such a tent +can be bought. The address will be gladly sent to any one practically +interested. + +As for the actual implements of the trade, they are not many, although +of course the sporting goods stores are full of all sorts of "handy +contrivances." A small axe--one of the pocket size will do, if you get +the right shape and balance, although a light regulation axe is better; +a thin-bladed sheath-knife of the best steel; a pocket-knife; a +compass; a waterproof match-safe; fishing-tackle; firearms; and cooking +utensils comprise the list. All others belong to permanent camps, or +open-water cruises--not to "hikes" in the woods. + +The items, with the exception of the last two, seem to explain +themselves. During the summer months in the North Woods you will not +need a rifle. Partridges, spruce hens, ptarmigan, rabbits, ducks, and +geese are usually abundant enough to fill the provision list. For them, +of course, a shotgun is the thing; but since such a weapon weighs many +pounds, and its ammunition many more, I have come gradually to depend +entirely on a pistol. The instrument is single shot, carries a six-inch +barrel, is fitted with a special butt, and is built on the graceful +lines of a 38-calibre Smith and Wesson revolver. Its cartridge is the +22 long-rifle, a target size, that carries as accurately as you can +hold for upwards of a hundred yards. With it I have often killed a +half-dozen of partridges from the same tree. The ammunition is light. +Altogether it is a most satisfactory, convenient, and accurate weapon, +and quite adequate to all small game. In fact, an Indian named +Tawabinisáy, after seeing it perform, once borrowed it to kill a moose. + +[Illustration: THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR +AGAIN THE FLAG OF HIS COUNTRY.] + +"I shootum in eye," said he. + +By way of cooking utensils, buy aluminium. It is expensive, but so +light and so easily cleaned that it is well worth all you may have to +pay. If you are alone you will not want to carry much hardware. I made +a twenty-day trip once with nothing but a tin cup and a frying-pan. +Dishes, pails, wash-basins, and other receptacles can always be made of +birch bark and cedar withes--by one who knows how. The ideal outfit for +two or three is a cup, fork, and spoon apiece, one tea-pail, two +kettle-pails, and a frying-pan. The latter can be used as a bread-oven. + +A few minor items, of practically no weight, suggest themselves--toilet +requisites, fly-dope, needle and thread, a cathartic, pain-killer, a +roll of surgeon's bandage, pipe and tobacco. But when the pack is made +up, and the duffel bag tied, you find that, while fitted for every +emergency but that of catastrophe, you are prepared to "go light." + + + + +III. + +THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE. + + +Sometime, no matter how long your journey, you will reach a spot whose +psychological effect is so exactly like a dozen others that you will +recognize at once its kinship with former experience. Mere physical +likeness does not count at all. It may possess a water-front of laths +and sawdust, or an outlook over broad, shimmering, heat-baked plains. +It may front the impassive fringe of a forest, or it may skirt the calm +stretch of a river. But whether of log or mud, stone or unpainted +board, its identity becomes at first sight indubitably evident. Were +you, by the wave of some beneficent wand, to be transported direct to +it from the heart of the city, you could not fail to recognize it. "The +jumping-off place!" you would cry ecstatically, and turn with unerring +instinct to the Aromatic Shop. + +For here is where begins the Long Trail. Whether it will lead you +through the forests, or up the hills, or over the plains, or by +invisible water paths; whether you will accomplish it on horseback, or +in canoe, or by the transportation of your own two legs; whether your +companions shall be white or red, or merely the voices of the +wilds--these things matter not a particle. In the symbol of this little +town you loose your hold on the world of made things, and shift for +yourself among the unchanging conditions of nature. + +Here the faint forest flavour, the subtle, invisible breath of freedom, +stirs faintly across men's conventions. The ordinary affairs of life +savour of this tang--a trace of wildness in the domesticated berry. In +the dress of the inhabitants is a dash of colour, a carelessness of +port; in the manner of their greeting is the clear, steady-eyed +taciturnity of the silent places; through the web of their gray talk of +ways and means and men's simpler beliefs runs a thread of colour. One +hears strange, suggestive words and phrases--arapajo, capote, arroyo, +the diamond hitch, cache, butte, coulé, muskegs, portage, and a dozen +others coined into the tender of daily use. And occasionally, when the +expectation is least alert, one encounters suddenly the very symbol of +the wilderness itself--a dust-whitened cowboy, an Indian packer with +his straight, fillet-confined hair, a voyageur gay in red sash and +ornamented moccasins, one of the Company's canoemen, hollow-cheeked +from the river--no costumed show exhibit, but fitting naturally into +the scene, bringing something of the open space with him--so that in +your imagination the little town gradually takes on the colour of +mystery which an older community utterly lacks. + +But perhaps the strongest of the influences which unite to assure the +psychological kinships of the jumping-off places is that of the +Aromatic Shop. It is usually a board affair, with a broad high sidewalk +shaded by a wooden awning. You enter through a narrow door, and find +yourself facing two dusky aisles separated by a narrow division of +goods, and flanked by wooden counters. So far it is exactly like the +corner store of our rural districts. But in the dimness of these two +aisles lurks the spirit of the wilds. There in a row hang fifty pair of +smoke-tanned moccasins; in another an equal number of oil-tanned; +across the background you can make out snowshoes. The shelves are high +with blankets--three-point, four-point--thick and warm for the +out-of-doors. Should you care to examine, the storekeeper will hook +down from aloft capotes of different degrees of fineness. Fathoms of +black tobacco-rope lie coiled in tubs. Tump-lines welter in a tangle of +dimness. On a series of little shelves is the ammunition, fascinating +in the attraction of mere numbers--44 Winchester, 45 Colt, 40-82, +30-40, 44 S. & W.--they all connote something to the accustomed mind, +just as do the numbered street names of New York. + +An exploration is always bringing something new to light among the +commonplaces of ginghams and working shirts, and canned goods and +stationery, and the other thousands of civilized drearinesses to found +in every country store. From under the counter you drag out a mink skin +or so; from the dark corner an assortment of steel traps. In a loft a +birch-bark mokok, fifty pounds heavy with granulated maple sugar, +dispenses a faint perfume. + +For this is, above all, the Aromatic Shop. A hundred ghosts of odours +mingle to produce the spirit of it. The reek of the camp-fires is in +its buckskin, of the woods in its birch bark, of the muskegs in its +sweet grass, of the open spaces in its peltries, of the evening meal in +its coffees and bacons, of the portage trail in the leather of the +tump-lines. I am speaking now of the country of which we are to write. +The shops of the other jumping-off places are equally aromatic--whether +with the leather of saddles, the freshness of ash paddles, or the +pungency of marline; and once the smell of them is in your nostrils you +cannot but away. + +The Aromatic Shop is always kept by the wisest, the most accommodating, +the most charming shopkeeper in the world. He has all leisure to give +you, and enters into the innermost spirit of your buying. He is of +supernal sagacity in regard to supplies and outfits, and if he does not +know all about routes, at least he is acquainted with the very man who +can tell you everything you want to know. He leans both elbows on the +counter, you swing your feet, and together you go over the list, while +the Indian stands smoky and silent in the background. "Now, if I was +you," says he, "I'd take just a little more pork. You won't be eatin' +so much yourself, but these Injuns ain't got no bottom when it comes to +sow-belly. And I wouldn't buy all that coffee. You ain't goin' to want +much after the first edge is worn off. Tea's the boy." The Indian +shoots a few rapid words across the discussion. "He says you'll want +some iron shoes to fit on canoe poles for when you come back +up-stream," interprets your friend. "I guess that's right. I ain't got +none, but th' blacksmith'll fit you out all right. You'll find him just +below--never mind, don't you bother, I'll see to all that for you." + +The next morning he saunters into view at the river-bank. "Thought I'd +see you off," he replies to your expression of surprise at his early +rising. "Take care of yourself." And so the last hand-clasp of +civilization is extended to you from the little Aromatic Shop. + +Occasionally, however, though very rarely, you step to the Long Trail +from the streets of a raw modern town. The chance presence of some +local industry demanding a large population of workmen, combined with +first-class railroad transportation, may plant an electric-lighted, +saloon-lined, brick-hoteled city in the middle of the wilderness. +Lumber, mines--especially of the baser metals or commercial +minerals--fisheries, a terminus of water freightage, may one or all +call into existence a community a hundred years in advance of its +environment. Then you lose the savour of the jump-off. Nothing can +quite take the place of the instant plunge into the wilderness, for you +must travel three or four days from such a place before you sense the +forest in its vastness, even though deer may eat the cabbages at the +edge of town. Occasionally, however, by force of crude contrast to the +brick-heated atmosphere, the breath of the woods reaches your cheek, +and always you own a very tender feeling for the cause of it. + +Dick and myself were caught in such a place. It was an unfinished +little town, with brick-fronted stores, arc-lights swaying over +fathomless mud, big superintendent's and millowner's houses of bastard +architecture in a blatant superiority of hill location, a hotel whose +office chairs supported a variety of cheap drummers, and stores +screeching in an attempt at metropolitan smartness. We inspected the +standpipe and the docks, walked a careless mile of board walk, kicked a +dozen pugnacious dogs from our setter, Deuce, and found ourselves at +the end of our resources. As a crowd seemed to be gathering about the +wooden railway station, we joined it in sheer idleness. + +It seemed that an election had taken place the day before, that one +Smith had been chosen to the Assembly, and that, though this district +had gone anti-Smith, the candidate was expected to stop off an hour on +his way to a more westerly point. Consequently the town was on hand to +receive him. + +The crowd, we soon discovered, was bourgeois in the extreme. Young men +from the mill escorted young women from the shops. The young men wore +flaring collars three sizes too large; the young women white cotton +mitts three sizes too small. The older men spat, and talked through +their noses; the women drawled out a monotonous flow of speech +concerning the annoyances of domestic life. A gang of uncouth practical +jokers, exploding in horse-laughter, skylarked about, jostling rudely. +A village band, uniformed solely with cheap carriage-cloth caps, brayed +excruciatingly. The reception committee had decorated, with red and +white silesia streamers and rosettes, an ordinary side-bar buggy, to +which a long rope had been attached, that the great man might be +dragged by his fellow-citizens to the public square. + +Nobody seemed to be taking the affair too seriously. It was evidently +more than half a joke. Anti-Smith was more good-humouredly in evidence +than the winning party. Just this touch of buffoonery completed our +sense of the farce-comedy character of the situation. The town was +tawdry in its preparations--and knew it; but half sincere in its +enthusiasm--and knew it. If the crowd had been composed of Americans, +we should have anticipated an unhappy time for Smith; but good, loyal +Canadians, by the limitations of temperament, could get no further than +a spirit of manifest irreverence. + +In the shifting of the groups Dick and I became separated, but shortly +I made him out worming his way excitedly toward me, his sketch-book +open in his hand. + +"Come here," he whispered. "There's going to be fun. They're going to +open up on old Smith after all." + +I followed. The decorated side-bar buggy might be well meant; the +village band need not have been interpreted as an ironical compliment; +the rest of the celebration might indicate paucity of resource rather +than facetious intent; but surely the figure of fun before us could not +be otherwise construed than as a deliberate advertising in the face of +success of the town's real attitude toward the celebration. + +The man was short. He wore a felt hat, so big that it rested on his +ears. A gray wool shirt hung below his neck. A cutaway coat miles too +large depended below his knees and to the first joints of his fingers. +By way of official uniform his legs were incased in an ordinary rough +pair of miller's white trousers, on which broad strips of red flannel +had been roughly sewn. Everything was wrinkled in the folds of +too-bigness. As though to accentuate the note, the man stood very +erect, very military, and supported in one hand the staff of an English +flag. This figure of fun, this man made from the slop-chest, this +caricature of a scarecrow, had been put forth by heavy-handed +facetiousness to the post of greatest honour. He was Standard-Bearer to +the occasion! Surely subtle irony could go no further. + +A sudden movement caused the man to turn. One sleeve of the faded, +ridiculous old cutaway was empty. He turned again. From under the +ear-flanging hat looked unflinchingly the clear, steady blue eye of the +woodsman. And so we knew. This old soldier had come in from the Long +Trail to bear again the flag of his country. If his clothes were old +and ill-fitting, at least they were his best, and the largeness of the +empty sleeve belittled the too-largeness of the other. In all this +ribald, laughing, irreverent, commonplace, semi-vicious crowd he was +the one note of sincerity. To him this was a real occasion, and the +exalted reverence in his eye for the task he was so simply performing +was Smith's real triumph--if he could have known it. We understood now, +we felt the imminence of the Long Trail. For the first time the little +brick, tawdry town gripped our hearts with the well-known thrill of the +Jumping-Off Place. Suddenly the great, simple, unashamed wilderness +drew near us as with the rush of wings. + + + + +IV. + +ON MAKING CAMP. + +"Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight? Who hath + heard the birch log burning? +Who is quick to read the noises of the night? +Let him follow with the others, for the young men's feet are turning +To the camps of proved desire and known delight." + + +In the Ojibway language _wigwam_ means a good spot for camping, a +place cleared for a camp, a camp as an abstract proposition, and a camp +in the concrete as represented by a tent, a thatched shelter, or a +conical tepee. In like manner, the English word _camp_ lends +itself to a variety of concepts. I once slept in a four-poster bed over +a polished floor in an elaborate servant-haunted structure which, +mainly because it was built of logs and overlooked a lake, the owner +always spoke of as his camp. Again, I once slept on a bed of prairie +grass, before a fire of dried buffalo chips and mesquite, wrapped in a +single light blanket, while a good vigorous rain-storm made new cold +places on me and under me all night. In the morning the cowboy with +whom I was travelling remarked that this was "sure a lonesome +proposition as a camp." + +Between these two extremes is infinite variety, grading upwards through +the divers bivouacs of snow, plains, pines, or hills to the bark +shelter; past the dog-tent, the A-tent, the wall-tent, to the elaborate +permanent canvas cottage of the luxurious camper, the dug-out winter +retreat of the range cowboy, the trapper's cabin, the great log-built +lumber-jack communities, and the last refinements of sybaritic summer +homes in the Adirondacks. All these are camps. And when you talk of +making camp you must know whether that process is to mean only a search +for rattlesnakes and enough acrid-smoked fuel to boil tea, or a +winter's consultation with an expert architect; whether your camp is to +be made on the principle of Omar's one-night Sultan, or whether it is +intended to accommodate the full days of an entire summer. + +But to those who tread the Long Trail the making of camp resolves +itself into an algebraical formula. After a man has travelled all day +through the Northern wilderness he wants to rest, and anything that +stands between himself and his repose he must get rid of in as few +motions as is consistent with reasonable thoroughness. The end in view +is a hot meal and a comfortable dry place to sleep. The straighter he +can draw the line to those two points the happier he is. + +Early in his woods experience, Dick became possessed with the desire to +do everything for himself. As this was a laudable striving for +self-sufficiency, I called a halt at about three o'clock one afternoon +in order to give him plenty of time. + +Now Dick is a good, active, able-bodied boy, possessed of average +intelligence and rather more than average zeal. He even had theory of a +sort, for he had read various "Boy Campers, or the Trapper's Guide," +"How to Camp Out," "The Science of Woodcraft," and other able works. He +certainly had ideas enough and confidence enough. I sat down on a log. + +At the end of three hours' flusteration, heat, worry, and good hard +work, he had accomplished the following results: A tent, very saggy, +very askew, covered a four-sided area--it was not a rectangle--of very +bumpy ground. A hodge-podge bonfire, in the centre of which an +inaccessible coffee-pot toppled menacingly, alternately threatened to +ignite the entire surrounding forest or to go out altogether through +lack of fuel. Personal belongings strewed the ground near the fire, and +provisions cumbered the entrance to the tent. Dick was anxiously mixing +batter for the cakes, attempting to stir a pot of rice often enough to +prevent it from burning, and trying to rustle sufficient dry wood to +keep the fire going. This diversity of interests certainly made him sit +up and pay attention. At each instant he had to desert his flour-sack +to rescue the coffee-pot, or to shift the kettle, or to dab hastily at +the rice, or to stamp out the small brush, or to pile on more dry +twigs. His movements were not graceful. They raised a scurry of dry +bark, ashes, wood dust, twigs, leaves, and pine needles, a certain +proportion of which found their way into the coffee, the rice, and the +sticky batter, while the smaller articles of personal belonging, +hastily dumped from the duffel-bag, gradually disappeared from view in +the manner of Pompeii and ancient Vesuvius. Dick burned his fingers and +stumbled about and swore, and looked so comically-pathetically +red-faced through the smoke that I, seated on the log, at the same time +laughed and pitied. And in the end, when he needed a continuous steady +fire to fry his cakes, he suddenly discovered that dry twigs do not +make coals, and that his previous operations had used up all the fuel +within easy circle of the camp. + +So he had to drop everything for the purpose of rustling wood, +while the coffee chilled, the rice cooled, the bacon congealed, and all +the provisions, cooked and uncooked, gathered entomological specimens. +At the last, the poor bedeviled theorist made a hasty meal of scorched +food, brazenly postponed the washing of dishes until the morrow, and +coiled about his hummocky couch to dream the nightmares of complete +exhaustion. + +Poor Dick! I knew exactly how he felt, how the low afternoon sun +scorched, how the fire darted out at unexpected places, how the smoke +followed him around, no matter on which side of the fire he placed +himself, how the flies all took to biting when both hands were +occupied, and how they all miraculously disappeared when he had set +down the frying-pan and knife to fight them. I could sympathize, too, +with the lonely, forlorn, lost-dog feeling that clutched him after it +was all over. I could remember how big and forbidding and unfriendly +the forest had once looked to me in like circumstances, so that I had +felt suddenly thrust outside into empty spaces. Almost was I tempted to +intervene; but I liked Dick, and I wanted to do him good. This +experience was harrowing, but it prepared his mind for the seeds of +wisdom. By the following morning he had chastened his spirit, forgotten +the assurance breathed from the windy pages of the Boy Trapper Library, +and was ready to learn. + +Have you ever watched a competent portraitist at work? The infinite +pains a skilled man spends on the preliminaries before he takes one +step towards a likeness nearly always wears down the patience of the +sitter. He measures with his eye, he plumbs, he sketches tentatively, +he places in here a dab, there a blotch, he puts behind him apparently +unproductive hours--and then all at once he is ready to begin something +that will not have to be done over again. An amateur, however, is +carried away by his desire for results. He dashes in a hit-or-miss +early effect, which grows into an approximate likeness almost +immediately, but which will require infinite labour, alteration, and +anxiety to beat into finished shape. + +The case of the artist in making camps is exactly similar, and the +philosophical reasons for his failure are exactly the same. To the +superficial mind a camp is a shelter, a bright fire, and a smell of +cooking. So when a man is very tired he cuts across lots to those three +results. He pitches his tent, lights his fire, puts over his food--and +finds himself drowned in detail, like my friend Dick. + +The following is, in brief, what during the next six weeks I told that +youth, by precept, by homily, and by making the solution so obvious +that he could work it out for himself. + +When five or six o'clock draws near, begin to look about you for a good +level dry place, elevated some few feet above the surroundings. Drop +your pack or beach your canoe. Examine the location carefully. You +will want two trees about ten feet apart, from which to suspend your +tent, and a bit of flat ground underneath them. Of course the flat +ground need not be particularly unencumbered by brush or saplings, so +the combination ought not to be hard to discover. Now return to your +canoe. Do not unpack the tent. + +With the little axe clear the ground thoroughly. By bending a sapling +over strongly with the left hand, clipping sharply at the strained +fibres, and then bending it as strongly the other way to repeat the axe +stroke on the other side, you will find that treelets of even two or +three inches diameter can be felled by two blows. In a very few +moments you will have accomplished a hole in the forest, and your two +supporting trees will stand sentinel at either end of a most +respectable-looking clearing. Do not unpack the tent. + +Now, although the ground seems free of all but unimportant growths, go +over it thoroughly for little shrubs and leaves. They look soft and +yielding, but are often possessed of unexpectedly abrasive roots. +Besides, they mask the face of the ground. When you have finished +pulling them up by the roots, you will find that your supposedly level +plot is knobby with hummocks. Stand directly over each little mound; +swing the back of your axe vigorously against it, adze-wise, between +your legs. Nine times out of ten it will crumble, and the tenth time +means merely a root to cut or a stone to pry out. At length you are +possessed of a plot of clean, fresh earth, level and soft, free from +projections. But do not unpack your tent. + +Lay a young birch or maple an inch or so in diameter across a log. Two +clips will produce you a tent-peg. If you are inexperienced, and +cherish memories of striped lawn marquees, you will cut them about six +inches long. If you are wise and old and gray in woods experience, you +will multiply that length by four. Then your loops will not slip off, +and you will have a real grip on mother earth, than which nothing can +be more desirable in the event of a heavy rain and wind squall about +midnight. If your axe is as sharp as it ought to be, you can point +them more neatly by holding them suspended in front of you while you +snip at their ends with the axe, rather than by resting them against a +solid base. Pile them together at the edge of the clearing. Cut a +crotched sapling eight or ten feet long. Now unpack your tent. + +In a wooded country you will not take the time to fool with tent-poles. +A stout line run through the eyelets and along the apex will string it +successfully between your two trees. Draw the line as tight as +possible, but do not be too unhappy if, after your best efforts, it +still sags a little. That is what your long crotched stick is for. +Stake out your four corners. If you get them in a good rectangle, and +in such relation to the apex as to form two isosceles triangles of the +ends, your tent will stand smoothly. Therefore, be an artist and do it +right. Once the four corners are well placed, the rest follows +naturally. Occasionally in the North Country it will be found that the +soil is too thin over the rocks to grip the tent-pegs. In that case +drive them at a sharp angle as deep as they will go, and then lay a +large flat stone across the slant of them. Thus anchored, you will +ride out a gale. Finally, wedge your long sapling crotch under the +line--outside the tent, of course--to tighten it. Your shelter is up. +If you are a woodsman, ten or fifteen minutes has sufficed to +accomplish all this. + +There remains the question of a bed, and you'd better attend to it now, +while your mind is still occupied with the shelter problem. Fell a +good thrifty young balsam and set to work pulling off the fans. Those +you cannot strip off easily with your hands are too tough for your +purpose. Lay them carelessly crisscross against the blade of your axe +and up the handle. They will not drop off, and when you shoulder that +axe you will resemble a walking haystack, and will probably experience +a genuine emotion of surprise at the amount of balsam that can be thus +transported. In the tent lay smoothly one layer of fans, convex side +up, butts toward the foot. Now thatch the rest on top of this, +thrusting the butt ends underneath the layer already placed in such a +manner as to leave the fan ends curving up and down towards the foot of +your bed. Your second emotion of surprise will assail you as you +realize how much spring inheres in but two or three layers thus +arranged. When you have spread your rubber blanket, you will be +possessed of a bed as soft and a great deal more aromatic and luxurious +than any you would be able to buy in town. + +Your next care is to clear a living space in front of the tent. This +will take you about twenty seconds, for you need not be particular as +to stumps, hummocks, or small brush. All you want is room for cooking, +and suitable space for spreading out your provisions. But do not +unpack anything yet. + +Your fireplace you will build of two green logs laid side by side. The +fire is to be made between them. They should converge slightly, in +order that the utensils to be rested across them may be of various +sizes. If your vicinity yields flat stones, they build up even better +than the logs--unless they happen to be of granite. Granite explodes +most disconcertingly. Poles sharpened, driven upright into the ground, +and then pressed down to slant over the fireplace, will hold your +kettles a suitable height above the blaze. + +Fuel should be your next thought. A roll of birch bark first of all. +Then some of the small, dry, resinous branches that stick out from the +trunks of medium-sized pines, living or dead. Finally, the wood +itself. If you are merely cooking supper, and have no thought for a +warmth-fire or a friendship-fire, I should advise you to stick to the +dry pine branches, helped out, in the interest of coals for frying, by +a little dry maple or birch. If you need more of a blaze, you will +have to search out, fell, and split a standing dead tree. This is not +at all necessary. I have travelled many weeks in the woods without +using a more formidable implement than a one-pound hatchet. Pile your +fuel--a complete supply, all you are going to need--by the side of your +already improvised fireplace. But, as you value your peace of mind, do +not fool with matches. + +It will be a little difficult to turn your mind from the concept of +fire, to which all these preparations have compellingly led +it--especially as a fire is the one cheerful thing your weariness needs +the most at this time of day--but you must do so. Leave everything just +as it is, and unpack your provisions. + +First of all, rinse your utensils. Hang your tea-pail, with the proper +quantity of water, from one slanting pole, and your kettle from the +other. Salt the water in the latter receptacle. Peel your potatoes, +if you have any; open your little provision sacks; puncture your tin +cans, if you have any; slice your bacon; clean your fish; pluck your +birds; mix your dough or batter; spread your table tinware on your +tarpaulin or a sheet of birch bark; cut a kettle-lifter; see that +everything you are going to need is within direct reach of your hand as +you squat on your heels before the fireplace. Now light your fire. + +The civilized method is to build a fire and then to touch a match to +the completed structure. If well done and in a grate or steve, this +works beautifully. Only in the woods you have no grate. The only sure +way is as follows: Hold a piece of birch bark in your hand. Shelter +your match all you know how. When the bark has caught, lay it in your +fireplace, assist it with more bark, and gradually build up, twig by +twig, stick by stick, from the first pin-point of flame, all the fire +you are going to need. It will not be much. The little hot blaze +rising between the parallel logs directly against the aluminium of your +utensils will do the business in a very short order. In fifteen +minutes at most your meal is ready. And you have been able to attain +to hot food thus quickly because you were prepared. + +In case of very wet weather the affair is altered somewhat. If the +rain has just commenced, do not stop to clear out very thoroughly, but +get your tent up as quickly as possible, in order to preserve an area +of comparatively dry ground. But if the earth is already soaked, you +had best build a bonfire to dry out by, while you cook over a smaller +fire a little distance removed, leaving the tent until later. Or it +may be well not to pitch the tent at all, but to lay it across slanting +supports at an angle to reflect the heat against the ground. + +It is no joke to light a fire in the rain. An Indian can do it more +easily than a white man, but even an Indian has more trouble than the +story-books acknowledge. You will need a greater quantity of birch +bark, a bigger pile of resinous dead limbs from the pine trees, and +perhaps the heart of a dead pine stub or stump. Then, with infinite +patience, you may be able to tease the flame. Sometimes a small dead +birch contains in the waterproof envelope of its bark a species of +powdery, dry touchwood that takes the flame readily. Still, it is easy +enough to start a blaze--a very fine-looking, cheerful, healthy blaze; +the difficulty is to prevent its petering out the moment your back is +turned. + +But the depths of woe are sounded and the limit of patience reached +when you are forced to get breakfast in the dripping forest. After the +chill of early dawn you are always reluctant in the best of +circumstances to leave your blankets, to fumble with numbed fingers for +matches, to handle cold steel and slippery fish. But when every leaf, +twig, sapling, and tree contains a douche of cold water; when the +wetness oozes about your moccasins from the soggy earth with every step +you take; when you look about you and realize that somehow, before you +can get a mouthful to banish that before-breakfast ill-humour, you must +brave cold water in an attempt to find enough fuel to cook with, then +your philosophy and early religious training avail you little. The +first ninety-nine times you are forced to do this you will probably +squirm circumspectly through the bush in a vain attempt to avoid +shaking water down on yourself; you will resent each failure to do so, +and at the end your rage will personify the wilderness for the purpose +of one sweeping anathema. The hundredth time will bring you wisdom. You +will do the anathema--rueful rather than enraged--from the tent +opening. Then you will plunge boldly in and get wet. It is not +pleasant, but it has to be done, and you will save much temper, not to +speak of time. + +Dick and I earned our diplomas at this sort of work. It rained twelve +of the first fourteen days we were out. Towards the end of that two +weeks I doubt if even an Indian could have discovered a dry stick of +wood in the entire country. The land was of Laurentian rock formation, +running in parallel ridges of bare stone separated by hollows carpeted +with a thin layer of earth. The ridges were naturally ill-adapted to +camping, and the cup hollows speedily filled up with water until they +became most creditable little marshes. Often we hunted for an hour or +so before we could find any sort of a spot to pitch our tent. As for a +fire, it was a matter of chopping down dead trees large enough to have +remained dry inside, of armfuls of birch bark, and of the patient +drying out, by repeated ignition, of enough fuel to cook very simple +meals. Of course we could have kept a big fire going easily enough, +but we were travelling steadily and had not the time for that. In +these trying circumstances, Dick showed that, no matter how much of a +tenderfoot he might be, he was game enough under stress. + +But to return to our pleasant afternoon. While you are consuming the +supper you will hang over some water to heat for the dish-washing, and +the dish-washing you will attend to the moment you have finished +eating. Do not commit the fallacy of sitting down for a little rest. +Better finish the job completely while you are about it. You will +appreciate leisure so much more later. In lack of a wash-rag you will +find that a bunch of tall grass bent double makes an ideal swab. + +Now brush the flies from your tent, drop the mosquito-proof lining, and +enjoy yourself. The whole task, from first to last, has consumed but a +little over an hour. And you are through for the day. + +In the woods, as nowhere else, you will earn your leisure only by +forethought. Make no move until you know it follows the line of +greatest economy. To putter is to wallow in endless desolation. If you +cannot move directly and swiftly and certainly along the line of least +resistance in everything you do, take a guide with you; you are not of +the woods people. You will never enjoy doing for yourself, for your +days will be crammed with unending labour. + +It is but a little after seven. The long crimson shadows of the North +Country are lifting across the aisles of the forest. You sit on a log, +or lie on your back, and blow contented clouds straight up into the +air. Nothing can disturb you now. The wilderness is yours, for you have +taken from it the essentials of primitive civilization--shelter, +warmth, and food. An hour ago a rainstorm would have been a minor +catastrophe. Now you do not care. Blow high, blow low, you have made +for yourself an abiding-place, so that the signs of the sky are less +important to you than to the city dweller who wonders if he should take +an umbrella. From your doorstep you can look placidly out on the great +unknown. The noises of the forest draw close about you their circle of +mystery, but the circle cannot break upon you, for here you have +conjured the homely sounds of kettle and crackling flame to keep ward. +Thronging down through the twilight steal the jealous woodland shadows, +awful in the sublimity of the Silent Places, but at the sentry outposts +of your firelit trees they pause like wild animals, hesitating to +advance. The wilderness, untamed, dreadful at night, is all about; but +this one little spot you have reclaimed. Here is something before +unknown to the eerie spirits of the woods. As you sleepily knock the +ashes from the pipe, you look about on the familiar scene with +accustomed satisfaction. You are at home. + + + + +V. + +ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT. + +"Who hath lain alone to hear the wild goose cry?" + + +About once in so often you are due to lie awake at night. Why this is +so I have never been able to discover. It apparently comes from no +predisposing uneasiness of indigestion, no rashness in the matter of +too much tea or tobacco, no excitation of unusual incident or +stimulating conversation. In fact, you turn in with the expectation of +rather a good night's rest. Almost at once the little noises of the +forest grow larger, blend in the hollow bigness of the first drowse; +your thoughts drift idly back and forth between reality and dream; +when--_snap!_--you are broad awake! + +Perhaps the reservoir of your vital forces is full to the overflow of a +little waste; or perhaps, more subtly, the great Mother insists thus +that you enter the temple of her larger mysteries. + +For, unlike mere insomnia, lying awake at night in the woods is +pleasant. The eager, nervous straining for sleep gives way to a +delicious indifference. You do not care. Your mind is cradled in an +exquisite poppy-suspension of judgment and of thought. Impressions slip +vaguely into your consciousness and as vaguely out again. Sometimes +they stand stark and naked for your inspection; sometimes they lose +themselves in the midst of half-sleep. Always they lay soft velvet +fingers on the drowsy imagination, so that in their caressing you feel +the vaster spaces from which they have come. Peaceful-brooding your +faculties receive. Hearing, sight, smell--all are preternaturally keen +to whatever of sound and sight and woods perfume is abroad through the +night; and yet at the same time active appreciation dozes, so these +things lie on it sweet and cloying like fallen rose leaves. + +In such circumstance you will hear what the _voyageurs_ call the +voices of the rapids. Many people never hear them at all. They speak +very soft and low and distinct beneath the steady roar and dashing, +beneath even the lesser tinklings and gurglings whose quality +superimposes them over the louder sounds. They are like the tear-forms +swimming across the field of vision, which disappear so quickly when +you concentrate your sight to look at them, and which reappear so +magically when again your gaze turns vacant. In the stillness of your +hazy half-consciousness they speak; when you bend your attention to +listen, they are gone, and only the tumults and the tinklings remain. + +But in the moments of their audibility they are very distinct. Just as +often an odour will wake all a vanished memory, so these voices, by the +force of a large impressionism, suggest whole scenes. Far off are the +cling-clang-cling of chimes and the swell-and-fall murmur of a +multitude _en fête_, so that subtly you feel the gray old town, +with its walls, the crowded marketplace, the decent peasant crowd, the +booths, the mellow church building with its bells, the warm, dust-moted +sun. Or, in the pauses between the swish-dash-dashings of the waters, +sound faint and clear voices singing intermittently, calls, distant +notes of laughter, as though many canoes were working against the +current; only the flotilla never gets any nearer, nor the voices +louder. The _voyageurs_ call these mist people the Huntsmen, and +look frightened. To each is his vision, according to his experience. +The nations of the earth whisper to their exiled sons through the +voices of the rapids. Curiously enough, by all reports, they suggest +always peaceful scenes--a harvest field, a street fair, a Sunday +morning in a cathedral town, careless travellers--never the turmoils +and struggles. Perhaps this is the great Mother's compensation in a +harsh mode of life. + +Nothing is more fantastically unreal to tell about, nothing more +concretely real to experience, than this undernote of the quick water. +And when you do lie awake at night, it is always making its unobtrusive +appeal. Gradually its hypnotic spell works. The distant chimes ring +louder and nearer as you cross the borderland of sleep. And then +outside the tent some little woods noise snaps the thread. An owl +hoots, a whippoorwill cries, a twig cracks beneath the cautious prowl +of some night creature--at once the yellow sunlit French meadows puff +away--you are staring at the blurred image of the moon spraying through +the texture of your tent. + +The voices of the rapids have dropped into the background, as have the +dashing noises of the stream. Through the forest is a great silence, +but no stillness at all. The whippoorwill swings down and up the short +curve of his regular song; over and over an owl says his rapid +_whoo_, _whoo_, _whoo_. These, with the ceaseless dash of the rapids, +are the web on which the night traces her more delicate embroideries +of the unexpected. Distant crashes, single and impressive; +stealthy footsteps near at hand; the subdued scratching of claws; a +faint _sniff! sniff! sniff!_ of inquiry; the sudden clear tin-horn +_ko-ko-ko-óh_ of the little owl; the mournful, long-drawn-out cry +of the loon, instinct with the spirit of loneliness; the ethereal +call-note of the birds of passage high in the air; a _patter_, +_patter_, _patter_ among the dead leaves, immediately stilled; +and then at the last, from the thicket close at hand, the +beautiful silver purity of the white-throated sparrow--the nightingale +of the North--trembling with the ecstasy of beauty, as though a +shimmering moonbeam had turned to sound; and all the while the blurred +figure of the moon mounting to the ridge-line of your tent--these +things combine subtly, until at last the great Silence of which they +are a part overarches the night and draws you forth to contemplation. + +No beverage is more grateful than the cup of spring water you drink at +such a time; no moment more refreshing than that in which you look +about you at the darkened forest. You have cast from you with the warm +blanket the drowsiness of dreams. A coolness, physical and spiritual, +bathes you from head to foot. All your senses are keyed to the last +vibrations. You hear the littler night prowlers, you glimpse the +greater. A faint, searching woods perfume of dampness greets your +nostrils. And somehow, mysteriously, in a manner not to be understood, +the forces of the world seem in suspense, as though a touch might +crystallize infinite possibilities into infinite power and motion. But +the touch lacks. The forces hover on the edge of action, unheeding the +little noises. In all humbleness and awe, you are a dweller of the +Silent Places. + +At such a time you will meet with adventures. One night we put +fourteen inquisitive porcupines out of camp. Near M'Gregor's Bay I +discovered in the large grass park of my camp-site nine deer, cropping +the herbage like so many beautiful ghosts. A friend tells me of a fawn +that every night used to sleep outside his tent and within a foot of +his head, probably by way of protection against wolves. Its mother had +in all likelihood been killed. The instant my friend moved toward the +tent opening the little creature would disappear, and it was always +gone by earliest daylight. Nocturnal bears in search of pork are not +uncommon. But even though your interest meets nothing but the bats and +the woods shadows and the stars, that few moments of the sleeping world +forces is a psychical experience to be gained in no other way. You +cannot know the night by sitting up; she will sit up with you. Only by +coming into her presence from the borders of sleep can you meet her +face to face in her intimate mood. + +The night wind from the river, or from the open spaces of the wilds, +chills you after a time. You begin to think of your blankets. In a few +moments you roll yourself in their soft wool. Instantly it is morning. + +And, strange to say, you have not to pay by going through the day +unrefreshed. You may feel like turning in at eight instead of nine, and +you may fall asleep with unusual promptitude, but your journey will +begin clear-headedly, proceed springily, and end with much in reserve. +No languor, no dull headache, no exhaustion, follows your experience. +For this once your two hours of sleep have been as effective as nine. + + + + +VI. + +THE 'LUNGE. + +"Do you know the chosen water where the ouananiche is waiting?" + + +Dick and I travelled in a fifteen-foot wooden canoe, with grub, duffel, +tent, and Deuce, the black-and-white setter dog. As a consequence we +were pretty well down toward the water-line, for we had not realized +that a wooden canoe would carry so little weight for its length in +comparison with a birch-bark. A good heavy sea we could ride--with +proper management and a little baling; but sloppy waves kept us busy. + +Deuce did not like it at all. He was a dog old in the wisdom of +experience. It had taken him just twenty minutes to learn all about +canoes. After a single tentative trial he jumped lightly to the very +centre of his place, with the lithe caution of a cat. Then if the water +happened to be smooth, he would sit gravely on his haunches, or would +rest his chin on the gunwale to contemplate the passing landscape. But +in rough weather he crouched directly over the keel, his nose between +his paws, and tried not to dodge when the cold water dashed in on him. +Deuce was a true woodsman in that respect. Discomfort he always bore +with equanimity, and he must often have been very cold and very +cramped. + +For just over a week we had been travelling in open water, and the +elements had not been kind to us at all. We had crept up under +rock-cliff points; had weathered the rips of white water to shelter on +the other side; had struggled across open spaces where each wave was +singly a problem to fail in whose solution meant instant swamping; had +baled, and schemed, and figured, and carried, and sworn, and tried +again, and succeeded with about two cupfuls to spare, until we as well +as Deuce had grown a little tired of it. For the lust of travel was on +us. + +The lust of travel is a very real disease. It usually takes you when +you have made up your mind that there is no hurry. Its predisposing +cause is a chart or map, and its main symptom is the feverish delight +with which you check off the landmarks of your journey. A fair wind of +some force is absolutely fatal. With that at your back you cannot +stop. Good fishing, fine scenery, interesting bays, reputed game, even +camps where friends might be visited--all pass swiftly astern. Hardly +do you pause for lunch at noon. The mad joy of putting country behind +you eats all other interests. You recover only when you have come to +your journey's end a week too early, and must then search out new +voyages to fill in the time. + +All this morning we had been bucking a strong north wind. Fortunately, +the shelter of a string of islands had given us smooth water enough, +but the heavy gusts sometimes stopped us as effectively as though we +had butted solid land. Now about noon we came to the last island, and +looked out on a five-mile stretch of tumbling seas. We landed the canoe +and mounted a high rock. + +"Can't make it like this," said I. "I'll take the outfit over and land +it, and come back for you and the dog. Let's see that chart." + +We hid behind the rock and spread out the map. + +"Four miles," measured Dick. "It's going to be a terror." + +We looked at each other vaguely, suddenly tired. + +"We can't camp here--at this time of day," objected Dick, to our +unspoken thoughts. + +And then the map gave him an inspiration. "Here's a little river," +ruminated Dick, "that goes to a little lake, and then there's another +little river that flows from the lake and comes out about ten miles +above here." + +"It's a good thirty miles," I objected. + +"What of it?" asked Dick calmly. + +So the fever-lust of travel broke. We turned to the right behind the +last island, searched out the reed-grown opening to the stream, and +paddled serenely and philosophically against the current. Deuce sat up +and yawned with a mighty satisfaction. + +We had been bending our heads to the demon of wind; our ears had been +filled with his shoutings, our eyes blinded with tears, our breath +caught away from us, our muscles strung to the fiercest endeavour. +Suddenly we found ourselves between the ranks of tall forest trees, +bathed in a warm sunlight, gliding like a feather from one grassy bend +to another of the laziest little stream that ever hesitated as to which +way the grasses of its bed should float. As for the wind, it was lost +somewhere away up high, where we could hear it muttering to itself +about something. + +The woods leaned over the fringe of bushes cool and green and silent. +Occasionally through tiny openings we caught instant impressions of +straight column trunks and transparent shadows. Miniature grass marshes +jutted out from the bends of the little river. We idled along as with a +homely rustic companion through the aloofness of patrician multitudes. + +Every bend offered us charming surprises. Sometimes a muskrat swam +hastily in a pointed furrow of ripple; vanishing wings, barely sensed +in the flash, left us staring; stealthy withdrawals of creatures, whose +presence we realized only in the fact of those withdrawals, snared our +eager interest; porcupines rattled and rustled importantly and regally +from the water's edge to the woods; herons, ravens, an occasional duck, +croaked away at our approach; thrice we surprised eagles, once a +tassel-eared Canada lynx. Or, if all else lacked, we still experienced +the little thrill of pleased novelty over the disclosure of a group of +silvery birches on a knoll; a magnificent white pine towering over the +beech and maple forest; the unexpected aisle of a long, straight +stretch of the little river. + +Deuce approved thoroughly. He stretched himself and yawned and shook +off the water, and glanced at me open-mouthed with doggy good-nature, +and set himself to acquiring a conscientious olfactory knowledge of +both banks of the river. I do not doubt he knew a great deal more +about it than we did. Porcupines aroused his special enthusiasm. +Incidentally, two days later he returned to camp after an expedition of +his own, bristling as to the face with that animal's barbed weapons. +Thenceforward his interest waned. + +We ascended the charming little river two or three miles. At a sharp +bend to the east a huge sheet of rock sloped from a round grass knoll +sparsely planted with birches directly down into a pool. Two or three +tree trunks jammed directly opposite had formed a sort of half dam +under which the water lay dark. A tiny grass meadow forty feet in +diameter narrowed the stream to half its width. + +We landed. Dick seated himself on the shelving rock. I put my fish-rod +together. Deuce disappeared. + +Deuce always disappeared whenever we landed. With nose down, hind +quarters well tucked under him, ears flying, he quartered the forest at +high speed, investigating every nook and cranny of it for the radius of +a quarter of a mile. When he has quite satisfied himself that we were +safe for the moment, he would return to the fire, where he would lie, +six inches of pink tongue vibrating with breathlessness, beautiful in +the consciousness of virtue. Dick generally sat on a rock and thought. +I generally fished. + +After a time Deuce returned. I gave up flies, spoons, phantom minnows, +artificial frogs, and crayfish. As Dick continued to sit on the rock +and think, we both joined him. The sun was very warm and grateful, and +I am sure we both acquired an added respect for Dick's judgment. + +Just when it happened neither of us was afterwards able to decide. +Perhaps Deuce knew. But suddenly, as often a figure appears in a +cinematograph, the diminutive meadow thirty feet away contained two +deer. They stood knee-deep in the grass, wagging their little tails in +impatience of the flies. + +"Look a' there!" stammered Dick aloud. + +Deuce sat up on his haunches. + +I started for my camera. + +The deer did not seem to be in the slightest degree alarmed. They +pointed four big ears in our direction, ate a few leisurely mouthfuls +of grass, sauntered to the stream for a drink of water, wagged their +little tails some more, and quietly faded into the cool shadows of the +forest. + +[Illustration: AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES.] + +An hour later we ran out into reeds, and so to the lake. It was a +pretty lake, forest-girt. Across the distance we made out a moving +object which shortly resolved itself into a birch canoe. The canoe +proved to contain an Indian, an Indian boy of about ten years, a black +dog, and a bundle. When within a few rods of each other we ceased +paddling, and drifted by with the momentum. The Indian was a +fine-looking man of about forty, his hair bound with a red fillet, his +feet incased in silk-worked moccasins, but otherwise dressed in white +men's garments. He smoked a short pipe, and contemplated us gravely. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," we called in the usual double-barrelled North +Country salutation. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou," he replied. + +"Kée-gons?" we inquired as to the fishing in the lake. + +"Áh-hah," he assented. + +We drifted by each other without further speech. When the decent +distance of etiquette separated us we resumed our paddles. + +I produced a young cable terminated by a tremendous spoon and a solid +brass snell as thick as a telegraph wire. We had laid in this +formidable implement in hopes of a big muscallunge. It had been trailed +for days at a time. We had become used to its vibration, which actually +seemed to communicate itself to every fibre of the light canoe. Every +once in a while we would stop with a jerk that would nearly snap our +heads off. Then we would know we had hooked the American continent. We +had become used to that also. It generally happened when we attempted a +little burst of speed. So when the canoe brought up so violently that +all our tinware rolled on Deuce, Dick was merely disgusted. + +"There she goes again," he grumbled. "You've hooked Canada." + +Canada held quiescent for about three seconds. Then it started due +south. + +"Suffering serpents!" shrieked Dick. + +"Paddle, you sulphurated idiot!" yelled I. + +It was most interesting. All I had to do was to hang on and try to stay +in the boat. Dick paddled and fumed and splashed water and got more +excited. Canada dragged us bodily backward. + +Then Canada changed his mind and started in our direction. I was plenty +busy taking in slack, so I did not notice Dick. Dick was absolutely +demented. His mind automatically reacted in the direction of paddling. +He paddled, blindly, frantically. Canada came surging in, his mouth +open, his wicked eyes flaming, a tremendous indistinct body lashing +foam. Dick glanced once over his shoulder, and let out a frantic howl. + +"You've got the sea-serpent!" he shrieked. + +I turned to fumble for the pistol. We were headed directly for a log +stranded on shore, and about ten feet from it. + +"Dick!" I yelled in warning. + +He thrust his paddle out forward just in time. The stout maple bent and +cracked. The canoe hit with a bump that threw us forward. I returned to +the young cable. It came in limp and slack. + +We looked at each other sadly. + +"No use," sighed Dick at last. "They've never invented the words, and +we'd upset if we kicked the dog." + +I had the end of the line in my hands. + +"Look here!" I cried. That thick brass wire had been as cleanly bitten +through as though it had been cut with clippers. "He must have caught +sight of you," said I. + +Dick lifted up his voice in lamentation. "You had four feet of him out +of water," he wailed, "and there was a lot more." + +"If you had kept cool," said I severely, "we shouldn't have lost him. +You don't want to get rattled in an emergency; there's no sense in it." + +"What were you going to do with that?" asked Dick, pointing to where I +had laid the pistol. + +"I was going to shoot him in the head," I replied with dignity. "It's +the best way to land them." + +Dick laughed disagreeably. I looked down. At my side lay our largest +iron spoon. + +We skirted the left-hand side of the lake in silence. Far out from +shore the water was ruffled where the wind swept down, but with us it +was as still and calm as the forest trees that looked over into it. +After a time we turned short to the left through a very narrow passage +between two marshy shores, and so, after a sharp bend of but a few +hundred feet, came into the other river. + +This was a wide stream, smoothly hurrying, without rapids or tumult. +The forest had drawn to either side to let us pass. Here were the +wilder reaches after the intimacies of the little river. Across +stretches of marsh we could see an occasional great blue heron standing +mid-leg deep. Long strings of ducks struggled quacking from invisible +pools. The faint marsh odour saluted our nostrils from the point where +the lily-pads flashed broadly, ruffling in the wind. We dropped out the +smaller spoon and masterfully landed a five-pound pickerel. Even Deuce +brightened. He cared nothing for raw fish, but he knew their +possibilities. Towards evening we entered the hilly country, and so at +the last turned to the left into a sand cove where grew maples and +birches in beautiful park order under a hill. There we pitched camp, +and, as the flies lacked, built a friendship-fire about which to +forgather when the day was done. + +Dick still vocally regretted the muscallunge told him of my big bear. + +One day, late in the summer, I was engaged in packing some supplies +along an old fur trail north of Lake Superior. I had accomplished one +back-load, and with empty straps was returning to the cache for +another. The trail at one point emerged into and crossed an open park +some hundreds of feet in diameter, in which the grass grew to the +height of the knee. When I was about halfway across, a black bear arose +to his hind legs not ten feet from me, and remarked _Woof!_ in a +loud tone of voice. Now, if a man were to say _woof_ to you +unexpectedly, even in the formality of an Italian garden or the +accustomedness of a city street, you would be somewhat startled. So I +went to camp. There I told them about the bear. I tried to be +conservative in my description, because I did not wish to be accused of +exaggeration. My impression of the animal was that he and a spruce tree +that grew near enough for ready comparison were approximately of the +same stature. We returned to the grass park. After some difficulty we +found a clear footprint. It was a little larger than that made by a +good-sized coon. + +"So, you see," I admonished didactically, "that lunge probably was not +quite so large as you thought." + +"It may have been a Chinese bear," said Dick dreamily--"a Chinese lady +bear of high degree." + +I gave him up. + + + + +VII. + +ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING. + +"It is there that I am going, with an extra hand to bail her-- +Just one single long-shore loafer that I know. He can take his chance +of drowning while I sail and sail and sail her, For the Red Gods call +me out, and I must go." + + +The following morning the wind had died, but had been succeeded by a +heavy pall of fog. After we had felt our way beyond the mouth of the +river we were forced to paddle north-west by north, in blind reliance +on our compass. Sounds there were none. Involuntarily we lowered our +voices. The inadvertent click of the paddle against the gunwale seemed +to desecrate a foreordained stillness. + +Occasionally to the right hand or the left we made out faint +shadow-pictures of wooded islands that endured but a moment and then +deliberately faded into whiteness. They formed on the view exactly as +an image develops on a photographic plate. Sometimes a faint +_lisp-lisp-lisp_ of tiny waves against a shore nearer than it +seemed cautioned us anew not to break the silence. Otherwise we were +alone, intruders, suffered in the presence of a brooding nature only as +long as we refrained from disturbances. + +Then at noon the vapours began to eddy, to open momentarily in +revelation of vivid green glimpses, to stream down the rising wind. +Pale sunlight dashed fitfully across us like a shower. Somewhere in the +invisibility a duck quacked. Deuce awoke, looked about him, and +_yow-yow-yowed_ in doggish relief. Animals understand thoroughly +these subtleties of nature. + +In half an hour the sun was strong, the air clear and sparkling, and a +freshening wind was certifying our prognostications of a lively +afternoon. + +A light canoe will stand almost anything in the way of a sea, although +you may find it impossible sometimes to force it in the direction you +wish to go. A loaded canoe will weather a great deal more than you +might think. However, only experience in balance and in the nature of +waves will bring you safely across a stretch of whitecaps. + +With the sea dead ahead you must not go too fast; otherwise you will +dip water over the bow. You must trim the craft absolutely on an even +keel; otherwise the comb of the wave, too light to lift you, will slop +in over one gunwale or the other. You must be perpetually watching your +chance to gain a foot or so between the heavier seas. + +With the sea over one bow you must paddle on the leeward side. When the +canoe mounts a wave, you must allow the crest to throw the bow off a +trifle, but the moment it starts down the other slope you must twist +your paddle sharply to regain the direction of your course. The +careening tendency of this twist you must counteract by a corresponding +twist of your body in the other direction. Then the hollow will allow +you two or three strokes wherewith to assure a little progress. The +double twist at the very crest of the wave must be very delicately +performed, or you will ship water the whole length of your craft. + +With the sea abeam you must simply paddle straight ahead. The +adjustment is to be accomplished entirely by the poise of the body. You +must prevent the capsize of your canoe when clinging to the angle of a +wave by leaning to one side. The crucial moment, of course, is that +during which the peak of the wave slips under you. In case of a +breaking comber, thrust the flat of your paddle deep in the water to +prevent an upset, and lean well to leeward, thus presenting the side +and half the bottom of the canoe to the shock of water. Your recovery +must be instant, however. If you lean a second too long, over you go. +This sounds more difficult than it is. After a time you do it +instinctively, as a skater balances. + +With the sea over the quarter you have merely to take care that the +waves do not slue you around sidewise, and that the canoe does not dip +water on one side or the other under the stress of your twists with the +paddle. Dead astern is perhaps the most difficult of all, for the +reason that you must watch both gunwales at once, and must preserve an +absolutely even keel, in spite of the fact that it generally requires +your utmost strength to steer. In really heavy weather one man only +can do any work. The other must be content to remain passenger, and he +must be trained to absolute immobility. No matter how dangerous a +careen the canoe may take, no matter how much good cold water may pour +in over his legs, he must resist his tendency to shift his weight. The +entire issue depends on the delicacy of the steersman's adjustments, so +he must be given every chance. + +The main difficulty rests in the fact that such canoeing is a good deal +like air-ship travel--there is not much opportunity to learn by +experience. In a four-hour run across an open bay you will encounter +somewhat over a thousand waves, no two of which are exactly alike, and +any one of which can fill you up only too easily if it is not correctly +met. Your experience is called on to solve instantly and practically a +thousand problems. No breathing-space in which to recover is permitted +you between them. At the end of the four hours you awaken to the fact +that your eyes are strained from intense concentration, and that you +taste copper. + +Probably nothing, however, can more effectively wake you up to the last +fibre of your physical, intellectual, and nervous being. You are filled +with an exhilaration. Every muscle, strung tight, answers immediately +and accurately to the slightest hint. You quiver all over with +restrained energy. Your mind thrusts behind you the problem of the last +wave as soon as solved, and leaps with insistent eagerness to the next. +You attain that superordinary condition when your faculties react +instinctively, like a machine. It is a species of intoxication. After a +time you personify each wave; you grapple with it as with a personal +adversary; you exult as, beaten and broken, it hisses away to leeward. +"Go it, you son of a gun!" you shout. "Ah, you would, would you! think +you can, do you?" and in the roar and rush of wind and water you crouch +like a boxer on the defence, parrying the blows, but ready at the +slightest opening to gain a stroke of the paddle. + +In such circumstances you have not the leisure to consider distance. +You are too busily engaged in slaughtering waves to consider your rate +of progress. The fact that slowly you are pulling up on your objective +point does not occur to you until you are within a few hundred yards of +it. Then, unless you are careful, you are undone. + +Probably the most difficult thing of all to learn is that the waves to +be encountered in the last hundred yards of an open sweep are exactly +as dangerous as those you dodged so fearfully four miles from shore. +You are so nearly in that you unconsciously relax your efforts. Calmly, +almost contemptuously, a big roller rips along your gunwale. You are +wrecked--fortunately within easy swimming distance. But that doesn't +save your duffel. Remember this: be just as careful with the very last +wave as you were with the others. Get inside before you draw that deep +breath of relief. + +Strangely enough, in out-of-door sports, where it would seem that +convention would rest practically at the zero point, the bugbear of +good form, although mashed and disguised, rises up to confuse the +directed practicality. The average man is wedded to his theory. He has +seen a thing done in a certain way, and he not only always does it that +way himself, but he is positively unhappy at seeing any one else +employing a different method. From the swing at golf to the manner of +lighting a match in the wind, this truism applies. I remember once +hearing a long argument with an Eastern man on the question of the +English riding-seat in the Western country. + +"Your method is all very well," said the Westerner, "for where it came +from. In England they ride to hunt, so they need a light saddle and +very short stirrups set well forward. That helps them in jumping. But +it is most awkward. Out here you want your stirrups very long and +directly under you, so your legs hang loose, and you depend on your +balance and the grip of your thighs--not your knees. It is less tiring, +and better sense, and infinitely more graceful, for it more nearly +approximates the bareback seat. Instead of depending on stirrups, you +are part of the horse. You follow his every movement. And as for your +rising trot, I'd like to see you accomplish it safely on our mountain +trails, where the trot is the only gait practicable, unless you take +for ever to get anywhere." To all of which the Easterner found no +rebuttal except the, to him, entirely efficient plea that his own +method was good form. + +Now, of course, it is very pleasant to do things always accurately, +according to the rules of the game, and if you are out merely for +sport, perhaps it is as well to stick to them. But utility is another +matter. Personally, I do not care at all to kill trout unless by the +fly; but when we need meat and they do not need flies, I never hesitate +to offer them any kind of doodle-bug they may fancy. I have even at a +pinch clubbed them to death in a shallow, land-locked pool. Time will +come in your open-water canoe experience when you will pull into +shelter half full of water, when you will be glad of the fortuity of a +chance cross-wave to help you out, when sheer blind luck, or main +strength and awkwardness, will be the only reasons you can honestly +give for an arrival, and a battered and dishevelled arrival at that. Do +not, therefore, repine, or bewail your awkwardness, or indulge in undue +self-accusations of "tenderfoot." Method is nothing; the arrival is the +important thing. You are travelling, and if you can make time by nearly +swamping yourself, or by dragging your craft across a point, or by +taking any other base advantage of the game's formality, by all means +do so. Deuce used to solve the problem of comfort by drinking the +little pool of cold water in which he sometimes was forced to lie. In +the woods, when a thing is to be done, do not consider how you have +done it, or how you have seen it done, or how you think it ought to be +done, but how it _can_ be accomplished. Absolute fluidity of +expedient, perfect adaptability, is worth a dozen volumes of +theoretical knowledge. "If you can't talk," goes the Western +expression, "raise a yell; if you can't yell, make signs; if you can't +make signs, wave a bush." + +And do not be too ready to take advice as to what you can or cannot +accomplish, even from the woods people. Of course the woods Indians or +the _voyageurs_ know all about canoes, and you would do well to +listen to them. But the mere fact that your interlocutor lives in the +forest, while you normally inhabit the towns, does not necessarily give +him authority. A community used to horses looks with horror on the +instability of all water craft less solid than canal boats. Canoemen +stand in awe of the bronco. The fishermen of the Georgian Bay, +accustomed to venture out with their open sailboats in weather that +forces the big lake schooners to shelter, know absolutely nothing about +canoes. Dick and I made an eight-mile run from the Fox island to +Killarney in a trifling sea, to be cheered during our stay at the +latter place by doleful predictions of an early drowning. And this from +a seafaring community. It knew all about boats; it knew nothing about +canoes; and yet the unthinking might have been influenced by the advice +of these men simply because they had been brought up on the water. The +point is obvious. Do not attempt a thing unless you are sure of +yourself; but do not relinquish it merely because some one else is not +sure of you. + +The best way to learn is with a bathing-suit. Keep near shore, and try +everything. Don't attempt the real thing until your handling in a heavy +sea has become as instinctive as snap-shooting or the steps of dancing. +Remain on the hither side of caution when you start out. Act at first +as though every wavelet would surely swamp you. Extend the scope of +your operations very gradually, until you know just what you can do. +_Never_ get careless. Never take any _real_ chances. That's +all. + + + + +VIII. + +THE STRANDED STRANGERS. + + +As we progressed, the country grew more and more solemnly aloof. In the +Southland is a certain appearance of mobility, lent by the deciduous +trees, the warm sun, the intimate nooks in which grow the commoner +homely weeds and flowers, the abundance of bees and musical insects, +the childhood familiarity of the well-known birds, even the pleasantly +fickle aspects of the skies. But the North wraps itself in a mantle of +awe. Great hills rest not so much in the stillness of sleep as in the +calm of a mighty comprehension. The pines, rank after rank, file after +file, are always trooping somewhere, up the slope, to pause at the +crest before descending on the other side into the unknown. Bodies of +water exactly of the size, shape, and general appearance we are +accustomed to see dotted with pleasure craft and bordered with wharves, +summer cottages, pavilions, and hotels, accentuate by that very fact a +solitude that harbours only a pair of weirdly laughing loons. Like the +hills, these lakes are lying in a deep, still repose, but a repose that +somehow suggests the comprehending calm of those behind the veil. The +whole country seems to rest in a suspense of waiting. A shot breaks the +stillness for an instant, but its very memory is shadowy a moment after +the echoes die. Inevitably the traveller feels thrust in upon himself +by a neutrality more deadly than open hostility would be. Hostility at +least supposes recognition of his existence, a rousing of forces to +oppose him. This ignores. One can no longer wonder at the taciturnity +of the men who dwell here; nor does one fail to grasp the eminent +suitability to the country of its Indian name--the Silent Places. + +Even the birds, joyful, lively, commonplace little people that they +are, draw some of this aloofness to themselves. The North is full of +the homelier singers. A dozen species of warblers lisp music-box +phrases, two or three sparrows whistle a cheerful repertoire, the +nuthatches and chickadees toot away in blissful _bourgeoisie_. And +yet, somehow, that very circumstance thrusts the imaginative voyager +outside the companionship of their friendliness. In the face of the +great gods they move with accustomed familiarity. Somehow they possess +in their little experience that which explains the mystery, so that +they no longer stand in its awe. Their everyday lives are spent under +the shadow of the temple whither you dare not bend your footsteps. The +intimacy of occult things isolates also these wise little birds. + +The North speaks, however, only in the voices of three--the two +thrushes, and the white-throated sparrow. You must hear these each at +his proper time. + +The hermit thrush you will rarely see. But late some afternoon, when +the sun is lifting along the trunks of the hardwood forest, if you are +very lucky and very quiet, you will hear him far in the depth of the +blackest swamps. Musically expressed, his song is very much like that +of the wood thrush--three cadenced liquid notes, a quivering pause, +then three more notes of another phrase, and so on. But the fineness of +its quality makes of it an entirely different performance. If you +symbolize the hermit thrush by the flute, you must call the wood thrush +a chime of little tinkling bells. One is a rendition; the other the +essence of liquid music. An effect of gold-embroidered richness, of +depth going down to the very soul of things, a haunting suggestion of +having touched very near to the source of tears, a conviction that the +just interpretation of the song would be an equally just interpretation +of black woods, deep shadows, cloistered sunlight, brooding +hills--these are the subtle and elusive impressions you will receive in +the middle of the ancient forest. + +The olive-backed thrush you will enjoy after your day's work is quite +finished. You will see him through the tobacco haze, perched on a limb +against the evening sky. He utters a loud joyful _chirp_ pauses +for the attention he thus solicits, and then deliberately runs up five +mellow double notes, ending with a metallic "_ting_ chee chee +chee" that sounds as though it had been struck on a triangle. Then a +silence of exactly nine seconds and repeat. As regularly as clock-work +this performance goes on. Time him as often as you will, you can never +convict him of a second's variation. And he is so optimistic and +willing, and his notes are so golden with the yellow of sunshine! + +The white-throated sparrow sings nine distinct variations of the same +song. He may sing more, but that is all I have counted. He inhabits +woods, berry-vines, brulés, and clearings. Ordinarily he is cheerful, +and occasionally aggravating. One man I knew he drove nearly crazy. To +that man he was always saying, "_And he never heard the man say drink +and the_----." Toward the last my friend used wildly to offer him a +thousand dollars if he would, if he only _would_, finish that +sentence. But occasionally, in just the proper circumstances, he +forgets his stump corners, his vines, his jolly sunlight, and his +delightful bugs to become the intimate voice of the wilds. It is night, +very still, Very dark. The subdued murmur of the forest ebbs and flows +with the voices of the furtive folk--an undertone fearful to break the +night calm. Suddenly across the dusk of silence flashes a single thread +of silver, vibrating, trembling with some unguessed ecstasy of emotion: +"_Ah! poor Canada Canada Canada Canada!_" it mourns passionately, +and falls silent. That is all. + +You will hear at various times other birds peculiarly of the North. +Loons alternately calling and uttering their maniac laughter; purple +finches or some of the pine sparrows warbling high and clear; the +winter wren, whose rapturous ravings never fail to strike the attention +of the dullest passer; all these are exclusively Northern voices, and +each expresses some phase or mood of the Silent Places. But none +symbolizes as do the three. And when first you hear one of them after +an absence, you are satisfied that things are right in the world, for +the North Country's spirit is as it was. + +Now ensued a spell of calm weather, with a film of haze over the sky. +The water lay like quicksilver, heavy and inert. Toward afternoon it +became opalescent. The very substance of the liquid itself seemed +impregnated with dyes ranging in shade from wine colour to the most +delicate lilac. Through a smoke veil the sun hung, a ball of red, while +beneath every island, every rock, every tree, every wild fowl floating +idly in a medium apparently too delicate for its support, lurked the +beautiful crimson shadows of the North. + +[Illustration: EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE +SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT SWAMPING.] + +Hour after hour, day after day, we slipped on. Point after point, +island after island, presented itself silently to our inspection and +dropped quietly astern. The beat of paddles fitted monotonously into +the almost portentous stillness. It seemed that we might be able to go +on thus for ever, lapped in the dream of some forgotten magic that had +stricken breathless the life of the world. And then, suddenly, three +weeks on our journey, we came to a town. + +It was not the typical fur town of the Far North, but it lay at the +threshold. A single street, worn smooth by the feet of men and dogs, +but innocent of hoofs, fronted the channel. A board walk, elevated +against the snows, bordered a row of whitewashed log and frame houses, +each with its garden of brilliant flowers. A dozen wharves of various +sizes, over whose edges peeped the double masts of Mackinaw boats, +spoke of a fishing community. Between the roofs one caught glimpses of +a low sparse woods and some thousand-foot hills beyond. We subsequently +added the charm of isolation in learning that the nearest telegraph +line was fifteen miles distant, while the railroad passed some fifty +miles away. + +Dick immediately went wild. It was his first glimpse of the mixed +peoples. A dozen loungers, handsome, careless, graceful with the +inimitable elegance of the half-breed's leisure, chatted, rolled +cigarettes, and surveyed with heavy-eyed indolence such of the town as +could be viewed from the shade in which they lay. Three girls, in whose +dark cheeks glowed a rich French comeliness, were comparing purchases +near the store. A group of rivermen, spike-booted, short-trousered, +reckless of air, with their little round hats over one ear, sat +chair-tilted outside the "hotel." Across the dividing fences of two of +the blazoned gardens a pair of old crones gossiped under their breaths. +Some Indians smoked silently at the edge of one of the docks. In the +distance of the street's end a French priest added the quaintness of +his cassock to the exotic atmosphere of the scene. At once a pack of +the fierce sledge-dogs left their foraging for the offal of the +fisheries, to bound challenging in the direction of poor Deuce. That +highbred animal fruitlessly attempted to combine dignity with a +discretionary lurking between our legs. We made demonstrations with +sticks, and sought out the hotel, for it was about time to eat. + +We had supper at a table with three Forest Rangers, two lumber-jacks, +and a cat-like handsome "breed" whose business did not appear. Then we +lit up and strolled about to see what we could see. + +On the text of a pair of brass knuckles hanging behind the hotel bar I +embroidered many experiences with the lumberjack. I told of a Wisconsin +town where an enforced wait of five hours enabled me to establish the +proportion of fourteen saloons out of a total of twenty frame +buildings. I descanted craftily on the character of the woodsman out of +the woods and in the right frame of mind for deviltry. I related how +Jack Boyd, irritated beyond endurance at the annoyances of a stranger, +finally with the flat of his hand boxed the man's head so mightily that +he whirled around twice and sat down. + +"Now," said Jack softly, "be more careful, my friend, or next time I'll +_hit_ you." Or of a little Irishman who shouted to his friends +about to pull a big man from pounding the life quite out of him, "Let +him alone! let him alone! I may be on top myself in a few minutes!" And +of Dave Walker, who fought to a standstill with his bare fists alone +five men who had sworn to kill him. And again of that doughty knight of +the peavie who, when attacked by an axe, waved aside interference with +the truly dauntless cry, "Leave him be, boys; there's an axe between +us!" + +I tried to sketch, too, the drive, wherein a dozen times in an hour +these men face death with a smile or a curse--the raging untamed river, +the fierce rush of the logs, the cool little human beings poising with +a certain contemptuous preciosity on the edge of destruction as they +herd their brutish multitudes. + +There was Jimmy, the river boss, who could not swim a stroke, and who +was incontinently swept over a dam and into the boiling back-set of the +eddy below. Three times, gasping, strangling, drowning, he was carried +in the wide swirl of the circle, sometimes under, sometimes on top. +Then his knee touched a sand-bar, and he dragged himself painfully +ashore. He coughed up a quantity of water, and gave vent to his +feelings over a miraculous escape. "Damn it all!" he wailed, "I lost my +peavie!" + +"On the Paint River drive one spring," said I, "a jam formed that +extended up river some three miles. The men were working at the breast +of it, some underneath, some on top. After a time the jam apparently +broke, pulled downstream a hundred feet or so, and plugged again. Then +it was seen that only a small section had moved, leaving the main body +still jammed, so that between the two sections lay a narrow stretch of +open water. Into this open water one of the men had fallen. Before he +could recover, the second or tail section of the jam started to pull. +Apparently nothing could prevent him from being crushed. A man called +Sam--I don't know his last name--ran down the tail of the first +section, across the loose logs bobbing in the open water, seized the +victim of the accident by the collar, desperately scaled the face of +the moving jam, and reached the top just as the two sections ground +together with the brutish noise of wrecking timbers. It was a +magnificent rescue. Any but these men of iron would have adjourned for +thanks and congratulations. + +"Still retaining his hold on the other man's collar, Sam twisted him +about and delivered a vigorous kick. '_There_, damn you!' said he. +That was all. They fell to work at once to keep the jam moving." + +I instanced, too, some of the feats of river-work these men could +perform. Of how Jack Boyd has been known to float twenty miles without +shifting his feet, on a log so small that he carried it to the water on +his shoulder; of how a dozen rivermen, one after the other, would often +go through the chute of a dam standing upright on single logs; of +O'Donnell, who could turn a somersault on a floating pine log; of the +birling matches, wherein two men on a single log try to throw each +other into the river by treading, squirrel fashion, in faster and +faster rotation; of how a riverman and spiked boots and a saw-log can +do more work than an ordinary man with a rowboat. + +I do not suppose Dick believed all this--although it was strictly and +literally true--but his imagination was impressed. He gazed with +respect on the group at the far end of the street, where fifteen or +twenty lumber-jacks were interested in some amusement concealed from +us. + +"What do you suppose they are doing?" murmured Dick, awestricken. + +"Wrestling, or boxing, or gambling, or jumping," said I. + +We approached. Gravely, silently, intensely interested, the +cock-hatted, spikeshod, dangerous men were playing--croquet! + +The sight was too much for our nerves. We went away. + +The permanent inhabitants of the place we discovered to be friendly to +a degree. + +The Indian strain was evident in various dilution through all. Dick's +enthusiasm grew steadily until his artistic instincts became +aggressive, and he flatly announced his intention of staying at least +four days for the purpose of making sketches. We talked the matter +over. Finally it was agreed. Deuce and I were to make a wide circle to +the north and west as far as the Hudson's Bay post of Cloche, while +Dick filled his notebook. That night we slept in beds for the first +time. + +That is to say, we slept until about three o'clock. Then we became +vaguely conscious, through a haze of drowse--as one becomes conscious +in the pause of a sleeping-car--of voices outside our doors. Some one +said something about its being hardly much use to go to bed. Another +hoped the sheets were not damp. A succession of lights twinkled across +the walls of our room, and were vaguely explained by the coughing of a +steamboat. We sank into oblivion until the calling-bell brought us to +our feet. + +I happened to finish my toilet a little before Dick, and so descended +to the sunlight until he might be ready. Roosting on a gray old boulder +ten feet outside the door were two figures that made me want to rub my +eyes. + +The older was a square, ruddy-faced man of sixty, with neatly trimmed, +snow-white whiskers. He had on a soft Alpine hat of pearl gray, a +modishly cut gray homespun suit, a tie in which glimmered an opal pin, +wore tan gloves, and had slung over one shoulder by a narrow black +strap a pair of field-glasses. + +The younger was a tall and angular young fellow, of an eager and +sophomoric youth. His hair was very light and very smoothly brushed, +his eyes blue and rather near-sighted, his complexion pink, with an +obviously recent and superficial sunburn, and his clothes, from the +white Panama to the broad-soled low shoes, of the latest cut and +material. Instinctively I sought his fraternity pin. He looked as +though he might say "Rah! Rah!" something or other. A camera completed +his outfit. + +Tourists! How in the world did they get here? And then I remembered the +twinkle of the lights and the coughing of the steamboat. But what in +time could they be doing here? Picturesque as the place was, it held +nothing to appeal to the Baedeker spirit. I surveyed the pair with some +interest. + +"I suppose there is pretty good fishing around here," ventured the +elder. + +He evidently took me for an inhabitant. Remembering my faded blue shirt +and my floppy old hat and the red handkerchief about my neck and the +moccasins on my feet, I did not blame him. + +"I suppose there are bass among the islands," I replied. + +We fell into conversation. I learned that he and his son were from New +York. + +He learned, by a final direct question which was most significant of +his not belonging to the country, who I was. By chance he knew my name. +He opened his heart. + +"We came down on the _City of Flint_," said he. "My son and I are +on a vacation. We have been as far as the Yellowstone, and thought we +would like to see some of this country. I was assured that on this date +I could make connection with the _North Star_ for the south. I +told the purser of the _Flint_ not to wake us up unless the +_North Star_ was here at the docks. He bundled us off here at +three in the morning. The _North Star_ was not here; it is an +outrage!" + +He uttered various threats. + +"I thought the _North Star_ was running away south around the +Perry Sound region," I suggested. + +"Yes, but she was to begin to-day, June 16, to make this connection." +He produced a railroad folder. "It's in this," he continued. + +"Did you go by that thing?" I marvelled. + +"Why, of course," said he. + +"I forgot you were an American," said I. "You're in Canada now." + +He looked his bewilderment, so I hunted up Dick. I detailed the +situation. "He doesn't know the race," I concluded. "Soon he will be +trying to get information out of the agent. Let's be on hand." + +We were on hand. The tourist, his face very red, his whiskers very +white and bristly, marched importantly to the agent's office. The +latter comprised also the post-office, the fish depot, and a general +store. The agent was for the moment dickering _in re_ two pounds +of sugar. This transaction took five minutes to the pound. Mr. Tourist +waited. Then he opened up. The agent heard him placidly, as one who +listens to a curious tale. + +"What I want to know is, where's that boat?" ended the tourist. + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"Aren't you the agent of this company?" + +"Sure," replied the agent. + +"Then why don't you know something about its business and plans and +intentions?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"Do you think it would be any good to wait for the _North Star_? +Do you suppose they can be coming? Do you suppose they've altered the +schedule?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"When is the next boat through here?" + +I listened for the answer in trepidation, for I saw that another +"Couldn't say" would cause the red-faced tourist to blow up. To my +relief, the agent merely inquired,-- + +"North or south?" + +"South, of course. I just came from the north. What in the name of +everlasting blazes should I want to go north again for?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. "The next boat south gets in next +week, Tuesday or Wednesday." + +"Next week!" shrieked the tourist. + +"When's the next boat north?" interposed the son. + +"To-morrow morning." + +"What time?" + +"Couldn't say; you'd have to watch for her." + +"That's our boat, dad," said the young man. + +"But we've just _come_ from there!" snorted his father; "it's +three hundred miles back. It'll put us behind two days. I've got to be +in New York Friday. I've got an engagement." He turned suddenly to the +agent. "Here, I've got to send a telegram." + +The agent blinked placidly. "You'll not send it from here. This ain't a +telegraph station." + +"Where's the nearest station?" + +"Fifteen mile." + +Without further parley the old man turned and walked, stiff and +military, from the place. Near the end of the broad walk he met the +usual doddering but amiable oldest inhabitant. + +"Fine day," chirped the patriarch in well-meant friendliness. "They +jest brought in a bear cub over to Antoine's. If you'd like to take a +look at him, I'll show you where it is." + +The tourist stopped short and glared fiercely. + +"Sir," said he, "damn your bear!" Then he strode on, leaving grandpa +staring after him. + +In the course of the morning we became quite well acquainted, and he +resigned. The son appeared to take somewhat the humorous view all +through the affair, which must have irritated the old gentleman. They +discussed it rather thoroughly, and finally decided to retrace their +steps for a fresh start over a better-known route. This settled, the +senior seemed to feel relieved of a weight. He even saw and relished +certain funny phases of the incident, though he never ceased to +foretell different kinds of trouble for the company, varying in range +from mere complaints to the most tremendous of damage suits. + +He was much interested, finally, in our methods of travel, and then, in +logical sequence, with what he could see about him. He watched +curiously my loading of the canoe, for I had a three-mile stretch of +open water, and the wind was abroad. Deuce's empirical boat wisdom +aroused his admiration. He and his son were both at the shore to see me +off. + +Deuce settled himself in the bottom. I lifted the stern from the shore +and gently set it afloat. In a moment I was ready to start. + +"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" suddenly cried the father. + +I swirled my paddle back. The old gentleman was hastily fumbling in his +pockets. After an instant he descended to the water's edge. + +"Here," said he, "you are a judge of fiction; take this." + +It was his steamboat and railway folder. + + + + +IX. + +ON FLIES. + + +All the rest of the day I paddled under the frowning cliffs of the hill +ranges. Bold, bare, scarred, seamed with fissures, their precipice +rocks gave the impression of ten thousand feet rather that only so many +hundreds. Late in the afternoon we landed against a formation of +basaltic blocks cut as squarely up and down as a dock, and dropping off +into as deep water. The waves _chug-chug-chugged_ sullenly against +them, and the fringe of a dark pine forest, drawn back from a breadth +of natural grass, lowered across the horizon like a thunder-cloud. + +Deuce and I made camp with the uneasy feeling of being under inimical +inspection. A cold wind ruffled lead-like waters. No comfort was in the +prospect, so we retired early. Then it appeared that the coarse grass +of the park had bred innumerable black flies, and that we had our work +cut out for us. + +The question of flies--using that, to a woodsman, eminently connotive +word in its wide embracement of mosquitoes, sandflies, deer-flies, +black flies, and midges--is one much mooted in the craft. On no +subject are more widely divergent ideas expressed. One writer claims +that black flies' bites are but the temporary inconvenience of a +pin-prick; another tells of boils lasting a week as the invariable +result of their attentions; a third sweeps aside the whole question as +unimportant to concentrate his anathemas on the musical mosquito; still +a fourth descants on the maddening midge, and is prepared to defend his +claims against the world. A like dogmatic partisanship obtains in the +question of defences. Each and every man possessed of a tongue +wherewith to speak or a pen wherewith to write, heralds the particular +merits of his own fly-dope, head-net, or mosquito-proof tent-lining. +Eager advocates of the advantages of pork fat, kerosene, pine tar, +pennyroyal, oil of cloves, castor oil, lollacapop, or a half hundred +other concoctions, will assure you, tears in eyes, that his is the only +true faith. So many men, so many minds, until the theorist is confused +into doing the most uncomfortable thing possible--that is, to learn by +experience. + +As for the truth, it is at once in all of them and in none of them. The +annoyance of after-effects from a sting depends entirely on the +individual's physical makeup. Some people are so poisoned by mosquito +bites that three or four on the forehead suffice to close entirely the +victim's eyes. On others they leave but a small red mark without +swelling. Black flies caused festering sores on one man I accompanied +to the woods. In my own case they leave only a tiny blood-spot the size +of a pin-head, which bothers me not a bit. Midges nearly drove crazy +the same companion of mine, so that finally he jumped into the river, +clothes and all, to get rid of them. Again, merely my own experience +would lead me to regard them as a tremendous nuisance, but one quite +bearable. Indians are less susceptible than whites; nevertheless I have +seen them badly swelled behind the ears from the bites of the big +hardwood mosquito. + +You can make up your mind to one thing: from the first warm weather +until August you must expect to cope with insect pests. The black fly +will keep you busy until late afternoon; the midges will swarm you +about sunset; and the mosquito will preserve the tradition after you +have turned in. As for the deer-fly, and others of his piratical breed, +he will bite like a dog at any time. + +To me the most annoying species is the mosquito. The black fly is +sometimes most industrious--I have seen trout fishermen come into camp +with the blood literally streaming from their faces--but his great +recommendation is that he holds still to be killed. No frantic slaps, +no waving of arms, no muffled curses. You just place your finger calmly +and firmly on the spot. You get him every time. In this is great, +heart-lifting joy. It may be unholy joy, perhaps even vengeful, but it +leaves the spirit ecstatic. The satisfaction of _murdering_ the +beast that has had the nerve to light on you just as you are reeling in +almost counterbalances the pain of a sting. The midge, again, or +punkie, or "no-see-'um," just as you please, swarms down upon you +suddenly and with commendable vigour, so that you feel as though +red-hot pepper were being sprinkled on your bare skin; and his +invisibility and intangibility are such that you can never tell whether +you have killed him or not; but he doesn't last long, and dope routs +him totally. Your mosquito, however, is such a deliberate brute. He has +in him some of that divine fire which causes a dog to turn around nine +times before lying down. + +Whether he is selecting or gloating I do not know, but I do maintain +that the price of your life's blood is often not too great to pay for +the cessation of that hum. + +"Eet is not hees bite," said Billy the half-breed to me once--"eet is +hees sing." + +I agree with Billy. One mosquito in a tent can keep you awake for +hours. + +As to protection, it is varied enough in all conscience, and always +theoretically perfect. A head-net falling well down over your chest, or +even tied under your arm-pits, is at once the simplest and most +fallacious of these theories. It will keep vast numbers of flies out, +to be sure. It will also keep the few adventurous discoverers in, where +you can neither kill nor eject. Likewise you are deprived of your pipe; +and the common homely comfort of spitting on your bait is totally +denied you. The landscape takes on the prismatic colours of refraction, +so that, while you can easily make out red, white, and blue Chinese +dragons and mythological monsters, you are unable to discover the more +welcome succulence, say, of a partridge on a limb. And the end of that +head-net is to be picked to holes by the brush, and finally to be +snatched from you to sapling height, whence your pains will rescue it +only in a useless condition. Probably then you will dance the war-dance +of exasperation on its dismembered remains. Still, there are times--in +case of straight-away river paddling, or open walking, or lengthened +waiting--when the net is a great comfort. And it is easily included in +the pack. + +Next in order come the various "dopes." And they are various. From the +stickiest, blackest pastes to the silkiest, suavest oils they range, +through the grades of essence, salve, and cream. Every man has his own +recipe--the infallible. As a general rule, it may be stated that the +thicker kinds last longer and are generally more thoroughly effective, +but the lighter are pleasanter to wear, though requiring more frequent +application. At a pinch, ordinary pork fat is good. The Indians often +make temporary use of the broad caribou leaf, crushing it between their +palms and rubbing the juices on the skin. I know by experience that +this is effective, but very transitory. It is, however, a good thing to +use when resting on the trail, for, by the grace of Providence, flies +are rarely bothersome as long as you are moving at a fair gait. + +This does not always hold good, however, any more than the best +fly-dope is always effective. I remember most vividly the first day of +a return journey from the shores of the Hudson Bay. The weather was +rather oppressively close and overcast. + +We had paddled a few miles up river from the fur trading-post, and then +had landed in order to lighten the canoe for the ascent against the +current. At that point the forest has already begun to dwindle towards +the Land of Little Sticks, so that often miles and miles of open +muskegs will intervene between groups of the stunted trees. Jim and I +found ourselves a little over waist deep in luxuriant and tangled +grasses that impeded and clogged our every footstep. Never shall I +forget that country--its sad and lonely isolation, its dull lead sky, +its silence, and the closeness of its stifling atmosphere--and never +shall I see it otherwise than as in a dense brown haze, a haze composed +of swarming millions of mosquitoes. There is not the slightest +exaggeration in the statement. At every step new multitudes rushed into +our faces to join the old. At times Jim's back was so covered with them +that they almost overlaid the colour of the cloth. And as near as we +could see, every square foot of the thousands of acres quartered its +hordes. + +We doped liberally, but without the slightest apparent effect. Probably +two million squeamish mosquitoes were driven away by the disgust of our +medicaments, but what good did that do us when eight million others +were not so particular? At the last we hung bandanas under our hats, +cut fans of leaves, and stumbled on through a most miserable day until +we could build a smudge at evening. + +For smoke is usually a specific. Not always, however: some midges seem +to delight in it. The Indians make a tiny blaze of birch bark and pine +twigs deep in a nest of grass and caribou leaves. When the flame is +well started, they twist the growing vegetation canopy-wise above it. + +In that manner they gain a few minutes of dense, acrid smoke, which is +enough for an Indian. A white man, however, needs something more +elaborate. + +The chief reason for your initial failure in making an effective smudge +will be that you will not get your fire well started before piling on +the damp smoke-material. It need not be a conflagration, but it should +be bright and glowing, so that the punk birch or maple wood you add +will not smother it entirely. After it is completed, you will not have +to sit coughing in the thick of fumigation, as do many, but only to +leeward and underneath. Your hat used as a fan will eddy the smoke +temporarily into desirable nooks and crevices. I have slept without +annoyance on the Great Plains, where the mosquitoes seem to go in +organized and predatory bands, merely by lying beneath a smudge that +passed at least five feet above me. You will find the frying-pan a +handy brazier for the accommodation of a movable smoke to be +transported to the interior of the tent. And it does not in the least +hurt the frying-pan. These be hints, briefly spoken, out of which at +times you may have to construct elaborate campaigns. + +But you come to grapples in the defence of comfort when night +approaches. If you can eat and sleep well, you can stand almost any +hardship. The night's rest is as carefully to be fore-assured as the +food that sustains you. No precaution is too elaborate to certify +unbroken repose. By dark you will discover the peak of your tent to be +liberally speckled with insects of all sorts. Especially is this true +of an evening that threatens rain. Your smudge-pan may drive away the +mosquitoes, but merely stupefies the other varieties. You are forced to +the manipulation of a balsam fan. + +In your use of this simple implement you will betray the extent of your +experience. Dick used at first to begin at the rear peak and brush as +rapidly as possible toward the opening. The flies, thoroughly aroused, +eddied about a few frantic moments, like leaves in an autumn wind, +finally to settle close to the sod in the crannies between the +tent-wall and the ground. Then Dick would lie flat on his belly in +order to brush with equal vigour at these new lurking-places. The flies +repeated the autumn-leaf effect, and returned to the rear peak. This +was amusing to me, and furnished the flies with healthful, appetizing +exercise, but was bad for Dick's soul. After a time he discovered the +only successful method is the gentle one. Then he began at the peak and +brushed forward slowly, very, very slowly, so that the limited +intellect of his visitors did not become confused. Thus when they +arrived at the opening they saw it and used it, instead of searching +frantically for corners in which to hide from apparently vengeful +destruction. Then he would close his tent-flap securely, and turn in at +once. So he was able to sleep until earliest daylight. At that time the +mosquitoes again found him out. + +Nine out of ten--perhaps ninety-nine out of a hundred--sleep in open +tents. For absolute and perfect comfort proceed as follows:--Have your +tent-maker sew you a tent of cheese-cloth[*] with the same dimensions +as your shelter, except that the walls should be loose and voluminous +at the bottom. It should have no openings. + +[Footnote *: Do not allow yourself to be talked into substituting +mosquito-bar or bobinet. Any mesh coarser than cheese-cloth will prove +pregnable to the most enterprising of the smaller species.] + +Suspend this affair inside your tent by means of cords or tapes. Drop +it about you. Spread it out. Lay rod-cases, duffel-bags, or rocks along +its lower edges to keep it spread. You will sleep beneath it like a +child in winter. No driving out of reluctant flies; no enforced early +rising; no danger of a single overlooked insect to make the midnight +miserable. The cheese-cloth weighs almost nothing, can be looped up out +of the way in the daytime, admits the air readily. Nothing could fill +the soul with more ecstatic satisfaction than to lie for a moment +before going to sleep listening to a noise outside like an able-bodied +sawmill that indicates the _ping-gosh_ are abroad. + +It would be unfair to leave the subject without a passing reference to +its effect on the imagination. We are all familiar with comic paper +mosquito stories, and some of them are very good. But until actual +experience takes you by the hand and leads you into the realm of pure +fancy, you will never know of what improvisation the human mind is +capable. + +The picture rises before my mind of the cabin of a twenty-eight-foot +cutter-sloop just before the dawn of a midsummer day. The sloop was +made for business, and the cabin harmonized exactly with the +sloop--painted pine, wooden bunks without mattresses, camp-blankets, +duffel-bags slung up because all the floor place had been requisitioned +for sleeping purposes. We were anchored a hundred feet off land from +Pilot Cove, on the uninhabited north shore. The mosquitoes had +adventured on the deep. We lay half asleep. + +"On the middle rafter," murmured the Football Man, "is one old fellow +giving signals." + +"A quartette is singing drinking-songs on my nose," muttered the Glee +Club Man. + +"We won't need to cook," I suggested somnolently. "We can run up and +down on deck with our mouths open and get enough for breakfast." + +The fourth member opened one eye. "Boys," he breathed, "we won't be +able to go on to-morrow unless we give up having any more biscuits." + +After a time some one murmured, "Why?" + +"We'll have to use all the lard on the mast. They're so mad because +they can't get at us that they're biting the mast. It's already swelled +up as big as a barrel. We'll never be able to get the mainsail up. Any +of you boys got any vaseline? Perhaps a little fly-dope--" + +But we snored vigorously in unison. The Indians say that when Kitch' +Manitou had created men he was dissatisfied, and so brought women into +being. At once love-making began, and then, as now, the couples sought +solitude for their exchanges of vows, their sighings to the moon, their +claspings of hands. Marriages ensued. The situation remained unchanged. +Life was one perpetual honeymoon. I suppose the novelty was fresh and +the sexes had not yet realized they would not part as abruptly as they +had been brought together. The villages were deserted, while the woods +and bushes were populous with wedded and unwedded lovers. Kitch' +Manitou looked on the proceedings with disapproval. All this was most +romantic and beautiful, no doubt, but in the meantime mi-dáw-min, the +corn, mi-nó-men, the rice, grew rank and uncultivated; while bis-íw, +the lynx, and swingwáage, the wolverine, and me-én-gan, the wolf, +committed unchecked depredations among the weaker forest creatures. The +business of life was being sadly neglected. So Kitch' Manitou took +counsel with himself, and created sáw-gi-may, the mosquito, to whom he +gave as dwelling the woods and bushes. That took the romance out of the +situation. As my narrator grimly expressed it, "Him come back, go to +work." + +Certainly it should be most effective. Even the thick-skinned moose is +not exempt from discomfort. At certain seasons the canoe voyager in the +Far North will run upon a dozen in the course of a day's travel, +standing nose-deep in the river merely to escape the insect pests. + +However, this is to be remembered: after the first of August they +bother very little; before that time the campaign I have outlined is +effective; even in fly season the worst days are infrequent. In the +woods you must expect to pay a certain price in discomfort for a very +real and very deep pleasure. Wet, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, difficult +travel, insects, hard beds, aching muscles--all these at one time or +another will be your portion. If you are of the class that cannot have +a good time unless everything is right with it, stay out of the woods. +One thing at least will always be wrong. When you have gained the +faculty of ignoring the one disagreeable thing and concentrating your +powers on the compensations, then you will have become a true woodsman, +and to your desires the forest will always be calling. + + + + +X. + +CLOCHE. + + +Imagine a many-armed lake, like a starfish, nested among rugged +Laurentian hills, whose brows are bare and forbidding, but whose +concealed ravines harbour each its cool screen of forest growth. +Imagine a brawling stream escaping at one of the arms, to tumble, +intermittently visible among the trees, down a series of cascades and +rapids, to the broad, island-dotted calm of the big lake. Imagine a +meadow at the mouth of this stream, and on the meadow a single white +dot. Thus you will see Cloche, a trading-post of the Honourable the +Hudson's Bay Company, as Deuce and I saw it from the summit of the +hills. + +We had accomplished a very hard scramble, which started well enough in +a ravine so leafy and green and impenetrable that we might well have +imagined ourselves in a boundless forest. Deuce had scented sundry +partridges, which he had pointed with entire deference to the good form +of a sporting dog's conventions. As usual, to Deuce's never-failing +surprise and disgust, the birds had proved themselves most uncultivated +and rude persons by hopping promptly into trees instead of lying to +point and then flushing as a well-taught partridge should. I had +refused to pull pistol on them. Deuce's heart was broken. Then, +finally, we came to cliffs up which we had to scale, and boulders which +we had to climb, and fissures which we had to jump or cross on fallen +trees, and wide, bare sweeps of rock and blueberry bushes which we had +to cover, until at last we stood where we could look all ways at once. + +The starfish thrust his insinuating arms in among the distant hills to +the north. League after league, rising and falling and rising again +into ever bluer distance, forest-covered, mysterious, other ranges and +systems lifted, until at last, far out, nearly at the horizon-height of +my eye, flashed again the gleam of water. And so the starfish arms of +the little lake at my feet seemed to have plunged into this wilderness +tangle only to reappear at greater distance. Like swamp-fire, it lured +the imagination always on and on and on through the secret waterways of +the uninhabited North. It was as though I stood on the dividing ridge +between the old and the new. Through the southern haze, hull down, I +thought to make out the smoke of a Great Lake freighter; from the +shelter of a distant cove I was not surprised a moment later to see +emerge a tiny speck whose movements betrayed it as a birch canoe. The +great North was at this, the most southern of the Hudson's Bay posts, +striking a pin-point of contact with the world of men. + +Deuce and I angled down the mountain toward the stream. Our arrival +coincided with that of the canoe. It was of the Ojibway three-fathom +pattern, and contained a half-dozen packs, a sledge-dog, with whom +Deuce at once opened guarded negotiations, an old Indian, a squaw, and +a child of six or eight. We exchanged brief greetings. Then I sat on a +stump and watched the portage. + +These were evidently "Woods Indians," an entirely different article +from the "Post Indians." They wore their hair long, and bound by a +narrow strip or fillet; their faces were hard and deeply lined, with a +fine, bold, far-seeing look to the eyes which comes only from long +woods dwelling. They walked, even under heavy loads, with a sagging, +springy gait, at once sure-footed and swift. Instead of tump-lines the +man used his sash, and the woman a blanket knotted loosely together at +the ends. The details of their costumes were interesting in combination +of jeans and buckskin, broadcloth and blanket, stroud and a material +evidently made from the strong white sacking in which flour intended +for frontier consumption is always packed. After the first +double-barrelled "bo' jou', bo' jou'," they paid no further attention +to me. In a few moments the portage was completed. The woman thrust her +paddle against the stream's bottom and the canoe, and so embarked. The +man stepped smoothly to his place like a cat leaping from a chair. They +shot away with the current, leaving behind them a strange and +mysterious impression of silence. + +I followed down a narrow but well-beaten trail, and so at the end of a +half-mile came to the meadow and the post of Cloche. + +The building itself was accurately of the Hudson Bay type--a steep, +sloping roof greater in front than behind, a deep recessed veranda, +squared logs sheathed with whitewashed boards. About it was a little +garden, which, besides the usual flowers and vegetables, contained such +exotics as a deer confined to a pen and a bear chained to a stake. As I +approached, the door opened and the Trader came out. + +Now, often along the southern fringe your Hudson's Bay Trader will +prove to be a distinct disappointment. In fact, one of the historic old +posts is now kept by a pert little cockney Englishman, cringing or +impudent as the main chance seems to advise. When you have penetrated +further into the wilderness, however, where the hardships of winter and +summer travel, the loneliness of winter posts, the necessity of dealing +directly with savage men and savage nature, develops the quality of a +man or wrecks him early in the game, you will be certain of meeting +your type. But here, within fifty miles of the railroad! + +The man who now stepped into view, however, preserved in his appearance +all the old traditions. He was, briefly, a short black-and-white man +built very square. Immense power lurked in the broad, heavy shoulders, +the massive chest, the thick arms, the sturdy, column-like legs. As for +his face, it was almost entirely concealed behind a curly square black +beard that grew above his cheek-bones nearly to his eyes. Only a thick +hawk nose, an inscrutable pair of black eyes under phenomenally heavy +eyebrows, and a short black pipe showed plainly from the hirsute +tangle. He was lock, stock, and barrel of the Far North, one of the old +_régime_. I was rejoiced to see him there, but did not betray a +glimmer of interest. I knew my type too well for that. + +"How are you?" he said grudgingly. + +"Good-day," said I. + +We leaned against the fence and smoked, each contemplating carefully +the end of his pipe. I knew better than to say anything. The Trader was +looking me over, making up his mind about me. Speech on my part would +argue lightness of disposition, for it would seem to indicate that I +was not also making up my mind about him. + +In this pause there was not the least unfriendliness. Only, in the +woods you prefer to know first the business and character of a chance +acquaintance. Afterwards you may ingratiate to his good will. All of +which possesses a beautiful simplicity, for it proves that good or bad +opinion need not depend on how gracefully you can chatter assurances. +At the end of a long period the Trader inquired, "Which way you +headed?" + +"Out in a canoe for pleasure. Headed almost anywhere." + +Again we smoked. + +"Dog any good?" asked the Trader, removing his pipe and pointing to the +observant Deuce. + +"He'll hunt shade on a hot day," said I tentatively. "How's the fur in +this district?" + +We were off. He invited me in and showed me his bear. In ten minutes we +were seated chair-tilted on the veranda, and slowly, very cautiously, +in abbreviated syncopation, were feeling our way toward an intimacy. + +Now came the Indians I had seen at the lake to barter for some flour +and pork. I was glad of the chance to follow them all into the +trading-room. A low wooden counter backed by a grill divided the main +body of the room from the entrance. It was deliciously dim. All the +charm of the Aromatic Shop was in the place, and an additional flavour +of the wilds. Everything here was meant for the Indian trade: bolts of +bright-patterned ginghams, blankets of red or blue, articles of +clothing, boxes of beads for decoration, skeins of brilliant silk, lead +bars for bullet-making, stacks of long brass-bound "trade guns" in the +corner, small mirrors, red and parti-coloured worsted sashes with +tassels on the ends, steel traps of various sizes, and a dozen other +articles to be desired by the forest people. And here, unlike the +Aromatic Shop, were none of the products of the Far North. All that, I +knew, was to be found elsewhere, in another apartment, equally dim, but +delightful in the orderly disorder of a storeroom. + +Afterwards I made the excuse of a pair of moccasins to see this other +room. We climbed a steep, rough flight of stairs to emerge through a +sort of trap-door into a space directly under the roof. It was lit only +by a single little square at one end. Deep under the eaves I could make +out row after row of boxes and chests. From the rafters hung a dozen +pair of snow-shoes. In the centre of the floor, half overturned, lay an +open box from which tumbled dozens of pairs of moose-hide snow-shoe +moccasins. + +Shades of childhood, what a place! No one of us can fail to recall with +a thrill the delights of a rummage in the attic--the joy of pulling +from some half-forgotten trunk a wholly forgotten shabby garment, which +nevertheless has taken to itself from the stillness of undisturbed +years the faint aroma of romance; the rapture of discovering in the +dusk of a concealed nook some old spur or broken knife or rusty pistol +redolent of the open road. Such essentially commonplace affairs they +are, after all, in the light of our mature common sense, but such +unspeakable ecstasies to the romance-breathing years of fancy. Here +would no fancy be required. To rummage in these silent chests and boxes +would be to rummage, not in the fictions of imagination, but the facts +of the most real picturesque. In yonder square box are the smoke-tanned +shoes of silence; that velvet dimness would prove to be the fur of a +bear; this birch-bark package contains maple sugar savoured of the +wilds. Buckskin, both white and buff, bears' claws in strings, bundles +of medicinal herbs, sweet-grass baskets fragrant as an Eastern tale, +birch-bark boxes embroidered with stained quills of the porcupines, +bows of hickory and arrows of maple, queer half-boots of stiff sealskin +from the very shores of the Hudson Bay, belts of beadwork, yellow and +green, for the Corn Dance, even a costume or so of buckskin complete +for ceremonial--all these the fortunate child would find were he to +take the rainy-day privilege in this, the most wonderful attic in all +the world. And then, after he had stroked the soft fur, and smelled the +buckskin and sweet grasses, and tasted the crumbling maple sugar, and +dressed himself in the barbaric splendours of the North, he could +flatten his little nose against the dim square of light and look out +over the glistening yellow backs of a dozen birchbark canoes to the +distant, rain-blurred hills, beyond which lay the country whence all +these things had come. Do you wonder that in after years that child +hits the Long Trail? Do you still wonder at finding these strange, +taciturn, formidable, tender-hearted men dwelling lonely in the Silent +Places? + +The Trader yanked several of the boxes to the centre and prosaically +tumbled about their contents. He brought to light heavy moose-hide +moccasins with high linen tops for the snow; lighter buckskin +moccasins, again with the high tops, but this time of white tanned +doeskin; slipper-like deer-skin moccasins with rolled edges, for the +summer; oil-tanned shoepacs, with and without the flexible leather +sole; "cruisers" of varying degree of height--each and every sort of +footgear in use in the Far North, excepting and saving always the +beautiful soft doeskin slippers finished with white fawnskin and +ornamented with the Ojibway flower pattern for which I sought. Finally +he gave it up. + +"I had a few pair. They must have been sent out," said he. + +We rummaged a little further for luck's sake, then descended to the +outer air. I left him to fetch my canoe, but returned in the afternoon. +We became friends. That evening we sat in the little sitting-room and +talked far into the night. + +He was a true Hudson's Bay man, steadfastly loyal to the Company. I +mentioned the legend of _La Longue Traverse_; he stoutly asserted +he had never heard of it. I tried to buy a mink-skin or so to hang on +the wall as souvenir of my visit; he was genuinely distressed, but had +to refuse because the Company had not authorized him to sell, and he +had nothing of his own to give. I mentioned the River of the Moose, the +Land of Little Sticks; his deep eyes sparkled with excitement, and he +asked eagerly a multitude of details concerning late news from the +northern posts. + +And as the evening dwindled, after the manner of Traders everywhere, he +began to tell me the "ghost stories" of this station of Cloche. Every +post has gathered a mass of legendary lore in the slow years, but this +had been on the route of the _voyageurs_ from Montreal and Quebec +at the time when the lords of the North journeyed to the scenes of +their annual revels at Fort Williams. The Trader had much to say of the +magnificence and luxury of these men--their cooks, their silken tents, +their strange and costly foods, their rare wines, their hordes of +French and Indian canoemen and packers. Then Cloche was a halting-place +for the night. Its meadows had blossomed many times with the gay tents +and banners of a great company. He told me, as vividly as though he had +been an eye-witness, of how the canoes must have loomed up suddenly +from between the islands. By-and-by he seized the lamp and conducted me +outside, where hung ponderous ornamental steelyards, on which in the +old days the peltries were weighed. + +"It is not so now," said he. "We buy by count, and modern scales weigh +the provisions. And the beaver are all gone." + +We re-entered the house in silence. After a while he began briefly to +sketch his own career. Then, indeed, the flavour of the Far North +breathed its crisp, bracing ozone through the atmosphere of the room. + +He had started life at one of the posts of the Far North-West. At the +age of twelve he enlisted in the Company. Throughout forty years he had +served her. He had travelled to all the strange places of the North, +and claimed to have stood on the shores of that half-mythical lake of +Yamba Tooh. + +"It was snowing at the time," he said prosaically; "and I couldn't see +anything, except that I'd have to bear to the east to get away from +open water. Maybe she wasn't the lake. The Injins said she was, but I +was too almighty shy of grub to bother with lakes." + +Other names fell from him in the course of talk, some of which I had +heard and some not, but all of which rang sweet and clear with no +uncertain note of adventure. Especially haunts my memory an impression +of desolate burned trees standing stick-like in death on the shores of +Lost River. + +He told me he had been four years at Cloche, but expected shortly to be +transferred, as the fur was getting scarce, and another post one +hundred miles to the west could care for the dwindling trade. He hoped +to be sent into the North-West, but shrugged his shoulders as he said +so, as though that were in the hands of the gods. At the last he fished +out a concertina and played for me. Have you ever heard, after dark, in +the North, where the hills grow big at sunset, _à la Claire +Fontaine_ crooned to such an accompaniment, and by a man of +impassive bulk and countenance, but with glowing eyes? + +I said good-night, and stumbled, sight-dazed, through the cool dark to +my tent near the beach. The weird minor strains breathed after me as I +went. + +"A la claire fontaine +M'en allant promener, +J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle +Que je m'y suis baigné, +Il y a longtemps que je t'aime +Jamais je ne t'oublierai." + +The next day, with the combers of a howling north-westerly gale +clutching at the stern of the canoe, I rode in a glory of spray and +copper-tasting excitement back to Dick and his half-breed settlement. + +But the incident had its sequel. The following season, as I was sitting +writing at my desk, a strange package was brought me. It was wrapped in +linen sewn strongly with waxed cord. Its contents lie before me now--a +pair of moccasins fashioned of the finest doeskin, tanned so +beautifully that the delicious smoke fragrance fills the room, and so +effectively that they could be washed with soap and water without +destroying their softness. The tongue-shaped piece over the instep is +of white fawnskin heavily ornamented in five colours of silk. Where it +joins the foot of the slipper it is worked over and over into a narrow +cord of red and blue silk. The edge about the ankle is turned over, +deeply scalloped, and bound at the top with a broad band of blue silk +stitched with pink. Two tiny blue bows at either side the ankle +ornament the front. Altogether a most magnificent foot-gear. No word +accompanied them, apparently, but after some search I drew a bit of +paper from the toe of one of them. It was inscribed simply--"Fort la +Cloche." + + + + +XI. + +THE HABITANTS. + + +During my absence Dick had made many friends. Wherein lies his secret I +do not know, but he has a peculiar power of ingratiation with people +whose lives are quite outside his experience or sympathies. In the +short space of four days he had earned joyous greetings from every one +in town. The children grinned at him cheerfully; the old women cackled +good-natured little teasing jests to him as he passed; the pretty, +dusky half-breed girls dropped their eyelashes fascinatingly across +their cheeks, tempering their coyness with a smile; the men painfully +demanded information as to artistic achievement which was evidently as +well meant as it was foreign to any real thirst for knowledge they +might possess; even the lumber-jacks addressed him as "Bub." And withal +Dick's methods of approach were radically wrong, for he blundered upon +new acquaintance with a beaming smile, which is ordinarily a sure +repellent to the cautious, taciturn men of the woods. Perhaps their +keenness penetrated to the fact that he was absolutely without guile, +and that his kindness was an essential part of himself. I should be +curious to know whether Billy Knapp of the Black Hills would surrender +his gun to Dick for inspection. + +"I want you to go out this afternoon to see some friends of mine," said +Dick. "They're on a farm about two miles back in the brush. They're +ancestors." + +"They're what?" I inquired. + +"Ancestors. You can go down to Grosse Point near Detroit, and find +people living in beautiful country places next the water, and after +dinner they'll show you an old silhouette or a daguerreotype or +something like that, and will say to you proudly, 'This is old Jules, +my ancestor, who was a pioneer in this country. The Place has been in +the family ever since his time.'" + +"Well?" + +"Well, this is a French family, and they are pioneers, and the family +has a place that slopes down to the water through white birch trees, +and it is of the kind very tenacious of its own land. In two hundred +years this will be a great resort; bound to be--beautiful, salubrious, +good sport, fine scenery, accessible--" + +"Railroad fifty miles away; boat every once in a while," said I +sarcastically. + +"Accessible in two hundred years, all right," insisted Dick serenely. +"Even Canada can build a quarter of a mile of railway a year. +Accessible," he went on; "good shipping-point for country now +undeveloped." + +"You ought to be a real estate agent," I advised. + +"Lived two hundred years too soon," disclaimed Dick. "What more +obvious? These are certainly ancestors." + +"Family may die out," I suggested. + +"It has a good start," said Dick sweetly. "There are eighty-seven in it +now." + +"What!" I gasped. + +"One great-grandfather, twelve grandparents, thirty-seven parents, and +thirty-seven children," tabulated Dick. + +"I should like to see the great-grandfather," said I; "he must be very +old and feeble." + +"He is eighty-five years old," said Dick, "and the last time I saw him +he was engaged with an axe in clearing trees off his farm." + +All of these astonishing statements I found to be absolutely true. + +We started out afoot soon after dinner, through a scattering growth of +popples that alternately drew the veil of coyness over the blue hills +and caught our breath with the delight of a momentary prospect. Deuce, +remembering autumn days, concluded partridges, and scurried away on the +expert diagonal, his hind legs tucked well under his flanks. The road +itself was a mere cutting through the miniature woods, winding to right +or left for the purpose of avoiding a log-end or a boulder, surmounting +little knolls with an idle disregard for the straight line, knobby with +big, round stones, and interestingly diversified by circular mud holes +a foot or so in diameter. After a mile and a half we came to the corner +of a snake fence. This, Dick informed me, marked the limits of the +"farm." + +We burst through the screen of popples definitely into the clear. A +two-storied house of squared logs crested a knoll in the middle +distance. Ten acres of grass marsh, perhaps twenty of ploughed land, +and then the ash-white-green of popples. We dodged the grass marsh and +gained the house. Dick was at once among friends. + +The mother had no English, so smiled expansively, her bony arms folded +across her stomach. Her oldest daughter, a frail-looking girl in the +twenties, but with a sad and spiritual beauty of the Madonna in her big +eyes and straight black hair, gave us a shy good-day. Three boys, just +alike in their slender, stolid Indian good looks, except that they +differed in size, nodded with the awkwardness of the male. Two babies +stared solemnly. A little girl with a beautiful, oval face, large +mischievous gray eyes behind long black lashes, a mischievously quirked +mouth to match the eyes, and black hair banged straight, both front and +behind, in almost mediaeval fashion, twirked a pair of brown bare legs +all about us. Another light-haired, curly little girl, surmounted by an +old yachting-cap, spread apart sturdy shoes in an attitude at once +critical and expectant. + +Dick rose to the occasion by sorting out from some concealed recess of +his garments a huge paper parcel of candy. + +With infinite tact, he presented this bag to Madame rather than the +children. Madame instituted judicious distribution and appropriate +reservation for the future. We entered the cabin. + +Never have I seen a place more exquisitely neat. The floor had not only +been washed clean; it had been scrubbed white. The walls of logs were +freshly whitewashed. The chairs were polished. The few ornaments were +new, and not at all dusty or dingy or tawdry. Several religious +pictures, a portrait of royalty, a lithographed advertisement of some +buggy, a photograph or so--and then just the fresh, wholesome +cleanliness of scrubbed pine. Madame made us welcome with smiles--a +faded, lean woman with a remnant of beauty peeping from her soft eyes, +but worn down to the first principles of pioneer bone and gristle by +toil, care, and the bearing of children. I spoke to her in French, +complimenting her on the appearance of the place. She was genuinely +pleased, saying in reply that one did one's possible, but that +children!--with an expressive pause. + +Next we called for volunteers to show us to the great-grandfather. Our +elfish little girls at once offered, and went dancing off down the +trail like autumn leaves in a wind. Whether it was the Indian in them, +or the effects of environment, or merely our own imaginations, we both +had the same thought--that in these strange, taciturn, friendly, +smiling, pirouetting little creatures was some eerie, wild strain akin +to the woods and birds and animals. As they danced on ahead of us, +turning to throw us a delicious smile or a half-veiled roguish glance +of nascent coquetry, we seemed to swing into an orbit of experience +foreign to our own. These bright-eyed woods people were in the last +analysis as inscrutable to us as the squirrels. + +We followed our swirling, airy guides down through a trail to another +clearing planted with potatoes. On the farther side of this they +stopped, hand in hand, at the woods' fringe, and awaited us in a +startlingly sudden repose. + +"V'la le gran'père," said they in unison. + +At the words a huge gaunt man clad in shirt and jeans arose and +confronted us. Our first impression was of a vast framework stiffened +and shrunken into the peculiar petrifaction of age; our second, of a +Jove-like wealth of iron-gray beard and hair; our third, of eyes, wide, +clear, and tired with looking out on a century of the world's time. His +movements, as he laid one side his axe and passed a great, gnarled hand +across his forehead, were angular and slow. We knew instinctively the +quality of his work--a deliberate pause, a mighty blow, another pause, +a painful recovery--labour compounded of infinite slow patience, but +wonderfully effective in the week's result. It would go on without +haste, without pause, inevitable as the years slowly closing about the +toiler. His mental processes would be of the same fibre. The apparent +hesitation might seem to waste the precious hours remaining, but in the +end, when the engine started, it would move surely and unswervingly +along the appointed grooves. In his wealth of hair; in his wide eyes, +like the mysterious blanks of a marble statue; in his huge frame, +gnarled and wasted to the strange, impressive, powerful age-quality of +Phidias's old men, he seemed to us to deserve a wreath and a marble +seat with strange inscriptions and the graceful half-draperies of +another time and a group of old Greeks like himself with whom to +exchange slow sentences on the body politic. Indeed, the fact that his +seat was of fallen pine, and his draperies of butternut brown, and his +audience two half-breed children, an artist, and a writer, and his body +politic two hundred acres in the wilderness, did not filch from him the +impressiveness of his estate. He was a Patriarch. It did not need the +park of birch trees, the grass beneath them sloping down to the water, +the wooded knoll fairly insisting on a spacious mansion, to +substantiate Dick's fancy that he had discovered an ancestor. + +Neat piles of brush, equally neat piles of cord-wood, knee-high stumps +as cleanly cut as by a saw, attested the old man's efficiency. We +conversed. + +Yes, said he, the soil was good. It is laborious to clear away the +forest. Still, one arrives. M'sieu has but to look. In the memory of +his oldest grandson, even, all this was a forest. Le bon Dieu had +blessed him. His family was large. Yes, it was as M'sieu said, +eighty-seven--that is, counting himself. The soil was not wonderful. It +is indeed a large family and much labour, but somehow there was always +food for all. For his part he had a great pity for those whom God had +not blessed. It must be very lonesome without children. + +We spared a private thought that this old man was certainly in no +danger of loneliness. + +Yes, he went on, he was old--eighty-five. He was not as quick as he +used to be; he left that for the young ones. Still, he could do a day's +work. He was most proud to have made these gentlemen's acquaintance. He +wished us good-day. + +We left him seated on the pine log, his axe between his knees, his +great, gnarled brown hands hanging idly. After a time we heard the +_whack_ of his implement; then after another long time we heard it +_whack_ again. We knew that those two blows had gone straight and +true and forceful to the mark. So old a man had no energy to expend in +the indirections of haste. + +Our elfish guides led us back along the trail to the farmhouse. A girl +of thirteen had just arrived from school. In the summer the little ones +divided the educational advantages among themselves, turn and turn +about. + +The newcomer had been out into the world, and was dressed accordingly. +A neat dark-blue cloth dress, plainly made, a dull red and blue checked +apron; a broad, round hat, shoes and stockings, all in the best and +quietest taste--marked contrast to the usual garish Sunday best of the +Anglo-Saxon. She herself exemplified the most striking type of beauty +to be found in the mixed bloods. Her hair was thick and glossy and +black in the mode that throws deep purple shadows under the rolls and +coils. Her face was a regular oval, like the opening in a wishbone. Her +skin was dark, but rich and dusky with life and red blood that ebbed +and flowed with her shyness. Her lips were full, and of a dark cherry +red. Her eyes were deep, rather musing, and furnished with the most +gloriously tangling of eyelashes. Dick went into ecstasies, took +several photographs which did not turn out well, and made one sketch +which did. Perpetually did he bewail the absence of oils. The type is +not uncommon, but its beauty rarely remains perfect after the fifteenth +year. + +We made our ceremonious adieus to the Madame, and started back to town +under the guidance of one of the boys, who promised us a short cut. + +This youth proved to be filled with the old, wandering spirit that +lures so many of his race into the wilderness life. He confided to us +as we walked that he liked to tramp extended distances, and that the +days were really not made long enough for those who had to return home +at night. + +"I is been top of dose hills," he said. "Bime by I mak' heem go to dose +lak' beyon'." + +He told us that some day he hoped to go out with the fur traders. In +his vocabulary "I wish" occurred with such wistful frequency that +finally I inquired curiously what use he would make of the Fairy Gift. + +"If you could have just one wish come true, Pierre," I asked, "what +would you desire?" + +His answer came without a moment's hesitation. + +"I is lak' be one giant," said he. + +"Why?" I demanded. + +"So I can mak' heem de walk far," he replied simply. + +I was tempted to point out to him the fact that big men do not outlast +the little men, and that vast strength rarely endures, but then a +better feeling persuaded me to leave him his illusions. The power, even +in fancy, of striding on seven-league boots across the fascinations +spread out below his kindling vision from "dose hills" was too precious +a possession lightly to be taken away. + +Strangely enough, though his woodcraft naturally was not +inconsiderable, it did not hold his paramount interest. He knew +something about animals and their ways and their methods of capture, +but the chase did not appeal strongly to him, nor apparently did he +possess much skill along that line. He liked the actual physical +labour, the walking, the paddling, the tump-line, the camp-making, the +new country, the companionship of the wild life, the wilderness as a +whole rather than in any one of its single aspects as Fish Pond, Game +Preserve, Picture Gallery. In this he showed the true spirit of the +_voyageur_. I should confidently look to meet him in another ten +years--if threats of railroads spare the Far North so long--girdled +with the red sash, shod in silent moccasins, bending beneath the +portage load, trolling _Isabeau_ to the silent land somewhere +under the Arctic Circle. The French of the North have never been great +fighters nor great hunters, in the terms of the Anglo-Saxon +frontiersmen, but they have laughed in farther places. + + + + +XII. + +THE RIVER. + + +At a certain spot on the North Shore--I am not going to tell you +where--you board one of the two or three fishing-steamers that collect +from the different stations the big ice-boxes of Lake Superior +whitefish. After a certain number of hours--I am not going to tell you +how many--your craft will turn in toward a semicircle of bold, +beautiful hills, that seem at first to be many less miles distant than +the reality, and at the last to be many more miles remote than is the +fact. From the prow you will make out first a uniform velvet green; +then the differentiation of many shades; then the dull neutrals of +rocks and crags; finally the narrow white of a pebble beach against +which the waves utter continually a rattling undertone. The steamer +pushes boldly in. The cool green of the water underneath changes to +gray. Suddenly you make out the bottom, as through a thick green glass, +and the big suckers and catfish idling over its riffled sands, +inconceivably far down through the unbelievably clear liquid. So +absorbed are you in this marvellous clarity that a slight, grinding jar +alone brings you to yourself. The steamer's nose is actually touching +the white strip of pebbles! + +Now you can do one of a number of things. The forest slants down to +your feet in dwindling scrub, which half conceals an abandoned log +structure. This latter is the old Hudson's Bay post. Behind it is the +Fur Trail, and the Fur Trail will take you three miles to Burned Rock +Pool, where are spring water and mighty trout. But again, half a mile +to the left, is the mouth of the River. And the River meanders +charmingly through the woods of the flat country over numberless +riffles and rapids, beneath various steep gravel banks, until it sweeps +boldly under the cliff of the first high hill. There a rugged precipice +rises sheer and jagged and damp-dark to overhanging trees clinging to +the shoulder of the mountain. And precisely at that spot is a bend +where the water hits square, to divide right and left in whiteness, to +swirl into convolutions of foam, to lurk darkly for a moment on the +edge of tumult before racing away. And there you can stand hip-deep, +and just reach the eddy foam with a cast tied craftily of Royal +Coachman, Parmachenee Belle, and Montreal. + +From that point you are with the hills. They draw back to leave wide +forest, but always they return to the River--as you would return season +after season were I to tell you how--throwing across your +woods-progress a sheer cliff forty or fifty feet high, shouldering you +incontinently into the necessity of fording to the other side. More and +more jealous they become as you penetrate, until at the Big Falls they +close in entirely, warning you that here they take the wilderness to +themselves. At the Big Falls anglers make their last camp. About the +fire they may discuss idly various academic questions--as to whether +the great inaccessible pool below the Falls really contains the +legendary Biggest Trout; what direction the River takes above; whether +it really becomes nothing but a series of stagnant pools connected by +sluggish water-reaches; whether there are any trout above the Falls; +and so on. + +These questions, as I have said, are merely academic. Your true angler +is a philosopher. Enough is to him worth fifteen courses, and if the +finite mind of man could imagine anything to be desired as an addition +to his present possessions on the River, he at least knows nothing of +it. Already he commands ten miles of water--swift, clear water--running +over stone, through a freshet bed so many hundreds of feet wide that he +has forgotten what it means to guard his back cast. It is to be waded +in the riffles, so that he can cross from one shore to the other as the +mood suits him. One bank is apt to be precipitous, the other to stretch +away in a mile or so of the coolest, greenest, stillest primeval forest +to be imagined. Thus he can cut across the wide bends of the River, +should he so desire and should haste be necessary to make camp before +dark. And, last, but not least by any manner of means, there are trout. + +I mean real trout--big fellows, the kind the fishers of little streams +dream of but awake to call Morpheus a liar, just as they are too polite +to call you a liar when you are so indiscreet as to tell them a few +plain facts. I have one solemnly attested and witnessed record of +twenty-nine inches, caught in running water. I saw a friend land on one +cast three whose aggregate weight was four and one half pounds. I +witnessed, and partly shared, an exciting struggle in which three fish +on three rods were played in the same pool at the same time. They +weighed just fourteen pounds. One pool, a backset, was known as the +Idiot's Delight, because any one could catch fish there. I have lain on +my stomach at the Burned Rock Pool and seen the great fish lying so +close together as nearly to cover the bottom, rank after rank of them, +and the smallest not under a half pound. As to the largest--well, every +true fisherman knows him! + +So it came about for many years that the natural barrier interposed by +the Big Falls successfully turned the idle tide of anglers' +exploration. Beyond them lay an unknown country, but you had to climb +cruelly to see it, and you couldn't gain above what you already had in +any case. The nearest settlement was nearly sixty miles away, so even +added isolation had not its usual quickening effect on camper's effort. +The River is visited by few, anyway. An occasional adventurous steam +yacht pauses at the mouth, fishes a few little ones from the shallow +pools there, or a few big ones from the reefs, and pushes on. It never +dreams of sending an expedition to the interior. Our own people, and +two other parties, are all I know of who visit the River regularly. Our +camp-sites alone break the forest; our blazes alone continue the +initial short cut of the Fur Trail; our names alone distinguish the +various pools. We had always been satisfied to compromise with the +frowning Hills. In return for the delicious necks and points and forest +areas through which our clipped trails ran, we had tacitly respected +the mystery of the upper reaches. + +This year, however, a number of unusual conditions changed our spirit. +I have perhaps neglected to state that our trip up to now had been a +rather singularly damp one. Of the first fourteen days twelve had been +rainy. This was only a slightly exaggerated sample for the rest of the +time. As a consequence we found the River filled even to the limit of +its freshet banks. The broad borders of stone beach between the +stream's edge and the bushes had quite disappeared; the riffles had +become rapids, and the rapids roaring torrents; the bends boiled +angrily with a smashing eddy that sucked air into pirouetting cavities +inches in depth. Plainly, fly-fishing was out of the question. No +self-respecting trout would rise to the surface of such a moil, or +abandon for syllabubs of tinsel the magnificent solidities of +ground-bait such a freshet would bring down from the hills. Also the +River was unfordable. + +We made camp at the mouth and consulted together. Billy, the half-breed +who had joined us for the labour of a permanent camp, shook his head. + +"I t'ink one week, ten day," he vouchsafed. "P'rhaps she go down den. +We mus' wait." We did not want to wait; the idleness of a permanent +camp is the most deadly in the world. + +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been above the Big Falls?" + +The half-breed's eyes flashed. + +"Non," he replied simply. "Bâ, I lak' mak' heem firs' rate." + +"All right, Billy; we'll do it." + +The next day it rained, and the River went up two inches. The morning +following was fair enough, but so cold you could see your breath. We +began to experiment. + +Now, this expedition had become a fishing vacation, so we had all the +comforts of home with us. When said comforts of home were laden into +the canoe, there remained forward and aft just about one square foot of +space for Billy and me, and not over two inches of freeboard for the +River. We could not stand up and pole; tracking with a tow-line was out +of the question, because there existed no banks on which to walk; the +current was too swift for paddling. So we knelt and poled. We knew it +before, but we had to be convinced by trial, that two inches of +freeboard will dip under the most gingerly effort. It did so. We +groaned, stepped out into ice-water up to our waists, and so began the +day's journey with fleeting reference to Dante's nethermost hell. + +Next the shore the water was most of the time a little above our knees, +but the swirl of a rushing current brought an apron of foam to our +hips. Billy took the bow and pulled; I took the stern and pushed. In +places our combined efforts could but just counterbalance the strength +of the current. Then Billy had to hang on until I could get my shoulder +against the stern for a mighty heave, the few inches gain of which he +would guard as jealously as possible, until I could get into position +for another shove. At other places we were in nearly to our armpits, +but close under the banks where we could help ourselves by seizing +bushes. + +Sometimes I lost my footing entirely and trailed out behind like a +streamer; sometimes Billy would be swept away, the canoe's bow would +swing down-stream, and I would have to dig my heels and hang on until +he had floundered upright. Fortunately for our provisions, this never +happened to both at the same time. The difficulties were still further +complicated by the fact that our feet speedily became so numb from the +cold that we could not feel the bottom, and so were much inclined to +aimless stumblings. By-and-by we got out and kicked trees to start the +circulation. In the meantime the sun had retired behind thick, leaden +clouds. + +At the First Bend we were forced to carry some fifty feet. There the +River rushed down in a smooth apron straight against the cliff, where +its force actually raised the mass of water a good three feet higher +than the level of the surrounding pool. I tied on a bait-hook, and two +cartridges for sinkers, and in fifteen minutes had caught three trout, +one of which weighed three pounds, and the others two pounds and a +pound and a half respectively. At this point Dick and Deuce, who had +been paralleling through the woods, joined us. We broiled the trout, +and boiled tea, and shivered as near the fire as we could. That +afternoon, by dint of labour and labour, and yet more labour, we +made Burned Rock, and there we camped for the night, utterly +beaten out by about as hard a day's travel as a man would want to +undertake. + +The following day was even worse, for as the natural bed of the River +narrowed, we found less and less footing and swifter and swifter water. +The journey to Burned Rock had been a matter of dogged hard work; this +was an affair of alertness, of taking advantage of every little eddy, +of breathless suspense during long seconds while the question of +supremacy between our strength and the stream's was being debated. And +the thermometer must have registered well towards freezing. Three times +we were forced to cross the River in order to get even precarious +footing. Those were the really doubtful moments. We had to get in +carefully, to sit craftily, and to paddle gingerly and firmly, without +attempting to counteract the downward sweep of the current. All our +energies and care were given to preventing those miserable curling +little waves from over-topping our precious two inches, and that +miserable little canoe from departing even by a hair's-breadth from the +exactly level keel. Where we were going did not matter. After an +interminable interval the tail of our eyes would catch the sway of +bushes near at hand. + +"Now," Billy would mutter abstractedly. + +With one accord we would arise from six inches of wet and step swiftly +into the River. The lightened canoe would strain back; we would brace +our legs. The traverse was accomplished. + +[Illustration: WATCHED THE LONG NORTH COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A +GRAY CLOUD FROM THE EAST.] + +Being thus under the other bank, I would hold the canoe while Billy, +astraddle the other end for the purpose of depressing the water to +within reach of his hand, would bail away the consequences of our +crossing. Then we would make up the quarter of a mile we had lost. + +We quit at the Organ Pool about three o'clock of the afternoon. Not +much was said that evening. + +The day following we tied into it again. This time we put Dick and +Deuce on an old Indian trail that promised a short cut, with +instructions to wait at the end of it. In the joyous anticipation of +another wet day we forgot they had never before followed an Indian +trail. Let us now turn aside to the adventures of Dick and Deuce. + +Be it premised here that Dick is a regular Indian of taciturnity when +it becomes a question of his own experience, so that for a long time we +knew of what follows but the single explanatory monosyllable which you +shall read in due time. But Dick has a beloved uncle. In moments of +expansion to this relative after his return he held forth as to the +happenings of that morning. + +Dick and the setter managed the Indian trail for about twenty rods. +They thought they managed it for perhaps twice that distance. Then it +became borne in on them that the bushes went back, the faint +knife-clippings, and the half weather-browned brush-cuttings that alone +constitute an Indian trail had taken another direction, and that they +had now their own way to make through the forest. Dick knew the +direction well enough, so he broke ahead confidently. After a +half-hour's walk he crossed a tiny streamlet. After another half-hour's +walk he came to another. It was flowing the wrong way. + +Dick did not understand this. He had never known of little streams +flowing away from rivers and towards eight-hundred-foot hills. This +might be a loop, of course. He resolved to follow it up-stream far +enough to settle the point. The following brought him in time to a +soggy little thicket with three areas of moss-covered mud and two +round, pellucid pools of water about a foot in diameter. As the little +stream had wound and twisted, Dick had by now lost entirely his sense +of direction. He fished out his compass and set it on a rock. The River +flows nearly north-east to the Big Falls, and Dick knew himself to be +somewhere east of the River. The compass appeared to be wrong. Dick was +a youth of sense, so he did not quarrel with the compass; he merely +became doubtful as to which was the north end of the needle--the white +or the black. After a few moments' puzzling he was quite at sea, and +could no more remember how he had been taught as to this than you can +clinch the spelling of a doubtful word after you have tried on paper a +dozen variations. But being a youth of sense he did not desert the +streamlet. + +After a short half-mile of stumbling the apparent wrong direction in +the brook's bed, he came to the River. The River was also flowing the +wrong way, and uphill. Dick sat down and covered his eyes with his +hands, as I had told him to do in like instance, and so managed to +swing the country around where it belonged. + +Now here was the River--and Dick resolved to desert it for no more +short cuts--but where was the canoe? + +This point remained unsettled in Dick's mind, or rather it was +alternately settled in two ways. Sometimes the boy concluded we must be +still below him, so he would sit on a rock to wait. Then, after a few +moments, inactivity would bring him panic. The canoe must have passed +this point long since, and every second he wasted stupidly sitting on +that stone separated him farther from his friends and from food. Then +he would tear madly through the forest. Deuce enjoyed this game, but +Dick did not. + +In time Dick found his farther progress along the banks cut off by a +hill. The hill ended abruptly at the water's edge in a sheer rock cliff +thirty feet high. This was in reality the end of the Indian trail short +cut--the point where Dick was to meet us--but he did not know it. He +happened for the moment to be obsessed by one of his canoe up-stream +panics, so he turned inland to a spot where the hill appeared +climbable, and started in to surmount the obstruction. + +This was comparatively easy at first. Then the shoulder of the cliff +intervened. Dick mounted still a little higher up the hill, then +higher, then still higher. Far down to his left, through the trees, +broiled the River. The slope of the hill to it had become steeper than +a roof, and at the edge of the eaves came a cliff drop of thirty feet. +Dick picked his way gingerly over curving moss-beds, assisting his +balance by a number of little cedar trees. Then something happened. + +Dick says the side of the hill slid out from under him. The fact of the +matter is, probably, the skin-moss over loose rounded stones gave way. +Dick sat down and began slowly to bump down the slant of the roof. He +never really lost his equilibrium, nor until the last ten feet did he +abandon the hope of checking his descent. Sometimes he did actually +succeed in stopping himself for a moment; but on his attempting to +follow up the advantage, the moss always slipped or the sapling let go +a tenuous hold and he continued on down. At last the River flashed out +below him. He saw the sheer drop. He saw the boiling eddies of the +Halfway Pool, capable of sucking down a saw-log. Then, with a final +rush of loose round stones, he shot the chutes feet first into space. + +In the meantime Billy and I repeated our experience of the two previous +days, with a few variations caused by the necessity of passing two +exceptionally ugly rapids whose banks left little footing. We did this +precariously, with a rope. The cold water was beginning to tell on our +vitality, so that twice we went ashore and made hot tea. Just below the +Halfway Pool we began to do a little figuring ahead, which is a bad +thing. The Halfway Pool meant much inevitable labour, with its two +swift rapids and its swirling, eddies, as sedulously to be avoided as +so many steel bear-traps. Then there were a dozen others, and the three +miles of riffles, and all the rest of it. At our present rate it would +take us a week to make the Falls. Below the Halfway Pool we looked for +Dick. He was not to be seen. This made us cross. At the Halfway Pool we +intended to unload for portage, and also to ferry over Dick and the +setter in the lightened canoe. The tardiness of Dick delayed the game. + +However, we drew ashore to the little clearing of the Halfway Camp, +made the year before, and wearily discharged our cargo. Suddenly, +upstream, and apparently up in the air, we heard distinctly the excited +yap of a dog. Billy and I looked at each other. Then we looked +upstream. + +Close under the perpendicular wall of rock, and fifty feet from the end +of it, waist deep in water that swirled angrily about him, stood Dick. + +I knew well enough what he was standing on--a little ledge of shale not +over five or six feet in length and two feet wide--for in lower water I +had often from its advantage cast a fly down below the big boulder. But +I knew it to be surrounded by water fifteen feet deep. It was +impossible to wade to the spot, impossible to swim to it. And why in +the name of all the woods gods would a man want to wade or swim to it +if he could? The affair, to our cold-benumbed intellects, was simply +incomprehensible. + +Billy and I spoke no word. We silently, perhaps a little fearfully, +launched the empty canoe. Then we went into a space of water whose +treading proved us no angels. From the slack water under the cliff we +took another look. It was indeed Dick. He carried a rod-case in one +hand. His fish-creel lay against his hip. His broad hat sat accurately +level on his head. His face was imperturbable. Above, Deuce agonized, +afraid to leap into the stream, but convinced that his duty required +him to do so. + +We steadied the canoe while Dick climbed in. You would have thought he +was embarking at the regularly appointed rendezvous. In silence we shot +the rapids, and collected Deuce from the end of the trail, whither he +followed us. In silence we worked our way across to where our duffel +lay scattered. In silence we disembarked. + +"In Heaven's name, Dick," I demanded at last, "how did you get +_there_?" + +"Fell," said he, succinctly. And that was all. + + + + +XIII. + +THE HILLS. + + +We explained carefully to Dick that he had lit on the only spot in the +Halfway Pool where the water was at once deep enough to break his fall +and not too deep to stand in. We also pointed out that he had escaped +being telescoped or drowned by the merest hair's-breadth. From this we +drew moral conclusions. It did us good, but undoubtedly Dick knew it +already. + +Now we gave our attention to the wetness of garments, for we were +chilled blue. A big fire and a clothes-rack of forked sticks and a +sapling, an open-air change, a lunch of hot tea and trout and cold +galette and beans, a pipe--and then the inevitable summing up. + +We had in two and a half days made the easier half of the distance to +the Falls. At this rate we would consume a week or more in reaching the +starting-point of our explorations. It was a question whether we could +stand a week of ice-water and the heavy labour combined. Ordinarily we +might be able to abandon the canoe and push on afoot, as we were +accustomed to do when trout-fishing, but that involved fording the +river three times--a feat manifestly impossible in present freshet +conditions. + +"I t'ink we quit heem," said Billy. + +But then I was seized with an inspiration. Judging by the configuration +of the hills, the River bent sharply above the Falls. Why would it not +be possible to cut loose entirely at this point, to strike across +through the forest, and so to come out on the upper reaches? Remained +only the probability of our being able, encumbered by a pack, to scale +the mountains. + +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been over in those hills?". + +"No," said he. + +"Do you know anything about the country? Are there any trails?" + +"Dat countree is belong Tawabinisáy. He know heem. I don' know heem. I +t'ink he is have many hills, some lak'." + +"Do you think we can climb those hills with packs?" + +Billy cast a doubtful glance on Dick. Then his eye lit up. + +"Tawabinisáy is tell me 'bout dat Lak' Kawágama. P'rhaps we fine heem." + +In so saying Billy decided the attempt. What angler on the River has +not discussed--again idly, again academically--that mysterious Lake +alive with the burnished copper trout, lying hidden and wonderful in +the high hills, clear as crystal, bottomed with gravel like a fountain, +shaped like a great crescent whose curves were haunted of forest trees +grim and awesome with the solemnity of the primeval? That its exact +location was known to Tawabinisáy alone, that the trail to it was +purposely blinded and muddled with the crossing of many little ponds, +that the route was laborious--all those things, along with the minor +details so dear to winter fire-chats, were matters of notoriety. +Probably more expeditions to Kawágama have been planned--in +February--than would fill a volume with an account of anticipated +adventures. Only, none of them ever came off. We were accustomed to +gaze at the forbidden cliff ramparts of the hills, to think of the +Idiot's Delight, and the Halfway Pool, and the Organ Pool, and the +Burned Rock Pool, and the Rolling Stone Pool, and all the rest of them +even up to the Big Falls; and so we would quietly allow our February +plannings to lapse. One man Tawabinisáy had honoured. But this man, +named Clement, a banker from Peoria, had proved unworthy. Tawabinisáy +told how he caught trout, many, many trout, and piled them on the +shores of Kawágama to defile the air. Subsequently this same +"sportsman" buried another big catch on the beach of Superior. These +and other exploits finally earned him his exclusion from the delectable +land. I give his name because I have personally talked with his guides, +and heard their circumstantial accounts of his performances. Unless +three or four woodsmen are fearful liars, I do Mr. Clement no +injustice. + +Since then Tawabinisáy had hidden himself behind his impenetrable grin. + +So you can easily see that the discovery of Kawágama would be a feat +worthy even high hills. + +That afternoon we rested and made our cache. A cache in the forest +country is simply a heavily constructed rustic platform on which +provisions and clothing are laid and wrapped completely about in sheets +of canoe bark tied firmly with strips of cedar bark, or withes made +from a bush whose appearance I know well, but whose name I cannot say. +In this receptacle we left all our canned goods, our extra clothing, +and our Dutch oven. We retained for transportation some pork, flour, +rice, baking-powder, oatmeal, sugar, and tea, cooking utensils, +blankets, the tent, fishing-tackle, and the little pistol. As we were +about to go into the high country where presumably both game and fish +might lack, we were forced to take a full supply for four--counting +Deuce as one--to last ten days. The packs counted up about one hundred +and fifteen pounds of grub, twenty pounds of blankets, ten of tent, say +eight or ten of hardware including the axe, about twenty of duffel. +This was further increased by the idiosyncrasy of Billy. He, like most +woodsmen, was wedded to a single utterly foolish article of personal +belonging, which he worshipped as a fetish, and without which he was +unhappy. In his case it was a huge winter overcoat that must have +weighed fifteen pounds. The total amounted to about one hundred and +ninety pounds. We gave Dick twenty, I took seventy-six, and Billy +shouldered the rest. + +The carrying we did with the universal tump-line. This is usually +described as a strap passed about a pack and across the forehead of the +bearer. The description is incorrect. It passes across the top of the +head. The weight should rest on the small of the back just above the +hips--not on the broad of the back as most beginners place it. Then the +chin should be dropped, the body slanted sharply forward, and you may +be able to stagger forty rods at your first attempt. + +Use soon accustoms you to carrying, however. The first time I ever did +any packing I had a hard time stumbling a few hundred feet over a hill +portage with just fifty pounds on my back. By the end of that same trip +I could carry a hundred pounds and a lot of miscellaneous traps, like +canoe-poles and guns, without serious inconvenience and over a long +portage. This quickly-gained power comes partly from a strengthening of +the muscles of the neck, but more from a mastery of balance. A pack can +twist you as suddenly and expertly on your back as the best of +wrestlers. It has a head lock on you, and you have to go or break your +neck. After a time you adjust your movements, just as after a time you +can travel on snow-shoes through heavy down timber without taking +conscious thought as to the placing of your feet. + +But at first packing is as near infernal punishment as merely mundane +conditions can compass. Sixteen brand-new muscles ache, at first dully, +then sharply, then intolerably, until it seems you cannot bear it +another second. You are unable to keep your feet. A stagger means an +effort at recovery, and an effort at recovery means that you trip when +you place your feet, and that means, if you are lucky enough not to be +thrown, an extra tweak for every one of the sixteen new muscles. At +first you rest every time you feel tired. Then you begin to feel very +tired every fifty feet. Then you have to do the best you can, and prove +the pluck that is in you. + +Mr. Tom Friant, an old woodsman of wide experience, has often told me +with relish of his first try at carrying. He had about sixty pounds, +and his companion double that amount. Mr. Friant stood it a few +centuries and then sat down. He couldn't have moved another step if a +gun had been at his ear. + +"What's the matter?" asked his companion. + +"Del," said Friant, "I'm all in. I can't navigate. Here's where I +quit." + +"Can't you carry her any farther?" + +"Not an inch." + +"Well, pile her on. I'll carry her for you." + +Friant looked at him a moment in silent amazement. + +"Do you mean to say that you are going to carry your pack and mine +too?" + +"That's what I mean to say. I'll do it if I have to." + +Friant drew a long breath. + +"Well," said he at last, "if a little sawed-off cuss like you can +wiggle under a hundred and eighty, I guess I can make it under sixty." + +"That's right," said Del imperturbably. "_If you think you can, you +can_." + +"And I did," ends Friant, with a chuckle. + +Therein lies the whole secret. The work is irksome, sometimes even +painful, but if you think you can do it, you can, for though great is +the protest of the human frame against what it considers abuse, greater +is the power of a man's grit. + +We carried the canoe above the larger eddies, where we embarked +ourselves and our packs for traverse, leaving Deuce under strict +command to await a second trip. Deuce disregarded the strict command. +From disobedience came great peril, for when he attempted to swim +across after us he was carried downstream, involved in a whirlpool, +sucked under, and nearly drowned. We could do nothing but watch. When, +finally, the River spued out a frightened and bedraggled dog, we drew a +breath of very genuine relief, for Deuce was dear to us through much +association. + +The canoe we turned bottom up and left in the bushes, and so we set off +through the forest. + +At the end of fifteen minutes we began to mount a gentle ascent. The +gentle ascent speedily became a sharp slope, the sharp slope an abrupt +hill, and the latter finally an almost sheer face of rock and thin +soil. We laid hold doggedly of little cedars; we dug our fingers into +little crevices, and felt for the same with our toes; we perspired in +streams and breathed in gasps; we held the strained muscles of our +necks rigid, for the twisting of a pack meant here a dangerous fall; we +flattened ourselves against the face of the mountain with always the +heavy, ceaseless pull of the tump-line attempting to tear us backward +from our holds. And so at last, when the muscles of our thighs refused +to strengthen our legs for the ascent of another foot, we would turn +our backs to the slant and sink gratefully into the only real luxury in +the world. + +For be it known that real luxury cannot be bought; it must be worked +for. I refer to luxury as the exquisite savour of a pleasant sensation. +The keenest sense-impressions are undoubtedly those of contrast. In +looking back over a variety of experience, I have no hesitation at all +in selecting as the moment in which I have experienced the liveliest +physical pleasure one hot afternoon in July. The thermometer might have +stood anywhere. We would have placed childlike trust in any of its +statements, even three figures great. Our way had led through unbroken +forest oppressed by low brush and an underfooting of brakes. There had +been hills. Our clothes were wringing wet, to the last stitch; even the +leather of the tump-line was saturated. The hot air we gulped down did +not seem to satisfy our craving for oxygen any more than lukewarm water +ever seems to cut a real thirst. The woods were literally like an oven +in their hot dryness. Finally we skirted a little hill, and at the base +of that hill a great tree had fallen, and through the aperture thus +made in the forest a tiny current of cool air flowed like a stream. It +was not a great current, nor a wide; if we moved three feet in any +direction, we were out of it. But we sat us down directly across its +flow. And never have dinners or wines or men or women, or talks of +books or scenery or adventure or sport, or the softest, daintiest +refinements of man's invention given me the half of luxury I drank in +from that little breeze. So the commonest things--a dash of cool water +on the wrists, a gulp of hot tea, a warm, dry blanket, a whiff of +tobacco, a ray of sunshine--are more really the luxuries than all the +comforts and sybaritisms we buy. Undoubtedly the latter would also rise +to the higher category if we were to work for their essence instead of +merely signing club cheques or paying party calls for them. + +Which means that when we three would rest our packs against the side of +that hill, and drop our head-straps below our chins, we were not at all +to be pitied, even though the forest growth denied us the encouragement +of knowing how much farther we had to go. + +Before us the trees dropped away rapidly, so that twenty feet out in a +straight line we were looking directly into their tops. There, quite on +an equality with their own airy estate, we could watch the fly-catchers +and warblers conducting their small affairs of the chase. It lent us +the illusion of imponderability; we felt that we too might be able to +rest securely on graceful gossamer twigs. And sometimes, through a +chance opening, we could see down over billows of waving leaves to a +single little spot of blue, like a turquoise sunk in folds of green +velvet, which meant that the River was dropping below us. This, in the +mercy of the Red Gods, was meant as encouragement. + +The time came, however, when the ramparts we scaled rose sheer and bare +in impregnability. Nothing could be done on the straight line, so we +turned sharp to the north. The way was difficult, for it lay over great +fragments of rock stricken from the cliff by winter, and further +rendered treacherous by the moss and wet by a thousand trickles of +water. At the end of one hour we found what might be called a ravine, +if you happened not to be particular, or a steep cleft in the precipice +if you were. Here we deserted the open air for piled-up brushy tangles, +many sharp-cornered rock fragments, and a choked streamlet. Finally the +whole outfit abruptly ceased. We climbed ten feet of crevices and stood +on the ridge. + +The forest trees shut us in our own little area, so that we were for +the moment unable to look abroad over the country. + +The descent, abrupt where we had mounted, stretched away gently toward +the north and west. And on that slope, protected as it was from the +severer storms that sweep up the open valleys in winter, stood the most +magnificent primeval forest it has ever been my fortune to behold. The +huge maple, beech, and birch trees lifted column-like straight up to a +lucent green canopy, always twinkling and shifting in the wind and the +sunlight. Below grew a thin screen of underbrush, through which we had +no difficulty at all in pushing, but which threw about us face-high a +tender green partition. The effect was that of a pew in an +old-fashioned church, so that, though we shared the upper stillnesses, +a certain delightful privacy of our own seemed assured us. This privacy +we knew to be assured also to many creatures besides ourselves. On the +other side of the screen of broad leaves we sensed the presence of +life. It did not intrude on us, nor were we permitted to intrude on it. +But it was there. We heard it rustling, pattering, scrambling, +whispering, scurrying with a rush of wings. More subtly we felt it, as +one knows of a presence in a darkened room. By the exercise of +imagination and experience we identified it in its manifestations--the +squirrel, the partridge, the weasel, the spruce hens, once or twice the +deer. We knew it saw us perfectly, although we could not see it, and +that gave us an impression of companionship; so the forest was not +lonely. + +Next to this double sense of isolation and company was the feeling of +transparent shadow. The forest was thick and cool. Only rarely did the +sun find an orifice in the roof through which to pour a splash of +liquid gold. All the rest was in shadow. But the shadow was that of the +bottom of the sea--cool, green, and, above all, transparent. We saw +into the depth of it, but dimly, as we would see into the green +recesses of a tropic ocean. It possessed the same liquid quality. +Finally the illusion overcame us completely. We bathed in the shadows +as though they were palpable, and from that came great refreshment. + +Under foot the soil was springy with the mould of numberless autumns. +The axe had never hurried slow old servant decay. Once in a while we +came across a prostrate trunk lying in the trough of destruction its +fall had occasioned. But the rest of the time we trod a carpet to the +making of which centuries of dead forest warriors had wrapped +themselves in mould and soft moss and gentle dissolution. Sometimes a +faint rounded shell of former fair proportion swelled above the level, +to crumble to punkwood at the lightest touch of our feet. Or, again, +the simulacrum of a tree trunk would bravely oppose our path, only to +melt away into nothing, like the opposing phantoms of Aeneas, when we +placed a knee against it for the surmounting. + +If the pine woods be characterized by cathedral solemnity, and the +cedars and tamaracks by certain horrifical gloom, and the popples by a +silvery sunshine, and the berry-clearings by grateful heat and the +homely manner of familiar birds, then the great hardwood must be known +as the dwelling-place of transparent shadows, of cool green lucency, +and the repository of immemorial cheerful forest tradition which the +traveller can hear of, but which he is never permitted actually to +know. + +[Illustration: IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF +THAT MORNING.] + +In this lovable mystery we journeyed all the rest of that morning. The +packs were heavy with the first day's weight, and we were tired from +our climb; but the deep physical joy of going on and ever on into +unknown valleys, down a long, gentle slope that must lead somewhere, +through things animate and things of an almost animate life, opening +silently before us to give us passage, and closing as silently behind +us after we had passed--these made us forget our aches and fatigues for +the moment. + +At noon we boiled tea near a little spring of clear, cold water. As yet +we had no opportunity of seeing farther than the closing in of many +trees. We were, as far as external appearances went, no more advanced +than our first resting-place after surmounting the ridge. This effect +is constant in the great forests. You are in a treadmill--though a +pleasant one withal. Your camp of to-day differs only in non-essentials +from that of yesterday, and your camp of to-morrow will probably be +almost exactly like to-day's. Only when you reach your objective point +do you come to a full realization that you have not been the Sisyphus +of the Red Gods. + +Deuce returning from exploration brought indubitable evidence of +porcupines. We picked the barbed little weapons from his face and nose +and tongue with much difficulty for ourselves and much pain for Deuce. +We offered consolation by voicing for his dumbness his undoubted +intention to avoid all future porcupines. Then we took up the afternoon +tramp. + +Now at last through the trees appeared the gleam of water. Tawabinisáy +had said that Kawágama was the only lake in its district. We therefore +became quite excited at this sapphire promise. Our packs were thrown +aside, and like school-boys we raced down the declivity to the shore. + + + + +XIV. + +ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS. + + +We found ourselves peering through the thicket at a little reed and +grass grown body of water a few acres in extent. A short detour to the +right led us to an outlet--a brook of width and dash that convinced us +the little pond was only a stopping-place in the stream, and not a +headwater as we had at first imagined. Then a nearer approach led us +past pointed tree-stumps exquisitely chiselled with the marks of teeth; +so we knew we looked, not on a natural pond, but on the work of +beavers. + +I examined the dam more closely. It was a marvel of engineering skill +in the accuracy with which the big trees had been felled exactly along +the most effective lines, the efficiency of the filling in, and the +just estimate of the waste water to be allowed. We named the place +obviously Beaver Pond, resumed our packs, and pushed on. + +Now I must be permitted to celebrate by a little the pluck of Dick. He +was quite unused to the tump-line, comparatively inexperienced in +woods-walking, and weighed but one hundred and thirty-five pounds. Yet +not once in the course of that trip did he bewail his fate. Towards the +close of this first afternoon I dropped behind to see how he was making +it. The boy had his head down, his lips shut tight together, his legs +well straddled apart. As I watched he stumbled badly over the merest +twig. + +"Dick," said I, "are you tired?" + +"Yes," he confessed frankly. + +"Can you make it another half-hour?" + +"I guess so; I'll try." + +At the end of the half-hour we dropped our packs. Dick had manifested +no impatience--not once had he even asked how nearly time was up--but +now he breathed a deep sigh of relief. + +"I thought you were never going to stop," said he simply. + +From Dick those words meant a good deal. For woods-walking differs as +widely from ordinary walking as trap-shooting from field-shooting. A +good pedestrian may tire very quickly in the forest. No two successive +steps are of the same length; no two successive steps fall on the same +quality of footing; no two successive steps are on the same level. +Those three are the major elements of fatigue. Add further the facts +that your way is continually obstructed both by real difficulties--such +as trees, trunks, and rocks--and lesser annoyances, such as branches, +bushes, and even spider-webs. These things all combine against +endurance. The inexperienced does not know how to meet them with a +minimum of effort. The tenderfoot is in a constant state of muscular +and mental rigidity against a fall or a stumble or a cut across the +face from some one of the infinitely numerous woods scourges. This +rigidity speedily exhausts the vital force. + +So much for the philosophy of it. Its practical side might be +infinitely extended. Woodsmen are tough and enduring and in good +condition; but no more so than the average college athlete. Time and +again I have seen men of the latter class walked to a standstill. I +mean exactly that. They knew, and were justly proud, of their physical +condition, and they hated to acknowledge, even to themselves, that the +rest of us were more enduring. As a consequence they played on their +nerve, beyond their physical powers. When the collapse came it was +complete. I remember very well a crew of men turning out from a lumber +camp on the Sturgeon River to bring in on a litter a young fellow who +had given out while attempting to follow Bethel Bristol through a hard +day. Bristol said he dropped finally as though he had been struck on +the head. The woodsman had thereupon built him a little fire, made him +as comfortable as possible with both coats, and hiked for assistance. I +once went into the woods with a prominent college athlete. We walked +rather hard over a rough country until noon. Then the athlete lay on +his back for the rest of the day, while I finished alone the business +we had come on. + +Now, these instances do not imply that Bristol, and certainly not +myself, were any stronger physically, or possessed more nervous force, +than the men we had tired out. Either of them on a road could have +trailed us, step for step, and as long as we pleased. But we knew the +game. + +It comes at the last to be entirely a matter of experience. Any man can +walk in the woods all day at some gait. But his speed will depend on +his skill. It is exactly like making your way through heavy, dry sand. +As long as you restrain yourself to a certain leisurely plodding, you +get along without extraordinary effort, while even a slight increase of +speed drags fiercely at your feet. So it is with the woods. As long as +you walk slowly enough, so that you can pick your footing and lift +aside easily the branches that menace your face, you will expend little +nervous energy. But the slightest pressing, the slightest inclination +to go beyond what may be called your physical foresight, lands you +immediately in difficulties. You stumble, you break through the brush, +you shut your eyes to avoid sharp switchings. The reservoir of your +energy is open full cock. In about an hour you feel very, very tired. + +This principle holds rigidly true of every one, from the softest +tenderfoot to the expertest forest-runner. For each there exists a +normal rate of travel, beyond which are penalties. Only, the +forest-runner, by long use, has raised the exponent of his powers. +Perhaps as a working hypothesis the following might be recommended: +_One good step is worth six stumbling steps; go only fast enough to +assure that good one._ + +You will learn, besides, a number of things practically which memory +cannot summon to order for instance here. "Brush slanted across your +path is easier lifted over your head and dropped behind you than pushed +aside," will do as an example. + +A good woods-walker progresses without apparent hurry. I have followed +the disappearing back of Tawabinisáy when, as my companion elegantly +expressed it, "if you stopped to spit you got lost." Tawabinisáy +wandered through the forest, his hands in his pockets, humming a little +Indian hymn. And we were breaking madly along behind him with the +crashing of many timbers. + +Of your discoveries probably one of the most impressive will be that in +the bright lexicon of woodscraft the word "mile" has been entirely left +out. To count by miles is a useless and ornamental elegance of +civilization. Some of us once worked hard all one day only to camp +three miles downstream from our resting-place of the night before. And +the following day we ran nearly sixty with the current. The space of +measured country known as a mile may hold you five minutes or five +hours from your destination. The Indian counts by time, and after a +little you follow his example. "Four miles to Kettle Portage" means +nothing. "Two hours to Kettle Portage" does. Only when an Indian tells +you two hours you would do well to count it as four. + +Well, our trip practically amounted to seven days to nowhere; or +perhaps seven days to everywhere would be more accurate. It was all in +the high hills until the last day and a half, and generally in the +hardwood forests. Twice we intersected and followed for short distances +Indian trails, neither of which apparently had been travelled since the +original party that had made them. They led across country for greater +or lesser distances in the direction we wished to travel, and then +turned aside. Three times we blundered on little meadows of +moose-grass. Invariably they were tramped muddy like a cattle-yard +where the great animals had stood as lately as the night before. +Caribou were not uncommon. There were a few deer, but not many, for the +most of the deer country lies to the south of this our district. +Partridge, as we had anticipated, lacked in such high country. + +In the course of the five days and a half we were in the hills we +discovered six lakes of various sizes. The smallest was a mere pond; +the largest would measure some three or four miles in diameter. We came +upon that very late one afternoon. A brook of some size crossed our +way, so, as was our habit, we promptly turned upstream to discover its +source. In the high country the head-waters are never more than a few +miles distant; and at the same time the magnitude of this indicated a +lake rather than a spring as the supply. The lake might be Kawágama. + +Our packs had grown to be very heavy, for they had already the weight +of nine hours piled on top. And the stream was exceedingly difficult to +follow. It flowed in one of those aggravating little ravines whose +banks are too high and steep and uneven for good footing, and whose +beds are choked with a too abundant growth. In addition, there had +fallen many trees over which one had to climb. We kept at it for +perhaps an hour. The brook continued of the same size, and the country +of the same character. Dick for the first time suggested that it might +be well to camp. + +"We've got good water here," he argued, quite justly, "and we can push +on to-morrow just as well as to-night." + +We balanced our packs against a prostrate tree-trunk. Billy contributed +his indirect share to the argument. + +"I lak' to have the job mak' heem this countree all over," he sighed. +"I mak' heem more level." + +"All right," I agreed; "you fellows sit here and rest a minute, and +I'll take a whirl a little ways ahead." + +I slipped my tump-line and started on light. After carrying a heavy +pack so long, I seemed to tread on air. The thicket, before so +formidable, amounted to nothing at all. Perhaps the consciousness that +the day's work was in reality over lent a little factitious energy to +my tired legs. At any rate, the projected two hundred feet of my +investigations stretched to a good quarter-mile. At the end of that +space I debouched on a widening of the ravine. The hardwood ran off +into cedars. I pushed through the stiff rods and yielding fans of the +latter, and all at once found myself leaning out over the waters of the +lake. + +It was almost an exact oval, and lay in a cup of hills. Three wooded +islands, swimming like ducks in the placid evening waters, added a +touch of diversity. A huge white rock balanced the composition to the +left, and a single white sea-gull, like a snowflake against pines, +brooded on its top. + +I looked abroad to where the perfect reflection of the hills confused +the shore line. I looked down through five feet of crystal water to +where pebbles shimmered in refraction. I noted the low rocks jutting +from the wood's shelter whereon one might stand to cast a fly. Then I +turned and yelled and yelled and yelled again at the forest. + +Billy came through the brush, crashing in his haste. He looked long and +comprehendingly. Without further speech, we turned back to where Dick +was guarding the packs. + +That youth we found profoundly indifferent. + +"Kawágama," we cried, "a quarter-mile ahead." + +He turned on us a lack-lustre eye. + +"You going to camp here?" he inquired dully. + +"Course not! We'll go on and camp at the lake." + +"All right," he replied. + +We resumed our packs, a little stiffly and reluctantly, for we had +tasted of woods-travel without them. At the lake we rested. + +"Going to camp here?" inquired Dick. + +We looked about, but noted that the ground under the cedars was +hummocky, and that the hardwood grew on a slope. Besides, we wanted to +camp as near the shore as possible. Probably a trifle further along +there would be a point of high land and delightful little +paper-birches. + +"No," we answered cheerfully, "this isn't much good. Suppose we push +along a ways and find something better." + +"All right," Dick replied. + +We walked perhaps a half-mile more to the westward before we discovered +what we wanted, stopping from time to time to discuss the merits of +this or that place. Billy and I were feeling pretty good. After such a +week Kawágama was a tonic. Finally we agreed. + +"This'll do," said we. + +"Thank God!" said Dick unexpectedly, and dropped his pack to the ground +with a thud, and sat on it. + +I looked at him closely. Then I undid my own pack. "Billy," said I, +"start in on grub. Never mind the tent just now." + +"A' right," grinned Billy. He had been making his own observations. + +"Dick," said I, "let's go down and sit on the rock over the water. We +might fish a little." + +"All right," Dick replied. + +He stumbled dully after me to the shore. + +"Dick," I continued, "you're a kid, and you have high principles, and +your mother wouldn't like it, but I'm going to prescribe for you, and +I'm going to insist on your following the prescription. This flask does +not contain fly-dope--that's in the other flask--it contains whisky. I +have had it in my pack since we started, and it has not been opened. I +don't believe in whisky in the woods; not because I am temperance, but +because a man can't travel on it. But here is where you break your +heaven-born principles. Drink." + +Dick hesitated, then he drank. By the time grub was ready his vitality +had come to normal, and so he was able to digest his food and get some +good out of it; otherwise he could not have done so. Thus he furnished +an admirable example of the only real use for whisky in woods-travel. +Also it was the nearest Dick ever came to being completely played out. + +That evening was delightful. We sat on the rock and watched the long +North Country twilight steal up like a gray cloud from the east. Two +loons called to each other, now in the shrill maniac laughter, now with +the long, mournful cry. It needed just that one touch to finish the +picture. We were looking, had we but known it, on a lake no white man +had ever visited before. Clement alone had seen Kawágama, so in our +ignorance we attained much the same mental attitude. For I may as well +let you into the secret; this was not the fabled lake after all. We +found that out later from Tawabinisáy. But it was beautiful enough, and +wild enough, and strange enough in its splendid wilderness isolation to +fill the heart of the explorer with a great content. + +Having thus, as we thought, attained the primary object of our +explorations, we determined on trying now for the second--that is, the +investigation of the upper reaches of the River. Trout we had not +accomplished at this lake, but the existence of fish of some sort was +attested by the presence of the two loons and the gull, so we laid our +non-success to fisherman's luck. After two false starts we managed to +strike into a good country near enough our direction. The travel was +much the same as before. The second day, however, we came to a +surveyor's base-line cut through the woods. Then we followed that as a +matter of convenience. The base-line, cut the fall before, was the only +evidence of man we saw in the high country. It meant nothing in itself, +but was intended as a starting-point for the township surveys, whenever +the country should become civilized enough to warrant them. That +condition of affairs might not occur for years to come. Therefore the +line was cut out clear for a width of twenty feet. + +We continued along it as along a trail until we discovered our last +lake--a body of water possessing many radiating arms. This was the +nearest we came to the real Kawágama. If we had skirted the lake, +mounted the ridge, followed a creek-bed, mounted another ridge, and +descended a slope, we should have made our discovery. Later we did just +that, under the guidance of Tawabinisáy himself. Floating in the birch +canoe we carried with us we looked back at the very spot on which we +stood this morning. + +But we turned sharp to the left, and so missed our chance. However, we +were in a happy frame of mind, for we imagined we had really made the +desired discovery. + +Nothing of moment happened until we reached the valley of the River. +Then we found we were treed. We had been travelling all the time among +hills and valleys, to be sure, but on a high elevation. Even the bottom +lands, in which lay the lakes, were several hundred feet above +Superior. Now we emerged from the forest to find ourselves on bold +mountains at least seven or eight hundred feet above the main valley. +And in the main valley we could make out the River. + +It was rather dizzy work. Three or four times we ventured over the +rounded crest of the hill, only to return after forty or fifty feet +because the slope had become too abrupt. This grew to be monotonous and +aggravating. It looked as though we might have to parallel the River's +course, like scouts watching an army, on the top of the hill. Finally a +little ravine gave us hope. We scrambled down it; ended in a very steep +slant, and finished at a sheer tangle of cedar-roots. The latter we +attempted. Billy went on ahead. I let the packs down to him by means of +a tump-line. He balanced them on roof; until I had climbed below him. +And so on. It was exactly like letting a bucket down a well. If one of +the packs had slipped off the cedar-roots, it would have dropped like a +plummet to the valley, and landed on Heaven knows what. The same might +be said of ourselves. We did this because we were angry all through. + +Then we came to the end of the cedar-roots. Right and left offered +nothing; below was a sheer, bare drop. Absolutely nothing remained but +to climb back, heavy packs and all, to the top of the mountain. False +hopes had wasted a good half day and innumerable foot-pounds. Billy and +I saw red. We bowed our heads and snaked those packs to the top of the +mountain at a gait that ordinarily would have tired us out in fifty +feet. Dick did not attempt to keep up. When we reached the top we sat +down to wait for him. After a while he appeared, climbing leisurely. He +gazed on us from behind the mask of his Indian imperturbability. Then +he grinned. That did us good, for we all three laughed aloud, and +buckled down to business in a better frame of mind. + +That day we discovered a most beautiful waterfall. A stream about +twenty feet in width, and with a good volume of water, dropped some +three hundred feet or more into the River. It was across the valley +from us, so we had a good view of its beauties. Our estimates of its +height were carefully made on the basis of some standing pine that grew +near its foot. + +And then we entered a steep little ravine, and descended it with +misgivings to a cañon, and walked easily down the cañon to a slope that +took us by barely sensible gradations to a wooded plain. At six o'clock +we stood on the banks of the River, and the hills were behind us. + +Of our down-stream travel there is little really to be said. We +established a number of facts--that the River dashes most scenically +from rapid to rapid, so that the stagnant pool theory is henceforth +untenable; that the hills get higher and wilder the farther you +penetrate to the interior, and their cliffs and rock-precipices bolder +and more naked; that there are trout in the upper reaches, but not so +large as in the lower pools; and, above all, that travel is not a joy +for ever. + +For we could not ford the River above the Falls--it is too deep and +swift. As a consequence, we had often to climb, often to break through +the narrowest thicket strips, and once to feel our way cautiously along +a sunken ledge under a sheer rock cliff. That was Billy's idea. We came +to the sheer rock cliff after a pretty hard scramble, and we were most +loth to do the necessary climbing. Billy suggested that we might be +able to wade. As the pool below the cliff was black water and of +indeterminate depth, we scouted the idea. Billy, however, poked around +with a stick, and, as I have said, discovered a little ledge about a +foot and a half wide and about two feet and a half below the surface. +This was spectacular, but we did it. A slip meant a swim and the loss +of the pack. We did not happen to slip. Shortly after, we came to the +Big Falls, and so after further painful experiment descended joyfully +into known country. + +The freshet had gone down, the weather had warmed, the sun shone, we +caught trout for lunch below the Big Falls; everything was lovely. By +three o'clock, after thrice wading the stream, we regained our +canoe--now at least forty feet from the water. We paddled across. Deuce +followed easily, where a week before he had been sucked down and nearly +drowned. We opened the cache and changed our very travel-stained +garments. We cooked ourselves a luxurious meal. We built a +friendship-fire. And at last we stretched our tired bodies full length +on balsam a foot thick, and gazed drowsily at the canvas-blurred moon +before sinking to a dreamless sleep. + + + + +XV. + +ON WOODS INDIANS. + + +Far in the North dwell a people practically unknown to any but the +fur-trader and the explorer. Our information as to Mokis, Sioux, +Cheyennes Nez Percés, and indirectly many others, through the pages of +Cooper, Parkman, and allied writers, is varied enough, so that our +ideas of Indians are pretty well established. If we are romantic, we +hark back to the past and invent fairy-tales with ourselves anent the +Noble Red Man who has Passed Away. If we are severely practical, we +take notice of filth, vice, plug-hats, tin cans, and laziness. In fact, +we might divide all Indian concepts into two classes, following these +mental and imaginative bents. Then we should have quite simply and +satisfactorily the Cooper Indian and the Comic Paper Indian. It must be +confessed that the latter is often approximated by reality--and +everybody knows it. That the former is by no means a myth--at least in +many qualities--the average reader might be pardoned for doubting. + +Some time ago I desired to increase my knowledge of the Woods Indians +by whatever others had accomplished. Accordingly I wrote to the +Ethnological Department at Washington asking what had been done in +regard to the Ojibways and Wood Crees north of Lake Superior. The +answer was "nothing." + +And "nothing" is more nearly a comprehensive answer than at first you +might believe. Visitors at Mackinac, Traverse, Sault Ste. Marie, and +other northern resorts are besought at certain times of the year by +silent calico-dressed squaws to purchase basket and bark work. If the +tourist happens to follow these women for more wholesale examination of +their wares, he will be led to a double-ended Mackinaw-built +sailing-craft with red-dyed sails, half pulled out on the beach. In the +stern sit two or three bucks wearing shirts, jean trousers, and broad +black hats. Some of the oldest men may sport a patched pair of +moccasins or so, but most are conventional enough in clumsy shoes. +After a longer or shorter stay they hoist their red sails and drift +away toward some mysterious destination on the north shore. If the +buyer is curious enough and persistent enough, he may elicit the fact +that they are Ojibways. + +Now, if this same tourist happens to possess a mildly venturesome +disposition, a sailing-craft, and a chart of the region, he will sooner +or later blunder across the dwelling-place of his silent vendors. At +the foot of some rarely-frequented bay he will come on a diminutive +village of small whitewashed log houses. It will differ from other +villages in that the houses are arranged with no reference whatever to +one another, but in the haphazard fashion of an encampment. Its +inhabitants are his summer friends. If he is of an insinuating address, +he may get a glimpse of their daily life. Then he will go away firmly +convinced that he knows quite a lot about the North Woods Indian. + +And so he does. But this North Woods Indian is the Reservation Indian. +And in the North a Reservation Indian is as different from a Woods +Indian as a negro is from a Chinese. + +Suppose, on the other hand, your tourist is unfortunate enough to get +left at some North Woods railway station where he has descended from +the transcontinental to stretch his legs, and suppose him to have +happened on a fur-town like Missináibie at the precise time when the +trappers are in from the wilds. Near the borders of the village he will +come upon a little encampment of conical tepees. At his approach the +women and children will disappear into inner darkness. A dozen +wolf-like dogs will rush out barking. Grave-faced men will respond +silently to his salutation. + +These men, he will be interested to observe, wear still the deer or +moose skin moccasin--the lightest and easiest foot-gear for the woods; +bind their long hair with a narrow fillet, and their waists with a red +or striped worsted sash; keep warm under the blanket thickness of a +Hudson Bay capote; and deck their clothes with a variety of barbaric +ornament. He will see about camp weapons whose acquaintance he has made +only in museums, peltries of whose identification he is by no means +sure, and as matters of daily use--snow-shoes, bark canoes, bows and +arrows--what to him have been articles of ornament or curiosity. +To-morrow these people will be gone for another year, carrying with +them the results of the week's barter. Neither he nor his kind will see +them again, unless they too journey far into the Silent Places. But he +has caught a glimpse of the stolid mask of the Woods Indian, concerning +whom officially "nothing" is known. + +In many respects the Woods Indian is the legitimate descendant of the +Cooper Indian. His life is led entirely in the forests; his subsistence +is assured by hunting, fishing, and trapping; his dwelling is the +wigwam, and his habitation the wide reaches of the wilderness lying +between Lake Superior and the Hudson Bay; his relation to humanity +confined to intercourse with his own people and acquaintance with the +men who barter for his peltries. So his dependence is not on the world +the white man has brought, but on himself and his natural environment. +Civilization has merely ornamented his ancient manner. It has given him +the convenience of cloth, of firearms, of steel traps, of iron kettles, +of matches; it has accustomed him to the luxuries of white +sugar--though he had always his own maple product--tea, flour, and +white man's tobacco. That is about all. He knows nothing of whisky. The +towns are never visited by him, and the Hudson's Bay Company will sell +him no liquor. His concern with you is not great, for he has little to +gain from you. + +This people, then, depending on natural resources for subsistence, has +retained to a great extent the qualities of the early aborigines. + +To begin with, it is distinctly nomadic. The great rolls of birch bark +to cover the pointed tepees are easily transported in the bottoms of +canoes, and the poles are quickly cut and put in place. As a +consequence, the Ojibway family is always on the move. It searches out +new trapping-grounds, new fisheries, it pays visits, it seems even to +enjoy travel for the sake of exploration. In winter a tepee of double +wall is built, whose hollow is stuffed with moss to keep out the cold; +but even that approximation of permanence cannot stand against the +slightest convenience. When an Indian kills, often he does not +transport his game to camp, but moves his camp to the vicinity of the +carcass. There are of these woods dwellers no villages, no permanent +clearings. The vicinity of a Hudson's Bay post is sometimes occupied +for a month or so during the summer, but that is all. + +An obvious corollary of this is that tribal life does not consistently +obtain. Throughout the summer months, when game and fur are at their +poorest, the bands assemble, probably at the times of barter with the +traders. Then for the short period of the idling season they drift +together up and down the North Country streams, or camp for big +pow-wows and conjuring near some pleasant conflux of rivers. But when +the first frosts nip the leaves, the families separate to their +allotted trapping districts, there to spend the winter in pursuit of +the real business of life. + +The tribe is thus split into many groups, ranging in numbers from +the solitary trapper, eager to win enough fur to buy him a wife, to a +compact little group of three or four families closely related in +blood. The most striking consequence is that, unlike other Indian +bodies politic, there are no regularly constituted and acknowledged +chiefs. Certain individuals gain a remarkable reputation and an equally +remarkable respect for wisdom, or hunting skill, or power of woodcraft, +or travel. These men are the so-called "old men" often mentioned in +Indian manifestoes, though age has nothing to do with the deference +accorded them. Tawabinisáy is not more than thirty-five years old; +Peter, our Hudson Bay Indian, is hardly more than a boy. Yet both are +obeyed implicitly by whomever they happen to be with; both lead the way +by river or trail; and both, where question arises, are sought in +advice by men old enough to be their fathers. Perhaps this is as good a +democracy as another. + +The life so briefly hinted at in the foregoing lines inevitably +develops and fosters an expertness of woodcraft almost beyond belief. +The Ojibway knows his environment. The forest is to him so familiar in +each and every one of its numerous and subtle aspects that the +slightest departure from the normal strikes his attention at once. A +patch of brown shadow where green shadow should fall, a shimmering of +leaves where should be merely a gentle waving, a cross-light where the +usual forest growth should adumbrate, a flash of wings at a time of day +when feathered creatures ordinarily rest quiet--these, and hundreds of +others which you and I should never even guess at, force themselves as +glaringly on an Indian's notice as a brass band in a city street. A +white man _looks_ for game; an Indian sees it because it differs +from the forest. + +That is, of course, a matter of long experience and lifetime habit. +Were it a question merely of this, the white man might also in time +attain the same skill. But the Indian is a better animal. His senses +are appreciably sharper than our own. + +In journeying down the Kapúskasíng River, our Indians--who had come +from the woods to guide us--always saw game long before we did. They +would never point it out to us. The bow of the canoe would swing +silently in its direction, there to rest motionless until we indicated +we had seen something. + +"Where is it, Peter?" I would whisper. + +But Peter always remained contemptuously silent. + +One evening we paddled directly into the eye of the setting sun +across a shallow little lake filled with hardly sunken boulders. There +was no current, and no breath of wind to stir the water into betraying +riffles. But invariably those Indians twisted the canoe into a new +course ten feet before we reached one of the obstructions, whose +existence our dazzled vision could not attest until they were actually +below us. They _saw_ those rocks, through the shimmer of the +surface glare. + +Another time I discovered a small black animal lying flat on a point of +shale. Its head was concealed behind a boulder, and it was so far away +that I was inclined to congratulate myself on having differentiated it +from the shadow. + +"What is it, Peter?" I asked. + +Peter hardly glanced at it. + +"Ninny-moósh" (dog), he replied. + +Now we were a hundred miles south of the Hudson's Bay post, and two +weeks north of any other settlement. Saving a horse, a dog would be +about the last thing to occur to one in guessing at the identity of any +strange animal. This looked like a little black blotch, without form. +Yet Peter knew it. It was a dog, lost from some Indian hunting-party, +and mightily glad to see us. + +The sense of smell, too, is developed to an extent positively uncanny +to us who have needed it so little. Your Woods Indian is always +sniffing, always testing the impressions of other senses by his +olfactories. Instances numerous and varied might be cited, but probably +one will do as well as a dozen. It once became desirable to kill a +caribou in country where the animals are not at all abundant. +Tawabinisáy volunteered to take Jim within shot of one. Jim describes +their hunt as the most wonderful bit of stalking he had ever seen. The +Indian followed the animal's tracks as easily as you or I could have +followed them over snow. He did this rapidly and certainly. Every once +in a while he would get down on all fours to sniff inquiringly at the +crushed herbage. Always on rising to his feet he would give the result +of his investigations. "Ah-téek [caribou] one hour." + +And later, "Ah-téek half hour." + +Or again, "Ah-téek quarter hour." + +And finally, "Ah-téek over nex' hill." + +And it was so. + +In like manner, but most remarkable to us because the test of direct +comparison with our own sense was permitted us, was their acuteness of +hearing. Often while "jumping" a roaring rapids in two canoes, my +companion and I have heard our men talking to each other in quite an +ordinary tone of voice. That is to say, I could hear my Indian, and Jim +could hear his; but personally we were forced to shout loudly to carry +across the noise of the stream. The distant approach of animals they +announce accurately. + +"Wawashkeshí" (deer), says Peter. + +And sure enough, after an interval, we too could distinguish the +footfalls on the dry leaves. + +As both cause and consequence of these physical endowments--which place +them nearly on a parity with the game itself--they are most expert +hunters. Every sportsman knows the importance--and also the +difficulty--of discovering game before it discovers him. The Indian has +here an immense advantage. And after game is discovered, he is +furthermore most expert in approaching it with all the refined art of +the still hunter. + +Mr. Caspar Whitney describes in exasperation his experience with the +Indians of the Far North-West. He complains that when they blunder on +game they drop everything and enter into almost hopeless chase, two +legs against four. Occasionally the quarry becomes enough bewildered so +that the wild shooting will bring it down. He quite justly argues that +the merest pretence at caution in approach would result in much greater +success. + +The Woods Indian is no such fool. He is a mighty poor shot--and he +knows it. Personally I believe he shuts both eyes before pulling +trigger. He is armed with a long flint or percussion lock musket, whose +gas-pipe barrel is bound to the wood that runs its entire length by +means of brass bands, and whose effective range must be about ten +yards. This archaic implement is known as a "trade gun" and has the +single merit of never getting out of order. Furthermore ammunition is +precious. In consequence, the wilderness hunter is not going to be +merely pretty sure; he intends to be absolutely certain. If he cannot +approach near enough to blow a hole in his prey, he does not fire. + +I have seen Peter drop into marsh-grass so thin that apparently we +could discern the surface of the ground through it, and disappear so +completely that our most earnest attention could not distinguish even a +rustling of the herbage. After an interval his gun would go off from +some distant point, exactly where some ducks had been feeding serenely +oblivious to fate. Neither of us white men would have considered for a +moment the possibility of getting any of them. Once I felt rather proud +of myself for killing six ruffed grouse out of some trees with the +pistol, until Peter drifted in carrying three he had bagged with a +stick. + +Another interesting phase of this almost perfect correspondence to +environment is the readiness with which an Indian will meet an +emergency. We are accustomed to rely first of all on the skilled labour +of some one we can hire; second, if we undertake the job ourselves, on +the tools made for us by skilled labour; and third, on the shops to +supply us with the materials we may need. Not once in a lifetime are we +thrown entirely on our own resources. Then we improvise bunglingly a +makeshift. + +The Woods Indian possesses his knife and his light axe. Nails, planes, +glue, chisels, vices, cord, rope, and all the rest of it he has to do +without. But he never improvises makeshifts. No matter what the +exigency or how complicated the demand, his experience answers with +accuracy. + +Utensils and tools he knows exactly where to find. His job is neat and +workmanlike, whether it is a bark receptacle--water-tight or not--a +pair of snow-shoes, the repairing of a badly-smashed canoe, the +construction of a shelter, or the fashioning of a paddle. About noon +one day Tawabinisáy broke his axe-helve square off. This to us would +have been a serious affair. Probably we should, left to ourselves, have +stuck in some sort of a rough straight sapling handle which would have +answered well enough until we could have bought another. By the time we +had cooked dinner that Indian had fashioned another helve. We compared +it with the store article. It was as well shaped, as smooth, as nicely +balanced. In fact, as we laid the new and the old side by side, we +could not have selected, from any evidence of the workmanship, which +had been made by machine and which by hand. Tawabinisáy then burned out +the wood from the axe, retempered the steel, set the new helve, and +wedged it neatly with ironwood wedges. The whole affair, including the +cutting of the timber, consumed perhaps half an hour. + +To travel with a Woods Indian is a constant source of delight on this +account. So many little things that the white man does without, because +he will not bother with their transportation, the Indian makes for +himself. And so quickly and easily! I have seen a thoroughly +waterproof, commodious, and comfortable bark shelter made in about the +time it would take one to pitch a tent. I have seen a raft built of +cedar logs and cedar bark ropes in an hour. I have seen a badly-stove +canoe made as good as new in fifteen minutes. The Indian rarely needs +to hunt for the materials he requires. He knows exactly where they +grow, and he turns as directly to them as a clerk would turn to his +shelves. No problem of the living of physical life is too obscure to +have escaped his varied experience. You may travel with Indians for +years, and learn something new and delightful as to how to take care of +yourself every summer. + +The qualities I have mentioned come primarily from the fact that the +Woods Indian is a hunter. I have now to instance two whose development +can be traced to the other fact--that he is a nomad. I refer to his +skill with the bark canoe and his ability to carry. + +I was once introduced to a man at a little way station of the Canadian +Pacific Railway in the following words:-- + +"Shake hands with Munson; he's as good a canoeman as an Indian." + +A little later one of the bystanders remarked to me:-- + +"That fellow you was just talking with is as good a canoeman as an +Injun." + +Still later, at an entirely different place, a member of the bar +informed me, in the course of discussion:-- + +"The only man I know of who can do it is named Munson. He is as good a +canoeman as an Indian." + +At the time this unanimity of praise puzzled me a little. I thought I +had seen some pretty good canoe work, and even cherished a mild conceit +that occasionally I could keep right side up myself. I knew Munson to +be a great woods-traveller, with many striking qualities, and why this +of canoemanship should be so insistently chosen above the others was +beyond my comprehension. Subsequently a companion and I journeyed to +Hudson Bay with two birch canoes and two Indians. Since that trip I +have had a vast respect for Munson. + +Undoubtedly among the half-breed and white guides of Lower Canada, +Maine, and the Adirondacks are many skilful men. But they know their +waters; they follow a beaten track. The Woods Indian--well, let me tell +you something of what he does. + +We went down the Kapúskasíng River to the Mattágami, and then down that +to the Moose. These rivers are at first but a hundred feet or so wide, +but rapidly swell with the influx of numberless smaller streams. Two +days' journey brings you to a watercourse nearly half a mile in +breadth; two weeks finds you on a surface approximately a mile and a +half across. All this water descends from the Height of Land to the sea +level. It does so through a rock country. The result is a series of +roaring, dashing boulder rapids and waterfalls that would make your +hair stand on end merely to contemplate from the banks. + +The regular route to Moose Factory is by the Missinaíbie. Our way was +new and strange. No trails; no knowledge of the country. When we came +to a stretch of white water, the Indians would rise to their feet for a +single instant's searching examination of the stretch of tumbled water +before them. In that moment they picked the passage they were to follow +as well as a white man could have done so in half an hour's study. Then +without hesitation they shot their little craft at the green water. + +From that time we merely tried to sit still, each in his canoe. Each +Indian did it all with his single paddle. He seemed to possess absolute +control over his craft. + +Even in the rush of water which seemed to hurry us on at almost +railroad speed, he could stop for an instant, work directly sideways, +shoot forward at a slant, swing either his bow or his stern. An error +in judgment or in the instantaneous acting upon it meant a hit; and a +hit in these savage North Country Rivers meant destruction. How my man +kept in his mind the passage he had planned during his momentary +inspection was always to me a miracle. How he got so unruly a beast as +the birch canoe to follow it in that tearing volume of water was always +another. Big boulders he dodged, eddies he took advantage of, slants of +current he utilized. A fractional second of hesitation could not be +permitted him. But always the clutching of white hands from the rip at +the eddy finally conveyed to my spray-drenched faculties that the rapid +was safely astern. And this, mind you, in strange waters. + +Occasionally we would carry our outfit through the woods, while the +Indians would shoot some especially bad water in the light canoe. As a +spectacle nothing could be finer. The flash of the yellow bark, the +movement of the broken waters, the gleam of the paddle, the tense +alertness of the men's figures, their carven, passive faces, with the +contrast of the flashing eyes and the distended nostrils, then the leap +into space over some half-cataract, the smash of spray, the exultant +yells of the canoemen! For your Indian enjoys the game thoroughly. And +it requires very bad water indeed to make him take to the brush. + +This is, of course, the spectacular. But also in the ordinary gray +business of canoe travel the Woods Indian shows his superiority. He is +tireless, and composed as to wrist and shoulder of a number of +whale-bone springs. From early dawn to dewy eve, and then a few +gratuitous hours into the night, he will dig energetic holes in the +water with his long, narrow blade. And every stroke counts. The water +boils out in a splotch of white air-bubbles, the little suction holes +pirouette like dancing-girls, the fabric of the craft itself trembles +under the power of the stroke. Jim and I used, in the lake stretches, +to amuse ourselves--and probably the Indians--by paddling in furious +rivalry one against the other. Then Peter would make up his mind he +would like to speak to Jacob. His canoe would shoot up alongside as +though the Old Man of the Lake had laid his hand across its stern. +Would I could catch that trick of easy, tireless speed! I know it lies +somewhat in keeping both elbows always straight and stiff, in a lurch +forward of the shoulders at the end of the stroke. But that, and more! +Perhaps one needs a copper skin and beady black eyes with surface +lights. + +Nor need you hope to pole a canoe upstream as do these people. +Tawabinisáy uses two short poles, one in either hand, kneels amidships, +and snakes that little old canoe of his upstream so fast that you would +swear the rapids an easy matter--until you tried them yourself. We were +once trailed up a river by an old Woods Indian and his interesting +family. The outfit consisted of canoe Number One--_item_, one old +Injin, one boy of eight years, one dog; canoe Number Two--_item_, +one old Injin squaw, one girl of eighteen or twenty, one dog; canoe +Number Three--_item_, two little girls of ten and twelve, one +dog. We tried desperately for three days to get away from this party. +It did not seem to work hard at all. We did. Even the two little girls +appeared to dip the contemplative paddle from time to time. Water +boiled back of our own blades. We started early and quit late, and +about as we congratulated ourselves over our evening fire that we had +distanced our followers at last, those three canoes would steal +silently and calmly about the lower bend to draw ashore below us. In +ten minutes the old Indian was delivering an oration to us, squatted in +resignation. + +The Red Gods alone know what he talked about. He had no English, and +our Ojibway was of the strictly utilitarian. But for an hour he would +hold forth. We called him Talk-in-the-Face, the Great Indian Chief. +Then he would drop a mild hint for sáymon, which means tobacco, and +depart. By ten o'clock the next morning he and his people would +overtake us in spite of our earlier start. Usually we were in the act +of dragging our canoe through an especially vicious rapid by means of a +tow-line. Their three canoes, even to the children's, would ascend +easily by means of poles. Tow-lines appeared to be unsportsmanlike--like +angle-worms. Then the entire nine--including the dogs--would roost on +rocks and watch critically our methods. + +The incident had one value, however: it showed us just why these people +possess the marvellous canoe skill I have attempted to sketch. The +little boy in the leading canoe was not over eight or nine years of +age, but he had his little paddle and his little canoe-pole, and, what +is more, he already used them intelligently and well. As for the little +girls--well, they did easily feats I never hope to emulate, and that +without removing the cowl-like coverings from their heads and +shoulders. + +The same early habitude probably accounts for their ability to carry +weights long distances. The Woods Indian is not a mighty man +physically. Most of them are straight and well built, but of only +medium height, and not wonderfully muscled. Peter was most beautiful, +but in the fashion of the flying Mercury, with long smooth panther +muscles. He looked like Uncas, especially when his keen hawk-face was +fixed in distant attention. But I think I could have wrestled Peter +down. Yet time and again I have seen that Indian carry two hundred +pounds for some miles through a rough country absolutely without +trails. And once I was witness of a feat of Tawabinisáy, when that wily +savage portaged a pack of fifty pounds and a two-man canoe through a +hill country for four hours and ten minutes without a rest. Tawabinisáy +is even smaller than Peter. + +So much for the qualities developed by the woods life. Let us now +examine what may be described as the inherent characteristics of the +people. + + + + +XVI. + +ON WOODS INDIANS (_continued_). + + +It must be understood, of course, that I offer you only the best of my +subject. A people counts for what it does well. Also I instance men of +standing in the loose Indian body politic. A traveller can easily +discover the reverse of the medal. These have their shirks, their +do-nothings, their men of small account, just as do other races. I have +no thought of glorifying the noble red man, nor of claiming for him a +freedom from human imperfection--even where his natural quality and +training count the most--greater than enlightenment has been able to +reach. + +In my experience the honesty of the Woods Indian is of a very high +order. The sense of _mine_ and _thine_ is strongly forced by +the exigencies of the North Woods life. A man is always on the move; he +is always exploring the unknown countries. Manifestly it is impossible +for him to transport the entire sum of his worldly effects. The +implements of winter are a burden in summer. Also the return journey +from distant shores must be provided for by food-stations, to be relied +on. The solution of these needs is the cache. + +And the cache is not a literal term at all. It _conceals_ nothing. +Rather does it hold aloft in long-legged prominence, for the inspection +of all who pass, what the owner has seen fit to leave behind. A heavy +platform high enough from the ground to frustrate the investigations of +animals is all that is required. Visual concealment is unnecessary, +because in the North Country a cache is sacred. On it may depend the +life of a man. He who leaves provisions must find them on his return, +for he may reach them starving, and the length of his out-journey may +depend on his certainty of relief at this point on his in-journey. So +men passing touch not his hoard, for some day they may be in the same +fix, and a precedent is a bad thing. + +[Illustration: NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE +PEOPLE.] + +Thus in parts of the wildest countries of northern Canada I have +unexpectedly come upon a birch canoe in capsized suspension between two +trees; or a whole bunch of snow-shoes depending fruit-like beneath the +fans of a spruce; or a tangle of steel traps thrust into the crevice of +a tree-root; or a supply of pork and flour, swathed like an Egyptian +mummy, occupying stately a high bier. These things we have passed by +reverently, as symbols of a people's trust in its kind. + +The same sort of honesty holds in regard to smaller things. I have +never hesitated to leave in my camp firearms, fishing-rods, utensils +valuable from a woods point of view, even a watch or money. Not only +have I never lost anything in that manner, but once an Indian lad +followed me some miles after the morning's start to restore to me a +half-dozen trout flies I had accidentally left behind. + +It might be readily inferred that this quality carries over into the +subtleties, as indeed is the case. Mr. MacDonald of Brunswick House +once discussed with me the system of credits carried on by the Hudson's +Bay Company with the trappers. Each family is advanced goods to the +value of two hundred dollars, with the understanding that the debt is +to be paid from the season's catch. + +"I should think you would lose a good deal," I ventured. "Nothing could +be easier than for an Indian to take his two hundred dollars' worth and +disappear in the woods. You'd never be able to find him." + +Mr. MacDonald's reply struck me, for the man had twenty years' trading +experience. + +"I have never," said he, "in a long woods life known but one Indian +liar." + +This my own limited woods-wandering has proved to be true to a +sometimes almost ridiculous extent. The most trivial statement of fact +can be relied on, provided it is given outside of trade or enmity or +absolute indifference. The Indian loves to fool the tenderfoot. But a +sober, measured statement you can conclude is accurate. And if an +Indian promises a thing, he will accomplish it. He expects you to do +the same. Watch your lightest words carefully and you would retain the +respect of your red associates. + +On our way to the Hudson Bay we rashly asked Peter, towards the last, +when we should reach Moose Factory. He deliberated. + +"T'ursday," said he. + +Things went wrong; Thursday supplied a head wind. We had absolutely no +interest in reaching Moose Factory next day; the next week would have +done as well. But Peter, deaf to expostulation, entreaty, and command, +kept us travelling from six in the morning until after twelve at night. +We couldn't get him to stop. Finally he drew the canoes ashore. + +"Moose-amik quarter hour," said he. + +He had kept his word. + +The Ojibway possesses a great pride which the unthinking can ruffle +quite unconsciously in many ways. Consequently the Woods Indian is +variously described as a good guide or a bad one. The difference lies +in whether you suggest or command. + +"Peter, you've got to make Chicawgun to-night. Get a move on you!" will +bring you sullen service, and probably breed kicks on the grub supply, +which is the immediate precursor of mutiny. + +"Peter, it's a long way to Chicawgun. Do you think we make him +to-night?" on the other hand, will earn you at least a serious +consideration of the question. And if Peter says you can, you will. + +For the proper man the Ojibway takes a great pride in his woodcraft, +the neatness of his camps, the savoury quality of his cookery, the +expedition of his travel, the size of his packs, the patience of his +endurance. On the other hand, he can be as sullen, inefficient, stupid, +and vindictive as any man of any race on earth. I suppose the faculty +of getting along with men is largely inherent. Certainly it is blended +of many subtleties. To be friendly, to retain respect, to praise, to +preserve authority, to direct and yet to leave detail, to exact what is +due, and yet to deserve it--these be the qualities of a leader, and +cannot be taught. + +In general the Woods Indian is sober. He cannot get whisky regularly, +to be sure, but I have often seen the better class of Ojibways refuse a +drink, saying that they did not care for it. He starves well, and keeps +going on nothing long after hope is vanished. He is patient--yea, very +patient--under toil, and so accomplishes great journeys, overcomes +great difficulties, and does great deeds by means of this handmaiden of +genius. According to his own standards is he clean. To be sure his +baths are not numerous, nor his laundry-days many, but he never cooks +until he has washed his hands and arms to the very shoulders. Other +details would but corroborate the impression of this instance--that his +ideas differ from ours, as is his right, but that he lives up to his +ideas. Also is he hospitable, expecting nothing in return. After your +canoe is afloat and your paddle in the river, two or three of his +youngsters will splash in after you to toss silver fish to your +necessities. And so always he will wait until this last moment of +departure, in order that you will not feel called on to give him +something in return. Which is true tact and kindliness, and worthy of +high praise. + +Perhaps I have not strongly enough insisted that the Indian nations +differ as widely from one another as do unallied races. We found this +to be true even in the comparatively brief journey from Chapleau to +Moose. After pushing through a trackless wilderness without having laid +eyes on a human being, excepting the single instance of three French +_voyageurs_ going Heaven knows where, we were anticipating +pleasurably our encounter with the traders at the Factory, and +naturally supposed that Peter and Jacob would be equally pleased at the +chance of visiting with their own kind. Not at all. When we reached +Moose our Ojibways wrapped themselves in a mantle of dignity, and +stalked scornful amidst obsequious clans. For the Ojibway is great +among Indians, verily much greater than the Moose River Crees. Had it +been a question of Rupert's River Crees with their fierce blood-laws, +their conjuring-lodges, and their pagan customs, the affair might have +been different. + +For, mark you, the Moose River Cree is little among hunters, and he +conducts the chase miscellaneously over his district without thought to +the preservation of the beaver, and he works in the hay marshes during +the summer, and is short, squab, and dirty, and generally +_ka-win-ni-shi-shin_. The old sacred tribal laws, which are better +than a religion because they are practically adapted to northern life, +have among them been allowed to lapse. Travellers they are none, nor do +their trappers get far from the Company's pork-barrels. So they inbreed +ignobly for lack of outside favour, and are dying from the face of the +land through dire diseases, just as their reputations have already died +from men's respect. + +The great unwritten law of the forest is that, save as provision during +legitimate travel, one may not hunt in his neighbour's district. Each +trapper has assigned him, or gets by inheritance or purchase, certain +territorial power. In his land he alone may trap. He knows the +beaver-dams, how many animals each harbours, how large a catch each +will stand without diminution of the supply. So the fur is made to +last. In the southern district this division is tacitly agreed upon. It +is not etiquette to poach. What would happen to a poacher no one knows, +simply because the necessity for finding out has not arisen. +Tawabinisáy controls from Batchawanúng to Agawa. There old Waboos takes +charge. And so on. But in the Far North the control is more often +disputed, and there the blood-law still holds. An illegal trapper baits +his snares with his life. If discovered, he is summarily shot. So is +the game preserved. + +The Woods Indian never kills waste-fully. The mere presence of game +does not breed in him a lust to slaughter something. Moderation you +learn of him first of all. Later, provided you are with him long enough +and your mind is open to mystic influence, you will feel the strong +impress of his idea--that the animals of the forest are not lower than +man, but only different. Man is an animal living the life of the +forest; the beasts are also a body politic speaking a different +language and with different view-points. Amik, the beaver, has certain +ideas as to the conduct of life, certain habits of body, and certain +bias of thought. His scheme of things is totally at variance with that +held by Me-en-gan, the wolf, but even to us whites the two are on a +parity. Man has still another system. One is no better than another. +They are merely different. And just as Me-en-gan preys on Amik, so does +Man kill for his own uses. + +Thence are curious customs. A Rupert River Cree will not kill a bear +unless he, the hunter, is in gala attire, and then not until he has +made a short speech in which he assures his victim that the affair is +not one of personal enmity, but of expedience, and that anyway he, the +bear, will be better off in the Hereafter. And then the skull is +cleaned and set on a pole near running water, there to remain during +twelve moons. Also at the tail-root of a newly-deceased beaver is tied +a thong braided of red wool and deerskin. And many other curious +habitudes which would be of slight interest here. Likewise do they +conjure up by means of racket and fasting the familiar spirits of +distant friends or enemies, and on these spirits fasten a blessing or a +curse. + +From this it may be deduced that missionary work has not been as +thorough as might be hoped. That is true. The Woods Indian loves to +sing, and possesses quaint melodies, or rather intonations, of his own. +But especially does he delight in the long-drawn wail of some of our +old-fashioned hymns. The church oftenest reaches him through them. I +know nothing stranger than the sight of a little half-lit church filled +with Indians swaying unctuously to and fro in the rhythm of a cadence +old Watts would have recognized with difficulty. The religious feeling +of the performance is not remarkable, but perhaps it does as a +starting-point. + +Exactly how valuable the average missionary work is I have been puzzled +to decide. Perhaps the church needs more intelligence in the men it +sends out. The evangelist is usually filled with narrow, preconceived +notions as to the proper physical life. He squeezes his savage into log +houses, boiled shirts, and boots. When he has succeeded in getting his +tuberculosis crop well started, he offers as compensation a doctrinal +religion admirably adapted to us, who have within reach of +century-trained perceptions a thousand of the subtler associations a +savage can know nothing about. If there is enough glitter and tin +steeple and high-sounding office and gilt good-behaviour card to it, +the red man's pagan heart is tickled in its vanity, and he dies in the +odour of sanctity--and of a filth his out-of-door life has never taught +him how to avoid. The Indian is like a raccoon: in his proper +surroundings he is clean morally and physically because he knows how to +be so; but in a cage he is filthy because he does not know how to be +otherwise. + +I must not be understood as condemning missionary work; only the stupid +missionary work one most often sees in the North. Surely Christianity +should be adaptable enough in its little things to fit any people with +its great. It seems hard for some men to believe that it is not +essential for a real Christian to wear a plug-hat. One God, love, +kindness, charity, honesty, right living, may thrive as well in the +wigwam as in a foursquare house--provided you let them wear moccasins +and a _capote_ wherewith to keep themselves warm and vital. + +Tawabinisáy must have had his religious training at the hands of a good +man. He had lost none of his aboriginal virtue and skill, as may be +gathered from what I have before said of him, and had gained in +addition certain of the gentle qualities. I have never been able to +gauge exactly the extent of his religious _understanding_, for +Tawabinisáy is a silent individual, and possesses very little English; +but I do know that his religious _feeling_ was deep and reverent. +He never swore in English; he did not drink; he never travelled or +hunted or fished on Sunday when he could possibly help it. These +virtues he wore modestly and unassumingly as an accustomed garment. Yet +he was the most gloriously natural man I have ever met. + +The main reliance of his formalism when he was off in the woods seemed +to be a little tattered volume, which he perused diligently all Sunday, +and wrapped carefully in a strip of oiled paper during the rest of the +week. One day I had a chance to look at this book while its owner was +away after spring water. Every alternate page was in the phonetic +Indian symbols, of which more hereafter. The rest was in French, and +evidently a translation. Although the volume was of Roman Catholic +origin, creed was conspicuously subordinated to the needs of the class +it aimed to reach. A confession of faith, quite simple, in one God, a +Saviour, a Mother of Heaven; a number of Biblical extracts rich in +imagery and applicability to the experience of a woods-dweller; a dozen +simple prayers of the kind the natural man would oftenest find occasion +to express--a prayer for sickness, for bounty, for fair weather, for +ease of travel, for the smiling face of Providence; and then some +hymns. To me the selection seemed most judicious. It answered the needs +of Tawabinisáy's habitual experiences, and so the red man was a good +and consistent convert. Irresistibly I was led to contemplate the idea +of any one trying to get Tawabinisáy to live in a house, to cut +cordwood with an axe, to roost on a hard bench under a tin steeple, to +wear stiff shoes, and to quit forest roaming. + +The written language mentioned above you will see often in the +Northland. Whenever an Indian band camps, it blazes a tree and leaves, +as record for those who may follow, a message written in the phonetic +character. I do not understand exactly the philosophy of it, but I +gather that each sound has a symbol of its own, like shorthand, and +that therefore even totally different languages--such as Ojibway, the +Wood Cree, or the Hudson Bay Eskimos--may all be written in the same +character. It was invented nearly a hundred years ago by a priest. So +simple is it, and so needed a method of intercommunication, that its +use is now practically universal. Even the youngsters understand it, +for they are early instructed in its mysteries during the long winter +evenings. On the preceding page is a message I copied from a spruce +tree two hundred miles from anywhere on the Mattágami River. + +[Illustration] + +Besides this are numberless formal symbols in constant use. Forerunners +on a trail stick a twig in the ground whose point indicates exactly the +position of the sun. Those who follow are able to estimate, by noting +how far beyond the spot the twig points to the sun has travelled, how +long a period of time has elapsed. A stick pointed in any given +direction tells the route, of course. Another planted upright across +the first shows by its position how long a journey is contemplated. A +little sack suspended at the end of the pointer conveys information as +to the state of the larder, lean or fat according as the little sack +contains more or less gravel or sand. A shred of rabbit-skin means +starvation. And so on in variety useless in any but an ethnological +work. + +[Illustration 1: A short journey.] + +[Illustration 2: A medium journey.] + +[Illustration 3: A long journey.] + +The Ojibways' tongue is soft, and full of decided lisping and sustained +hissing sounds. It is spoken with somewhat of a sing-song drawl. We +always had a fancy that somehow it was of forest growth, and that its +syllables were intended in the scheme of things to blend with the woods +noises, just as the feathers of the mother partridge blend with the +woods colours. In general it is polysyllabic. That applies especially +to concepts borrowed of the white men. On the other hand, the Ojibways +describe in monosyllables many ideas we could express only in phrase. +They have a single word for the notion, +Place-where-an-animal-slept-last-night. Our "lair," "form," etc., do +not mean exactly that. Its genius, moreover, inclines to a flexible +verb-form, by which adjectives and substantives are often absorbed into +the verb itself, so that one beautiful singing word will convey a whole +paragraph of information. My little knowledge of it is so entirely +empirical that it can possess small value. + +In concluding these desultory remarks, I want to tell you of a very +curious survival among the Ojibways and Ottawas of the Georgian Bay. It +seems that some hundreds of years ago these ordinarily peaceful folk +descended on the Iroquois in what is now New York, and massacred a +village or so. Then, like small boys who have thrown only too +accurately at the delivery wagon, they scuttled back home again. + +Since that time they have lived in deadly fear of retribution. The +Iroquois have long since disappeared from the face of the earth, but +even to-day the Georgian Bay Indians are subject to periodical spasms +of terror. Some wild-eyed and imaginative youth sees at sunset a canoe +far down the horizon. Immediately the villages are abandoned in haste, +and the entire community moves up to the head-waters of streams, there +to lurk until convinced that all danger is past. It does no good to +tell these benighted savages that they are safe from vengeance, at +least in this world. The dreaded name of Iroquois is potent, even +across the centuries. + + + + +XVII. + +THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH. + + +We settled down peacefully on the River, and the weather, after so much +enmity, was kind to us. Likewise did the flies disappear from the woods +utterly. + +Each morning we arose as the Red Gods willed; generally early, when the +sun was just gilding the peaks to the westward; but not too early, +before the white veil had left the River. Billy, with woodsman's +contempt for economy, hewed great logs and burned them nobly in the +cooking of trout, oatmeal, pancakes, and the like. We had constructed +ourselves tables and benches between green trees, and there we ate. And +great was the eating beyond the official capacity of the human stomach. +There offered little things to do, delicious little things just on the +hither side of idleness. A rod wrapping needed more waxed silk; a +favourite fly required attention to prevent dissolution; the pistol was +to be cleaned; a flag-pole seemed desirable; a trifle more of balsam +could do no harm; clothes might stand drying, blankets airing. We +accomplished these things leisurely, pausing for the telling of +stories, for the puffing of pipes, for the sheer joy of contemplations. +Deerskin slipper moccasins and flapping trousers attested our +deshabille. And then somehow it was noon, and Billy again at the Dutch +oven and the broiler. + +Trout we ate, and always more trout. Big fellows broiled with strips of +bacon craftily sewn in and out of the pink flesh; medium fellows cut +into steaks; little fellows fried crisp in corn-meal; big, medium, and +little fellows mingled in component of the famous North Country +_bouillon_, whose other ingredients are partridges, and tomatoes, +and potatoes, and onions, and salt pork, and flour in combination +delicious beyond belief. Nor ever did we tire of them, three times a +day, printed statement to the contrary notwithstanding. And besides +were many crafty dishes over whose construction the major portion of +morning idleness was spent. + +Now at two o'clock we groaned temporary little groans; and crawled +shrinking into our river clothes, which we dared not hang too near the +fire for fear of the disintegrating scorch, and drew on soggy hobnailed +shoes with holes cut in the bottom and plunged with howls of disgust +into the upper riffles. Then the cautious leg-straddled passage of the +swift current, during which we forgot for ever--which eternity alone +circles the bliss of an afternoon on the River--the chill of the water, +and so came to the trail. + +Now, at the Idiot's Delight Dick and I parted company. By three o'clock +I came again to the River, far up, halfway to the Big Falls. Deuce +watched me gravely. With the first click of the reel he retired to the +brush away from the back cast, there to remain until the pool was +fished and we could continue our journey. + +In the swift leaping water, at the smooth back of the eddy, in the +white foam, under the dark cliff shadow, here, there, everywhere the +bright flies drop softly like strange snowflakes. The game is as +interesting as pistol-shooting. To hit the mark, that is enough. And +then a swirl of water and a broad lazy tail wake you to the fact that +other matters are yours. Verily the fish of the North Country are +mighty beyond all others. + +Over the River rests the sheen of light; over the hills rests the sheen +of romance. The land is enchanted. Birds dip and sway, advance and +retreat; leaves toss their hands in greeting, or bend and whisper one +to the other; splashes of sun fall heavy as metal through the yielding +screens of branches; little breezes wander hesitatingly here and there +to sink like spent kites on the nearest bar of sun-warmed shingle; the +stream shouts and gurgles, murmurs, hushes, lies still and secret as +though to warn you to discretion, breaks away with a shriek of hilarity +when your discretion has been assured. There is in you a great leisure, +as though the day would never end. There is in you a great keenness. +One part of you is vibrantly alive. Your wrist muscles contract almost +automatically at the swirl of a rise, and the hum of life along the +gossamer of your line gains its communication with every nerve in your +body. The question of gear and method you attack clear-minded. What +fly? Montreal, Parmachenee Belle, Royal Coachman, Silver Doctor, +Professor, Brown Hackle, Cow-dung--these grand lures for the North +Country trout receive each its due test and attention. And on the tail +snell what fisherman has not the Gamble--the unusual, obscure, +multinamed fly which may, in the occultism of his taste, attract the +Big Fellows? Besides, there remains always the handling. Does your +trout to-day fancy the skittering of his food, or the withdrawal in +three jerks, or the inch-deep sinking of the fly? Does he want it +across current or up current; will he rise with a snap, or is he going +to come slowly, or is he going to play? These be problems interesting, +insistent to be solved, with the ready test within the reach of your +skill. + +But that alertness is only one side of your mood. No matter how +difficult the selection, how strenuous the fight, there is in you a +large feeling that might almost be described as Buddhistic. Time has +nothing to do with your problems. The world has quietly run down, and +has been embalmed with all its sweetness of light and colour and sound +in a warm Lethe bath of sun. This afternoon is going to last for ever. +You note and enjoy and savour the little pleasures unhurried by the +thought that anything else, whether of pleasure or duty, is to follow. + +And so for long delicious eons. The River flows on, ever on; the hills +watch, watch always; the birds sing, the sun shines grateful across +your shoulders; the big trout and the little rise in predestined order, +and make their predestined fight, and go their predestined way either +to liberty or the creel; the pools and the rapids and the riffles slip +by upstream as though they had been withdrawn rather than as though you +had advanced. + +Then suddenly the day has dropped its wings. The earth moves forward +with a jar. Things are to be accomplished; things are being +accomplished. The River is hurrying down to the Lake; the birds have +business of their own to attend to, an it please you; the hills are +waiting for something that has not yet happened, but they are ready. +Startled, you look up. The afternoon has finished. Your last step has +taken you over the edge of the shadow cast by the setting sun across +the range of hills. + +For the first time you look about you to see where you are. It has not +mattered before. Now you know that shortly it will be dark. Still +remain below you four pools. A great haste seizes you. + +"If I take my rod apart and strike through the woods," you argue, "I +can make the Narrows, and I am sure there is a big trout there." + +Why the Narrows should be any more likely to contain a big trout than +any of the other three pools you would not be able to explain. In half +an hour it will be dark. You hurry. In the forest it is already +twilight, but by now you know the forest well. Preoccupied, feverish +with your great idea, you hasten on. The birds, silent all in the +brooding of night, rise ghostly to right and left. Shadows steal away +like hostile spies among the treetrunks. The silver of last daylight +gleams ahead of you through the brush. You know it for the Narrows, +whither the instinct of your eagerness has led you as accurately as a +compass through the forest. + +Fervently, as though this were of world's affairs the most important, +you congratulate yourself on being in time. Your rod seems to join +itself. In a moment the cast drops like a breath on the molten silver. +Nothing. Another try a trifle lower down. Nothing. A little wandering +breeze spoils your fourth attempt, carrying the leader far to the left. +Curses, deep and fervent. The daylight is fading, draining away. A +fifth cast falls forty feet out. Slowly you drag the flies across the +current, reluctant to recover until the latest possible moment. And so, +when your rod is foolishly upright, your line slack, and your flies +motionless, there rolls slowly up and over the trout of trouts. You see +a broad side, the whirl of a fantail that looks to you to be at least +six inches across; and the current slides on, silver-like, smooth, +indifferent to the wild leap of your heart. + +[Illustration: THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THEY BATHE.] + +Like a crazy man you shorten your line. Six seconds later your flies +fall skilfully just upstream from where last you saw that wonderful +tail. + +But six seconds may be a long, long period of time. You have feared and +hoped and speculated and realized; feared that the leviathan has +pricked himself, and so will not rise again; hoped that his appearance +merely indicated curiosity which he will desire further to satisfy; +speculated on whether your skill can drop the fly exactly on that spot, +as it must be dropped; and realized that, whatever be the truth as to +all those fears and hopes and speculations, this is irrevocably your +last chance. + +For an instant you allow the flies to drift downstream, to be floated +here and there by idle little eddies, to be sucked down and spat out of +tiny suction-holes. Then cautiously you draw them across the surface of +the waters. _Thump--thump--thump_--your heart slows up with +disappointment. Then mysteriously, like the stirring of the waters by +some invisible hand, the molten silver is broken in its smoothness. The +Royal Coachman quietly disappears. With all the brakes shrieking on +your desire to shut your eyes and heave a mighty heave, you depress +your butt and strike. + +Then in the twilight the battle. No leisure is here, only quivering, +intense, agonized anxiety. The affair transcends the moment. Purposes +and necessities of untold ages have concentrated, so that somehow back +of your consciousness rest hosts of disembodied hopes, tendencies, +evolutionary progressions, all breathless lest you prove unequal to the +struggle for which they have been so long preparing. + +Responsibility--vast, vague, formless--is yours. Only the fact that you +are wholly occupied with the exigence of the moment prevents your +understanding of what it is, but it hovers dark and depressing behind +your possible failure. You must win. This is no fish; it is opportunity +itself, and once gone it will never return. The mysticism of lower dusk +in the forest, of upper afterglow on the hills, of the chill of evening +waters and winds, of the glint of strange phantoms under the darkness +of cliffs, of the whisperings and shoutings of Things you are too busy +to identify out in the gray of North Country awe--all these menace you +with indeterminate dread. Knee-deep, waist-deep, swift water, slack +water, downstream, upstream, with red eyes straining into the dimness, +with every muscle taut and every nerve quivering, you follow the +ripping of your line. You have consecrated yourself to the uttermost. +The minutes stalk by you gigantic. You are a stable pin-point in +whirling phantasms. And you are very little, very small, very +inadequate among these Titans of circumstance. + +Thrice he breaks water, a white and ghostly apparition from the deep. +Your heart stops with your reel, and only resumes its office when again +the line sings safely. The darkness falls, and with it, like the +mysterious strength of Sir Gareth's opponent, falls the power of your +adversary. His rushes shorten. The blown world of your uncertainty +shrinks to the normal. From the haze of your consciousness, as through +a fog, loom the old familiar forest, and the hills, and the River. +Slowly you creep from that strange enchanted land. The sullen trout +yields. In all gentleness you float him within reach of your net. +Quietly, breathlessly you walk ashore, and over the beach, and yet an +unnecessary hundred feet from the water lest he retain still a flop. +Then you lay him upon the stones and lift up your heart in rejoicing. + +How you get to camp you never clearly know. Exultation lifts your feet. +Wings, wings, O ye Red Gods, wings to carry the body whither the spirit +hath already soared, and stooped, and circled back in impatience to see +why still the body lingers! Ordinarily you can cross the riffles above +the Halfway Pool only with caution and prayer and a stout staff +craftily employed. This night you can--and do--splash across hand-free, +as recklessly as you would wade a little brook. There is no stumble in +you, for you have done a great deed, and the Red Gods are smiling. + +Through the trees glows a light, and in the centre of that light are +leaping flames, and in the circle of that light stand, rough-hewn in +orange, the tent and the table and the waiting figures of your +companions. You stop short, and swallow hard, and saunter into camp as +one indifferent. + +Carelessly you toss aside your creel--into the darkest corner, as +though it were unimportant--nonchalantly you lean your rod against the +slant of your tent, wearily you seat yourself and begin to draw off +your drenched garments. Billy bends toward the fire. Dick gets you your +dry clothes. Nobody says anything, for everybody is hungry. No one asks +you any questions, for on the River you get in almost any time of +night. + +Finally, as you are hanging your wet things near the fire, you inquire +casually over your shoulder,-- + +"Dick, have any luck?" + +Dick tells you. You listen with apparent interest. He has caught a +three-pounder. He describes the spot and the method and the struggle. +He is very much pleased. You pity him. + +The three of you eat supper, lots of supper. Billy arises first, +filling his pipe. He hangs water over the fire for the dish-washing. +You and Dick sit hunched on a log, blissfully happy in the moments of +digestion, ruminative, watching the blaze. The tobacco smoke eddies and +sucks upward to join the wood smoke. Billy moves here and there in the +fulfilment of his simple tasks, casting his shadow wavering and +gigantic against the fire-lit trees. By-and-by he has finished. He +gathers up the straps of Dick's creel, and turns to the shadow for your +own. He is going to clean the fish. It is the moment you have watched +for. You shroud yourself in profound indifference. + +"_Sacré!_" shrieks Billy. + +You do not even turn your head. + +"Jumping giraffes! why, it's a whale!" cries Dick. + +You roll a _blasé_ eye in their direction, as though such puerile +enthusiasm wearies you. + +"Yes, it's quite a little fish," you concede. + +They swarm down upon you, demanding particulars. These you accord +laconically, a word at a time, in answer to direct question, between +puffs of smoke. + +"At the Narrows. Royal Coachman. Just before I came in. Pretty fair +fight. Just at the edge of the eddy." And so on. But your soul glories. + +The tape-line is brought out. Twenty-nine inches it records. Holy +smoke, what a fish! Your air implies that you will probably catch three +more just like him on the morrow. Dick and Billy make tracings of him +on the birch bark. You retain your lofty calm: but inside you are +little quivers of rapture. And when you awake, late in the night, you +are conscious, first of all, that you are happy, happy, happy, all +through; and only when the drowse drains away do you remember why. + + + + +XVIII. + +MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT. + + +We had been joined on the River by friends. "Doug," who never fished +more than forty rods from camp, and was always inventing water-gauges, +patent indicators, and other things, and who wore in his soft slouch +hat so many brilliant trout flies that he irresistibly reminded you of +flower-decked Ophelia; "Dinnis," who was large and good-natured, and +bubbling and popular; Johnny, whose wide eyes looked for the first time +on the woods-life, and whose awe-struck soul concealed itself behind +assumptions; "Jim," six feet tall and three feet broad, with whom the +season before I had penetrated to Hudson Bay; and finally, "Doc," tall, +granite, experienced, the best fisherman that ever hit the river. With +these were Indians. Buckshot, a little Indian with a good knowledge of +English; Johnnie Challán, a half-breed Indian, ugly, furtive, an +efficient man about camp; and Tawabinisáy himself. This was an honour +due to the presence of Doc. Tawabinisáy approved of Doc. That was all +there was to say about it. + +After a few days, inevitably the question of Kawágama came up. Billy, +Johnnie Challán, and Buckshot squatted in a semi-circle, and drew +diagrams in the soft dirt with a stick. Tawabinisáy sat on a log and +overlooked the proceedings. Finally he spoke. + +"Tawabinisáy" (they always gave him his full title; we called him +Tawáb) "tell me lake you find he no Kawágama," translated Buckshot. "He +called Black Beaver Lake." + +"Ask him if he'll take us to Kawágama," I requested. + +Tawabinisáy looked very doubtful. + +"Come on, Tawáb," urged Doc, nodding at him vigorously. "Don't be a +clam. We won't take anybody else up there." + +The Indian probably did not comprehend the words, but he liked Doc. + +"A'-right," he pronounced laboriously. + +Buckshot explained to us his plans. + +"Tawabinisáy tell me," said he, "he don' been to Kawágama seven year. +To-morrow he go blaze trail. Nex' day we go." + +"How would it be if one or two of us went with him to-morrow to see how +he does it?" asked Jim. + +Buckshot looked at us strangely. + +"_I_ don't want to follow him," he replied, with a significant +simplicity. "He run like a deer." + +"Buckshot," said I, pursuing the inevitable linguistics, "what does +Kawágama mean?" + +Buckshot thought for quite two minutes. Then he drew a semicircle. + +"W'at you call dat?" he asked. + +"Crescent, like moon? half-circle? horseshoe? bow?" we proposed. + +Buckshot shook his head at each suggestion. He made a wriggling mark, +then a wide sweep, then a loop. + +"All dose," said he, "w'at you call him?" + +"Curve!" we cried. + +"Áh hah," assented Buckshot, satisfied. + +"Buckshot," we went on, "what does Tawabinisáy mean?" + +"Man-who-travels-by-moonlight," he replied promptly. + +The following morning Tawabinisáy departed, carrying a lunch and a +hand-axe. At four o'clock he was back, sitting on a log and smoking a +pipe. In the meantime we had made up our party. + +Tawabinisáy himself had decided that the two half-breeds must stay at +home. He wished to share his secret only with his own tribesmen. The +fiat grieved Billy, for behold he had already put in much time on this +very search, and naturally desired to be in at the finish. Dick, too, +wanted to go, but him we decided too young and light for a fast march. +Dinnis had to leave the River in a day or so; Johnnie was a little +doubtful as to the tramp, although he concealed his doubt--at least to +his own satisfaction--under a variety of excuses. Jim and Doc would go, +of course. There remained Doug. + +We found that individual erecting a rack of many projecting arms--like +a Greek warrior's trophy--at the precise spot where the first rays of +the morning sun would strike it. On the projecting arms he purposed +hanging his wet clothes. + +"Doug," said we, "do you want to go to Kawágama to-morrow?" + +Doug turned on us a sardonic eye. He made no direct answer, but told +the following story:-- + +"Once upon a time Judge Carter was riding through a rural district in +Virginia. He stopped at a negro's cabin to get his direction. + +"'Uncle,' said he, 'can you direct me to Colonel Thompson's?' + +"'Yes, sah,' replied the negro; 'yo' goes down this yah road 'bout two +mile till yo' comes to an ol' ailm tree, and then yo' tu'us sha'p to +th' right down a lane fo' 'bout a qua'ter of a mile. Thah you sees a +big white house. Yo' wants to go through th' ya'd, to a paf that takes +you a spell to a gate. Yo' follows that road to th' lef till yo' comes +to three roads goin' up a hill; and, jedge, _it don' mattah which one +of them thah roads yo' take, yo' gets lost surer 'n hell anyway!_'" + +Then Doug turned placidly back to the construction of his trophy. + +We interpreted this as an answer, and made up an outfit for five. + +The following morning at six o'clock we were under way. Johnnie Challán +ferried us across the river in two instalments. We waved our hands and +plunged through the brush screen. + +Thenceforth it was walk half an hour, rest five minutes, with almost +the regularity of clockwork. We timed the Indians secretly, and found +they varied by hardly a minute from absolute fidelity to this schedule. +We had at first, of course, to gain the higher level of the hills, but +Tawabinisáy had the day before picked out a route that mounted as +easily as the country would allow, and through a hardwood forest free +of underbrush. Briefly indicated, our way led first through the big +trees and up the hills, then behind a great cliff knob into a creek +valley, through a quarter-mile of bottom-land thicket, then by an open +strip to the first little lake. This we ferried by means of the bark +canoe carried on the shoulders of Tawabinisáy. + +In the course of the morning we thus passed four lakes. Throughout the +entire distance to Kawágama were the fresh axe-blazes the Indian had +made the day before. These were neither so frequent nor as plainly cut +as a white man's trail, but each represented a pause long enough for +the clip of an axe. In addition the trail had been made passable for a +canoe. That meant the cutting out of overhanging branches wherever they +might catch the bow of the craft. In the thicket a little road had been +cleared, and the brush had been piled on either side. To an +unaccustomed eye it seemed the work of two days at least. Yet +Tawabinisáy had picked out his route, cleared and marked it thus, +skirted the shores of the lakes we were able to traverse in the canoe, +and had returned to the River in less time than we consumed in merely +reaching the Lake itself! Truly, as Buckshot said, he must have "run +like a deer." + +Tawabinisáy has a delightful grin which he displays when pleased or +good-humoured or puzzled or interested or comprehending, just as a dog +sneezes and wrinkles up his nose in like case. He is essentially +kind-hearted. If he likes you and approves of you, he tries to teach +you, to help you, to show you things. But he never offers to do any +part of your work, and on the march he never looks back to see if you +are keeping up. You can shout at him until you are black in the face, +but never will he pause until rest-time. Then he squats on his heels, +lights his pipe, and grins. + +Buckshot adored him. This opportunity of travelling with him was an +epoch. He drank in eagerly the brief remarks of his "old man," and +detailed them to us with solemnity, prefaced always by his "Tawabinisáy +tell me." Buckshot is of the better class of Indian himself, but +occasionally he is puzzled by the woods-noises. Tawabinisáy never. As +we cooked lunch, we heard the sound of steady footsteps in the +forest--_pat_; then a pause; then _pat_; just like a deer +browsing. To make sure I inquired of Buckshot. + +"What is it?" + +Buckshot listened a moment. + +"Deer," said he decisively; then, not because he doubted his own +judgment, but from habitual deference, he turned to where Tawabinisáy +was frying things. + +"Qwaw?" he inquired. + +Tawabinisáy never even looked up. + +"Adjí-domo" (squirrel), said he. + +We looked at each other incredulously. It sounded like a deer. It did +not sound in the least like a squirrel. An experienced Indian had +pronounced it a deer. Nevertheless it was a squirrel. + +We approached Kawágama by way of a gradual slope clothed with a +beautiful beech and maple forest whose trees were the tallest of those +species I have ever seen. Ten minutes brought us to the shore. There +was no abrupt bursting in on Kawágama through screens of leaves; we +entered leisurely to her presence by way of an ante-chamber whose +spaciousness permitted no vulgar surprises. After a time we launched +our canoe from a natural dock afforded by a cedar root, and so stood +ready to cross to our permanent camp. But first we drew our knives and +erased from a giant birch the half-grown-over name of the banker +Clement. + +There seems to me little use in telling you that Kawágama is about four +miles long by a mile wide, is shaped like a crescent, and lies in a +valley surrounded by high hills; nor that its water is so transparent +that the bottom is visible until it fades into the sheer blackness of +depth; nor that it is alive with trout; nor that its silence is the +silence of a vast solitude, so that always, even at daybreak or at high +midday, it seems to be late afternoon. That would convey little to you. +I will inform you quite simply that Kawágama is a very beautiful +specimen of the wilderness lake; that it is as the Lord made it; and +that we had a good time. + +Did you ever fish with the fly from a birch-bark canoe on absolutely +still water? You do not seem to move. But far below you, gliding, +silent, ghostlike, the bottom slips beneath. Like a weather-vane in an +imperceptible current of air, your bow turns to right or left in +apparent obedience to the mere will of your companion. And the flies +drop softly like down. Then the silence becomes sacred. You +whisper--although there is no reason for your whispering; you move +cautiously, lest your reel scrape the gunwale. An inadvertent click of +the paddle is a profanation. The only creatures in all God's world +possessing the right to utter aloud a single syllable are the loon, +far away, and the winter wren, near at hand. Even the trout fight +grimly, without noise, their white bodies flashing far down in the +dimness. + +Hour after hour we stole here and there like conspirators. Where showed +the circles of a fish's rise, thither crept we to drop a fly on their +centre as in the bull's-eye of a target. The trout seemed to linger +near their latest capture, so often we would catch one exactly where we +had seen him break water some little time before. In this was the charm +of the still hunt. Shoal water, deep water, it seemed all the same to +our fortunes. The lake was full of fish, and beautiful fish they were, +with deep, glowing bronze bellies, and all of from a pound to a pound +and a half in weight. The lake had not been fished. Probably somewhere +in those black depths over one of the bubbling spring-holes that must +feed so cold and clear a body of water, are big fellows lying, and +probably the crafty minnow or spoon might lure them out. But we were +satisfied with our game. + +At other times we paddled here and there in exploration of coves, +inlets, and a tiny little brook that flowed westward from a reed marsh +to join another river running parallel to our own. + +The Indians had erected a huge lean-to of birch bark, from the ribs of +which hung clothes and the little bags of food. The cooking-fire was +made in front of it between two giant birch trees. At evening the light +and heat reflected strongly beneath the shelter, leaving the forest in +impenetrable darkness. To the very edge of mystery crowded the strange +woods noises, the eerie influences of the night, like wolves afraid of +the blaze. We felt them hovering, vague, huge, dreadful, just outside +the circle of safety our fire had traced about us. The cheerful flames +were dancing familiars who cherished for us the home feeling in the +middle of a wilderness. + +Two days we lingered, then took the back track. A little after noon we +arrived at the camp, empty save for Johnnie Challán. Towards dark the +fishermen straggled in. Time had been paid them in familiar coinage. +They had demanded only accustomed toll of the days, but we had returned +laden with strange and glittering memories. + + + + +XIX. + +APOLOGIA. + + +The time at last arrived for departure. + +Deep laden were the canoes; heavy laden were we. The Indians shot away +down the current. We followed for the last time the dim blazed trail, +forded for the last time the shallows of the river. At the Burned Rock +Pool we caught our lunch fish from the ranks of leviathans. Then the +trodden way of the Fur Trail, worn into a groove so deep and a surface +so smooth that vegetation has left it as bare as ever, though the Post +has been abandoned these many years. At last the scrub spruce, and the +sandy soil, and the blue, restless waters of the Great Lake. With the +appearance of the fish-tug early the following day the summer ended. + +How often have I ruminated in the long marches the problem of the +Forest! Subtle she is, and mysterious, and gifted with a charm that +lures. Vast she is, and dreadful, so that man bows before her fiercer +moods, a little thing. Gentle she is, and kindly, so that she denies +nothing, whether of the material or spiritual, to those of her chosen +who will seek. August she is, and yet of a homely, sprightly +gentleness. Variable she is in her many moods. Night, day, sun, cloud, +rain, snow, wind, lend to her their best of warmth and cold, of comfort +and awe, of peace and of many shoutings, and she accepts them, but yet +remains greater and more enduring than they. In her is all the +sweetness of little things. Murmurs of water and of breeze, faint +odours, wandering streams of tepid air, stray bird-songs in fragment as +when a door is opened and closed, the softness of moss, the coolness of +shade, the glimpse of occult affairs in the woods life, accompany her +as Titania her court. How to express these things; how to fix on paper +in a record, as one would describe the Capitol at Washington, what the +Forest is--that is what I have asked myself often, and that is what I +have never yet found out. + +This is the wisdom reflection has taught. One cannot imprison the ocean +in a vial of sea-water; one cannot imprison the Forest inside the +covers of a book. + +There remains the second best. I have thought that perhaps if I were to +attempt a series of detached impressions, without relation, without +sequence; if I were to suggest a little here the beauty of a moon-beam, +there the humour of a rainstorm, at the last you might, by dint of +imagination and sympathy, get some slight feeling of what the great +woods are. It is the method of the painter. Perhaps it may suffice. + +For this reason let no old camper look upon this volume as a treatise +on woodcraft. Woodcraft there is in it, just as there is woodcraft in +the Forest itself, but much of the simplest and most obvious does not +appear. The painter would not depict every twig, as would the +naturalist. + +Equally it cannot be considered a book of travel nor of description. +The story is not consecutive; the adventures not exciting; the +landscape not denned. Perhaps it may be permitted to call it a book of +suggestion. Often on the street we have had opened to us by the merest +sketches of incident limitless vistas of memory. A momentary pose of +the head of a passer-by, a chance word, the breath of a faint +perfume--these bring back to us the entirety of forgotten scenes. Some +of these essays may perform a like office for you. I cannot hope to +give you the Forest. But perhaps a word or a sentence, an incident, an +impression, may quicken your imagination, so that through no conscious +direction of my own the wonder of the Forest may fill you, as the mere +sight of a conch-shell will sometimes till you with the wonder of the +sea. + + + + +SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT. + + +In reply to inquiries as to necessary outfit for camping and +woods-travelling, the author furnishes the following lists:-- + +1. _Provisions per man, one week._ + +7 lbs. flour; 5 lbs. pork; 1-5 lb. tea; 2 lbs. beans; 1 1-2 lbs. sugar; +1 1-2 lbs. rice; 1 1-2 lbs. prunes and raisins; 1-1-2 lb. lard; 1 lb. +oatmeal; baking-powder; matches; soap; pepper; salt; 1-3 lb. +tobacco--(weight, a little over 20 lbs.). This will last much longer if +you get game and fish. + +2. _Pack one, or absolute necessities for hard trip._ + +_Wear_ hat; suit woollen underwear; shirt; trousers; socks; silk +handkerchief; cotton handkerchief; moccasins. + +_Carry_ sweater (3 lbs.); extra drawers (1 1-2 lbs.); 2 extra +pairs socks; gloves (buckskin); towel; 2 extra pairs moccasins; +surgeon's plaster; laxative; pistol and cartridges; fishing-tackle; +blanket (7 1-2 lbs.); rubber blanket (1 lb.); tent (8 lbs.); small axe +(2 1-2 lbs.); knife; mosquito-dope; compass; match-box; tooth-brush; +comb; small whetstone--(weight, about 25 lbs.); 2 tin or aluminium +pails; 1 frying-pan; 1 cup; 1 knife, fork, and spoon--(weight, 4 lbs. +if of aluminium). + +Whole pack under 50 lbs. In case of two or more people, each pack would +be lighter, as tent, tinware, etc., would do for both. + +3. _Pack two--for luxuries and easy trips--extra to pack one._ + +More fishing-tackle; camera; 1 more pair socks; 1 more suit +underclothes; extra sweater; wading-shoes of canvas; large axe; +mosquito net; mending materials; kettle; candles; more cooking-utensils; +extra shirt; whisky. + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest, by Stewart Edward White + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + +***** This file should be named 9376-8.txt or 9376-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/3/7/9376/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Forest + +Author: Stewart Edward White + +Posting Date: August 11, 2012 [EBook #9376] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 26, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p class="ctr"> +<a name="frontis.jpg"></a> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"><img src="images/frontisth.jpg" alt="THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE MOMENT"></a> +</p> + +<h1>THE FOREST</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>STEWART EDWARD WHITE</h2> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#i">I. THE CALLING</a> +<br> +<a href="#ii">II. THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT</a> +<br> +<a href="#iii">III. THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE</a> +<br> +<a href="#iv">IV. ON MAKING CAMP</a> +<br> +<a href="#v">V. ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT</a> +<br> +<a href="#vi">VI. THE 'LUNGE</a> +<br> +<a href="#vii">VII. ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING</a> +<br> +<a href="#viii">VIII. THE STRANDED STRANGERS</a> +<br> +<a href="#ix">IX. ON FLIES</a> +<br> +<a href="#x">X. CLOCHE</a> +<br> +<a href="#xi">XI. THE HABITANTS</a> +<br> +<a href="#xii">XII. THE RIVER</a> +<br> +<a href="#xiii">XIII. THE HILLS</a> +<br> +<a href="#xiv">XIV. ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS</a> +<br> +<a href="#xv">XV. ON WOODS INDIANS</a> +<br> +<a href="#xvi">XVI. ON WOODS INDIANS <i>(continued)</i></a> +<br> +<a href="#xvii">XVII. THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH</a> +<br> +<a href="#xviii">XVIII. MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT</a> +<br> +<a href="#xix">XIX. APOLOGIA</a> +<br> +<br> +<a href="#s">SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT</a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#frontis.jpg">THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE MOMENT</a> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#1.jpg">THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR AGAIN THE FLAG OF HIS COUNTRY</a> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#2.jpg">AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES</a> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#3.jpg">EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT SWAMPING</a> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#4.jpg">WATCHED THE LONG NORTH-COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A GRAY CLOUD FROM THE EAST</a> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#5.jpg">IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF THAT MORNING</a> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#6.jpg">NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE PEOPLE</a> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="#7.jpg">THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THE BATTLE</a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + + + +<h2>THE FOREST</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="i">I.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE CALLING.</h3> + +<p class="ind"> +"The Red Gods make their medicine again." +</p> + +<p> +Some time in February, when the snow and sleet have shut out from the +wearied mind even the memory of spring, the man of the woods generally +receives his first inspiration. He may catch it from some companion's +chance remark, a glance at the map, a vague recollection of a dim past +conversation, or it may flash on him from the mere pronouncement of a +name. The first faint thrill of discovery leaves him cool, but +gradually, with the increasing enthusiasm of cogitation, the idea gains +body, until finally it has grown to plan fit for discussion. +</p> + +<p> +Of these many quickening potencies of inspiration, the mere name of a +place seems to strike deepest at the heart of romance. Colour, mystery, +the vastnesses of unexplored space are there, symbolized compactly for +the aliment of imagination. It lures the fancy as a fly lures the +trout. Mattágami, Peace River, Kánanaw, the House of the Touchwood +Hills, Rupert's House, the Land of Little Sticks, Flying Post, +Conjuror's House--how the syllables roll from the tongue, what pictures +rise in instant response to their suggestion! The journey of a thousand +miles seems not too great a price to pay for the sight of a place +called the Hills of Silence, for acquaintance with the people who dwell +there, perhaps for a glimpse of the saga-spirit that so named its +environment. On the other hand, one would feel but little desire to +visit Muggin's Corners, even though at their crossing one were assured +of the deepest flavour of the Far North. +</p> + +<p> +The first response to the red god's summons is almost invariably the +production of a fly-book and the complete rearrangement of all its +contents. The next is a resumption of practice with the little pistol. +The third, and last, is pencil and paper, and lists of grub and duffel, +and estimates of routes and expenses, and correspondence with men who +spell queerly, bear down heavily with blunt pencils, and agree to be at +Black Beaver Portage on a certain date. Now, though the February snow +and sleet still shut him in, the spring has draw very near. He can +feel the warmth of her breath rustling through his reviving memories. +</p> + +<p> +There are said to be sixty-eight roads to heaven, of which but one is +the true way, although here and there a by-path offers experimental +variety to the restless and bold. The true way for the man in the woods +to attain the elusive best of his wilderness experience is to go as +light as possible, and the by-paths of departure from that principle +lead only to the slightly increased carrying possibilities of +open-water canoe trips, and permanent camps. +</p> + +<p> +But these prove to be not very independent side paths, never diverging +so far from the main road that one may dare hope to conceal from a +vigilant eye that he is <i>not</i> going light. +</p> + +<p> +To go light is to play the game fairly. The man in the woods matches +himself against the forces of nature. In the towns he is warmed and fed +and clothed so spontaneously and easily that after a time he perforce +begins to doubt himself, to wonder whether his powers are not atrophied +from disuse. And so, with his naked soul, he fronts the wilderness. It +is a test, a measuring of strength, a proving of his essential pluck +and resourcefulness and manhood, an assurance of man's highest potency, +the ability to endure and to take care of himself. In just so far as he +substitutes the ready-made of civilization for the wit-made of the +forest, the pneumatic bed for the balsam boughs, in just so far is he +relying on other men and other men's labour to take care of him. To +exactly that extent is the test invalidated. He has not proved a +courteous antagonist, for he has not stripped to the contest. +</p> + +<p> +To go light is to play the game sensibly. For even when it is not so +earnest, nor the stake so high, a certain common-sense should take the +place on a lower plane of the fair-play sense on the higher. A great +many people find enjoyment in merely playing with nature. Through +vacation they relax their minds, exercise mildly their bodies, and +freshen the colours of their outlook on life. Such people like to live +comfortably, work little, and enjoy existence lazily. Instead of +modifying themselves to fit the life of the wilderness, they modify +their city methods to fit open-air conditions. They do not need to +strip to the contest, for contest there is none, and Indian packers are +cheap at a dollar a day. But even so the problem of the greatest +comfort--defining comfort as an accurate balance of effort expended to +results obtained--can be solved only by the one formula. And that +formula is, again, <i>go light</i>, for a superabundance of +paraphernalia proves always more of a care than a satisfaction. When +the woods offer you a thing ready made, it is the merest foolishness to +transport that same thing a hundred miles for the sake of the +manufacturer's trademark. +</p> + +<p> +I once met an outfit in the North Woods, plodding diligently across +portage, laden like the camels of the desert. Three Indians swarmed +back and forth a half-dozen trips apiece. An Indian can carry over two +hundred pounds. That evening a half-breed and I visited their camp and +examined their outfit, always with growing wonder. They had tent-poles +and about fifty pounds of hardwood tent pegs--in a wooded country where +such things can be had for a clip of the axe. They had a system of +ringed iron bars which could be so fitted together as to form a low +open grill on which trout could be broiled--weight twenty pounds, and +split wood necessary for its efficiency. They had air mattresses and +camp-chairs and oil lanterns. They had corpulent duffel bags apiece +that would stand alone, and enough changes of clothes to last out +dry-skinned a week's rain. And the leader of the party wore the +wrinkled brow of tribulation. For he had to keep track of everything +and see that package number twenty-eight was not left, and that package +number sixteen did not get wet; that the pneumatic bed did not get +punctured, and that the canned goods did. Beside which, the caravan was +moving at the majestic rate of about five miles a day. +</p> + +<p> +Now tent-pegs can always be cut, and trout broiled beautifully by a +dozen other ways, and candle lanterns fold up, and balsam can be laid +in such a manner as to be as springy as a pneumatic mattress, and +camp-chairs, if desired, can be quickly constructed with an axe, and +clothes can always be washed or dried as long as fire burns and water +runs, and any one of fifty other items of laborious burden could have +been ingeniously and quickly substituted by any one of the Indians. It +was not that we concealed a bucolic scorn of effete but solid comfort; +only it did seem ridiculous that a man should cumber himself with a +fifth wheel on a smoothly macadamized road. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning Billy and I went cheerfully on our way. We were +carrying an axe, a gun, blankets, an extra pair of drawers and socks +apiece, a little grub, and an eight-pound shelter tent. We had been out +a week, and we were having a good time. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="ii">II.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT.</h3> + +<p class="ind"> +"Now the Four-Way lodge is opened--now the smokes of Council rise--<br> +Pleasant smokes ere yet 'twixt trail and trail they choose." +</p> + +<p> +You can no more be told how to go light than you can be told how to hit +a ball with a bat. It is something that must be lived through, and all +advice on the subject has just about the value of an answer to a +bashful young man who begged from one of our woman's periodicals help +in overcoming the diffidence felt on entering a crowded room. The reply +read: "Cultivate an easy, graceful manner." In like case I might +hypothecate, "To go light, discard all but the really necessary +articles." +</p> + +<p> +The sticking-point, were you to press me close, would be the definition +of the word "necessary," for the terms of such definition would have to +be those solely and simply of a man's experience. Comforts, even most +desirable comforts, are not necessities. A dozen times a day trifling +emergencies will seem precisely to call for some little handy +contrivance that would be just the thing, were it in the pack rather +than at home. A disgorger does the business better than a pocket-knife; +a pair of oilskin trousers turns the wet better than does kersey; a +camp-stove will burn merrily in a rain lively enough to drown an open +fire. Yet neither disgorger, nor oilskins, nor camp-stove can be +considered in the light of necessities, for the simple reason that the +conditions of their use occur too infrequently to compensate for the +pains of their carriage. Or, to put it the other way, a few moments' +work with a knife, wet knees occasionally, or an infrequent soggy meal +are not too great a price to pay for unburdened shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +Nor on the other hand must you conclude that because a thing is a mere +luxury in town, it is nothing but that in the woods. Most woodsmen own +some little ridiculous item of outfit without which they could not be +happy. And when a man cannot be happy lacking a thing, that thing +becomes a necessity. I knew one who never stirred without borated +talcum powder; another who must have his mouth-organ; a third who was +miserable without a small bottle of salad dressing; I confess to a pair +of light buckskin gloves. Each man must decide for himself--remembering +always the endurance limit of human shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +A necessity is that which, <i>by your own experience</i>, you have +found you cannot do without. As a bit of practical advice, however, the +following system of elimination may be recommended. When you return +from a trip, turn your duffel bag upside down on the floor. Of the +contents make three piles--three piles conscientiously selected in the +light of what has happened rather than what ought to have happened, or +what might have happened. It is difficult to do this. Preconceived +notions, habits of civilization, theory for future, imagination, all +stand in the eye of your honesty. Pile number one should comprise those +articles you have used every day; pile number two, those you have used +occasionally; pile number three, those you have not used at all. If you +are resolute and singleminded, you will at once discard the latter two. +</p> + +<p> +Throughout the following winter you will be attacked by misgivings. To +be sure, you wore the mosquito hat but once or twice, and the fourth +pair of socks not at all; but then the mosquitoes might be thicker next +time, and a series of rainy days and cold nights might make it +desirable to have a dry pair of socks to put on at night. The past has +been <i>x</i>, but the future might be <i>y</i>. One by one the +discarded creep back into the list. And by the opening of next season +you have made toward perfection by only the little space of a +mackintosh coat and a ten-gauge gun. +</p> + +<p> +But in the years to come you learn better and better the simple woods +lesson of substitution or doing without. You find that discomfort is as +soon forgotten as pain; that almost anything can be endured if it is +but for the time being; that absolute physical comfort is worth but a +very small price in avoirdupois. Your pack shrinks. +</p> + +<p> +In fact, it really never ceases shrinking. Only last summer taught me +the uselessness of an extra pair of trousers. It rains in the woods; +streams are to be waded; the wetness of leaves is greater than the +wetness of many rivers. Logically, naturally, inevitably, such +conditions point to change of garments when camp is made. We always +change our clothes when we get wet in the city. So for years I carried +those extra nether garments--and continued in the natural exposure to +sun and wind and camp-fire to dry off before change time, or to hang +the damp clothes from the ridge-pole for resumption in the morning. And +then one day the web of that particular convention broke. We change wet +trousers in the town; we do not in the woods. The extras were relegated +to pile number three, and my pack, already apparently down to a +minimum, lost a few pounds more. +</p> + +<p> +You will want a hat, a <i>good</i> hat to turn rain, with a medium +brim. If you are wise, you will get it too small for your head, and rip +out the lining. The felt will cling tenaciously to your hair, so that +you will find the snatches of the brush and the wind generally +unavailing. +</p> + +<p> +By way of undergarments wear woollen. Buy winter weights even for +midsummer. In travelling with a pack a man is going to sweat in +streams, no matter what he puts on or takes off, and the thick garment +will be found no more oppressive than the thin. And then in the cool of +the woods or of the evening he avoids a chill. And he can plunge into +the coldest water with impunity, sure that ten minutes of the air will +dry him fairly well. Until you have shivered in clammy cotton, you +cannot realize the importance of this point. Ten minutes of cotton +underwear in cold water will chill. On the other hand, suitably clothed +in wool, I have waded the ice water of north country streams when the +thermometer was so low I could see my breath in the air, without other +discomfort than a cold ring around my legs to mark the surface of the +water, and a slight numbness in my feet when I emerged. Therefore, even +in hot weather, wear heavy wool. It is the most comfortable. +Undoubtedly you will come to believe this only by experience. +</p> + +<p> +Do not carry a coat. This is another preconception of civilization, +exceedingly difficult to get rid of. You will never wear it while +packing. In a rain you will find that it wets through so promptly as to +be of little use; or, if waterproof, the inside condensation will more +than equal the rain-water. In camp you will discard it because it will +impede the swing of your arms. The end of that coat will be a brief +half-hour after supper, and a makeshift roll to serve as a pillow +during the night. And for these a sweater is better in every way. +</p> + +<p> +In fact, if you feel you must possess another outside garment, let it +be an extra sweater. You can sleep in it, use it when your day garment +is soaked, or even tie things in it as in a bag. It is not necessary, +however. +</p> + +<p> +One good shirt is enough. When you wash it, substitute the sweater +until it dries. In fact, by keeping the sweater always in your +waterproof bag, you possess a dry garment to change into. Two +handkerchiefs are enough. One should be of silk, for neck, head, or--in +case of cramps or intense cold--the <i>stomach</i>; the other of +coloured cotton for the pocket. Both can be quickly washed, and dried +<i>en route</i>. Three pairs of heavy wool socks will be enough--one +for wear, one for night, and one for extra. A second pair of drawers +supplements the sweater when a temporary day change is desirable. Heavy +kersey "driver's" trousers are the best. They are cheap, dry very +quickly, and are not easily "picked out" by the brush. +</p> + +<p> +The best blanket is that made by the Hudson's Bay Company for its +servants--a "three-point" for summer is heavy enough. The next best is +our own gray army blanket. One of rubber should fold about it, and a +pair of narrow buckle straps is handy to keep the bundle right and +tight and waterproof. As for a tent, buy the smallest shelter you can +get along with, have it made of balloon silk well waterproofed, and +supplement it with a duplicate tent of light cheesecloth to suspend +inside as a fly-proof defence. A seven-by-seven three-man A-tent, which +would weigh between twenty and thirty pounds if made of duck, means +only about eight pounds constructed of this material. And it is +waterproof. I own one which I have used for three seasons. It has been +employed as tarpaulin, fly, even blanket on a pinch; it has been packed +through the roughest country; I have even pressed it into service as a +sort of canoe lining; but it is still as good as ever. Such a tent +sometimes condenses a little moisture in a cold rain, but it never +"sprays" as does a duck shelter; it never leaks simply because you have +accidentally touched its under-surface; and, best of all, it weighs no +more after a rain than before it. This latter item is perhaps its best +recommendation. The confronting with equanimity of a wet day's journey +in the shower-bath brush of our northern forests requires a degree of +philosophy which a gratuitous ten pounds of soaked-up water sometimes +most effectually breaks down. I know of but one place where such a tent +can be bought. The address will be gladly sent to any one practically +interested. +</p> + +<p> +As for the actual implements of the trade, they are not many, although +of course the sporting goods stores are full of all sorts of "handy +contrivances." A small axe--one of the pocket size will do, if you get +the right shape and balance, although a light regulation axe is better; +a thin-bladed sheath-knife of the best steel; a pocket-knife; a +compass; a waterproof match-safe; fishing-tackle; firearms; and cooking +utensils comprise the list. All others belong to permanent camps, or +open-water cruises--not to "hikes" in the woods. +</p> + +<p> +The items, with the exception of the last two, seem to explain +themselves. During the summer months in the North Woods you will not +need a rifle. Partridges, spruce hens, ptarmigan, rabbits, ducks, and +geese are usually abundant enough to fill the provision list. For them, +of course, a shotgun is the thing; but since such a weapon weighs many +pounds, and its ammunition many more, I have come gradually to depend +entirely on a pistol. The instrument is single shot, carries a six-inch +barrel, is fitted with a special butt, and is built on the graceful +lines of a 38-calibre Smith and Wesson revolver. Its cartridge is the +22 long-rifle, a target size, that carries as accurately as you can +hold for upwards of a hundred yards. With it I have often killed a +half-dozen of partridges from the same tree. The ammunition is light. +Altogether it is a most satisfactory, convenient, and accurate weapon, +and quite adequate to all small game. In fact, an Indian named +Tawabinisáy, after seeing it perform, once borrowed it to kill a moose. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a name="1.jpg"></a> +<a href="images/1.jpg"><img src="images/1th.jpg" alt="THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR AGAIN THE FLAG OF HIS COUNTRY."></a> +</p> + +<p> +"I shootum in eye," said he. +</p> + +<p> +By way of cooking utensils, buy aluminium. It is expensive, but so +light and so easily cleaned that it is well worth all you may have to +pay. If you are alone you will not want to carry much hardware. I made +a twenty-day trip once with nothing but a tin cup and a frying-pan. +Dishes, pails, wash-basins, and other receptacles can always be made of +birch bark and cedar withes--by one who knows how. The ideal outfit for +two or three is a cup, fork, and spoon apiece, one tea-pail, two +kettle-pails, and a frying-pan. The latter can be used as a bread-oven. +</p> + +<p> +A few minor items, of practically no weight, suggest themselves--toilet +requisites, fly-dope, needle and thread, a cathartic, pain-killer, a +roll of surgeon's bandage, pipe and tobacco. But when the pack is made +up, and the duffel bag tied, you find that, while fitted for every +emergency but that of catastrophe, you are prepared to "go light." +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="iii">III.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE.</h3> + +<p> +Sometime, no matter how long your journey, you will reach a spot whose +psychological effect is so exactly like a dozen others that you will +recognize at once its kinship with former experience. Mere physical +likeness does not count at all. It may possess a water-front of laths +and sawdust, or an outlook over broad, shimmering, heat-baked plains. +It may front the impassive fringe of a forest, or it may skirt the calm +stretch of a river. But whether of log or mud, stone or unpainted +board, its identity becomes at first sight indubitably evident. Were +you, by the wave of some beneficent wand, to be transported direct to +it from the heart of the city, you could not fail to recognize it. "The +jumping-off place!" you would cry ecstatically, and turn with unerring +instinct to the Aromatic Shop. +</p> + +<p> +For here is where begins the Long Trail. Whether it will lead you +through the forests, or up the hills, or over the plains, or by +invisible water paths; whether you will accomplish it on horseback, or +in canoe, or by the transportation of your own two legs; whether your +companions shall be white or red, or merely the voices of the +wilds--these things matter not a particle. In the symbol of this little +town you loose your hold on the world of made things, and shift for +yourself among the unchanging conditions of nature. +</p> + +<p> +Here the faint forest flavour, the subtle, invisible breath of freedom, +stirs faintly across men's conventions. The ordinary affairs of life +savour of this tang--a trace of wildness in the domesticated berry. In +the dress of the inhabitants is a dash of colour, a carelessness of +port; in the manner of their greeting is the clear, steady-eyed +taciturnity of the silent places; through the web of their gray talk of +ways and means and men's simpler beliefs runs a thread of colour. One +hears strange, suggestive words and phrases--arapajo, capote, arroyo, +the diamond hitch, cache, butte, coulé, muskegs, portage, and a dozen +others coined into the tender of daily use. And occasionally, when the +expectation is least alert, one encounters suddenly the very symbol of +the wilderness itself--a dust-whitened cowboy, an Indian packer with +his straight, fillet-confined hair, a voyageur gay in red sash and +ornamented moccasins, one of the Company's canoemen, hollow-cheeked +from the river--no costumed show exhibit, but fitting naturally into +the scene, bringing something of the open space with him--so that in +your imagination the little town gradually takes on the colour of +mystery which an older community utterly lacks. +</p> + +<p> +But perhaps the strongest of the influences which unite to assure the +psychological kinships of the jumping-off places is that of the +Aromatic Shop. It is usually a board affair, with a broad high sidewalk +shaded by a wooden awning. You enter through a narrow door, and find +yourself facing two dusky aisles separated by a narrow division of +goods, and flanked by wooden counters. So far it is exactly like the +corner store of our rural districts. But in the dimness of these two +aisles lurks the spirit of the wilds. There in a row hang fifty pair of +smoke-tanned moccasins; in another an equal number of oil-tanned; +across the background you can make out snowshoes. The shelves are high +with blankets--three-point, four-point--thick and warm for the +out-of-doors. Should you care to examine, the storekeeper will hook +down from aloft capotes of different degrees of fineness. Fathoms of +black tobacco-rope lie coiled in tubs. Tump-lines welter in a tangle of +dimness. On a series of little shelves is the ammunition, fascinating +in the attraction of mere numbers--44 Winchester, 45 Colt, 40-82, +30-40, 44 S. & W.--they all connote something to the accustomed mind, +just as do the numbered street names of New York. +</p> + +<p> +An exploration is always bringing something new to light among the +commonplaces of ginghams and working shirts, and canned goods and +stationery, and the other thousands of civilized drearinesses to found +in every country store. From under the counter you drag out a mink skin +or so; from the dark corner an assortment of steel traps. In a loft a +birch-bark mokok, fifty pounds heavy with granulated maple sugar, +dispenses a faint perfume. +</p> + +<p> +For this is, above all, the Aromatic Shop. A hundred ghosts of odours +mingle to produce the spirit of it. The reek of the camp-fires is in +its buckskin, of the woods in its birch bark, of the muskegs in its +sweet grass, of the open spaces in its peltries, of the evening meal in +its coffees and bacons, of the portage trail in the leather of the +tump-lines. I am speaking now of the country of which we are to write. +The shops of the other jumping-off places are equally aromatic--whether +with the leather of saddles, the freshness of ash paddles, or the +pungency of marline; and once the smell of them is in your nostrils you +cannot but away. +</p> + +<p> +The Aromatic Shop is always kept by the wisest, the most accommodating, +the most charming shopkeeper in the world. He has all leisure to give +you, and enters into the innermost spirit of your buying. He is of +supernal sagacity in regard to supplies and outfits, and if he does not +know all about routes, at least he is acquainted with the very man who +can tell you everything you want to know. He leans both elbows on the +counter, you swing your feet, and together you go over the list, while +the Indian stands smoky and silent in the background. "Now, if I was +you," says he, "I'd take just a little more pork. You won't be eatin' +so much yourself, but these Injuns ain't got no bottom when it comes to +sow-belly. And I wouldn't buy all that coffee. You ain't goin' to want +much after the first edge is worn off. Tea's the boy." The Indian +shoots a few rapid words across the discussion. "He says you'll want +some iron shoes to fit on canoe poles for when you come back +up-stream," interprets your friend. "I guess that's right. I ain't got +none, but th' blacksmith'll fit you out all right. You'll find him just +below--never mind, don't you bother, I'll see to all that for you." +</p> + +<p> +The next morning he saunters into view at the river-bank. "Thought I'd +see you off," he replies to your expression of surprise at his early +rising. "Take care of yourself." And so the last hand-clasp of +civilization is extended to you from the little Aromatic Shop. +</p> + +<p> +Occasionally, however, though very rarely, you step to the Long Trail +from the streets of a raw modern town. The chance presence of some +local industry demanding a large population of workmen, combined with +first-class railroad transportation, may plant an electric-lighted, +saloon-lined, brick-hoteled city in the middle of the wilderness. +Lumber, mines--especially of the baser metals or commercial +minerals--fisheries, a terminus of water freightage, may one or all +call into existence a community a hundred years in advance of its +environment. Then you lose the savour of the jump-off. Nothing can +quite take the place of the instant plunge into the wilderness, for you +must travel three or four days from such a place before you sense the +forest in its vastness, even though deer may eat the cabbages at the +edge of town. Occasionally, however, by force of crude contrast to the +brick-heated atmosphere, the breath of the woods reaches your cheek, +and always you own a very tender feeling for the cause of it. +</p> + +<p> +Dick and myself were caught in such a place. It was an unfinished +little town, with brick-fronted stores, arc-lights swaying over +fathomless mud, big superintendent's and millowner's houses of bastard +architecture in a blatant superiority of hill location, a hotel whose +office chairs supported a variety of cheap drummers, and stores +screeching in an attempt at metropolitan smartness. We inspected the +standpipe and the docks, walked a careless mile of board walk, kicked a +dozen pugnacious dogs from our setter, Deuce, and found ourselves at +the end of our resources. As a crowd seemed to be gathering about the +wooden railway station, we joined it in sheer idleness. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed that an election had taken place the day before, that one +Smith had been chosen to the Assembly, and that, though this district +had gone anti-Smith, the candidate was expected to stop off an hour on +his way to a more westerly point. Consequently the town was on hand to +receive him. +</p> + +<p> +The crowd, we soon discovered, was bourgeois in the extreme. Young men +from the mill escorted young women from the shops. The young men wore +flaring collars three sizes too large; the young women white cotton +mitts three sizes too small. The older men spat, and talked through +their noses; the women drawled out a monotonous flow of speech +concerning the annoyances of domestic life. A gang of uncouth practical +jokers, exploding in horse-laughter, skylarked about, jostling rudely. +A village band, uniformed solely with cheap carriage-cloth caps, brayed +excruciatingly. The reception committee had decorated, with red and +white silesia streamers and rosettes, an ordinary side-bar buggy, to +which a long rope had been attached, that the great man might be +dragged by his fellow-citizens to the public square. +</p> + +<p> +Nobody seemed to be taking the affair too seriously. It was evidently +more than half a joke. Anti-Smith was more good-humouredly in evidence +than the winning party. Just this touch of buffoonery completed our +sense of the farce-comedy character of the situation. The town was +tawdry in its preparations--and knew it; but half sincere in its +enthusiasm--and knew it. If the crowd had been composed of Americans, +we should have anticipated an unhappy time for Smith; but good, loyal +Canadians, by the limitations of temperament, could get no further than +a spirit of manifest irreverence. +</p> + +<p> +In the shifting of the groups Dick and I became separated, but shortly +I made him out worming his way excitedly toward me, his sketch-book +open in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Come here," he whispered. "There's going to be fun. They're going to +open up on old Smith after all." +</p> + +<p> +I followed. The decorated side-bar buggy might be well meant; the +village band need not have been interpreted as an ironical compliment; +the rest of the celebration might indicate paucity of resource rather +than facetious intent; but surely the figure of fun before us could not +be otherwise construed than as a deliberate advertising in the face of +success of the town's real attitude toward the celebration. +</p> + +<p> +The man was short. He wore a felt hat, so big that it rested on his +ears. A gray wool shirt hung below his neck. A cutaway coat miles too +large depended below his knees and to the first joints of his fingers. +By way of official uniform his legs were incased in an ordinary rough +pair of miller's white trousers, on which broad strips of red flannel +had been roughly sewn. Everything was wrinkled in the folds of +too-bigness. As though to accentuate the note, the man stood very +erect, very military, and supported in one hand the staff of an English +flag. This figure of fun, this man made from the slop-chest, this +caricature of a scarecrow, had been put forth by heavy-handed +facetiousness to the post of greatest honour. He was Standard-Bearer to +the occasion! Surely subtle irony could go no further. +</p> + +<p> +A sudden movement caused the man to turn. One sleeve of the faded, +ridiculous old cutaway was empty. He turned again. From under the +ear-flanging hat looked unflinchingly the clear, steady blue eye of the +woodsman. And so we knew. This old soldier had come in from the Long +Trail to bear again the flag of his country. If his clothes were old +and ill-fitting, at least they were his best, and the largeness of the +empty sleeve belittled the too-largeness of the other. In all this +ribald, laughing, irreverent, commonplace, semi-vicious crowd he was +the one note of sincerity. To him this was a real occasion, and the +exalted reverence in his eye for the task he was so simply performing +was Smith's real triumph--if he could have known it. We understood now, +we felt the imminence of the Long Trail. For the first time the little +brick, tawdry town gripped our hearts with the well-known thrill of the +Jumping-Off Place. Suddenly the great, simple, unashamed wilderness +drew near us as with the rush of wings. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="iv">IV.</a></h2> + +<h3>ON MAKING CAMP.</h3> + +<p class="ind"> +"Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight? Who hath<br> + heard the birch log burning?<br> +Who is quick to read the noises of the night?<br> +Let him follow with the others, for the young men's feet are turning<br> +To the camps of proved desire and known delight." +</p> + +<p> +In the Ojibway language <i>wigwam</i> means a good spot for camping, a +place cleared for a camp, a camp as an abstract proposition, and a camp +in the concrete as represented by a tent, a thatched shelter, or a +conical tepee. In like manner, the English word <i>camp</i> lends +itself to a variety of concepts. I once slept in a four-poster bed over +a polished floor in an elaborate servant-haunted structure which, +mainly because it was built of logs and overlooked a lake, the owner +always spoke of as his camp. Again, I once slept on a bed of prairie +grass, before a fire of dried buffalo chips and mesquite, wrapped in a +single light blanket, while a good vigorous rain-storm made new cold +places on me and under me all night. In the morning the cowboy with +whom I was travelling remarked that this was "sure a lonesome +proposition as a camp." +</p> + +<p> +Between these two extremes is infinite variety, grading upwards through +the divers bivouacs of snow, plains, pines, or hills to the bark +shelter; past the dog-tent, the A-tent, the wall-tent, to the elaborate +permanent canvas cottage of the luxurious camper, the dug-out winter +retreat of the range cowboy, the trapper's cabin, the great log-built +lumber-jack communities, and the last refinements of sybaritic summer +homes in the Adirondacks. All these are camps. And when you talk of +making camp you must know whether that process is to mean only a search +for rattlesnakes and enough acrid-smoked fuel to boil tea, or a +winter's consultation with an expert architect; whether your camp is to +be made on the principle of Omar's one-night Sultan, or whether it is +intended to accommodate the full days of an entire summer. +</p> + +<p> +But to those who tread the Long Trail the making of camp resolves +itself into an algebraical formula. After a man has travelled all day +through the Northern wilderness he wants to rest, and anything that +stands between himself and his repose he must get rid of in as few +motions as is consistent with reasonable thoroughness. The end in view +is a hot meal and a comfortable dry place to sleep. The straighter he +can draw the line to those two points the happier he is. +</p> + +<p> +Early in his woods experience, Dick became possessed with the desire to +do everything for himself. As this was a laudable striving for +self-sufficiency, I called a halt at about three o'clock one afternoon +in order to give him plenty of time. +</p> + +<p> +Now Dick is a good, active, able-bodied boy, possessed of average +intelligence and rather more than average zeal. He even had theory of a +sort, for he had read various "Boy Campers, or the Trapper's Guide," +"How to Camp Out," "The Science of Woodcraft," and other able works. He +certainly had ideas enough and confidence enough. I sat down on a log. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of three hours' flusteration, heat, worry, and good hard +work, he had accomplished the following results: A tent, very saggy, +very askew, covered a four-sided area--it was not a rectangle--of very +bumpy ground. A hodge-podge bonfire, in the centre of which an +inaccessible coffee-pot toppled menacingly, alternately threatened to +ignite the entire surrounding forest or to go out altogether through +lack of fuel. Personal belongings strewed the ground near the fire, and +provisions cumbered the entrance to the tent. Dick was anxiously mixing +batter for the cakes, attempting to stir a pot of rice often enough to +prevent it from burning, and trying to rustle sufficient dry wood to +keep the fire going. This diversity of interests certainly made him sit +up and pay attention. At each instant he had to desert his flour-sack +to rescue the coffee-pot, or to shift the kettle, or to dab hastily at +the rice, or to stamp out the small brush, or to pile on more dry +twigs. His movements were not graceful. They raised a scurry of dry +bark, ashes, wood dust, twigs, leaves, and pine needles, a certain +proportion of which found their way into the coffee, the rice, and the +sticky batter, while the smaller articles of personal belonging, +hastily dumped from the duffel-bag, gradually disappeared from view in +the manner of Pompeii and ancient Vesuvius. Dick burned his fingers and +stumbled about and swore, and looked so comically-pathetically +red-faced through the smoke that I, seated on the log, at the same time +laughed and pitied. And in the end, when he needed a continuous steady +fire to fry his cakes, he suddenly discovered that dry twigs do not +make coals, and that his previous operations had used up all the fuel +within easy circle of the camp. +</p> + +<p> +So he had to drop everything for the purpose of rustling wood, +while the coffee chilled, the rice cooled, the bacon congealed, and all +the provisions, cooked and uncooked, gathered entomological specimens. +At the last, the poor bedeviled theorist made a hasty meal of scorched +food, brazenly postponed the washing of dishes until the morrow, and +coiled about his hummocky couch to dream the nightmares of complete +exhaustion. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Dick! I knew exactly how he felt, how the low afternoon sun +scorched, how the fire darted out at unexpected places, how the smoke +followed him around, no matter on which side of the fire he placed +himself, how the flies all took to biting when both hands were +occupied, and how they all miraculously disappeared when he had set +down the frying-pan and knife to fight them. I could sympathize, too, +with the lonely, forlorn, lost-dog feeling that clutched him after it +was all over. I could remember how big and forbidding and unfriendly +the forest had once looked to me in like circumstances, so that I had +felt suddenly thrust outside into empty spaces. Almost was I tempted to +intervene; but I liked Dick, and I wanted to do him good. This +experience was harrowing, but it prepared his mind for the seeds of +wisdom. By the following morning he had chastened his spirit, forgotten +the assurance breathed from the windy pages of the Boy Trapper Library, +and was ready to learn. +</p> + +<p> +Have you ever watched a competent portraitist at work? The infinite +pains a skilled man spends on the preliminaries before he takes one +step towards a likeness nearly always wears down the patience of the +sitter. He measures with his eye, he plumbs, he sketches tentatively, +he places in here a dab, there a blotch, he puts behind him apparently +unproductive hours--and then all at once he is ready to begin something +that will not have to be done over again. An amateur, however, is +carried away by his desire for results. He dashes in a hit-or-miss +early effect, which grows into an approximate likeness almost +immediately, but which will require infinite labour, alteration, and +anxiety to beat into finished shape. +</p> + +<p> +The case of the artist in making camps is exactly similar, and the +philosophical reasons for his failure are exactly the same. To the +superficial mind a camp is a shelter, a bright fire, and a smell of +cooking. So when a man is very tired he cuts across lots to those three +results. He pitches his tent, lights his fire, puts over his food--and +finds himself drowned in detail, like my friend Dick. +</p> + +<p> +The following is, in brief, what during the next six weeks I told that +youth, by precept, by homily, and by making the solution so obvious +that he could work it out for himself. +</p> + +<p> +When five or six o'clock draws near, begin to look about you for a good +level dry place, elevated some few feet above the surroundings. Drop +your pack or beach your canoe. Examine the location carefully. You +will want two trees about ten feet apart, from which to suspend your +tent, and a bit of flat ground underneath them. Of course the flat +ground need not be particularly unencumbered by brush or saplings, so +the combination ought not to be hard to discover. Now return to your +canoe. Do not unpack the tent. +</p> + +<p> +With the little axe clear the ground thoroughly. By bending a sapling +over strongly with the left hand, clipping sharply at the strained +fibres, and then bending it as strongly the other way to repeat the axe +stroke on the other side, you will find that treelets of even two or +three inches diameter can be felled by two blows. In a very few +moments you will have accomplished a hole in the forest, and your two +supporting trees will stand sentinel at either end of a most +respectable-looking clearing. Do not unpack the tent. +</p> + +<p> +Now, although the ground seems free of all but unimportant growths, go +over it thoroughly for little shrubs and leaves. They look soft and +yielding, but are often possessed of unexpectedly abrasive roots. +Besides, they mask the face of the ground. When you have finished +pulling them up by the roots, you will find that your supposedly level +plot is knobby with hummocks. Stand directly over each little mound; +swing the back of your axe vigorously against it, adze-wise, between +your legs. Nine times out of ten it will crumble, and the tenth time +means merely a root to cut or a stone to pry out. At length you are +possessed of a plot of clean, fresh earth, level and soft, free from +projections. But do not unpack your tent. +</p> + +<p> +Lay a young birch or maple an inch or so in diameter across a log. Two +clips will produce you a tent-peg. If you are inexperienced, and +cherish memories of striped lawn marquees, you will cut them about six +inches long. If you are wise and old and gray in woods experience, you +will multiply that length by four. Then your loops will not slip off, +and you will have a real grip on mother earth, than which nothing can +be more desirable in the event of a heavy rain and wind squall about +midnight. If your axe is as sharp as it ought to be, you can point +them more neatly by holding them suspended in front of you while you +snip at their ends with the axe, rather than by resting them against a +solid base. Pile them together at the edge of the clearing. Cut a +crotched sapling eight or ten feet long. Now unpack your tent. +</p> + +<p> +In a wooded country you will not take the time to fool with tent-poles. +A stout line run through the eyelets and along the apex will string it +successfully between your two trees. Draw the line as tight as +possible, but do not be too unhappy if, after your best efforts, it +still sags a little. That is what your long crotched stick is for. +Stake out your four corners. If you get them in a good rectangle, and +in such relation to the apex as to form two isosceles triangles of the +ends, your tent will stand smoothly. Therefore, be an artist and do it +right. Once the four corners are well placed, the rest follows +naturally. Occasionally in the North Country it will be found that the +soil is too thin over the rocks to grip the tent-pegs. In that case +drive them at a sharp angle as deep as they will go, and then lay a +large flat stone across the slant of them. Thus anchored, you will +ride out a gale. Finally, wedge your long sapling crotch under the +line--outside the tent, of course--to tighten it. Your shelter is up. +If you are a woodsman, ten or fifteen minutes has sufficed to +accomplish all this. +</p> + +<p> +There remains the question of a bed, and you'd better attend to it now, +while your mind is still occupied with the shelter problem. Fell a +good thrifty young balsam and set to work pulling off the fans. Those +you cannot strip off easily with your hands are too tough for your +purpose. Lay them carelessly crisscross against the blade of your axe +and up the handle. They will not drop off, and when you shoulder that +axe you will resemble a walking haystack, and will probably experience +a genuine emotion of surprise at the amount of balsam that can be thus +transported. In the tent lay smoothly one layer of fans, convex side +up, butts toward the foot. Now thatch the rest on top of this, +thrusting the butt ends underneath the layer already placed in such a +manner as to leave the fan ends curving up and down towards the foot of +your bed. Your second emotion of surprise will assail you as you +realize how much spring inheres in but two or three layers thus +arranged. When you have spread your rubber blanket, you will be +possessed of a bed as soft and a great deal more aromatic and luxurious +than any you would be able to buy in town. +</p> + +<p> +Your next care is to clear a living space in front of the tent. This +will take you about twenty seconds, for you need not be particular as +to stumps, hummocks, or small brush. All you want is room for cooking, +and suitable space for spreading out your provisions. But do not +unpack anything yet. +</p> + +<p> +Your fireplace you will build of two green logs laid side by side. The +fire is to be made between them. They should converge slightly, in +order that the utensils to be rested across them may be of various +sizes. If your vicinity yields flat stones, they build up even better +than the logs--unless they happen to be of granite. Granite explodes +most disconcertingly. Poles sharpened, driven upright into the ground, +and then pressed down to slant over the fireplace, will hold your +kettles a suitable height above the blaze. +</p> + +<p> +Fuel should be your next thought. A roll of birch bark first of all. +Then some of the small, dry, resinous branches that stick out from the +trunks of medium-sized pines, living or dead. Finally, the wood +itself. If you are merely cooking supper, and have no thought for a +warmth-fire or a friendship-fire, I should advise you to stick to the +dry pine branches, helped out, in the interest of coals for frying, by +a little dry maple or birch. If you need more of a blaze, you will +have to search out, fell, and split a standing dead tree. This is not +at all necessary. I have travelled many weeks in the woods without +using a more formidable implement than a one-pound hatchet. Pile your +fuel--a complete supply, all you are going to need--by the side of your +already improvised fireplace. But, as you value your peace of mind, do +not fool with matches. +</p> + +<p> +It will be a little difficult to turn your mind from the concept of +fire, to which all these preparations have compellingly led +it--especially as a fire is the one cheerful thing your weariness needs +the most at this time of day--but you must do so. Leave everything just +as it is, and unpack your provisions. +</p> + +<p> +First of all, rinse your utensils. Hang your tea-pail, with the proper +quantity of water, from one slanting pole, and your kettle from the +other. Salt the water in the latter receptacle. Peel your potatoes, +if you have any; open your little provision sacks; puncture your tin +cans, if you have any; slice your bacon; clean your fish; pluck your +birds; mix your dough or batter; spread your table tinware on your +tarpaulin or a sheet of birch bark; cut a kettle-lifter; see that +everything you are going to need is within direct reach of your hand as +you squat on your heels before the fireplace. Now light your fire. +</p> + +<p> +The civilized method is to build a fire and then to touch a match to +the completed structure. If well done and in a grate or steve, this +works beautifully. Only in the woods you have no grate. The only sure +way is as follows: Hold a piece of birch bark in your hand. Shelter +your match all you know how. When the bark has caught, lay it in your +fireplace, assist it with more bark, and gradually build up, twig by +twig, stick by stick, from the first pin-point of flame, all the fire +you are going to need. It will not be much. The little hot blaze +rising between the parallel logs directly against the aluminium of your +utensils will do the business in a very short order. In fifteen +minutes at most your meal is ready. And you have been able to attain +to hot food thus quickly because you were prepared. +</p> + +<p> +In case of very wet weather the affair is altered somewhat. If the +rain has just commenced, do not stop to clear out very thoroughly, but +get your tent up as quickly as possible, in order to preserve an area +of comparatively dry ground. But if the earth is already soaked, you +had best build a bonfire to dry out by, while you cook over a smaller +fire a little distance removed, leaving the tent until later. Or it +may be well not to pitch the tent at all, but to lay it across slanting +supports at an angle to reflect the heat against the ground. +</p> + +<p> +It is no joke to light a fire in the rain. An Indian can do it more +easily than a white man, but even an Indian has more trouble than the +story-books acknowledge. You will need a greater quantity of birch +bark, a bigger pile of resinous dead limbs from the pine trees, and +perhaps the heart of a dead pine stub or stump. Then, with infinite +patience, you may be able to tease the flame. Sometimes a small dead +birch contains in the waterproof envelope of its bark a species of +powdery, dry touchwood that takes the flame readily. Still, it is easy +enough to start a blaze--a very fine-looking, cheerful, healthy blaze; +the difficulty is to prevent its petering out the moment your back is +turned. +</p> + +<p> +But the depths of woe are sounded and the limit of patience reached +when you are forced to get breakfast in the dripping forest. After the +chill of early dawn you are always reluctant in the best of +circumstances to leave your blankets, to fumble with numbed fingers for +matches, to handle cold steel and slippery fish. But when every leaf, +twig, sapling, and tree contains a douche of cold water; when the +wetness oozes about your moccasins from the soggy earth with every step +you take; when you look about you and realize that somehow, before you +can get a mouthful to banish that before-breakfast ill-humour, you must +brave cold water in an attempt to find enough fuel to cook with, then +your philosophy and early religious training avail you little. The +first ninety-nine times you are forced to do this you will probably +squirm circumspectly through the bush in a vain attempt to avoid +shaking water down on yourself; you will resent each failure to do so, +and at the end your rage will personify the wilderness for the purpose +of one sweeping anathema. The hundredth time will bring you wisdom. You +will do the anathema--rueful rather than enraged--from the tent +opening. Then you will plunge boldly in and get wet. It is not +pleasant, but it has to be done, and you will save much temper, not to +speak of time. +</p> + +<p> +Dick and I earned our diplomas at this sort of work. It rained twelve +of the first fourteen days we were out. Towards the end of that two +weeks I doubt if even an Indian could have discovered a dry stick of +wood in the entire country. The land was of Laurentian rock formation, +running in parallel ridges of bare stone separated by hollows carpeted +with a thin layer of earth. The ridges were naturally ill-adapted to +camping, and the cup hollows speedily filled up with water until they +became most creditable little marshes. Often we hunted for an hour or +so before we could find any sort of a spot to pitch our tent. As for a +fire, it was a matter of chopping down dead trees large enough to have +remained dry inside, of armfuls of birch bark, and of the patient +drying out, by repeated ignition, of enough fuel to cook very simple +meals. Of course we could have kept a big fire going easily enough, +but we were travelling steadily and had not the time for that. In +these trying circumstances, Dick showed that, no matter how much of a +tenderfoot he might be, he was game enough under stress. +</p> + +<p> +But to return to our pleasant afternoon. While you are consuming the +supper you will hang over some water to heat for the dish-washing, and +the dish-washing you will attend to the moment you have finished +eating. Do not commit the fallacy of sitting down for a little rest. +Better finish the job completely while you are about it. You will +appreciate leisure so much more later. In lack of a wash-rag you will +find that a bunch of tall grass bent double makes an ideal swab. +</p> + +<p> +Now brush the flies from your tent, drop the mosquito-proof lining, and +enjoy yourself. The whole task, from first to last, has consumed but a +little over an hour. And you are through for the day. +</p> + +<p> +In the woods, as nowhere else, you will earn your leisure only by +forethought. Make no move until you know it follows the line of +greatest economy. To putter is to wallow in endless desolation. If you +cannot move directly and swiftly and certainly along the line of least +resistance in everything you do, take a guide with you; you are not of +the woods people. You will never enjoy doing for yourself, for your +days will be crammed with unending labour. +</p> + +<p> +It is but a little after seven. The long crimson shadows of the North +Country are lifting across the aisles of the forest. You sit on a log, +or lie on your back, and blow contented clouds straight up into the +air. Nothing can disturb you now. The wilderness is yours, for you have +taken from it the essentials of primitive civilization--shelter, +warmth, and food. An hour ago a rainstorm would have been a minor +catastrophe. Now you do not care. Blow high, blow low, you have made +for yourself an abiding-place, so that the signs of the sky are less +important to you than to the city dweller who wonders if he should take +an umbrella. From your doorstep you can look placidly out on the great +unknown. The noises of the forest draw close about you their circle of +mystery, but the circle cannot break upon you, for here you have +conjured the homely sounds of kettle and crackling flame to keep ward. +Thronging down through the twilight steal the jealous woodland shadows, +awful in the sublimity of the Silent Places, but at the sentry outposts +of your firelit trees they pause like wild animals, hesitating to +advance. The wilderness, untamed, dreadful at night, is all about; but +this one little spot you have reclaimed. Here is something before +unknown to the eerie spirits of the woods. As you sleepily knock the +ashes from the pipe, you look about on the familiar scene with +accustomed satisfaction. You are at home. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="v">V.</a></h2> + +<h3>ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT.</h3> + +<p class="ind"> +"Who hath lain alone to hear the wild goose cry?" +</p> + +<p> +About once in so often you are due to lie awake at night. Why this is +so I have never been able to discover. It apparently comes from no +predisposing uneasiness of indigestion, no rashness in the matter of +too much tea or tobacco, no excitation of unusual incident or +stimulating conversation. In fact, you turn in with the expectation of +rather a good night's rest. Almost at once the little noises of the +forest grow larger, blend in the hollow bigness of the first drowse; +your thoughts drift idly back and forth between reality and dream; +when--<i>snap!</i>--you are broad awake! +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps the reservoir of your vital forces is full to the overflow of a +little waste; or perhaps, more subtly, the great Mother insists thus +that you enter the temple of her larger mysteries. +</p> + +<p> +For, unlike mere insomnia, lying awake at night in the woods is +pleasant. The eager, nervous straining for sleep gives way to a +delicious indifference. You do not care. Your mind is cradled in an +exquisite poppy-suspension of judgment and of thought. Impressions slip +vaguely into your consciousness and as vaguely out again. Sometimes +they stand stark and naked for your inspection; sometimes they lose +themselves in the midst of half-sleep. Always they lay soft velvet +fingers on the drowsy imagination, so that in their caressing you feel +the vaster spaces from which they have come. Peaceful-brooding your +faculties receive. Hearing, sight, smell--all are preternaturally keen +to whatever of sound and sight and woods perfume is abroad through the +night; and yet at the same time active appreciation dozes, so these +things lie on it sweet and cloying like fallen rose leaves. +</p> + +<p> +In such circumstance you will hear what the <i>voyageurs</i> call the +voices of the rapids. Many people never hear them at all. They speak +very soft and low and distinct beneath the steady roar and dashing, +beneath even the lesser tinklings and gurglings whose quality +superimposes them over the louder sounds. They are like the tear-forms +swimming across the field of vision, which disappear so quickly when +you concentrate your sight to look at them, and which reappear so +magically when again your gaze turns vacant. In the stillness of your +hazy half-consciousness they speak; when you bend your attention to +listen, they are gone, and only the tumults and the tinklings remain. +</p> + +<p> +But in the moments of their audibility they are very distinct. Just as +often an odour will wake all a vanished memory, so these voices, by the +force of a large impressionism, suggest whole scenes. Far off are the +cling-clang-cling of chimes and the swell-and-fall murmur of a +multitude <i>en fête</i>, so that subtly you feel the gray old town, +with its walls, the crowded marketplace, the decent peasant crowd, the +booths, the mellow church building with its bells, the warm, dust-moted +sun. Or, in the pauses between the swish-dash-dashings of the waters, +sound faint and clear voices singing intermittently, calls, distant +notes of laughter, as though many canoes were working against the +current; only the flotilla never gets any nearer, nor the voices +louder. The <i>voyageurs</i> call these mist people the Huntsmen, and +look frightened. To each is his vision, according to his experience. +The nations of the earth whisper to their exiled sons through the +voices of the rapids. Curiously enough, by all reports, they suggest +always peaceful scenes--a harvest field, a street fair, a Sunday +morning in a cathedral town, careless travellers--never the turmoils +and struggles. Perhaps this is the great Mother's compensation in a +harsh mode of life. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing is more fantastically unreal to tell about, nothing more +concretely real to experience, than this undernote of the quick water. +And when you do lie awake at night, it is always making its unobtrusive +appeal. Gradually its hypnotic spell works. The distant chimes ring +louder and nearer as you cross the borderland of sleep. And then +outside the tent some little woods noise snaps the thread. An owl +hoots, a whippoorwill cries, a twig cracks beneath the cautious prowl +of some night creature--at once the yellow sunlit French meadows puff +away--you are staring at the blurred image of the moon spraying through +the texture of your tent. +</p> + +<p> +The voices of the rapids have dropped into the background, as have the +dashing noises of the stream. Through the forest is a great silence, +but no stillness at all. The whippoorwill swings down and up the short +curve of his regular song; over and over an owl says his rapid +<i>whoo</i>, <i>whoo</i>, <i>whoo</i>. These, with the ceaseless dash +of the rapids, are the web on which the night traces her more delicate +embroideries of the unexpected. Distant crashes, single and impressive; +stealthy footsteps near at hand; the subdued scratching of claws; a +faint <i>sniff! sniff! sniff!</i> of inquiry; the sudden clear tin-horn +<i>ko-ko-ko-óh</i> of the little owl; the mournful, long-drawn-out cry +of the loon, instinct with the spirit of loneliness; the ethereal +call-note of the birds of passage high in the air; a <i>patter</i>, +<i>patter</i>, <i>patter</i> among the dead leaves, immediately +stilled; and then at the last, from the thicket close at hand, the +beautiful silver purity of the white-throated sparrow--the nightingale +of the North--trembling with the ecstasy of beauty, as though a +shimmering moonbeam had turned to sound; and all the while the blurred +figure of the moon mounting to the ridge-line of your tent--these +things combine subtly, until at last the great Silence of which they +are a part overarches the night and draws you forth to contemplation. +</p> + +<p> +No beverage is more grateful than the cup of spring water you drink at +such a time; no moment more refreshing than that in which you look +about you at the darkened forest. You have cast from you with the warm +blanket the drowsiness of dreams. A coolness, physical and spiritual, +bathes you from head to foot. All your senses are keyed to the last +vibrations. You hear the littler night prowlers, you glimpse the +greater. A faint, searching woods perfume of dampness greets your +nostrils. And somehow, mysteriously, in a manner not to be understood, +the forces of the world seem in suspense, as though a touch might +crystallize infinite possibilities into infinite power and motion. But +the touch lacks. The forces hover on the edge of action, unheeding the +little noises. In all humbleness and awe, you are a dweller of the +Silent Places. +</p> + +<p> +At such a time you will meet with adventures. One night we put +fourteen inquisitive porcupines out of camp. Near M'Gregor's Bay I +discovered in the large grass park of my camp-site nine deer, cropping +the herbage like so many beautiful ghosts. A friend tells me of a fawn +that every night used to sleep outside his tent and within a foot of +his head, probably by way of protection against wolves. Its mother had +in all likelihood been killed. The instant my friend moved toward the +tent opening the little creature would disappear, and it was always +gone by earliest daylight. Nocturnal bears in search of pork are not +uncommon. But even though your interest meets nothing but the bats and +the woods shadows and the stars, that few moments of the sleeping world +forces is a psychical experience to be gained in no other way. You +cannot know the night by sitting up; she will sit up with you. Only by +coming into her presence from the borders of sleep can you meet her +face to face in her intimate mood. +</p> + +<p> +The night wind from the river, or from the open spaces of the wilds, +chills you after a time. You begin to think of your blankets. In a few +moments you roll yourself in their soft wool. Instantly it is morning. +</p> + +<p> +And, strange to say, you have not to pay by going through the day +unrefreshed. You may feel like turning in at eight instead of nine, and +you may fall asleep with unusual promptitude, but your journey will +begin clear-headedly, proceed springily, and end with much in reserve. +No languor, no dull headache, no exhaustion, follows your experience. +For this once your two hours of sleep have been as effective as nine. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="vi">VI.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE 'LUNGE.</h3> + +<p class="ind"> +"Do you know the chosen water where the ouananiche is waiting?" +</p> + +<p> +Dick and I travelled in a fifteen-foot wooden canoe, with grub, duffel, +tent, and Deuce, the black-and-white setter dog. As a consequence we +were pretty well down toward the water-line, for we had not realized +that a wooden canoe would carry so little weight for its length in +comparison with a birch-bark. A good heavy sea we could ride--with +proper management and a little baling; but sloppy waves kept us busy. +</p> + +<p> +Deuce did not like it at all. He was a dog old in the wisdom of +experience. It had taken him just twenty minutes to learn all about +canoes. After a single tentative trial he jumped lightly to the very +centre of his place, with the lithe caution of a cat. Then if the water +happened to be smooth, he would sit gravely on his haunches, or would +rest his chin on the gunwale to contemplate the passing landscape. But +in rough weather he crouched directly over the keel, his nose between +his paws, and tried not to dodge when the cold water dashed in on him. +Deuce was a true woodsman in that respect. Discomfort he always bore +with equanimity, and he must often have been very cold and very +cramped. +</p> + +<p> +For just over a week we had been travelling in open water, and the +elements had not been kind to us at all. We had crept up under +rock-cliff points; had weathered the rips of white water to shelter on +the other side; had struggled across open spaces where each wave was +singly a problem to fail in whose solution meant instant swamping; had +baled, and schemed, and figured, and carried, and sworn, and tried +again, and succeeded with about two cupfuls to spare, until we as well +as Deuce had grown a little tired of it. For the lust of travel was on +us. +</p> + +<p> +The lust of travel is a very real disease. It usually takes you when +you have made up your mind that there is no hurry. Its predisposing +cause is a chart or map, and its main symptom is the feverish delight +with which you check off the landmarks of your journey. A fair wind of +some force is absolutely fatal. With that at your back you cannot +stop. Good fishing, fine scenery, interesting bays, reputed game, even +camps where friends might be visited--all pass swiftly astern. Hardly +do you pause for lunch at noon. The mad joy of putting country behind +you eats all other interests. You recover only when you have come to +your journey's end a week too early, and must then search out new +voyages to fill in the time. +</p> + +<p> +All this morning we had been bucking a strong north wind. Fortunately, +the shelter of a string of islands had given us smooth water enough, +but the heavy gusts sometimes stopped us as effectively as though we +had butted solid land. Now about noon we came to the last island, and +looked out on a five-mile stretch of tumbling seas. We landed the canoe +and mounted a high rock. +</p> + +<p> +"Can't make it like this," said I. "I'll take the outfit over and land +it, and come back for you and the dog. Let's see that chart." +</p> + +<p> +We hid behind the rock and spread out the map. +</p> + +<p> +"Four miles," measured Dick. "It's going to be a terror." +</p> + +<p> +We looked at each other vaguely, suddenly tired. +</p> + +<p> +"We can't camp here--at this time of day," objected Dick, to our +unspoken thoughts. +</p> + +<p> +And then the map gave him an inspiration. "Here's a little river," +ruminated Dick, "that goes to a little lake, and then there's another +little river that flows from the lake and comes out about ten miles +above here." +</p> + +<p> +"It's a good thirty miles," I objected. +</p> + +<p> +"What of it?" asked Dick calmly. +</p> + +<p> +So the fever-lust of travel broke. We turned to the right behind the +last island, searched out the reed-grown opening to the stream, and +paddled serenely and philosophically against the current. Deuce sat up +and yawned with a mighty satisfaction. +</p> + +<p> +We had been bending our heads to the demon of wind; our ears had been +filled with his shoutings, our eyes blinded with tears, our breath +caught away from us, our muscles strung to the fiercest endeavour. +Suddenly we found ourselves between the ranks of tall forest trees, +bathed in a warm sunlight, gliding like a feather from one grassy bend +to another of the laziest little stream that ever hesitated as to which +way the grasses of its bed should float. As for the wind, it was lost +somewhere away up high, where we could hear it muttering to itself +about something. +</p> + +<p> +The woods leaned over the fringe of bushes cool and green and silent. +Occasionally through tiny openings we caught instant impressions of +straight column trunks and transparent shadows. Miniature grass marshes +jutted out from the bends of the little river. We idled along as with a +homely rustic companion through the aloofness of patrician multitudes. +</p> + +<p> +Every bend offered us charming surprises. Sometimes a muskrat swam +hastily in a pointed furrow of ripple; vanishing wings, barely sensed +in the flash, left us staring; stealthy withdrawals of creatures, whose +presence we realized only in the fact of those withdrawals, snared our +eager interest; porcupines rattled and rustled importantly and regally +from the water's edge to the woods; herons, ravens, an occasional duck, +croaked away at our approach; thrice we surprised eagles, once a +tassel-eared Canada lynx. Or, if all else lacked, we still experienced +the little thrill of pleased novelty over the disclosure of a group of +silvery birches on a knoll; a magnificent white pine towering over the +beech and maple forest; the unexpected aisle of a long, straight +stretch of the little river. +</p> + +<p> +Deuce approved thoroughly. He stretched himself and yawned and shook +off the water, and glanced at me open-mouthed with doggy good-nature, +and set himself to acquiring a conscientious olfactory knowledge of +both banks of the river. I do not doubt he knew a great deal more +about it than we did. Porcupines aroused his special enthusiasm. +Incidentally, two days later he returned to camp after an expedition of +his own, bristling as to the face with that animal's barbed weapons. +Thenceforward his interest waned. +</p> + +<p> +We ascended the charming little river two or three miles. At a sharp +bend to the east a huge sheet of rock sloped from a round grass knoll +sparsely planted with birches directly down into a pool. Two or three +tree trunks jammed directly opposite had formed a sort of half dam +under which the water lay dark. A tiny grass meadow forty feet in +diameter narrowed the stream to half its width. +</p> + +<p> +We landed. Dick seated himself on the shelving rock. I put my fish-rod +together. Deuce disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +Deuce always disappeared whenever we landed. With nose down, hind +quarters well tucked under him, ears flying, he quartered the forest at +high speed, investigating every nook and cranny of it for the radius of +a quarter of a mile. When he has quite satisfied himself that we were +safe for the moment, he would return to the fire, where he would lie, +six inches of pink tongue vibrating with breathlessness, beautiful in +the consciousness of virtue. Dick generally sat on a rock and thought. +I generally fished. +</p> + +<p> +After a time Deuce returned. I gave up flies, spoons, phantom minnows, +artificial frogs, and crayfish. As Dick continued to sit on the rock +and think, we both joined him. The sun was very warm and grateful, and +I am sure we both acquired an added respect for Dick's judgment. +</p> + +<p> +Just when it happened neither of us was afterwards able to decide. +Perhaps Deuce knew. But suddenly, as often a figure appears in a +cinematograph, the diminutive meadow thirty feet away contained two +deer. They stood knee-deep in the grass, wagging their little tails in +impatience of the flies. +</p> + +<p> +"Look a' there!" stammered Dick aloud. +</p> + +<p> +Deuce sat up on his haunches. +</p> + +<p> +I started for my camera. +</p> + +<p> +The deer did not seem to be in the slightest degree alarmed. They +pointed four big ears in our direction, ate a few leisurely mouthfuls +of grass, sauntered to the stream for a drink of water, wagged their +little tails some more, and quietly faded into the cool shadows of the +forest. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a name="2.jpg"></a> +<a href="images/2.jpg"><img src="images/2th.jpg" alt="AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES."></a> +</p> + +<p> +An hour later we ran out into reeds, and so to the lake. It was a +pretty lake, forest-girt. Across the distance we made out a moving +object which shortly resolved itself into a birch canoe. The canoe +proved to contain an Indian, an Indian boy of about ten years, a black +dog, and a bundle. When within a few rods of each other we ceased +paddling, and drifted by with the momentum. The Indian was a +fine-looking man of about forty, his hair bound with a red fillet, his +feet incased in silk-worked moccasins, but otherwise dressed in white +men's garments. He smoked a short pipe, and contemplated us gravely. +</p> + +<p> +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," we called in the usual double-barrelled North +Country salutation. +</p> + +<p> +"Bo' jou', bo' jou," he replied. +</p> + +<p> +"Kée-gons?" we inquired as to the fishing in the lake. +</p> + +<p> +"Áh-hah," he assented. +</p> + +<p> +We drifted by each other without further speech. When the decent +distance of etiquette separated us we resumed our paddles. +</p> + +<p> +I produced a young cable terminated by a tremendous spoon and a solid +brass snell as thick as a telegraph wire. We had laid in this +formidable implement in hopes of a big muscallunge. It had been trailed +for days at a time. We had become used to its vibration, which actually +seemed to communicate itself to every fibre of the light canoe. Every +once in a while we would stop with a jerk that would nearly snap our +heads off. Then we would know we had hooked the American continent. We +had become used to that also. It generally happened when we attempted a +little burst of speed. So when the canoe brought up so violently that +all our tinware rolled on Deuce, Dick was merely disgusted. +</p> + +<p> +"There she goes again," he grumbled. "You've hooked Canada." +</p> + +<p> +Canada held quiescent for about three seconds. Then it started due +south. +</p> + +<p> +"Suffering serpents!" shrieked Dick. +</p> + +<p> +"Paddle, you sulphurated idiot!" yelled I. +</p> + +<p> +It was most interesting. All I had to do was to hang on and try to stay +in the boat. Dick paddled and fumed and splashed water and got more +excited. Canada dragged us bodily backward. +</p> + +<p> +Then Canada changed his mind and started in our direction. I was plenty +busy taking in slack, so I did not notice Dick. Dick was absolutely +demented. His mind automatically reacted in the direction of paddling. +He paddled, blindly, frantically. Canada came surging in, his mouth +open, his wicked eyes flaming, a tremendous indistinct body lashing +foam. Dick glanced once over his shoulder, and let out a frantic howl. +</p> + +<p> +"You've got the sea-serpent!" he shrieked. +</p> + +<p> +I turned to fumble for the pistol. We were headed directly for a log +stranded on shore, and about ten feet from it. +</p> + +<p> +"Dick!" I yelled in warning. +</p> + +<p> +He thrust his paddle out forward just in time. The stout maple bent and +cracked. The canoe hit with a bump that threw us forward. I returned to +the young cable. It came in limp and slack. +</p> + +<p> +We looked at each other sadly. +</p> + +<p> +"No use," sighed Dick at last. "They've never invented the words, and +we'd upset if we kicked the dog." +</p> + +<p> +I had the end of the line in my hands. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here!" I cried. That thick brass wire had been as cleanly bitten +through as though it had been cut with clippers. "He must have caught +sight of you," said I. +</p> + +<p> +Dick lifted up his voice in lamentation. "You had four feet of him out +of water," he wailed, "and there was a lot more." +</p> + +<p> +"If you had kept cool," said I severely, "we shouldn't have lost him. +You don't want to get rattled in an emergency; there's no sense in it." +</p> + +<p> +"What were you going to do with that?" asked Dick, pointing to where I +had laid the pistol. +</p> + +<p> +"I was going to shoot him in the head," I replied with dignity. "It's +the best way to land them." +</p> + +<p> +Dick laughed disagreeably. I looked down. At my side lay our largest +iron spoon. +</p> + +<p> +We skirted the left-hand side of the lake in silence. Far out from +shore the water was ruffled where the wind swept down, but with us it +was as still and calm as the forest trees that looked over into it. +After a time we turned short to the left through a very narrow passage +between two marshy shores, and so, after a sharp bend of but a few +hundred feet, came into the other river. +</p> + +<p> +This was a wide stream, smoothly hurrying, without rapids or tumult. +The forest had drawn to either side to let us pass. Here were the +wilder reaches after the intimacies of the little river. Across +stretches of marsh we could see an occasional great blue heron standing +mid-leg deep. Long strings of ducks struggled quacking from invisible +pools. The faint marsh odour saluted our nostrils from the point where +the lily-pads flashed broadly, ruffling in the wind. We dropped out the +smaller spoon and masterfully landed a five-pound pickerel. Even Deuce +brightened. He cared nothing for raw fish, but he knew their +possibilities. Towards evening we entered the hilly country, and so at +the last turned to the left into a sand cove where grew maples and +birches in beautiful park order under a hill. There we pitched camp, +and, as the flies lacked, built a friendship-fire about which to +forgather when the day was done. +</p> + +<p> +Dick still vocally regretted the muscallunge told him of my big bear. +</p> + +<p> +One day, late in the summer, I was engaged in packing some supplies +along an old fur trail north of Lake Superior. I had accomplished one +back-load, and with empty straps was returning to the cache for +another. The trail at one point emerged into and crossed an open park +some hundreds of feet in diameter, in which the grass grew to the +height of the knee. When I was about halfway across, a black bear arose +to his hind legs not ten feet from me, and remarked <i>Woof!</i> in a +loud tone of voice. Now, if a man were to say <i>woof</i> to you +unexpectedly, even in the formality of an Italian garden or the +accustomedness of a city street, you would be somewhat startled. So I +went to camp. There I told them about the bear. I tried to be +conservative in my description, because I did not wish to be accused of +exaggeration. My impression of the animal was that he and a spruce tree +that grew near enough for ready comparison were approximately of the +same stature. We returned to the grass park. After some difficulty we +found a clear footprint. It was a little larger than that made by a +good-sized coon. +</p> + +<p> +"So, you see," I admonished didactically, "that lunge probably was not +quite so large as you thought." +</p> + +<p> +"It may have been a Chinese bear," said Dick dreamily--"a Chinese lady +bear of high degree." +</p> + +<p> +I gave him up. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="vii">VII.</a></h2> + +<h3>ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING.</h3> + +<p> +"It is there that I am going, with an extra hand to bail her-- +Just one single long-shore loafer that I know. He can take his chance +of drowning while I sail and sail and sail her, For the Red Gods call +me out, and I must go." +</p> + +<p> +The following morning the wind had died, but had been succeeded by a +heavy pall of fog. After we had felt our way beyond the mouth of the +river we were forced to paddle north-west by north, in blind reliance +on our compass. Sounds there were none. Involuntarily we lowered our +voices. The inadvertent click of the paddle against the gunwale seemed +to desecrate a foreordained stillness. +</p> + +<p> +Occasionally to the right hand or the left we made out faint +shadow-pictures of wooded islands that endured but a moment and then +deliberately faded into whiteness. They formed on the view exactly as +an image develops on a photographic plate. Sometimes a faint +<i>lisp-lisp-lisp</i> of tiny waves against a shore nearer than it +seemed cautioned us anew not to break the silence. Otherwise we were +alone, intruders, suffered in the presence of a brooding nature only as +long as we refrained from disturbances. +</p> + +<p> +Then at noon the vapours began to eddy, to open momentarily in +revelation of vivid green glimpses, to stream down the rising wind. +Pale sunlight dashed fitfully across us like a shower. Somewhere in the +invisibility a duck quacked. Deuce awoke, looked about him, and +<i>yow-yow-yowed</i> in doggish relief. Animals understand thoroughly +these subtleties of nature. +</p> + +<p> +In half an hour the sun was strong, the air clear and sparkling, and a +freshening wind was certifying our prognostications of a lively +afternoon. +</p> + +<p> +A light canoe will stand almost anything in the way of a sea, although +you may find it impossible sometimes to force it in the direction you +wish to go. A loaded canoe will weather a great deal more than you +might think. However, only experience in balance and in the nature of +waves will bring you safely across a stretch of whitecaps. +</p> + +<p> +With the sea dead ahead you must not go too fast; otherwise you will +dip water over the bow. You must trim the craft absolutely on an even +keel; otherwise the comb of the wave, too light to lift you, will slop +in over one gunwale or the other. You must be perpetually watching your +chance to gain a foot or so between the heavier seas. +</p> + +<p> +With the sea over one bow you must paddle on the leeward side. When the +canoe mounts a wave, you must allow the crest to throw the bow off a +trifle, but the moment it starts down the other slope you must twist +your paddle sharply to regain the direction of your course. The +careening tendency of this twist you must counteract by a corresponding +twist of your body in the other direction. Then the hollow will allow +you two or three strokes wherewith to assure a little progress. The +double twist at the very crest of the wave must be very delicately +performed, or you will ship water the whole length of your craft. +</p> + +<p> +With the sea abeam you must simply paddle straight ahead. The +adjustment is to be accomplished entirely by the poise of the body. You +must prevent the capsize of your canoe when clinging to the angle of a +wave by leaning to one side. The crucial moment, of course, is that +during which the peak of the wave slips under you. In case of a +breaking comber, thrust the flat of your paddle deep in the water to +prevent an upset, and lean well to leeward, thus presenting the side +and half the bottom of the canoe to the shock of water. Your recovery +must be instant, however. If you lean a second too long, over you go. +This sounds more difficult than it is. After a time you do it +instinctively, as a skater balances. + +With the sea over the quarter you have merely to take care that the +waves do not slue you around sidewise, and that the canoe does not dip +water on one side or the other under the stress of your twists with the +paddle. Dead astern is perhaps the most difficult of all, for the +reason that you must watch both gunwales at once, and must preserve an +absolutely even keel, in spite of the fact that it generally requires +your utmost strength to steer. In really heavy weather one man only +can do any work. The other must be content to remain passenger, and he +must be trained to absolute immobility. No matter how dangerous a +careen the canoe may take, no matter how much good cold water may pour +in over his legs, he must resist his tendency to shift his weight. The +entire issue depends on the delicacy of the steersman's adjustments, so +he must be given every chance. +</p> + +<p> +The main difficulty rests in the fact that such canoeing is a good deal +like air-ship travel--there is not much opportunity to learn by +experience. In a four-hour run across an open bay you will encounter +somewhat over a thousand waves, no two of which are exactly alike, and +any one of which can fill you up only too easily if it is not correctly +met. Your experience is called on to solve instantly and practically a +thousand problems. No breathing-space in which to recover is permitted +you between them. At the end of the four hours you awaken to the fact +that your eyes are strained from intense concentration, and that you +taste copper. +</p> + +<p> +Probably nothing, however, can more effectively wake you up to the last +fibre of your physical, intellectual, and nervous being. You are filled +with an exhilaration. Every muscle, strung tight, answers immediately +and accurately to the slightest hint. You quiver all over with +restrained energy. Your mind thrusts behind you the problem of the last +wave as soon as solved, and leaps with insistent eagerness to the next. +You attain that superordinary condition when your faculties react +instinctively, like a machine. It is a species of intoxication. After a +time you personify each wave; you grapple with it as with a personal +adversary; you exult as, beaten and broken, it hisses away to leeward. +"Go it, you son of a gun!" you shout. "Ah, you would, would you! think +you can, do you?" and in the roar and rush of wind and water you crouch +like a boxer on the defence, parrying the blows, but ready at the +slightest opening to gain a stroke of the paddle. +</p> + +<p> +In such circumstances you have not the leisure to consider distance. +You are too busily engaged in slaughtering waves to consider your rate +of progress. The fact that slowly you are pulling up on your objective +point does not occur to you until you are within a few hundred yards of +it. Then, unless you are careful, you are undone. +</p> + +<p> +Probably the most difficult thing of all to learn is that the waves to +be encountered in the last hundred yards of an open sweep are exactly +as dangerous as those you dodged so fearfully four miles from shore. +You are so nearly in that you unconsciously relax your efforts. Calmly, +almost contemptuously, a big roller rips along your gunwale. You are +wrecked--fortunately within easy swimming distance. But that doesn't +save your duffel. Remember this: be just as careful with the very last +wave as you were with the others. Get inside before you draw that deep +breath of relief. +</p> + +<p> +Strangely enough, in out-of-door sports, where it would seem that +convention would rest practically at the zero point, the bugbear of +good form, although mashed and disguised, rises up to confuse the +directed practicality. The average man is wedded to his theory. He has +seen a thing done in a certain way, and he not only always does it that +way himself, but he is positively unhappy at seeing any one else +employing a different method. From the swing at golf to the manner of +lighting a match in the wind, this truism applies. I remember once +hearing a long argument with an Eastern man on the question of the +English riding-seat in the Western country. +</p> + +<p> +"Your method is all very well," said the Westerner, "for where it came +from. In England they ride to hunt, so they need a light saddle and +very short stirrups set well forward. That helps them in jumping. But +it is most awkward. Out here you want your stirrups very long and +directly under you, so your legs hang loose, and you depend on your +balance and the grip of your thighs--not your knees. It is less tiring, +and better sense, and infinitely more graceful, for it more nearly +approximates the bareback seat. Instead of depending on stirrups, you +are part of the horse. You follow his every movement. And as for your +rising trot, I'd like to see you accomplish it safely on our mountain +trails, where the trot is the only gait practicable, unless you take +for ever to get anywhere." To all of which the Easterner found no +rebuttal except the, to him, entirely efficient plea that his own +method was good form. +</p> + +<p> +Now, of course, it is very pleasant to do things always accurately, +according to the rules of the game, and if you are out merely for +sport, perhaps it is as well to stick to them. But utility is another +matter. Personally, I do not care at all to kill trout unless by the +fly; but when we need meat and they do not need flies, I never hesitate +to offer them any kind of doodle-bug they may fancy. I have even at a +pinch clubbed them to death in a shallow, land-locked pool. Time will +come in your open-water canoe experience when you will pull into +shelter half full of water, when you will be glad of the fortuity of a +chance cross-wave to help you out, when sheer blind luck, or main +strength and awkwardness, will be the only reasons you can honestly +give for an arrival, and a battered and dishevelled arrival at that. Do +not, therefore, repine, or bewail your awkwardness, or indulge in undue +self-accusations of "tenderfoot." Method is nothing; the arrival is the +important thing. You are travelling, and if you can make time by nearly +swamping yourself, or by dragging your craft across a point, or by +taking any other base advantage of the game's formality, by all means +do so. Deuce used to solve the problem of comfort by drinking the +little pool of cold water in which he sometimes was forced to lie. In +the woods, when a thing is to be done, do not consider how you have +done it, or how you have seen it done, or how you think it ought to be +done, but how it <i>can</i> be accomplished. Absolute fluidity of +expedient, perfect adaptability, is worth a dozen volumes of +theoretical knowledge. "If you can't talk," goes the Western +expression, "raise a yell; if you can't yell, make signs; if you can't +make signs, wave a bush." +</p> + +<p> +And do not be too ready to take advice as to what you can or cannot +accomplish, even from the woods people. Of course the woods Indians or +the <i>voyageurs</i> know all about canoes, and you would do well to +listen to them. But the mere fact that your interlocutor lives in the +forest, while you normally inhabit the towns, does not necessarily give +him authority. A community used to horses looks with horror on the +instability of all water craft less solid than canal boats. Canoemen +stand in awe of the bronco. The fishermen of the Georgian Bay, +accustomed to venture out with their open sailboats in weather that +forces the big lake schooners to shelter, know absolutely nothing about +canoes. Dick and I made an eight-mile run from the Fox island to +Killarney in a trifling sea, to be cheered during our stay at the +latter place by doleful predictions of an early drowning. And this from +a seafaring community. It knew all about boats; it knew nothing about +canoes; and yet the unthinking might have been influenced by the advice +of these men simply because they had been brought up on the water. The +point is obvious. Do not attempt a thing unless you are sure of +yourself; but do not relinquish it merely because some one else is not +sure of you. +</p> + +<p> +The best way to learn is with a bathing-suit. Keep near shore, and try +everything. Don't attempt the real thing until your handling in a heavy +sea has become as instinctive as snap-shooting or the steps of dancing. +Remain on the hither side of caution when you start out. Act at first +as though every wavelet would surely swamp you. Extend the scope of +your operations very gradually, until you know just what you can do. +<i>Never</i> get careless. Never take any <i>real</i> chances. That's +all. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="viii">VIII.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE STRANDED STRANGERS.</h3> + +<p> +As we progressed, the country grew more and more solemnly aloof. In the +Southland is a certain appearance of mobility, lent by the deciduous +trees, the warm sun, the intimate nooks in which grow the commoner +homely weeds and flowers, the abundance of bees and musical insects, +the childhood familiarity of the well-known birds, even the pleasantly +fickle aspects of the skies. But the North wraps itself in a mantle of +awe. Great hills rest not so much in the stillness of sleep as in the +calm of a mighty comprehension. The pines, rank after rank, file after +file, are always trooping somewhere, up the slope, to pause at the +crest before descending on the other side into the unknown. Bodies of +water exactly of the size, shape, and general appearance we are +accustomed to see dotted with pleasure craft and bordered with wharves, +summer cottages, pavilions, and hotels, accentuate by that very fact a +solitude that harbours only a pair of weirdly laughing loons. Like the +hills, these lakes are lying in a deep, still repose, but a repose that +somehow suggests the comprehending calm of those behind the veil. The +whole country seems to rest in a suspense of waiting. A shot breaks the +stillness for an instant, but its very memory is shadowy a moment after +the echoes die. Inevitably the traveller feels thrust in upon himself +by a neutrality more deadly than open hostility would be. Hostility at +least supposes recognition of his existence, a rousing of forces to +oppose him. This ignores. One can no longer wonder at the taciturnity +of the men who dwell here; nor does one fail to grasp the eminent +suitability to the country of its Indian name--the Silent Places. +</p> + +<p> +Even the birds, joyful, lively, commonplace little people that they +are, draw some of this aloofness to themselves. The North is full of +the homelier singers. A dozen species of warblers lisp music-box +phrases, two or three sparrows whistle a cheerful repertoire, the +nuthatches and chickadees toot away in blissful <i>bourgeoisie</i>. And +yet, somehow, that very circumstance thrusts the imaginative voyager +outside the companionship of their friendliness. In the face of the +great gods they move with accustomed familiarity. Somehow they possess +in their little experience that which explains the mystery, so that +they no longer stand in its awe. Their everyday lives are spent under +the shadow of the temple whither you dare not bend your footsteps. The +intimacy of occult things isolates also these wise little birds. +</p> + +<p> +The North speaks, however, only in the voices of three--the two +thrushes, and the white-throated sparrow. You must hear these each at +his proper time. +</p> + +<p> +The hermit thrush you will rarely see. But late some afternoon, when +the sun is lifting along the trunks of the hardwood forest, if you are +very lucky and very quiet, you will hear him far in the depth of the +blackest swamps. Musically expressed, his song is very much like that +of the wood thrush--three cadenced liquid notes, a quivering pause, +then three more notes of another phrase, and so on. But the fineness of +its quality makes of it an entirely different performance. If you +symbolize the hermit thrush by the flute, you must call the wood thrush +a chime of little tinkling bells. One is a rendition; the other the +essence of liquid music. An effect of gold-embroidered richness, of +depth going down to the very soul of things, a haunting suggestion of +having touched very near to the source of tears, a conviction that the +just interpretation of the song would be an equally just interpretation +of black woods, deep shadows, cloistered sunlight, brooding +hills--these are the subtle and elusive impressions you will receive in +the middle of the ancient forest. +</p> + +<p> +The olive-backed thrush you will enjoy after your day's work is quite +finished. You will see him through the tobacco haze, perched on a limb +against the evening sky. He utters a loud joyful <i>chirp</i> pauses +for the attention he thus solicits, and then deliberately runs up five +mellow double notes, ending with a metallic "<i>ting</i> chee chee +chee" that sounds as though it had been struck on a triangle. Then a +silence of exactly nine seconds and repeat. As regularly as clock-work +this performance goes on. Time him as often as you will, you can never +convict him of a second's variation. And he is so optimistic and +willing, and his notes are so golden with the yellow of sunshine! +</p> + +<p> +The white-throated sparrow sings nine distinct variations of the same +song. He may sing more, but that is all I have counted. He inhabits +woods, berry-vines, brulés, and clearings. Ordinarily he is cheerful, +and occasionally aggravating. One man I knew he drove nearly crazy. To +that man he was always saying, "<i>And he never heard the man say drink +and the</i>----." Toward the last my friend used wildly to offer him a +thousand dollars if he would, if he only <i>would</i>, finish that +sentence. But occasionally, in just the proper circumstances, he +forgets his stump corners, his vines, his jolly sunlight, and his +delightful bugs to become the intimate voice of the wilds. It is night, +very still, Very dark. The subdued murmur of the forest ebbs and flows +with the voices of the furtive folk--an undertone fearful to break the +night calm. Suddenly across the dusk of silence flashes a single thread +of silver, vibrating, trembling with some unguessed ecstasy of emotion: +"<i>Ah! poor Canada Canada Canada Canada!</i>" it mourns passionately, +and falls silent. That is all. +</p> + +<p> +You will hear at various times other birds peculiarly of the North. +Loons alternately calling and uttering their maniac laughter; purple +finches or some of the pine sparrows warbling high and clear; the +winter wren, whose rapturous ravings never fail to strike the attention +of the dullest passer; all these are exclusively Northern voices, and +each expresses some phase or mood of the Silent Places. But none +symbolizes as do the three. And when first you hear one of them after +an absence, you are satisfied that things are right in the world, for +the North Country's spirit is as it was. +</p> + +<p> +Now ensued a spell of calm weather, with a film of haze over the sky. +The water lay like quicksilver, heavy and inert. Toward afternoon it +became opalescent. The very substance of the liquid itself seemed +impregnated with dyes ranging in shade from wine colour to the most +delicate lilac. Through a smoke veil the sun hung, a ball of red, while +beneath every island, every rock, every tree, every wild fowl floating +idly in a medium apparently too delicate for its support, lurked the +beautiful crimson shadows of the North. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a name="3.jpg"></a> +<a href="images/3.jpg"><img src="images/3th.jpg" alt="EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT SWAMPING."></a> +</p> + +<p> +Hour after hour, day after day, we slipped on. Point after point, +island after island, presented itself silently to our inspection and +dropped quietly astern. The beat of paddles fitted monotonously into +the almost portentous stillness. It seemed that we might be able to go +on thus for ever, lapped in the dream of some forgotten magic that had +stricken breathless the life of the world. And then, suddenly, three +weeks on our journey, we came to a town. +</p> + +<p> +It was not the typical fur town of the Far North, but it lay at the +threshold. A single street, worn smooth by the feet of men and dogs, +but innocent of hoofs, fronted the channel. A board walk, elevated +against the snows, bordered a row of whitewashed log and frame houses, +each with its garden of brilliant flowers. A dozen wharves of various +sizes, over whose edges peeped the double masts of Mackinaw boats, +spoke of a fishing community. Between the roofs one caught glimpses of +a low sparse woods and some thousand-foot hills beyond. We subsequently +added the charm of isolation in learning that the nearest telegraph +line was fifteen miles distant, while the railroad passed some fifty +miles away. +</p> + +<p> +Dick immediately went wild. It was his first glimpse of the mixed +peoples. A dozen loungers, handsome, careless, graceful with the +inimitable elegance of the half-breed's leisure, chatted, rolled +cigarettes, and surveyed with heavy-eyed indolence such of the town as +could be viewed from the shade in which they lay. Three girls, in whose +dark cheeks glowed a rich French comeliness, were comparing purchases +near the store. A group of rivermen, spike-booted, short-trousered, +reckless of air, with their little round hats over one ear, sat +chair-tilted outside the "hotel." Across the dividing fences of two of +the blazoned gardens a pair of old crones gossiped under their breaths. +Some Indians smoked silently at the edge of one of the docks. In the +distance of the street's end a French priest added the quaintness of +his cassock to the exotic atmosphere of the scene. At once a pack of +the fierce sledge-dogs left their foraging for the offal of the +fisheries, to bound challenging in the direction of poor Deuce. That +highbred animal fruitlessly attempted to combine dignity with a +discretionary lurking between our legs. We made demonstrations with +sticks, and sought out the hotel, for it was about time to eat. +</p> + +<p> +We had supper at a table with three Forest Rangers, two lumber-jacks, +and a cat-like handsome "breed" whose business did not appear. Then we +lit up and strolled about to see what we could see. +</p> + +<p> +On the text of a pair of brass knuckles hanging behind the hotel bar I +embroidered many experiences with the lumberjack. I told of a Wisconsin +town where an enforced wait of five hours enabled me to establish the +proportion of fourteen saloons out of a total of twenty frame +buildings. I descanted craftily on the character of the woodsman out of +the woods and in the right frame of mind for deviltry. I related how +Jack Boyd, irritated beyond endurance at the annoyances of a stranger, +finally with the flat of his hand boxed the man's head so mightily that +he whirled around twice and sat down. +</p> + +<p> +"Now," said Jack softly, "be more careful, my friend, or next time I'll +<i>hit</i> you." Or of a little Irishman who shouted to his friends +about to pull a big man from pounding the life quite out of him, "Let +him alone! let him alone! I may be on top myself in a few minutes!" And +of Dave Walker, who fought to a standstill with his bare fists alone +five men who had sworn to kill him. And again of that doughty knight of +the peavie who, when attacked by an axe, waved aside interference with +the truly dauntless cry, "Leave him be, boys; there's an axe between +us!" +</p> + +<p> +I tried to sketch, too, the drive, wherein a dozen times in an hour +these men face death with a smile or a curse--the raging untamed river, +the fierce rush of the logs, the cool little human beings poising with +a certain contemptuous preciosity on the edge of destruction as they +herd their brutish multitudes. +</p> + +<p> +There was Jimmy, the river boss, who could not swim a stroke, and who +was incontinently swept over a dam and into the boiling back-set of the +eddy below. Three times, gasping, strangling, drowning, he was carried +in the wide swirl of the circle, sometimes under, sometimes on top. +Then his knee touched a sand-bar, and he dragged himself painfully +ashore. He coughed up a quantity of water, and gave vent to his +feelings over a miraculous escape. "Damn it all!" he wailed, "I lost my +peavie!" +</p> + +<p> +"On the Paint River drive one spring," said I, "a jam formed that +extended up river some three miles. The men were working at the breast +of it, some underneath, some on top. After a time the jam apparently +broke, pulled downstream a hundred feet or so, and plugged again. Then +it was seen that only a small section had moved, leaving the main body +still jammed, so that between the two sections lay a narrow stretch of +open water. Into this open water one of the men had fallen. Before he +could recover, the second or tail section of the jam started to pull. +Apparently nothing could prevent him from being crushed. A man called +Sam--I don't know his last name--ran down the tail of the first +section, across the loose logs bobbing in the open water, seized the +victim of the accident by the collar, desperately scaled the face of +the moving jam, and reached the top just as the two sections ground +together with the brutish noise of wrecking timbers. It was a +magnificent rescue. Any but these men of iron would have adjourned for +thanks and congratulations. +</p> + +<p> +"Still retaining his hold on the other man's collar, Sam twisted him +about and delivered a vigorous kick. '<i>There</i>, damn you!' said he. +That was all. They fell to work at once to keep the jam moving." +</p> + +<p> +I instanced, too, some of the feats of river-work these men could +perform. Of how Jack Boyd has been known to float twenty miles without +shifting his feet, on a log so small that he carried it to the water on +his shoulder; of how a dozen rivermen, one after the other, would often +go through the chute of a dam standing upright on single logs; of +O'Donnell, who could turn a somersault on a floating pine log; of the +birling matches, wherein two men on a single log try to throw each +other into the river by treading, squirrel fashion, in faster and +faster rotation; of how a riverman and spiked boots and a saw-log can +do more work than an ordinary man with a rowboat. +</p> + +<p> +I do not suppose Dick believed all this--although it was strictly and +literally true--but his imagination was impressed. He gazed with +respect on the group at the far end of the street, where fifteen or +twenty lumber-jacks were interested in some amusement concealed from +us. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you suppose they are doing?" murmured Dick, awestricken. +</p> + +<p> +"Wrestling, or boxing, or gambling, or jumping," said I. +</p> + +<p> +We approached. Gravely, silently, intensely interested, the +cock-hatted, spikeshod, dangerous men were playing--croquet! +</p> + +<p> +The sight was too much for our nerves. We went away. +</p> + +<p> +The permanent inhabitants of the place we discovered to be friendly to +a degree. +</p> + +<p> +The Indian strain was evident in various dilution through all. Dick's +enthusiasm grew steadily until his artistic instincts became +aggressive, and he flatly announced his intention of staying at least +four days for the purpose of making sketches. We talked the matter +over. Finally it was agreed. Deuce and I were to make a wide circle to +the north and west as far as the Hudson's Bay post of Cloche, while +Dick filled his notebook. That night we slept in beds for the first +time. +</p> + +<p> +That is to say, we slept until about three o'clock. Then we became +vaguely conscious, through a haze of drowse--as one becomes conscious +in the pause of a sleeping-car--of voices outside our doors. Some one +said something about its being hardly much use to go to bed. Another +hoped the sheets were not damp. A succession of lights twinkled across +the walls of our room, and were vaguely explained by the coughing of a +steamboat. We sank into oblivion until the calling-bell brought us to +our feet. +</p> + +<p> +I happened to finish my toilet a little before Dick, and so descended +to the sunlight until he might be ready. Roosting on a gray old boulder +ten feet outside the door were two figures that made me want to rub my +eyes. +</p> + +<p> +The older was a square, ruddy-faced man of sixty, with neatly trimmed, +snow-white whiskers. He had on a soft Alpine hat of pearl gray, a +modishly cut gray homespun suit, a tie in which glimmered an opal pin, +wore tan gloves, and had slung over one shoulder by a narrow black +strap a pair of field-glasses. +</p> + +<p> +The younger was a tall and angular young fellow, of an eager and +sophomoric youth. His hair was very light and very smoothly brushed, +his eyes blue and rather near-sighted, his complexion pink, with an +obviously recent and superficial sunburn, and his clothes, from the +white Panama to the broad-soled low shoes, of the latest cut and +material. Instinctively I sought his fraternity pin. He looked as +though he might say "Rah! Rah!" something or other. A camera completed +his outfit. +</p> + +<p> +Tourists! How in the world did they get here? And then I remembered the +twinkle of the lights and the coughing of the steamboat. But what in +time could they be doing here? Picturesque as the place was, it held +nothing to appeal to the Baedeker spirit. I surveyed the pair with some +interest. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose there is pretty good fishing around here," ventured the +elder. +</p> + +<p> +He evidently took me for an inhabitant. Remembering my faded blue shirt +and my floppy old hat and the red handkerchief about my neck and the +moccasins on my feet, I did not blame him. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose there are bass among the islands," I replied. +</p> + +<p> +We fell into conversation. I learned that he and his son were from New +York. +</p> + +<p> +He learned, by a final direct question which was most significant of +his not belonging to the country, who I was. By chance he knew my name. +He opened his heart. +</p> + +<p> +"We came down on the <i>City of Flint</i>," said he. "My son and I are +on a vacation. We have been as far as the Yellowstone, and thought we +would like to see some of this country. I was assured that on this date +I could make connection with the <i>North Star</i> for the south. I +told the purser of the <i>Flint</i> not to wake us up unless the +<i>North Star</i> was here at the docks. He bundled us off here at +three in the morning. The <i>North Star</i> was not here; it is an +outrage!" +</p> + +<p> +He uttered various threats. +</p> + +<p> +"I thought the <i>North Star</i> was running away south around the +Perry Sound region," I suggested. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, but she was to begin to-day, June 16, to make this connection." +He produced a railroad folder. "It's in this," he continued. +</p> + +<p> +"Did you go by that thing?" I marvelled. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, of course," said he. +</p> + +<p> +"I forgot you were an American," said I. "You're in Canada now." +</p> + +<p> +He looked his bewilderment, so I hunted up Dick. I detailed the +situation. "He doesn't know the race," I concluded. "Soon he will be +trying to get information out of the agent. Let's be on hand." +</p> + +<p> +We were on hand. The tourist, his face very red, his whiskers very +white and bristly, marched importantly to the agent's office. The +latter comprised also the post-office, the fish depot, and a general +store. The agent was for the moment dickering <i>in re</i> two pounds +of sugar. This transaction took five minutes to the pound. Mr. Tourist +waited. Then he opened up. The agent heard him placidly, as one who +listens to a curious tale. +</p> + +<p> +"What I want to know is, where's that boat?" ended the tourist. +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. +</p> + +<p> +"Aren't you the agent of this company?" +</p> + +<p> +"Sure," replied the agent. +</p> + +<p> +"Then why don't you know something about its business and plans and +intentions?" +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think it would be any good to wait for the <i>North Star</i>? +Do you suppose they can be coming? Do you suppose they've altered the +schedule?" +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. +</p> + +<p> +"When is the next boat through here?" +</p> + +<p> +I listened for the answer in trepidation, for I saw that another +"Couldn't say" would cause the red-faced tourist to blow up. To my +relief, the agent merely inquired,-- +</p> + +<p> +"North or south?" +</p> + +<p> +"South, of course. I just came from the north. What in the name of +everlasting blazes should I want to go north again for?" +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. "The next boat south gets in next +week, Tuesday or Wednesday." +</p> + +<p> +"Next week!" shrieked the tourist. +</p> + +<p> +"When's the next boat north?" interposed the son. +</p> + +<p> +"To-morrow morning." +</p> + +<p> +"What time?" +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't say; you'd have to watch for her." +</p> + +<p> +"That's our boat, dad," said the young man. +</p> + +<p> +"But we've just <i>come</i> from there!" snorted his father; "it's +three hundred miles back. It'll put us behind two days. I've got to be +in New York Friday. I've got an engagement." He turned suddenly to the +agent. "Here, I've got to send a telegram." +</p> + +<p> +The agent blinked placidly. "You'll not send it from here. This ain't a +telegraph station." +</p> + +<p> +"Where's the nearest station?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fifteen mile." +</p> + +<p> +Without further parley the old man turned and walked, stiff and +military, from the place. Near the end of the broad walk he met the +usual doddering but amiable oldest inhabitant. +</p> + +<p> +"Fine day," chirped the patriarch in well-meant friendliness. "They +jest brought in a bear cub over to Antoine's. If you'd like to take a +look at him, I'll show you where it is." +</p> + +<p> +The tourist stopped short and glared fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +"Sir," said he, "damn your bear!" Then he strode on, leaving grandpa +staring after him. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of the morning we became quite well acquainted, and he +resigned. The son appeared to take somewhat the humorous view all +through the affair, which must have irritated the old gentleman. They +discussed it rather thoroughly, and finally decided to retrace their +steps for a fresh start over a better-known route. This settled, the +senior seemed to feel relieved of a weight. He even saw and relished +certain funny phases of the incident, though he never ceased to +foretell different kinds of trouble for the company, varying in range +from mere complaints to the most tremendous of damage suits. +</p> + +<p> +He was much interested, finally, in our methods of travel, and then, in +logical sequence, with what he could see about him. He watched +curiously my loading of the canoe, for I had a three-mile stretch of +open water, and the wind was abroad. Deuce's empirical boat wisdom +aroused his admiration. He and his son were both at the shore to see me +off. +</p> + +<p> +Deuce settled himself in the bottom. I lifted the stern from the shore +and gently set it afloat. In a moment I was ready to start. +</p> + +<p> +"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" suddenly cried the father. +</p> + +<p> +I swirled my paddle back. The old gentleman was hastily fumbling in his +pockets. After an instant he descended to the water's edge. +</p> + +<p> +"Here," said he, "you are a judge of fiction; take this." +</p> + +<p> +It was his steamboat and railway folder. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="ix">IX.</a></h2> + +<h3>ON FLIES.</h3> + +<p> +All the rest of the day I paddled under the frowning cliffs of the hill +ranges. Bold, bare, scarred, seamed with fissures, their precipice +rocks gave the impression of ten thousand feet rather that only so many +hundreds. Late in the afternoon we landed against a formation of +basaltic blocks cut as squarely up and down as a dock, and dropping off +into as deep water. The waves <i>chug-chug-chugged</i> sullenly against +them, and the fringe of a dark pine forest, drawn back from a breadth +of natural grass, lowered across the horizon like a thunder-cloud. +</p> + +<p> +Deuce and I made camp with the uneasy feeling of being under inimical +inspection. A cold wind ruffled lead-like waters. No comfort was in the +prospect, so we retired early. Then it appeared that the coarse grass +of the park had bred innumerable black flies, and that we had our work +cut out for us. +</p> + +<p> +The question of flies--using that, to a woodsman, eminently connotive +word in its wide embracement of mosquitoes, sandflies, deer-flies, +black flies, and midges--is one much mooted in the craft. On no +subject are more widely divergent ideas expressed. One writer claims +that black flies' bites are but the temporary inconvenience of a +pin-prick; another tells of boils lasting a week as the invariable +result of their attentions; a third sweeps aside the whole question as +unimportant to concentrate his anathemas on the musical mosquito; still +a fourth descants on the maddening midge, and is prepared to defend his +claims against the world. A like dogmatic partisanship obtains in the +question of defences. Each and every man possessed of a tongue +wherewith to speak or a pen wherewith to write, heralds the particular +merits of his own fly-dope, head-net, or mosquito-proof tent-lining. +Eager advocates of the advantages of pork fat, kerosene, pine tar, +pennyroyal, oil of cloves, castor oil, lollacapop, or a half hundred +other concoctions, will assure you, tears in eyes, that his is the only +true faith. So many men, so many minds, until the theorist is confused +into doing the most uncomfortable thing possible--that is, to learn by +experience. +</p> + +<p> +As for the truth, it is at once in all of them and in none of them. The +annoyance of after-effects from a sting depends entirely on the +individual's physical makeup. Some people are so poisoned by mosquito +bites that three or four on the forehead suffice to close entirely the +victim's eyes. On others they leave but a small red mark without +swelling. Black flies caused festering sores on one man I accompanied +to the woods. In my own case they leave only a tiny blood-spot the size +of a pin-head, which bothers me not a bit. Midges nearly drove crazy +the same companion of mine, so that finally he jumped into the river, +clothes and all, to get rid of them. Again, merely my own experience +would lead me to regard them as a tremendous nuisance, but one quite +bearable. Indians are less susceptible than whites; nevertheless I have +seen them badly swelled behind the ears from the bites of the big +hardwood mosquito. +</p> + +<p> +You can make up your mind to one thing: from the first warm weather +until August you must expect to cope with insect pests. The black fly +will keep you busy until late afternoon; the midges will swarm you +about sunset; and the mosquito will preserve the tradition after you +have turned in. As for the deer-fly, and others of his piratical breed, +he will bite like a dog at any time. +</p> + +<p> +To me the most annoying species is the mosquito. The black fly is +sometimes most industrious--I have seen trout fishermen come into camp +with the blood literally streaming from their faces--but his great +recommendation is that he holds still to be killed. No frantic slaps, +no waving of arms, no muffled curses. You just place your finger calmly +and firmly on the spot. You get him every time. In this is great, +heart-lifting joy. It may be unholy joy, perhaps even vengeful, but it +leaves the spirit ecstatic. The satisfaction of <i>murdering</i> the +beast that has had the nerve to light on you just as you are reeling in +almost counterbalances the pain of a sting. The midge, again, or +punkie, or "no-see-'um," just as you please, swarms down upon you +suddenly and with commendable vigour, so that you feel as though +red-hot pepper were being sprinkled on your bare skin; and his +invisibility and intangibility are such that you can never tell whether +you have killed him or not; but he doesn't last long, and dope routs +him totally. Your mosquito, however, is such a deliberate brute. He has +in him some of that divine fire which causes a dog to turn around nine +times before lying down. +</p> + +<p> +Whether he is selecting or gloating I do not know, but I do maintain +that the price of your life's blood is often not too great to pay for +the cessation of that hum. +</p> + +<p> +"Eet is not hees bite," said Billy the half-breed to me once--"eet is +hees sing." +</p> + +<p> +I agree with Billy. One mosquito in a tent can keep you awake for +hours. +</p> + +<p> +As to protection, it is varied enough in all conscience, and always +theoretically perfect. A head-net falling well down over your chest, or +even tied under your arm-pits, is at once the simplest and most +fallacious of these theories. It will keep vast numbers of flies out, +to be sure. It will also keep the few adventurous discoverers in, where +you can neither kill nor eject. Likewise you are deprived of your pipe; +and the common homely comfort of spitting on your bait is totally +denied you. The landscape takes on the prismatic colours of refraction, +so that, while you can easily make out red, white, and blue Chinese +dragons and mythological monsters, you are unable to discover the more +welcome succulence, say, of a partridge on a limb. And the end of that +head-net is to be picked to holes by the brush, and finally to be +snatched from you to sapling height, whence your pains will rescue it +only in a useless condition. Probably then you will dance the war-dance +of exasperation on its dismembered remains. Still, there are times--in +case of straight-away river paddling, or open walking, or lengthened +waiting--when the net is a great comfort. And it is easily included in +the pack. +</p> + +<p> +Next in order come the various "dopes." And they are various. From the +stickiest, blackest pastes to the silkiest, suavest oils they range, +through the grades of essence, salve, and cream. Every man has his own +recipe--the infallible. As a general rule, it may be stated that the +thicker kinds last longer and are generally more thoroughly effective, +but the lighter are pleasanter to wear, though requiring more frequent +application. At a pinch, ordinary pork fat is good. The Indians often +make temporary use of the broad caribou leaf, crushing it between their +palms and rubbing the juices on the skin. I know by experience that +this is effective, but very transitory. It is, however, a good thing to +use when resting on the trail, for, by the grace of Providence, flies +are rarely bothersome as long as you are moving at a fair gait. +</p> + +<p> +This does not always hold good, however, any more than the best +fly-dope is always effective. I remember most vividly the first day of +a return journey from the shores of the Hudson Bay. The weather was +rather oppressively close and overcast. +</p> + +<p> +We had paddled a few miles up river from the fur trading-post, and then +had landed in order to lighten the canoe for the ascent against the +current. At that point the forest has already begun to dwindle towards +the Land of Little Sticks, so that often miles and miles of open +muskegs will intervene between groups of the stunted trees. Jim and I +found ourselves a little over waist deep in luxuriant and tangled +grasses that impeded and clogged our every footstep. Never shall I +forget that country--its sad and lonely isolation, its dull lead sky, +its silence, and the closeness of its stifling atmosphere--and never +shall I see it otherwise than as in a dense brown haze, a haze composed +of swarming millions of mosquitoes. There is not the slightest +exaggeration in the statement. At every step new multitudes rushed into +our faces to join the old. At times Jim's back was so covered with them +that they almost overlaid the colour of the cloth. And as near as we +could see, every square foot of the thousands of acres quartered its +hordes. +</p> + +<p> +We doped liberally, but without the slightest apparent effect. Probably +two million squeamish mosquitoes were driven away by the disgust of our +medicaments, but what good did that do us when eight million others +were not so particular? At the last we hung bandanas under our hats, +cut fans of leaves, and stumbled on through a most miserable day until +we could build a smudge at evening. +</p> + +<p> +For smoke is usually a specific. Not always, however: some midges seem +to delight in it. The Indians make a tiny blaze of birch bark and pine +twigs deep in a nest of grass and caribou leaves. When the flame is +well started, they twist the growing vegetation canopy-wise above it. +</p> + +<p> +In that manner they gain a few minutes of dense, acrid smoke, which is +enough for an Indian. A white man, however, needs something more +elaborate. +</p> + +<p> +The chief reason for your initial failure in making an effective smudge +will be that you will not get your fire well started before piling on +the damp smoke-material. It need not be a conflagration, but it should +be bright and glowing, so that the punk birch or maple wood you add +will not smother it entirely. After it is completed, you will not have +to sit coughing in the thick of fumigation, as do many, but only to +leeward and underneath. Your hat used as a fan will eddy the smoke +temporarily into desirable nooks and crevices. I have slept without +annoyance on the Great Plains, where the mosquitoes seem to go in +organized and predatory bands, merely by lying beneath a smudge that +passed at least five feet above me. You will find the frying-pan a +handy brazier for the accommodation of a movable smoke to be +transported to the interior of the tent. And it does not in the least +hurt the frying-pan. These be hints, briefly spoken, out of which at +times you may have to construct elaborate campaigns. +</p> + +<p> +But you come to grapples in the defence of comfort when night +approaches. If you can eat and sleep well, you can stand almost any +hardship. The night's rest is as carefully to be fore-assured as the +food that sustains you. No precaution is too elaborate to certify +unbroken repose. By dark you will discover the peak of your tent to be +liberally speckled with insects of all sorts. Especially is this true +of an evening that threatens rain. Your smudge-pan may drive away the +mosquitoes, but merely stupefies the other varieties. You are forced to +the manipulation of a balsam fan. +</p> + +<p> +In your use of this simple implement you will betray the extent of your +experience. Dick used at first to begin at the rear peak and brush as +rapidly as possible toward the opening. The flies, thoroughly aroused, +eddied about a few frantic moments, like leaves in an autumn wind, +finally to settle close to the sod in the crannies between the +tent-wall and the ground. Then Dick would lie flat on his belly in +order to brush with equal vigour at these new lurking-places. The flies +repeated the autumn-leaf effect, and returned to the rear peak. This +was amusing to me, and furnished the flies with healthful, appetizing +exercise, but was bad for Dick's soul. After a time he discovered the +only successful method is the gentle one. Then he began at the peak and +brushed forward slowly, very, very slowly, so that the limited +intellect of his visitors did not become confused. Thus when they +arrived at the opening they saw it and used it, instead of searching +frantically for corners in which to hide from apparently vengeful +destruction. Then he would close his tent-flap securely, and turn in at +once. So he was able to sleep until earliest daylight. At that time the +mosquitoes again found him out. +</p> + +<p> +Nine out of ten--perhaps ninety-nine out of a hundred--sleep in open +tents. For absolute and perfect comfort proceed as follows:--Have your +tent-maker sew you a tent of cheese-cloth[<a href="#fn">*</a>] with the same dimensions +as your shelter, except that the walls should be loose and voluminous +at the bottom. It should have no openings. +</p> + +<p class="ind"> +<a name="fn">*</a> Do not allow yourself to be talked into substituting +mosquito-bar or bobinet. Any mesh coarser than cheese-cloth will prove +pregnable to the most enterprising of the smaller species. +</p> + +<p> +Suspend this affair inside your tent by means of cords or tapes. Drop +it about you. Spread it out. Lay rod-cases, duffel-bags, or rocks along +its lower edges to keep it spread. You will sleep beneath it like a +child in winter. No driving out of reluctant flies; no enforced early +rising; no danger of a single overlooked insect to make the midnight +miserable. The cheese-cloth weighs almost nothing, can be looped up out +of the way in the daytime, admits the air readily. Nothing could fill +the soul with more ecstatic satisfaction than to lie for a moment +before going to sleep listening to a noise outside like an able-bodied +sawmill that indicates the <i>ping-gosh</i> are abroad. +</p> + +<p> +It would be unfair to leave the subject without a passing reference to +its effect on the imagination. We are all familiar with comic paper +mosquito stories, and some of them are very good. But until actual +experience takes you by the hand and leads you into the realm of pure +fancy, you will never know of what improvisation the human mind is +capable. +</p> + +<p> +The picture rises before my mind of the cabin of a twenty-eight-foot +cutter-sloop just before the dawn of a midsummer day. The sloop was +made for business, and the cabin harmonized exactly with the +sloop--painted pine, wooden bunks without mattresses, camp-blankets, +duffel-bags slung up because all the floor place had been requisitioned +for sleeping purposes. We were anchored a hundred feet off land from +Pilot Cove, on the uninhabited north shore. The mosquitoes had +adventured on the deep. We lay half asleep. +</p> + +<p> +"On the middle rafter," murmured the Football Man, "is one old fellow +giving signals." +</p> + +<p> +"A quartette is singing drinking-songs on my nose," muttered the Glee +Club Man. +</p> + +<p> +"We won't need to cook," I suggested somnolently. "We can run up and +down on deck with our mouths open and get enough for breakfast." +</p> + +<p> +The fourth member opened one eye. "Boys," he breathed, "we won't be +able to go on to-morrow unless we give up having any more biscuits." +</p> + +<p> +After a time some one murmured, "Why?" +</p> + +<p> +"We'll have to use all the lard on the mast. They're so mad because +they can't get at us that they're biting the mast. It's already swelled +up as big as a barrel. We'll never be able to get the mainsail up. Any +of you boys got any vaseline? Perhaps a little fly-dope--" +</p> + +<p> +But we snored vigorously in unison. The Indians say that when Kitch' +Manitou had created men he was dissatisfied, and so brought women into +being. At once love-making began, and then, as now, the couples sought +solitude for their exchanges of vows, their sighings to the moon, their +claspings of hands. Marriages ensued. The situation remained unchanged. +Life was one perpetual honeymoon. I suppose the novelty was fresh and +the sexes had not yet realized they would not part as abruptly as they +had been brought together. The villages were deserted, while the woods +and bushes were populous with wedded and unwedded lovers. Kitch' +Manitou looked on the proceedings with disapproval. All this was most +romantic and beautiful, no doubt, but in the meantime mi-dáw-min, the +corn, mi-nó-men, the rice, grew rank and uncultivated; while bis-íw, +the lynx, and swingwáage, the wolverine, and me-én-gan, the wolf, +committed unchecked depredations among the weaker forest creatures. The +business of life was being sadly neglected. So Kitch' Manitou took +counsel with himself, and created sáw-gi-may, the mosquito, to whom he +gave as dwelling the woods and bushes. That took the romance out of the +situation. As my narrator grimly expressed it, "Him come back, go to +work." +</p> + +<p> +Certainly it should be most effective. Even the thick-skinned moose is +not exempt from discomfort. At certain seasons the canoe voyager in the +Far North will run upon a dozen in the course of a day's travel, +standing nose-deep in the river merely to escape the insect pests. +</p> + +<p> +However, this is to be remembered: after the first of August they +bother very little; before that time the campaign I have outlined is +effective; even in fly season the worst days are infrequent. In the +woods you must expect to pay a certain price in discomfort for a very +real and very deep pleasure. Wet, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, difficult +travel, insects, hard beds, aching muscles--all these at one time or +another will be your portion. If you are of the class that cannot have +a good time unless everything is right with it, stay out of the woods. +One thing at least will always be wrong. When you have gained the +faculty of ignoring the one disagreeable thing and concentrating your +powers on the compensations, then you will have become a true woodsman, +and to your desires the forest will always be calling. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="x">X.</a></h2> + +<h3>CLOCHE.</h3> + +<p> +Imagine a many-armed lake, like a starfish, nested among rugged +Laurentian hills, whose brows are bare and forbidding, but whose +concealed ravines harbour each its cool screen of forest growth. +Imagine a brawling stream escaping at one of the arms, to tumble, +intermittently visible among the trees, down a series of cascades and +rapids, to the broad, island-dotted calm of the big lake. Imagine a +meadow at the mouth of this stream, and on the meadow a single white +dot. Thus you will see Cloche, a trading-post of the Honourable the +Hudson's Bay Company, as Deuce and I saw it from the summit of the +hills. +</p> + +<p> +We had accomplished a very hard scramble, which started well enough in +a ravine so leafy and green and impenetrable that we might well have +imagined ourselves in a boundless forest. Deuce had scented sundry +partridges, which he had pointed with entire deference to the good form +of a sporting dog's conventions. As usual, to Deuce's never-failing +surprise and disgust, the birds had proved themselves most uncultivated +and rude persons by hopping promptly into trees instead of lying to +point and then flushing as a well-taught partridge should. I had +refused to pull pistol on them. Deuce's heart was broken. Then, +finally, we came to cliffs up which we had to scale, and boulders which +we had to climb, and fissures which we had to jump or cross on fallen +trees, and wide, bare sweeps of rock and blueberry bushes which we had +to cover, until at last we stood where we could look all ways at once. +</p> + +<p> +The starfish thrust his insinuating arms in among the distant hills to +the north. League after league, rising and falling and rising again +into ever bluer distance, forest-covered, mysterious, other ranges and +systems lifted, until at last, far out, nearly at the horizon-height of +my eye, flashed again the gleam of water. And so the starfish arms of +the little lake at my feet seemed to have plunged into this wilderness +tangle only to reappear at greater distance. Like swamp-fire, it lured +the imagination always on and on and on through the secret waterways of +the uninhabited North. It was as though I stood on the dividing ridge +between the old and the new. Through the southern haze, hull down, I +thought to make out the smoke of a Great Lake freighter; from the +shelter of a distant cove I was not surprised a moment later to see +emerge a tiny speck whose movements betrayed it as a birch canoe. The +great North was at this, the most southern of the Hudson's Bay posts, +striking a pin-point of contact with the world of men. +</p> + +<p> +Deuce and I angled down the mountain toward the stream. Our arrival +coincided with that of the canoe. It was of the Ojibway three-fathom +pattern, and contained a half-dozen packs, a sledge-dog, with whom +Deuce at once opened guarded negotiations, an old Indian, a squaw, and +a child of six or eight. We exchanged brief greetings. Then I sat on a +stump and watched the portage. +</p> + +<p> +These were evidently "Woods Indians," an entirely different article +from the "Post Indians." They wore their hair long, and bound by a +narrow strip or fillet; their faces were hard and deeply lined, with a +fine, bold, far-seeing look to the eyes which comes only from long +woods dwelling. They walked, even under heavy loads, with a sagging, +springy gait, at once sure-footed and swift. Instead of tump-lines the +man used his sash, and the woman a blanket knotted loosely together at +the ends. The details of their costumes were interesting in combination +of jeans and buckskin, broadcloth and blanket, stroud and a material +evidently made from the strong white sacking in which flour intended +for frontier consumption is always packed. After the first +double-barrelled "bo' jou', bo' jou'," they paid no further attention +to me. In a few moments the portage was completed. The woman thrust her +paddle against the stream's bottom and the canoe, and so embarked. The +man stepped smoothly to his place like a cat leaping from a chair. They +shot away with the current, leaving behind them a strange and +mysterious impression of silence. +</p> + +<p> +I followed down a narrow but well-beaten trail, and so at the end of a +half-mile came to the meadow and the post of Cloche. +</p> + +<p> +The building itself was accurately of the Hudson Bay type--a steep, +sloping roof greater in front than behind, a deep recessed veranda, +squared logs sheathed with whitewashed boards. About it was a little +garden, which, besides the usual flowers and vegetables, contained such +exotics as a deer confined to a pen and a bear chained to a stake. As I +approached, the door opened and the Trader came out. +</p> + +<p> +Now, often along the southern fringe your Hudson's Bay Trader will +prove to be a distinct disappointment. In fact, one of the historic old +posts is now kept by a pert little cockney Englishman, cringing or +impudent as the main chance seems to advise. When you have penetrated +further into the wilderness, however, where the hardships of winter and +summer travel, the loneliness of winter posts, the necessity of dealing +directly with savage men and savage nature, develops the quality of a +man or wrecks him early in the game, you will be certain of meeting +your type. But here, within fifty miles of the railroad! +</p> + +<p> +The man who now stepped into view, however, preserved in his appearance +all the old traditions. He was, briefly, a short black-and-white man +built very square. Immense power lurked in the broad, heavy shoulders, +the massive chest, the thick arms, the sturdy, column-like legs. As for +his face, it was almost entirely concealed behind a curly square black +beard that grew above his cheek-bones nearly to his eyes. Only a thick +hawk nose, an inscrutable pair of black eyes under phenomenally heavy +eyebrows, and a short black pipe showed plainly from the hirsute +tangle. He was lock, stock, and barrel of the Far North, one of the old +<i>régime</i>. I was rejoiced to see him there, but did not betray a +glimmer of interest. I knew my type too well for that. +</p> + +<p> +"How are you?" he said grudgingly. +</p> + +<p> +"Good-day," said I. +</p> + +<p> +We leaned against the fence and smoked, each contemplating carefully +the end of his pipe. I knew better than to say anything. The Trader was +looking me over, making up his mind about me. Speech on my part would +argue lightness of disposition, for it would seem to indicate that I +was not also making up my mind about him. +</p> + +<p> +In this pause there was not the least unfriendliness. Only, in the +woods you prefer to know first the business and character of a chance +acquaintance. Afterwards you may ingratiate to his good will. All of +which possesses a beautiful simplicity, for it proves that good or bad +opinion need not depend on how gracefully you can chatter assurances. +At the end of a long period the Trader inquired, "Which way you +headed?" +</p> + +<p> +"Out in a canoe for pleasure. Headed almost anywhere." +</p> + +<p> +Again we smoked. +</p> + +<p> +"Dog any good?" asked the Trader, removing his pipe and pointing to the +observant Deuce. +</p> + +<p> +"He'll hunt shade on a hot day," said I tentatively. "How's the fur in +this district?" +</p> + +<p> +We were off. He invited me in and showed me his bear. In ten minutes we +were seated chair-tilted on the veranda, and slowly, very cautiously, +in abbreviated syncopation, were feeling our way toward an intimacy. +</p> + +<p> +Now came the Indians I had seen at the lake to barter for some flour +and pork. I was glad of the chance to follow them all into the +trading-room. A low wooden counter backed by a grill divided the main +body of the room from the entrance. It was deliciously dim. All the +charm of the Aromatic Shop was in the place, and an additional flavour +of the wilds. Everything here was meant for the Indian trade: bolts of +bright-patterned ginghams, blankets of red or blue, articles of +clothing, boxes of beads for decoration, skeins of brilliant silk, lead +bars for bullet-making, stacks of long brass-bound "trade guns" in the +corner, small mirrors, red and parti-coloured worsted sashes with +tassels on the ends, steel traps of various sizes, and a dozen other +articles to be desired by the forest people. And here, unlike the +Aromatic Shop, were none of the products of the Far North. All that, I +knew, was to be found elsewhere, in another apartment, equally dim, but +delightful in the orderly disorder of a storeroom. +</p> + +<p> +Afterwards I made the excuse of a pair of moccasins to see this other +room. We climbed a steep, rough flight of stairs to emerge through a +sort of trap-door into a space directly under the roof. It was lit only +by a single little square at one end. Deep under the eaves I could make +out row after row of boxes and chests. From the rafters hung a dozen +pair of snow-shoes. In the centre of the floor, half overturned, lay an +open box from which tumbled dozens of pairs of moose-hide snow-shoe +moccasins. +</p> + +<p> +Shades of childhood, what a place! No one of us can fail to recall with +a thrill the delights of a rummage in the attic--the joy of pulling +from some half-forgotten trunk a wholly forgotten shabby garment, which +nevertheless has taken to itself from the stillness of undisturbed +years the faint aroma of romance; the rapture of discovering in the +dusk of a concealed nook some old spur or broken knife or rusty pistol +redolent of the open road. Such essentially commonplace affairs they +are, after all, in the light of our mature common sense, but such +unspeakable ecstasies to the romance-breathing years of fancy. Here +would no fancy be required. To rummage in these silent chests and boxes +would be to rummage, not in the fictions of imagination, but the facts +of the most real picturesque. In yonder square box are the smoke-tanned +shoes of silence; that velvet dimness would prove to be the fur of a +bear; this birch-bark package contains maple sugar savoured of the +wilds. Buckskin, both white and buff, bears' claws in strings, bundles +of medicinal herbs, sweet-grass baskets fragrant as an Eastern tale, +birch-bark boxes embroidered with stained quills of the porcupines, +bows of hickory and arrows of maple, queer half-boots of stiff sealskin +from the very shores of the Hudson Bay, belts of beadwork, yellow and +green, for the Corn Dance, even a costume or so of buckskin complete +for ceremonial--all these the fortunate child would find were he to +take the rainy-day privilege in this, the most wonderful attic in all +the world. And then, after he had stroked the soft fur, and smelled the +buckskin and sweet grasses, and tasted the crumbling maple sugar, and +dressed himself in the barbaric splendours of the North, he could +flatten his little nose against the dim square of light and look out +over the glistening yellow backs of a dozen birchbark canoes to the +distant, rain-blurred hills, beyond which lay the country whence all +these things had come. Do you wonder that in after years that child +hits the Long Trail? Do you still wonder at finding these strange, +taciturn, formidable, tender-hearted men dwelling lonely in the Silent +Places? +</p> + +<p> +The Trader yanked several of the boxes to the centre and prosaically +tumbled about their contents. He brought to light heavy moose-hide +moccasins with high linen tops for the snow; lighter buckskin +moccasins, again with the high tops, but this time of white tanned +doeskin; slipper-like deer-skin moccasins with rolled edges, for the +summer; oil-tanned shoepacs, with and without the flexible leather +sole; "cruisers" of varying degree of height--each and every sort of +footgear in use in the Far North, excepting and saving always the +beautiful soft doeskin slippers finished with white fawnskin and +ornamented with the Ojibway flower pattern for which I sought. Finally +he gave it up. +</p> + +<p> +"I had a few pair. They must have been sent out," said he. +</p> + +<p> +We rummaged a little further for luck's sake, then descended to the +outer air. I left him to fetch my canoe, but returned in the afternoon. +We became friends. That evening we sat in the little sitting-room and +talked far into the night. +</p> + +<p> +He was a true Hudson's Bay man, steadfastly loyal to the Company. I +mentioned the legend of <i>La Longue Traverse</i>; he stoutly asserted +he had never heard of it. I tried to buy a mink-skin or so to hang on +the wall as souvenir of my visit; he was genuinely distressed, but had +to refuse because the Company had not authorized him to sell, and he +had nothing of his own to give. I mentioned the River of the Moose, the +Land of Little Sticks; his deep eyes sparkled with excitement, and he +asked eagerly a multitude of details concerning late news from the +northern posts. +</p> + +<p> +And as the evening dwindled, after the manner of Traders everywhere, he +began to tell me the "ghost stories" of this station of Cloche. Every +post has gathered a mass of legendary lore in the slow years, but this +had been on the route of the <i>voyageurs</i> from Montreal and Quebec +at the time when the lords of the North journeyed to the scenes of +their annual revels at Fort Williams. The Trader had much to say of the +magnificence and luxury of these men--their cooks, their silken tents, +their strange and costly foods, their rare wines, their hordes of +French and Indian canoemen and packers. Then Cloche was a halting-place +for the night. Its meadows had blossomed many times with the gay tents +and banners of a great company. He told me, as vividly as though he had +been an eye-witness, of how the canoes must have loomed up suddenly +from between the islands. By-and-by he seized the lamp and conducted me +outside, where hung ponderous ornamental steelyards, on which in the +old days the peltries were weighed. +</p> + +<p> +"It is not so now," said he. "We buy by count, and modern scales weigh +the provisions. And the beaver are all gone." +</p> + +<p> +We re-entered the house in silence. After a while he began briefly to +sketch his own career. Then, indeed, the flavour of the Far North +breathed its crisp, bracing ozone through the atmosphere of the room. +</p> + +<p> +He had started life at one of the posts of the Far North-West. At the +age of twelve he enlisted in the Company. Throughout forty years he had +served her. He had travelled to all the strange places of the North, +and claimed to have stood on the shores of that half-mythical lake of +Yamba Tooh. +</p> + +<p> +"It was snowing at the time," he said prosaically; "and I couldn't see +anything, except that I'd have to bear to the east to get away from +open water. Maybe she wasn't the lake. The Injins said she was, but I +was too almighty shy of grub to bother with lakes." +</p> + +<p> +Other names fell from him in the course of talk, some of which I had +heard and some not, but all of which rang sweet and clear with no +uncertain note of adventure. Especially haunts my memory an impression +of desolate burned trees standing stick-like in death on the shores of +Lost River. +</p> + +<p> +He told me he had been four years at Cloche, but expected shortly to be +transferred, as the fur was getting scarce, and another post one +hundred miles to the west could care for the dwindling trade. He hoped +to be sent into the North-West, but shrugged his shoulders as he said +so, as though that were in the hands of the gods. At the last he fished +out a concertina and played for me. Have you ever heard, after dark, in +the North, where the hills grow big at sunset, <i>à la Claire +Fontaine</i> crooned to such an accompaniment, and by a man of +impassive bulk and countenance, but with glowing eyes? +</p> + +<p> +I said good-night, and stumbled, sight-dazed, through the cool dark to +my tent near the beach. The weird minor strains breathed after me as I +went. +</p> + +<p> +"A la claire fontaine +M'en allant promener, +J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle +Que je m'y suis baigné, +Il y a longtemps que je t'aime +Jamais je ne t'oublierai." +</p> + +<p> +The next day, with the combers of a howling north-westerly gale +clutching at the stern of the canoe, I rode in a glory of spray and +copper-tasting excitement back to Dick and his half-breed settlement. +</p> + +<p> +But the incident had its sequel. The following season, as I was sitting +writing at my desk, a strange package was brought me. It was wrapped in +linen sewn strongly with waxed cord. Its contents lie before me now--a +pair of moccasins fashioned of the finest doeskin, tanned so +beautifully that the delicious smoke fragrance fills the room, and so +effectively that they could be washed with soap and water without +destroying their softness. The tongue-shaped piece over the instep is +of white fawnskin heavily ornamented in five colours of silk. Where it +joins the foot of the slipper it is worked over and over into a narrow +cord of red and blue silk. The edge about the ankle is turned over, +deeply scalloped, and bound at the top with a broad band of blue silk +stitched with pink. Two tiny blue bows at either side the ankle +ornament the front. Altogether a most magnificent foot-gear. No word +accompanied them, apparently, but after some search I drew a bit of +paper from the toe of one of them. It was inscribed simply--"Fort la +Cloche." +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xi">XI.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE HABITANTS.</h3> + +<p> +During my absence Dick had made many friends. Wherein lies his secret I +do not know, but he has a peculiar power of ingratiation with people +whose lives are quite outside his experience or sympathies. In the +short space of four days he had earned joyous greetings from every one +in town. The children grinned at him cheerfully; the old women cackled +good-natured little teasing jests to him as he passed; the pretty, +dusky half-breed girls dropped their eyelashes fascinatingly across +their cheeks, tempering their coyness with a smile; the men painfully +demanded information as to artistic achievement which was evidently as +well meant as it was foreign to any real thirst for knowledge they +might possess; even the lumber-jacks addressed him as "Bub." And withal +Dick's methods of approach were radically wrong, for he blundered upon +new acquaintance with a beaming smile, which is ordinarily a sure +repellent to the cautious, taciturn men of the woods. Perhaps their +keenness penetrated to the fact that he was absolutely without guile, +and that his kindness was an essential part of himself. I should be +curious to know whether Billy Knapp of the Black Hills would surrender +his gun to Dick for inspection. +</p> + +<p> +"I want you to go out this afternoon to see some friends of mine," said +Dick. "They're on a farm about two miles back in the brush. They're +ancestors." +</p> + +<p> +"They're what?" I inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"Ancestors. You can go down to Grosse Point near Detroit, and find +people living in beautiful country places next the water, and after +dinner they'll show you an old silhouette or a daguerreotype or +something like that, and will say to you proudly, 'This is old Jules, +my ancestor, who was a pioneer in this country. The Place has been in +the family ever since his time.'" +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, this is a French family, and they are pioneers, and the family +has a place that slopes down to the water through white birch trees, +and it is of the kind very tenacious of its own land. In two hundred +years this will be a great resort; bound to be--beautiful, salubrious, +good sport, fine scenery, accessible--" +</p> + +<p> +"Railroad fifty miles away; boat every once in a while," said I +sarcastically. +</p> + +<p> +"Accessible in two hundred years, all right," insisted Dick serenely. +"Even Canada can build a quarter of a mile of railway a year. +Accessible," he went on; "good shipping-point for country now +undeveloped." +</p> + +<p> +"You ought to be a real estate agent," I advised. +</p> + +<p> +"Lived two hundred years too soon," disclaimed Dick. "What more +obvious? These are certainly ancestors." +</p> + +<p> +"Family may die out," I suggested. +</p> + +<p> +"It has a good start," said Dick sweetly. "There are eighty-seven in it +now." +</p> + +<p> +"What!" I gasped. +</p> + +<p> +"One great-grandfather, twelve grandparents, thirty-seven parents, and +thirty-seven children," tabulated Dick. +</p> + +<p> +"I should like to see the great-grandfather," said I; "he must be very +old and feeble." +</p> + +<p> +"He is eighty-five years old," said Dick, "and the last time I saw him +he was engaged with an axe in clearing trees off his farm." +</p> + +<p> +All of these astonishing statements I found to be absolutely true. +</p> + +<p> +We started out afoot soon after dinner, through a scattering growth of +popples that alternately drew the veil of coyness over the blue hills +and caught our breath with the delight of a momentary prospect. Deuce, +remembering autumn days, concluded partridges, and scurried away on the +expert diagonal, his hind legs tucked well under his flanks. The road +itself was a mere cutting through the miniature woods, winding to right +or left for the purpose of avoiding a log-end or a boulder, surmounting +little knolls with an idle disregard for the straight line, knobby with +big, round stones, and interestingly diversified by circular mud holes +a foot or so in diameter. After a mile and a half we came to the corner +of a snake fence. This, Dick informed me, marked the limits of the +"farm." +</p> + +<p> +We burst through the screen of popples definitely into the clear. A +two-storied house of squared logs crested a knoll in the middle +distance. Ten acres of grass marsh, perhaps twenty of ploughed land, +and then the ash-white-green of popples. We dodged the grass marsh and +gained the house. Dick was at once among friends. +</p> + +<p> +The mother had no English, so smiled expansively, her bony arms folded +across her stomach. Her oldest daughter, a frail-looking girl in the +twenties, but with a sad and spiritual beauty of the Madonna in her big +eyes and straight black hair, gave us a shy good-day. Three boys, just +alike in their slender, stolid Indian good looks, except that they +differed in size, nodded with the awkwardness of the male. Two babies +stared solemnly. A little girl with a beautiful, oval face, large +mischievous gray eyes behind long black lashes, a mischievously quirked +mouth to match the eyes, and black hair banged straight, both front and +behind, in almost mediaeval fashion, twirked a pair of brown bare legs +all about us. Another light-haired, curly little girl, surmounted by an +old yachting-cap, spread apart sturdy shoes in an attitude at once +critical and expectant. +</p> + +<p> +Dick rose to the occasion by sorting out from some concealed recess of +his garments a huge paper parcel of candy. +</p> + +<p> +With infinite tact, he presented this bag to Madame rather than the +children. Madame instituted judicious distribution and appropriate +reservation for the future. We entered the cabin. +</p> + +<p> +Never have I seen a place more exquisitely neat. The floor had not only +been washed clean; it had been scrubbed white. The walls of logs were +freshly whitewashed. The chairs were polished. The few ornaments were +new, and not at all dusty or dingy or tawdry. Several religious +pictures, a portrait of royalty, a lithographed advertisement of some +buggy, a photograph or so--and then just the fresh, wholesome +cleanliness of scrubbed pine. Madame made us welcome with smiles--a +faded, lean woman with a remnant of beauty peeping from her soft eyes, +but worn down to the first principles of pioneer bone and gristle by +toil, care, and the bearing of children. I spoke to her in French, +complimenting her on the appearance of the place. She was genuinely +pleased, saying in reply that one did one's possible, but that +children!--with an expressive pause. +</p> + +<p> +Next we called for volunteers to show us to the great-grandfather. Our +elfish little girls at once offered, and went dancing off down the +trail like autumn leaves in a wind. Whether it was the Indian in them, +or the effects of environment, or merely our own imaginations, we both +had the same thought--that in these strange, taciturn, friendly, +smiling, pirouetting little creatures was some eerie, wild strain akin +to the woods and birds and animals. As they danced on ahead of us, +turning to throw us a delicious smile or a half-veiled roguish glance +of nascent coquetry, we seemed to swing into an orbit of experience +foreign to our own. These bright-eyed woods people were in the last +analysis as inscrutable to us as the squirrels. +</p> + +<p> +We followed our swirling, airy guides down through a trail to another +clearing planted with potatoes. On the farther side of this they +stopped, hand in hand, at the woods' fringe, and awaited us in a +startlingly sudden repose. +</p> + +<p> +"V'la le gran'père," said they in unison. +</p> + +<p> +At the words a huge gaunt man clad in shirt and jeans arose and +confronted us. Our first impression was of a vast framework stiffened +and shrunken into the peculiar petrifaction of age; our second, of a +Jove-like wealth of iron-gray beard and hair; our third, of eyes, wide, +clear, and tired with looking out on a century of the world's time. His +movements, as he laid one side his axe and passed a great, gnarled hand +across his forehead, were angular and slow. We knew instinctively the +quality of his work--a deliberate pause, a mighty blow, another pause, +a painful recovery--labour compounded of infinite slow patience, but +wonderfully effective in the week's result. It would go on without +haste, without pause, inevitable as the years slowly closing about the +toiler. His mental processes would be of the same fibre. The apparent +hesitation might seem to waste the precious hours remaining, but in the +end, when the engine started, it would move surely and unswervingly +along the appointed grooves. In his wealth of hair; in his wide eyes, +like the mysterious blanks of a marble statue; in his huge frame, +gnarled and wasted to the strange, impressive, powerful age-quality of +Phidias's old men, he seemed to us to deserve a wreath and a marble +seat with strange inscriptions and the graceful half-draperies of +another time and a group of old Greeks like himself with whom to +exchange slow sentences on the body politic. Indeed, the fact that his +seat was of fallen pine, and his draperies of butternut brown, and his +audience two half-breed children, an artist, and a writer, and his body +politic two hundred acres in the wilderness, did not filch from him the +impressiveness of his estate. He was a Patriarch. It did not need the +park of birch trees, the grass beneath them sloping down to the water, +the wooded knoll fairly insisting on a spacious mansion, to +substantiate Dick's fancy that he had discovered an ancestor. +</p> + +<p> +Neat piles of brush, equally neat piles of cord-wood, knee-high stumps +as cleanly cut as by a saw, attested the old man's efficiency. We +conversed. +</p> + +<p> +Yes, said he, the soil was good. It is laborious to clear away the +forest. Still, one arrives. M'sieu has but to look. In the memory of +his oldest grandson, even, all this was a forest. Le bon Dieu had +blessed him. His family was large. Yes, it was as M'sieu said, +eighty-seven--that is, counting himself. The soil was not wonderful. It +is indeed a large family and much labour, but somehow there was always +food for all. For his part he had a great pity for those whom God had +not blessed. It must be very lonesome without children. +</p> + +<p> +We spared a private thought that this old man was certainly in no +danger of loneliness. +</p> + +<p> +Yes, he went on, he was old--eighty-five. He was not as quick as he +used to be; he left that for the young ones. Still, he could do a day's +work. He was most proud to have made these gentlemen's acquaintance. He +wished us good-day. +</p> + +<p> +We left him seated on the pine log, his axe between his knees, his +great, gnarled brown hands hanging idly. After a time we heard the +<i>whack</i> of his implement; then after another long time we heard it +<i>whack</i> again. We knew that those two blows had gone straight and +true and forceful to the mark. So old a man had no energy to expend in +the indirections of haste. +</p> + +<p> +Our elfish guides led us back along the trail to the farmhouse. A girl +of thirteen had just arrived from school. In the summer the little ones +divided the educational advantages among themselves, turn and turn +about. +</p> + +<p> +The newcomer had been out into the world, and was dressed accordingly. +A neat dark-blue cloth dress, plainly made, a dull red and blue checked +apron; a broad, round hat, shoes and stockings, all in the best and +quietest taste--marked contrast to the usual garish Sunday best of the +Anglo-Saxon. She herself exemplified the most striking type of beauty +to be found in the mixed bloods. Her hair was thick and glossy and +black in the mode that throws deep purple shadows under the rolls and +coils. Her face was a regular oval, like the opening in a wishbone. Her +skin was dark, but rich and dusky with life and red blood that ebbed +and flowed with her shyness. Her lips were full, and of a dark cherry +red. Her eyes were deep, rather musing, and furnished with the most +gloriously tangling of eyelashes. Dick went into ecstasies, took +several photographs which did not turn out well, and made one sketch +which did. Perpetually did he bewail the absence of oils. The type is +not uncommon, but its beauty rarely remains perfect after the fifteenth +year. +</p> + +<p> +We made our ceremonious adieus to the Madame, and started back to town +under the guidance of one of the boys, who promised us a short cut. +</p> + +<p> +This youth proved to be filled with the old, wandering spirit that +lures so many of his race into the wilderness life. He confided to us +as we walked that he liked to tramp extended distances, and that the +days were really not made long enough for those who had to return home +at night. +</p> + +<p> +"I is been top of dose hills," he said. "Bime by I mak' heem go to dose +lak' beyon'." +</p> + +<p> +He told us that some day he hoped to go out with the fur traders. In +his vocabulary "I wish" occurred with such wistful frequency that +finally I inquired curiously what use he would make of the Fairy Gift. +</p> + +<p> +"If you could have just one wish come true, Pierre," I asked, "what +would you desire?" +</p> + +<p> +His answer came without a moment's hesitation. +</p> + +<p> +"I is lak' be one giant," said he. +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" I demanded. +</p> + +<p> +"So I can mak' heem de walk far," he replied simply. +</p> + +<p> +I was tempted to point out to him the fact that big men do not outlast +the little men, and that vast strength rarely endures, but then a +better feeling persuaded me to leave him his illusions. The power, even +in fancy, of striding on seven-league boots across the fascinations +spread out below his kindling vision from "dose hills" was too precious +a possession lightly to be taken away. +</p> + +<p> +Strangely enough, though his woodcraft naturally was not +inconsiderable, it did not hold his paramount interest. He knew +something about animals and their ways and their methods of capture, +but the chase did not appeal strongly to him, nor apparently did he +possess much skill along that line. He liked the actual physical +labour, the walking, the paddling, the tump-line, the camp-making, the +new country, the companionship of the wild life, the wilderness as a +whole rather than in any one of its single aspects as Fish Pond, Game +Preserve, Picture Gallery. In this he showed the true spirit of the +<i>voyageur</i>. I should confidently look to meet him in another ten +years--if threats of railroads spare the Far North so long--girdled +with the red sash, shod in silent moccasins, bending beneath the +portage load, trolling <i>Isabeau</i> to the silent land somewhere +under the Arctic Circle. The French of the North have never been great +fighters nor great hunters, in the terms of the Anglo-Saxon +frontiersmen, but they have laughed in farther places. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xii">XII.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE RIVER.</h3> + +<p> +At a certain spot on the North Shore--I am not going to tell you +where--you board one of the two or three fishing-steamers that collect +from the different stations the big ice-boxes of Lake Superior +whitefish. After a certain number of hours--I am not going to tell you +how many--your craft will turn in toward a semicircle of bold, +beautiful hills, that seem at first to be many less miles distant than +the reality, and at the last to be many more miles remote than is the +fact. From the prow you will make out first a uniform velvet green; +then the differentiation of many shades; then the dull neutrals of +rocks and crags; finally the narrow white of a pebble beach against +which the waves utter continually a rattling undertone. The steamer +pushes boldly in. The cool green of the water underneath changes to +gray. Suddenly you make out the bottom, as through a thick green glass, +and the big suckers and catfish idling over its riffled sands, +inconceivably far down through the unbelievably clear liquid. So +absorbed are you in this marvellous clarity that a slight, grinding jar +alone brings you to yourself. The steamer's nose is actually touching +the white strip of pebbles! +</p> + +<p> +Now you can do one of a number of things. The forest slants down to +your feet in dwindling scrub, which half conceals an abandoned log +structure. This latter is the old Hudson's Bay post. Behind it is the +Fur Trail, and the Fur Trail will take you three miles to Burned Rock +Pool, where are spring water and mighty trout. But again, half a mile +to the left, is the mouth of the River. And the River meanders +charmingly through the woods of the flat country over numberless +riffles and rapids, beneath various steep gravel banks, until it sweeps +boldly under the cliff of the first high hill. There a rugged precipice +rises sheer and jagged and damp-dark to overhanging trees clinging to +the shoulder of the mountain. And precisely at that spot is a bend +where the water hits square, to divide right and left in whiteness, to +swirl into convolutions of foam, to lurk darkly for a moment on the +edge of tumult before racing away. And there you can stand hip-deep, +and just reach the eddy foam with a cast tied craftily of Royal +Coachman, Parmachenee Belle, and Montreal. +</p> + +<p> +From that point you are with the hills. They draw back to leave wide +forest, but always they return to the River--as you would return season +after season were I to tell you how--throwing across your +woods-progress a sheer cliff forty or fifty feet high, shouldering you +incontinently into the necessity of fording to the other side. More and +more jealous they become as you penetrate, until at the Big Falls they +close in entirely, warning you that here they take the wilderness to +themselves. At the Big Falls anglers make their last camp. About the +fire they may discuss idly various academic questions--as to whether +the great inaccessible pool below the Falls really contains the +legendary Biggest Trout; what direction the River takes above; whether +it really becomes nothing but a series of stagnant pools connected by +sluggish water-reaches; whether there are any trout above the Falls; +and so on. +</p> + +<p> +These questions, as I have said, are merely academic. Your true angler +is a philosopher. Enough is to him worth fifteen courses, and if the +finite mind of man could imagine anything to be desired as an addition +to his present possessions on the River, he at least knows nothing of +it. Already he commands ten miles of water--swift, clear water--running +over stone, through a freshet bed so many hundreds of feet wide that he +has forgotten what it means to guard his back cast. It is to be waded +in the riffles, so that he can cross from one shore to the other as the +mood suits him. One bank is apt to be precipitous, the other to stretch +away in a mile or so of the coolest, greenest, stillest primeval forest +to be imagined. Thus he can cut across the wide bends of the River, +should he so desire and should haste be necessary to make camp before +dark. And, last, but not least by any manner of means, there are trout. +</p> + +<p> +I mean real trout--big fellows, the kind the fishers of little streams +dream of but awake to call Morpheus a liar, just as they are too polite +to call you a liar when you are so indiscreet as to tell them a few +plain facts. I have one solemnly attested and witnessed record of +twenty-nine inches, caught in running water. I saw a friend land on one +cast three whose aggregate weight was four and one half pounds. I +witnessed, and partly shared, an exciting struggle in which three fish +on three rods were played in the same pool at the same time. They +weighed just fourteen pounds. One pool, a backset, was known as the +Idiot's Delight, because any one could catch fish there. I have lain on +my stomach at the Burned Rock Pool and seen the great fish lying so +close together as nearly to cover the bottom, rank after rank of them, +and the smallest not under a half pound. As to the largest--well, every +true fisherman knows him! +</p> + +<p> +So it came about for many years that the natural barrier interposed by +the Big Falls successfully turned the idle tide of anglers' +exploration. Beyond them lay an unknown country, but you had to climb +cruelly to see it, and you couldn't gain above what you already had in +any case. The nearest settlement was nearly sixty miles away, so even +added isolation had not its usual quickening effect on camper's effort. +The River is visited by few, anyway. An occasional adventurous steam +yacht pauses at the mouth, fishes a few little ones from the shallow +pools there, or a few big ones from the reefs, and pushes on. It never +dreams of sending an expedition to the interior. Our own people, and +two other parties, are all I know of who visit the River regularly. Our +camp-sites alone break the forest; our blazes alone continue the +initial short cut of the Fur Trail; our names alone distinguish the +various pools. We had always been satisfied to compromise with the +frowning Hills. In return for the delicious necks and points and forest +areas through which our clipped trails ran, we had tacitly respected +the mystery of the upper reaches. +</p> + +<p> +This year, however, a number of unusual conditions changed our spirit. +I have perhaps neglected to state that our trip up to now had been a +rather singularly damp one. Of the first fourteen days twelve had been +rainy. This was only a slightly exaggerated sample for the rest of the +time. As a consequence we found the River filled even to the limit of +its freshet banks. The broad borders of stone beach between the +stream's edge and the bushes had quite disappeared; the riffles had +become rapids, and the rapids roaring torrents; the bends boiled +angrily with a smashing eddy that sucked air into pirouetting cavities +inches in depth. Plainly, fly-fishing was out of the question. No +self-respecting trout would rise to the surface of such a moil, or +abandon for syllabubs of tinsel the magnificent solidities of +ground-bait such a freshet would bring down from the hills. Also the +River was unfordable. +</p> + +<p> +We made camp at the mouth and consulted together. Billy, the half-breed +who had joined us for the labour of a permanent camp, shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"I t'ink one week, ten day," he vouchsafed. "P'rhaps she go down den. +We mus' wait." We did not want to wait; the idleness of a permanent +camp is the most deadly in the world. +</p> + +<p> +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been above the Big Falls?" +</p> + +<p> +The half-breed's eyes flashed. +</p> + +<p> +"Non," he replied simply. "Bâ, I lak' mak' heem firs' rate." +</p> + +<p> +"All right, Billy; we'll do it." +</p> + +<p> +The next day it rained, and the River went up two inches. The morning +following was fair enough, but so cold you could see your breath. We +began to experiment. +</p> + +<p> +Now, this expedition had become a fishing vacation, so we had all the +comforts of home with us. When said comforts of home were laden into +the canoe, there remained forward and aft just about one square foot of +space for Billy and me, and not over two inches of freeboard for the +River. We could not stand up and pole; tracking with a tow-line was out +of the question, because there existed no banks on which to walk; the +current was too swift for paddling. So we knelt and poled. We knew it +before, but we had to be convinced by trial, that two inches of +freeboard will dip under the most gingerly effort. It did so. We +groaned, stepped out into ice-water up to our waists, and so began the +day's journey with fleeting reference to Dante's nethermost hell. +</p> + +<p> +Next the shore the water was most of the time a little above our knees, +but the swirl of a rushing current brought an apron of foam to our +hips. Billy took the bow and pulled; I took the stern and pushed. In +places our combined efforts could but just counterbalance the strength +of the current. Then Billy had to hang on until I could get my shoulder +against the stern for a mighty heave, the few inches gain of which he +would guard as jealously as possible, until I could get into position +for another shove. At other places we were in nearly to our armpits, +but close under the banks where we could help ourselves by seizing +bushes. +</p> + +<p> +Sometimes I lost my footing entirely and trailed out behind like a +streamer; sometimes Billy would be swept away, the canoe's bow would +swing down-stream, and I would have to dig my heels and hang on until +he had floundered upright. Fortunately for our provisions, this never +happened to both at the same time. The difficulties were still further +complicated by the fact that our feet speedily became so numb from the +cold that we could not feel the bottom, and so were much inclined to +aimless stumblings. By-and-by we got out and kicked trees to start the +circulation. In the meantime the sun had retired behind thick, leaden +clouds. +</p> + +<p> +At the First Bend we were forced to carry some fifty feet. There the +River rushed down in a smooth apron straight against the cliff, where +its force actually raised the mass of water a good three feet higher +than the level of the surrounding pool. I tied on a bait-hook, and two +cartridges for sinkers, and in fifteen minutes had caught three trout, +one of which weighed three pounds, and the others two pounds and a +pound and a half respectively. At this point Dick and Deuce, who had +been paralleling through the woods, joined us. We broiled the trout, +and boiled tea, and shivered as near the fire as we could. That +afternoon, by dint of labour and labour, and yet more labour, we +made Burned Rock, and there we camped for the night, utterly +beaten out by about as hard a day's travel as a man would want to +undertake. +</p> + +<p> +The following day was even worse, for as the natural bed of the River +narrowed, we found less and less footing and swifter and swifter water. +The journey to Burned Rock had been a matter of dogged hard work; this +was an affair of alertness, of taking advantage of every little eddy, +of breathless suspense during long seconds while the question of +supremacy between our strength and the stream's was being debated. And +the thermometer must have registered well towards freezing. Three times +we were forced to cross the River in order to get even precarious +footing. Those were the really doubtful moments. We had to get in +carefully, to sit craftily, and to paddle gingerly and firmly, without +attempting to counteract the downward sweep of the current. All our +energies and care were given to preventing those miserable curling +little waves from over-topping our precious two inches, and that +miserable little canoe from departing even by a hair's-breadth from the +exactly level keel. Where we were going did not matter. After an +interminable interval the tail of our eyes would catch the sway of +bushes near at hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Now," Billy would mutter abstractedly. +</p> + +<p> +With one accord we would arise from six inches of wet and step swiftly +into the River. The lightened canoe would strain back; we would brace +our legs. The traverse was accomplished. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a name="4.jpg"></a> +<a href="images/4.jpg"><img src="images/4th.jpg" alt="WATCHED THE LONG NORTH COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A GRAY CLOUD FROM THE EAST."></a> +</p> + +<p> +Being thus under the other bank, I would hold the canoe while Billy, +astraddle the other end for the purpose of depressing the water to +within reach of his hand, would bail away the consequences of our +crossing. Then we would make up the quarter of a mile we had lost. +</p> + +<p> +We quit at the Organ Pool about three o'clock of the afternoon. Not +much was said that evening. +</p> + +<p> +The day following we tied into it again. This time we put Dick and +Deuce on an old Indian trail that promised a short cut, with +instructions to wait at the end of it. In the joyous anticipation of +another wet day we forgot they had never before followed an Indian +trail. Let us now turn aside to the adventures of Dick and Deuce. +</p> + +<p> +Be it premised here that Dick is a regular Indian of taciturnity when +it becomes a question of his own experience, so that for a long time we +knew of what follows but the single explanatory monosyllable which you +shall read in due time. But Dick has a beloved uncle. In moments of +expansion to this relative after his return he held forth as to the +happenings of that morning. +</p> + +<p> +Dick and the setter managed the Indian trail for about twenty rods. +They thought they managed it for perhaps twice that distance. Then it +became borne in on them that the bushes went back, the faint +knife-clippings, and the half weather-browned brush-cuttings that alone +constitute an Indian trail had taken another direction, and that they +had now their own way to make through the forest. Dick knew the +direction well enough, so he broke ahead confidently. After a +half-hour's walk he crossed a tiny streamlet. After another half-hour's +walk he came to another. It was flowing the wrong way. +</p> + +<p> +Dick did not understand this. He had never known of little streams +flowing away from rivers and towards eight-hundred-foot hills. This +might be a loop, of course. He resolved to follow it up-stream far +enough to settle the point. The following brought him in time to a +soggy little thicket with three areas of moss-covered mud and two +round, pellucid pools of water about a foot in diameter. As the little +stream had wound and twisted, Dick had by now lost entirely his sense +of direction. He fished out his compass and set it on a rock. The River +flows nearly north-east to the Big Falls, and Dick knew himself to be +somewhere east of the River. The compass appeared to be wrong. Dick was +a youth of sense, so he did not quarrel with the compass; he merely +became doubtful as to which was the north end of the needle--the white +or the black. After a few moments' puzzling he was quite at sea, and +could no more remember how he had been taught as to this than you can +clinch the spelling of a doubtful word after you have tried on paper a +dozen variations. But being a youth of sense he did not desert the +streamlet. +</p> + +<p> +After a short half-mile of stumbling the apparent wrong direction in +the brook's bed, he came to the River. The River was also flowing the +wrong way, and uphill. Dick sat down and covered his eyes with his +hands, as I had told him to do in like instance, and so managed to +swing the country around where it belonged. +</p> + +<p> +Now here was the River--and Dick resolved to desert it for no more +short cuts--but where was the canoe? +</p> + +<p> +This point remained unsettled in Dick's mind, or rather it was +alternately settled in two ways. Sometimes the boy concluded we must be +still below him, so he would sit on a rock to wait. Then, after a few +moments, inactivity would bring him panic. The canoe must have passed +this point long since, and every second he wasted stupidly sitting on +that stone separated him farther from his friends and from food. Then +he would tear madly through the forest. Deuce enjoyed this game, but +Dick did not. +</p> + +<p> +In time Dick found his farther progress along the banks cut off by a +hill. The hill ended abruptly at the water's edge in a sheer rock cliff +thirty feet high. This was in reality the end of the Indian trail short +cut--the point where Dick was to meet us--but he did not know it. He +happened for the moment to be obsessed by one of his canoe up-stream +panics, so he turned inland to a spot where the hill appeared +climbable, and started in to surmount the obstruction. +</p> + +<p> +This was comparatively easy at first. Then the shoulder of the cliff +intervened. Dick mounted still a little higher up the hill, then +higher, then still higher. Far down to his left, through the trees, +broiled the River. The slope of the hill to it had become steeper than +a roof, and at the edge of the eaves came a cliff drop of thirty feet. +Dick picked his way gingerly over curving moss-beds, assisting his +balance by a number of little cedar trees. Then something happened. +</p> + +<p> +Dick says the side of the hill slid out from under him. The fact of the +matter is, probably, the skin-moss over loose rounded stones gave way. +Dick sat down and began slowly to bump down the slant of the roof. He +never really lost his equilibrium, nor until the last ten feet did he +abandon the hope of checking his descent. Sometimes he did actually +succeed in stopping himself for a moment; but on his attempting to +follow up the advantage, the moss always slipped or the sapling let go +a tenuous hold and he continued on down. At last the River flashed out +below him. He saw the sheer drop. He saw the boiling eddies of the +Halfway Pool, capable of sucking down a saw-log. Then, with a final +rush of loose round stones, he shot the chutes feet first into space. + +In the meantime Billy and I repeated our experience of the two previous +days, with a few variations caused by the necessity of passing two +exceptionally ugly rapids whose banks left little footing. We did this +precariously, with a rope. The cold water was beginning to tell on our +vitality, so that twice we went ashore and made hot tea. Just below the +Halfway Pool we began to do a little figuring ahead, which is a bad +thing. The Halfway Pool meant much inevitable labour, with its two +swift rapids and its swirling, eddies, as sedulously to be avoided as +so many steel bear-traps. Then there were a dozen others, and the three +miles of riffles, and all the rest of it. At our present rate it would +take us a week to make the Falls. Below the Halfway Pool we looked for +Dick. He was not to be seen. This made us cross. At the Halfway Pool we +intended to unload for portage, and also to ferry over Dick and the +setter in the lightened canoe. The tardiness of Dick delayed the game. +</p> + +<p> +However, we drew ashore to the little clearing of the Halfway Camp, +made the year before, and wearily discharged our cargo. Suddenly, +upstream, and apparently up in the air, we heard distinctly the excited +yap of a dog. Billy and I looked at each other. Then we looked +upstream. +</p> + +<p> +Close under the perpendicular wall of rock, and fifty feet from the end +of it, waist deep in water that swirled angrily about him, stood Dick. +</p> + +<p> +I knew well enough what he was standing on--a little ledge of shale not +over five or six feet in length and two feet wide--for in lower water I +had often from its advantage cast a fly down below the big boulder. But +I knew it to be surrounded by water fifteen feet deep. It was +impossible to wade to the spot, impossible to swim to it. And why in +the name of all the woods gods would a man want to wade or swim to it +if he could? The affair, to our cold-benumbed intellects, was simply +incomprehensible. +</p> + +<p> +Billy and I spoke no word. We silently, perhaps a little fearfully, +launched the empty canoe. Then we went into a space of water whose +treading proved us no angels. From the slack water under the cliff we +took another look. It was indeed Dick. He carried a rod-case in one +hand. His fish-creel lay against his hip. His broad hat sat accurately +level on his head. His face was imperturbable. Above, Deuce agonized, +afraid to leap into the stream, but convinced that his duty required +him to do so. +</p> + +<p> +We steadied the canoe while Dick climbed in. You would have thought he +was embarking at the regularly appointed rendezvous. In silence we shot +the rapids, and collected Deuce from the end of the trail, whither he +followed us. In silence we worked our way across to where our duffel +lay scattered. In silence we disembarked. +</p> + +<p> +"In Heaven's name, Dick," I demanded at last, "how did you get +<i>there</i>?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fell," said he, succinctly. And that was all. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xiii">XIII.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE HILLS.</h3> + +<p> +We explained carefully to Dick that he had lit on the only spot in the +Halfway Pool where the water was at once deep enough to break his fall +and not too deep to stand in. We also pointed out that he had escaped +being telescoped or drowned by the merest hair's-breadth. From this we +drew moral conclusions. It did us good, but undoubtedly Dick knew it +already. +</p> + +<p> +Now we gave our attention to the wetness of garments, for we were +chilled blue. A big fire and a clothes-rack of forked sticks and a +sapling, an open-air change, a lunch of hot tea and trout and cold +galette and beans, a pipe--and then the inevitable summing up. +</p> + +<p> +We had in two and a half days made the easier half of the distance to +the Falls. At this rate we would consume a week or more in reaching the +starting-point of our explorations. It was a question whether we could +stand a week of ice-water and the heavy labour combined. Ordinarily we +might be able to abandon the canoe and push on afoot, as we were +accustomed to do when trout-fishing, but that involved fording the +river three times--a feat manifestly impossible in present freshet +conditions. +</p> + +<p> +"I t'ink we quit heem," said Billy. +</p> + +<p> +But then I was seized with an inspiration. Judging by the configuration +of the hills, the River bent sharply above the Falls. Why would it not +be possible to cut loose entirely at this point, to strike across +through the forest, and so to come out on the upper reaches? Remained +only the probability of our being able, encumbered by a pack, to scale +the mountains. +</p> + +<p> +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been over in those hills?". +</p> + +<p> +"No," said he. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know anything about the country? Are there any trails?" +</p> + +<p> +"Dat countree is belong Tawabinisáy. He know heem. I don' know heem. I +t'ink he is have many hills, some lak'." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think we can climb those hills with packs?" +</p> + +<p> +Billy cast a doubtful glance on Dick. Then his eye lit up. +</p> + +<p> +"Tawabinisáy is tell me 'bout dat Lak' Kawágama. P'rhaps we fine heem." +</p> + +<p> +In so saying Billy decided the attempt. What angler on the River has +not discussed--again idly, again academically--that mysterious Lake +alive with the burnished copper trout, lying hidden and wonderful in +the high hills, clear as crystal, bottomed with gravel like a fountain, +shaped like a great crescent whose curves were haunted of forest trees +grim and awesome with the solemnity of the primeval? That its exact +location was known to Tawabinisáy alone, that the trail to it was +purposely blinded and muddled with the crossing of many little ponds, +that the route was laborious--all those things, along with the minor +details so dear to winter fire-chats, were matters of notoriety. +Probably more expeditions to Kawágama have been planned--in +February--than would fill a volume with an account of anticipated +adventures. Only, none of them ever came off. We were accustomed to +gaze at the forbidden cliff ramparts of the hills, to think of the +Idiot's Delight, and the Halfway Pool, and the Organ Pool, and the +Burned Rock Pool, and the Rolling Stone Pool, and all the rest of them +even up to the Big Falls; and so we would quietly allow our February +plannings to lapse. One man Tawabinisáy had honoured. But this man, +named Clement, a banker from Peoria, had proved unworthy. Tawabinisáy +told how he caught trout, many, many trout, and piled them on the +shores of Kawágama to defile the air. Subsequently this same +"sportsman" buried another big catch on the beach of Superior. These +and other exploits finally earned him his exclusion from the delectable +land. I give his name because I have personally talked with his guides, +and heard their circumstantial accounts of his performances. Unless +three or four woodsmen are fearful liars, I do Mr. Clement no +injustice. +</p> + +<p> +Since then Tawabinisáy had hidden himself behind his impenetrable grin. +</p> + +<p> +So you can easily see that the discovery of Kawágama would be a feat +worthy even high hills. +</p> + +<p> +That afternoon we rested and made our cache. A cache in the forest +country is simply a heavily constructed rustic platform on which +provisions and clothing are laid and wrapped completely about in sheets +of canoe bark tied firmly with strips of cedar bark, or withes made +from a bush whose appearance I know well, but whose name I cannot say. +In this receptacle we left all our canned goods, our extra clothing, +and our Dutch oven. We retained for transportation some pork, flour, +rice, baking-powder, oatmeal, sugar, and tea, cooking utensils, +blankets, the tent, fishing-tackle, and the little pistol. As we were +about to go into the high country where presumably both game and fish +might lack, we were forced to take a full supply for four--counting +Deuce as one--to last ten days. The packs counted up about one hundred +and fifteen pounds of grub, twenty pounds of blankets, ten of tent, say +eight or ten of hardware including the axe, about twenty of duffel. +This was further increased by the idiosyncrasy of Billy. He, like most +woodsmen, was wedded to a single utterly foolish article of personal +belonging, which he worshipped as a fetish, and without which he was +unhappy. In his case it was a huge winter overcoat that must have +weighed fifteen pounds. The total amounted to about one hundred and +ninety pounds. We gave Dick twenty, I took seventy-six, and Billy +shouldered the rest. +</p> + +<p> +The carrying we did with the universal tump-line. This is usually +described as a strap passed about a pack and across the forehead of the +bearer. The description is incorrect. It passes across the top of the +head. The weight should rest on the small of the back just above the +hips--not on the broad of the back as most beginners place it. Then the +chin should be dropped, the body slanted sharply forward, and you may +be able to stagger forty rods at your first attempt. +</p> + +<p> +Use soon accustoms you to carrying, however. The first time I ever did +any packing I had a hard time stumbling a few hundred feet over a hill +portage with just fifty pounds on my back. By the end of that same trip +I could carry a hundred pounds and a lot of miscellaneous traps, like +canoe-poles and guns, without serious inconvenience and over a long +portage. This quickly-gained power comes partly from a strengthening of +the muscles of the neck, but more from a mastery of balance. A pack can +twist you as suddenly and expertly on your back as the best of +wrestlers. It has a head lock on you, and you have to go or break your +neck. After a time you adjust your movements, just as after a time you +can travel on snow-shoes through heavy down timber without taking +conscious thought as to the placing of your feet. +</p> + +<p> +But at first packing is as near infernal punishment as merely mundane +conditions can compass. Sixteen brand-new muscles ache, at first dully, +then sharply, then intolerably, until it seems you cannot bear it +another second. You are unable to keep your feet. A stagger means an +effort at recovery, and an effort at recovery means that you trip when +you place your feet, and that means, if you are lucky enough not to be +thrown, an extra tweak for every one of the sixteen new muscles. At +first you rest every time you feel tired. Then you begin to feel very +tired every fifty feet. Then you have to do the best you can, and prove +the pluck that is in you. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Tom Friant, an old woodsman of wide experience, has often told me +with relish of his first try at carrying. He had about sixty pounds, +and his companion double that amount. Mr. Friant stood it a few +centuries and then sat down. He couldn't have moved another step if a +gun had been at his ear. +</p> + +<p> +"What's the matter?" asked his companion. +</p> + +<p> +"Del," said Friant, "I'm all in. I can't navigate. Here's where I +quit." +</p> + +<p> +"Can't you carry her any farther?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not an inch." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, pile her on. I'll carry her for you." +</p> + +<p> +Friant looked at him a moment in silent amazement. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you mean to say that you are going to carry your pack and mine +too?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's what I mean to say. I'll do it if I have to." +</p> + +<p> +Friant drew a long breath. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," said he at last, "if a little sawed-off cuss like you can +wiggle under a hundred and eighty, I guess I can make it under sixty." +</p> + +<p> +"That's right," said Del imperturbably. "<i>If you think you can, you +can</i>." +</p> + +<p> +"And I did," ends Friant, with a chuckle. +</p> + +<p> +Therein lies the whole secret. The work is irksome, sometimes even +painful, but if you think you can do it, you can, for though great is +the protest of the human frame against what it considers abuse, greater +is the power of a man's grit. +</p> + +<p> +We carried the canoe above the larger eddies, where we embarked +ourselves and our packs for traverse, leaving Deuce under strict +command to await a second trip. Deuce disregarded the strict command. +From disobedience came great peril, for when he attempted to swim +across after us he was carried downstream, involved in a whirlpool, +sucked under, and nearly drowned. We could do nothing but watch. When, +finally, the River spued out a frightened and bedraggled dog, we drew a +breath of very genuine relief, for Deuce was dear to us through much +association. +</p> + +<p> +The canoe we turned bottom up and left in the bushes, and so we set off +through the forest. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of fifteen minutes we began to mount a gentle ascent. The +gentle ascent speedily became a sharp slope, the sharp slope an abrupt +hill, and the latter finally an almost sheer face of rock and thin +soil. We laid hold doggedly of little cedars; we dug our fingers into +little crevices, and felt for the same with our toes; we perspired in +streams and breathed in gasps; we held the strained muscles of our +necks rigid, for the twisting of a pack meant here a dangerous fall; we +flattened ourselves against the face of the mountain with always the +heavy, ceaseless pull of the tump-line attempting to tear us backward +from our holds. And so at last, when the muscles of our thighs refused +to strengthen our legs for the ascent of another foot, we would turn +our backs to the slant and sink gratefully into the only real luxury in +the world. +</p> + +<p> +For be it known that real luxury cannot be bought; it must be worked +for. I refer to luxury as the exquisite savour of a pleasant sensation. +The keenest sense-impressions are undoubtedly those of contrast. In +looking back over a variety of experience, I have no hesitation at all +in selecting as the moment in which I have experienced the liveliest +physical pleasure one hot afternoon in July. The thermometer might have +stood anywhere. We would have placed childlike trust in any of its +statements, even three figures great. Our way had led through unbroken +forest oppressed by low brush and an underfooting of brakes. There had +been hills. Our clothes were wringing wet, to the last stitch; even the +leather of the tump-line was saturated. The hot air we gulped down did +not seem to satisfy our craving for oxygen any more than lukewarm water +ever seems to cut a real thirst. The woods were literally like an oven +in their hot dryness. Finally we skirted a little hill, and at the base +of that hill a great tree had fallen, and through the aperture thus +made in the forest a tiny current of cool air flowed like a stream. It +was not a great current, nor a wide; if we moved three feet in any +direction, we were out of it. But we sat us down directly across its +flow. And never have dinners or wines or men or women, or talks of +books or scenery or adventure or sport, or the softest, daintiest +refinements of man's invention given me the half of luxury I drank in +from that little breeze. So the commonest things--a dash of cool water +on the wrists, a gulp of hot tea, a warm, dry blanket, a whiff of +tobacco, a ray of sunshine--are more really the luxuries than all the +comforts and sybaritisms we buy. Undoubtedly the latter would also rise +to the higher category if we were to work for their essence instead of +merely signing club cheques or paying party calls for them. +</p> + +<p> +Which means that when we three would rest our packs against the side of +that hill, and drop our head-straps below our chins, we were not at all +to be pitied, even though the forest growth denied us the encouragement +of knowing how much farther we had to go. +</p> + +<p> +Before us the trees dropped away rapidly, so that twenty feet out in a +straight line we were looking directly into their tops. There, quite on +an equality with their own airy estate, we could watch the fly-catchers +and warblers conducting their small affairs of the chase. It lent us +the illusion of imponderability; we felt that we too might be able to +rest securely on graceful gossamer twigs. And sometimes, through a +chance opening, we could see down over billows of waving leaves to a +single little spot of blue, like a turquoise sunk in folds of green +velvet, which meant that the River was dropping below us. This, in the +mercy of the Red Gods, was meant as encouragement. +</p> + +<p> +The time came, however, when the ramparts we scaled rose sheer and bare +in impregnability. Nothing could be done on the straight line, so we +turned sharp to the north. The way was difficult, for it lay over great +fragments of rock stricken from the cliff by winter, and further +rendered treacherous by the moss and wet by a thousand trickles of +water. At the end of one hour we found what might be called a ravine, +if you happened not to be particular, or a steep cleft in the precipice +if you were. Here we deserted the open air for piled-up brushy tangles, +many sharp-cornered rock fragments, and a choked streamlet. Finally the +whole outfit abruptly ceased. We climbed ten feet of crevices and stood +on the ridge. +</p> + +<p> +The forest trees shut us in our own little area, so that we were for +the moment unable to look abroad over the country. +</p> + +<p> +The descent, abrupt where we had mounted, stretched away gently toward +the north and west. And on that slope, protected as it was from the +severer storms that sweep up the open valleys in winter, stood the most +magnificent primeval forest it has ever been my fortune to behold. The +huge maple, beech, and birch trees lifted column-like straight up to a +lucent green canopy, always twinkling and shifting in the wind and the +sunlight. Below grew a thin screen of underbrush, through which we had +no difficulty at all in pushing, but which threw about us face-high a +tender green partition. The effect was that of a pew in an +old-fashioned church, so that, though we shared the upper stillnesses, +a certain delightful privacy of our own seemed assured us. This privacy +we knew to be assured also to many creatures besides ourselves. On the +other side of the screen of broad leaves we sensed the presence of +life. It did not intrude on us, nor were we permitted to intrude on it. +But it was there. We heard it rustling, pattering, scrambling, +whispering, scurrying with a rush of wings. More subtly we felt it, as +one knows of a presence in a darkened room. By the exercise of +imagination and experience we identified it in its manifestations--the +squirrel, the partridge, the weasel, the spruce hens, once or twice the +deer. We knew it saw us perfectly, although we could not see it, and +that gave us an impression of companionship; so the forest was not +lonely. +</p> + +<p> +Next to this double sense of isolation and company was the feeling of +transparent shadow. The forest was thick and cool. Only rarely did the +sun find an orifice in the roof through which to pour a splash of +liquid gold. All the rest was in shadow. But the shadow was that of the +bottom of the sea--cool, green, and, above all, transparent. We saw +into the depth of it, but dimly, as we would see into the green +recesses of a tropic ocean. It possessed the same liquid quality. +Finally the illusion overcame us completely. We bathed in the shadows +as though they were palpable, and from that came great refreshment. +</p> + +<p> +Under foot the soil was springy with the mould of numberless autumns. +The axe had never hurried slow old servant decay. Once in a while we +came across a prostrate trunk lying in the trough of destruction its +fall had occasioned. But the rest of the time we trod a carpet to the +making of which centuries of dead forest warriors had wrapped +themselves in mould and soft moss and gentle dissolution. Sometimes a +faint rounded shell of former fair proportion swelled above the level, +to crumble to punkwood at the lightest touch of our feet. Or, again, +the simulacrum of a tree trunk would bravely oppose our path, only to +melt away into nothing, like the opposing phantoms of Aeneas, when we +placed a knee against it for the surmounting. +</p> + +<p> +If the pine woods be characterized by cathedral solemnity, and the +cedars and tamaracks by certain horrifical gloom, and the popples by a +silvery sunshine, and the berry-clearings by grateful heat and the +homely manner of familiar birds, then the great hardwood must be known +as the dwelling-place of transparent shadows, of cool green lucency, +and the repository of immemorial cheerful forest tradition which the +traveller can hear of, but which he is never permitted actually to +know. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a name="5.jpg"></a> +<a href="images/5.jpg"><img src="images/5th.jpg" alt="IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF THAT MORNING."></a> +</p> + +<p> +In this lovable mystery we journeyed all the rest of that morning. The +packs were heavy with the first day's weight, and we were tired from +our climb; but the deep physical joy of going on and ever on into +unknown valleys, down a long, gentle slope that must lead somewhere, +through things animate and things of an almost animate life, opening +silently before us to give us passage, and closing as silently behind +us after we had passed--these made us forget our aches and fatigues for +the moment. +</p> + +<p> +At noon we boiled tea near a little spring of clear, cold water. As yet +we had no opportunity of seeing farther than the closing in of many +trees. We were, as far as external appearances went, no more advanced +than our first resting-place after surmounting the ridge. This effect +is constant in the great forests. You are in a treadmill--though a +pleasant one withal. Your camp of to-day differs only in non-essentials +from that of yesterday, and your camp of to-morrow will probably be +almost exactly like to-day's. Only when you reach your objective point +do you come to a full realization that you have not been the Sisyphus +of the Red Gods. +</p> + +<p> +Deuce returning from exploration brought indubitable evidence of +porcupines. We picked the barbed little weapons from his face and nose +and tongue with much difficulty for ourselves and much pain for Deuce. +We offered consolation by voicing for his dumbness his undoubted +intention to avoid all future porcupines. Then we took up the afternoon +tramp. +</p> + +<p> +Now at last through the trees appeared the gleam of water. Tawabinisáy +had said that Kawágama was the only lake in its district. We therefore +became quite excited at this sapphire promise. Our packs were thrown +aside, and like school-boys we raced down the declivity to the shore. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xiv">XIV.</a></h2> + +<h3>ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS.</h3> + +<p> +We found ourselves peering through the thicket at a little reed and +grass grown body of water a few acres in extent. A short detour to the +right led us to an outlet--a brook of width and dash that convinced us +the little pond was only a stopping-place in the stream, and not a +headwater as we had at first imagined. Then a nearer approach led us +past pointed tree-stumps exquisitely chiselled with the marks of teeth; +so we knew we looked, not on a natural pond, but on the work of +beavers. +</p> + +<p> +I examined the dam more closely. It was a marvel of engineering skill +in the accuracy with which the big trees had been felled exactly along +the most effective lines, the efficiency of the filling in, and the +just estimate of the waste water to be allowed. We named the place +obviously Beaver Pond, resumed our packs, and pushed on. +</p> + +<p> +Now I must be permitted to celebrate by a little the pluck of Dick. He +was quite unused to the tump-line, comparatively inexperienced in +woods-walking, and weighed but one hundred and thirty-five pounds. Yet +not once in the course of that trip did he bewail his fate. Towards the +close of this first afternoon I dropped behind to see how he was making +it. The boy had his head down, his lips shut tight together, his legs +well straddled apart. As I watched he stumbled badly over the merest +twig. +</p> + +<p> +"Dick," said I, "are you tired?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," he confessed frankly. +</p> + +<p> +"Can you make it another half-hour?" +</p> + +<p> +"I guess so; I'll try." +</p> + +<p> +At the end of the half-hour we dropped our packs. Dick had manifested +no impatience--not once had he even asked how nearly time was up--but +now he breathed a deep sigh of relief. +</p> + +<p> +"I thought you were never going to stop," said he simply. +</p> + +<p> +From Dick those words meant a good deal. For woods-walking differs as +widely from ordinary walking as trap-shooting from field-shooting. A +good pedestrian may tire very quickly in the forest. No two successive +steps are of the same length; no two successive steps fall on the same +quality of footing; no two successive steps are on the same level. +Those three are the major elements of fatigue. Add further the facts +that your way is continually obstructed both by real difficulties--such +as trees, trunks, and rocks--and lesser annoyances, such as branches, +bushes, and even spider-webs. These things all combine against +endurance. The inexperienced does not know how to meet them with a +minimum of effort. The tenderfoot is in a constant state of muscular +and mental rigidity against a fall or a stumble or a cut across the +face from some one of the infinitely numerous woods scourges. This +rigidity speedily exhausts the vital force. +</p> + +<p> +So much for the philosophy of it. Its practical side might be +infinitely extended. Woodsmen are tough and enduring and in good +condition; but no more so than the average college athlete. Time and +again I have seen men of the latter class walked to a standstill. I +mean exactly that. They knew, and were justly proud, of their physical +condition, and they hated to acknowledge, even to themselves, that the +rest of us were more enduring. As a consequence they played on their +nerve, beyond their physical powers. When the collapse came it was +complete. I remember very well a crew of men turning out from a lumber +camp on the Sturgeon River to bring in on a litter a young fellow who +had given out while attempting to follow Bethel Bristol through a hard +day. Bristol said he dropped finally as though he had been struck on +the head. The woodsman had thereupon built him a little fire, made him +as comfortable as possible with both coats, and hiked for assistance. I +once went into the woods with a prominent college athlete. We walked +rather hard over a rough country until noon. Then the athlete lay on +his back for the rest of the day, while I finished alone the business +we had come on. +</p> + +<p> +Now, these instances do not imply that Bristol, and certainly not +myself, were any stronger physically, or possessed more nervous force, +than the men we had tired out. Either of them on a road could have +trailed us, step for step, and as long as we pleased. But we knew the +game. +</p> + +<p> +It comes at the last to be entirely a matter of experience. Any man can +walk in the woods all day at some gait. But his speed will depend on +his skill. It is exactly like making your way through heavy, dry sand. +As long as you restrain yourself to a certain leisurely plodding, you +get along without extraordinary effort, while even a slight increase of +speed drags fiercely at your feet. So it is with the woods. As long as +you walk slowly enough, so that you can pick your footing and lift +aside easily the branches that menace your face, you will expend little +nervous energy. But the slightest pressing, the slightest inclination +to go beyond what may be called your physical foresight, lands you +immediately in difficulties. You stumble, you break through the brush, +you shut your eyes to avoid sharp switchings. The reservoir of your +energy is open full cock. In about an hour you feel very, very tired. +</p> + +<p> +This principle holds rigidly true of every one, from the softest +tenderfoot to the expertest forest-runner. For each there exists a +normal rate of travel, beyond which are penalties. Only, the +forest-runner, by long use, has raised the exponent of his powers. +Perhaps as a working hypothesis the following might be recommended: +<i>One good step is worth six stumbling steps; go only fast enough to +assure that good one.</i> +</p> + +<p> +You will learn, besides, a number of things practically which memory +cannot summon to order for instance here. "Brush slanted across your +path is easier lifted over your head and dropped behind you than pushed +aside," will do as an example. +</p> + +<p> +A good woods-walker progresses without apparent hurry. I have followed +the disappearing back of Tawabinisáy when, as my companion elegantly +expressed it, "if you stopped to spit you got lost." Tawabinisáy +wandered through the forest, his hands in his pockets, humming a little +Indian hymn. And we were breaking madly along behind him with the +crashing of many timbers. +</p> + +<p> +Of your discoveries probably one of the most impressive will be that in +the bright lexicon of woodscraft the word "mile" has been entirely left +out. To count by miles is a useless and ornamental elegance of +civilization. Some of us once worked hard all one day only to camp +three miles downstream from our resting-place of the night before. And +the following day we ran nearly sixty with the current. The space of +measured country known as a mile may hold you five minutes or five +hours from your destination. The Indian counts by time, and after a +little you follow his example. "Four miles to Kettle Portage" means +nothing. "Two hours to Kettle Portage" does. Only when an Indian tells +you two hours you would do well to count it as four. +</p> + +<p> +Well, our trip practically amounted to seven days to nowhere; or +perhaps seven days to everywhere would be more accurate. It was all in +the high hills until the last day and a half, and generally in the +hardwood forests. Twice we intersected and followed for short distances +Indian trails, neither of which apparently had been travelled since the +original party that had made them. They led across country for greater +or lesser distances in the direction we wished to travel, and then +turned aside. Three times we blundered on little meadows of +moose-grass. Invariably they were tramped muddy like a cattle-yard +where the great animals had stood as lately as the night before. +Caribou were not uncommon. There were a few deer, but not many, for the +most of the deer country lies to the south of this our district. +Partridge, as we had anticipated, lacked in such high country. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of the five days and a half we were in the hills we +discovered six lakes of various sizes. The smallest was a mere pond; +the largest would measure some three or four miles in diameter. We came +upon that very late one afternoon. A brook of some size crossed our +way, so, as was our habit, we promptly turned upstream to discover its +source. In the high country the head-waters are never more than a few +miles distant; and at the same time the magnitude of this indicated a +lake rather than a spring as the supply. The lake might be Kawágama. +</p> + +<p> +Our packs had grown to be very heavy, for they had already the weight +of nine hours piled on top. And the stream was exceedingly difficult to +follow. It flowed in one of those aggravating little ravines whose +banks are too high and steep and uneven for good footing, and whose +beds are choked with a too abundant growth. In addition, there had +fallen many trees over which one had to climb. We kept at it for +perhaps an hour. The brook continued of the same size, and the country +of the same character. Dick for the first time suggested that it might +be well to camp. +</p> + +<p> +"We've got good water here," he argued, quite justly, "and we can push +on to-morrow just as well as to-night." +</p> + +<p> +We balanced our packs against a prostrate tree-trunk. Billy contributed +his indirect share to the argument. +</p> + +<p> +"I lak' to have the job mak' heem this countree all over," he sighed. +"I mak' heem more level." +</p> + +<p> +"All right," I agreed; "you fellows sit here and rest a minute, and +I'll take a whirl a little ways ahead." +</p> + +<p> +I slipped my tump-line and started on light. After carrying a heavy +pack so long, I seemed to tread on air. The thicket, before so +formidable, amounted to nothing at all. Perhaps the consciousness that +the day's work was in reality over lent a little factitious energy to +my tired legs. At any rate, the projected two hundred feet of my +investigations stretched to a good quarter-mile. At the end of that +space I debouched on a widening of the ravine. The hardwood ran off +into cedars. I pushed through the stiff rods and yielding fans of the +latter, and all at once found myself leaning out over the waters of the +lake. +</p> + +<p> +It was almost an exact oval, and lay in a cup of hills. Three wooded +islands, swimming like ducks in the placid evening waters, added a +touch of diversity. A huge white rock balanced the composition to the +left, and a single white sea-gull, like a snowflake against pines, +brooded on its top. +</p> + +<p> +I looked abroad to where the perfect reflection of the hills confused +the shore line. I looked down through five feet of crystal water to +where pebbles shimmered in refraction. I noted the low rocks jutting +from the wood's shelter whereon one might stand to cast a fly. Then I +turned and yelled and yelled and yelled again at the forest. +</p> + +<p> +Billy came through the brush, crashing in his haste. He looked long and +comprehendingly. Without further speech, we turned back to where Dick +was guarding the packs. +</p> + +<p> +That youth we found profoundly indifferent. +</p> + +<p> +"Kawágama," we cried, "a quarter-mile ahead." +</p> + +<p> +He turned on us a lack-lustre eye. +</p> + +<p> +"You going to camp here?" he inquired dully. +</p> + +<p> +"Course not! We'll go on and camp at the lake." +</p> + +<p> +"All right," he replied. +</p> + +<p> +We resumed our packs, a little stiffly and reluctantly, for we had +tasted of woods-travel without them. At the lake we rested. +</p> + +<p> +"Going to camp here?" inquired Dick. +</p> + +<p> +We looked about, but noted that the ground under the cedars was +hummocky, and that the hardwood grew on a slope. Besides, we wanted to +camp as near the shore as possible. Probably a trifle further along +there would be a point of high land and delightful little +paper-birches. +</p> + +<p> +"No," we answered cheerfully, "this isn't much good. Suppose we push +along a ways and find something better." +</p> + +<p> +"All right," Dick replied. +</p> + +<p> +We walked perhaps a half-mile more to the westward before we discovered +what we wanted, stopping from time to time to discuss the merits of +this or that place. Billy and I were feeling pretty good. After such a +week Kawágama was a tonic. Finally we agreed. +</p> + +<p> +"This'll do," said we. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank God!" said Dick unexpectedly, and dropped his pack to the ground +with a thud, and sat on it. +</p> + +<p> +I looked at him closely. Then I undid my own pack. "Billy," said I, +"start in on grub. Never mind the tent just now." +</p> + +<p> +"A' right," grinned Billy. He had been making his own observations. +</p> + +<p> +"Dick," said I, "let's go down and sit on the rock over the water. We +might fish a little." +</p> + +<p> +"All right," Dick replied. +</p> + +<p> +He stumbled dully after me to the shore. +</p> + +<p> +"Dick," I continued, "you're a kid, and you have high principles, and +your mother wouldn't like it, but I'm going to prescribe for you, and +I'm going to insist on your following the prescription. This flask does +not contain fly-dope--that's in the other flask--it contains whisky. I +have had it in my pack since we started, and it has not been opened. I +don't believe in whisky in the woods; not because I am temperance, but +because a man can't travel on it. But here is where you break your +heaven-born principles. Drink." +</p> + +<p> +Dick hesitated, then he drank. By the time grub was ready his vitality +had come to normal, and so he was able to digest his food and get some +good out of it; otherwise he could not have done so. Thus he furnished +an admirable example of the only real use for whisky in woods-travel. +Also it was the nearest Dick ever came to being completely played out. +</p> + +<p> +That evening was delightful. We sat on the rock and watched the long +North Country twilight steal up like a gray cloud from the east. Two +loons called to each other, now in the shrill maniac laughter, now with +the long, mournful cry. It needed just that one touch to finish the +picture. We were looking, had we but known it, on a lake no white man +had ever visited before. Clement alone had seen Kawágama, so in our +ignorance we attained much the same mental attitude. For I may as well +let you into the secret; this was not the fabled lake after all. We +found that out later from Tawabinisáy. But it was beautiful enough, and +wild enough, and strange enough in its splendid wilderness isolation to +fill the heart of the explorer with a great content. +</p> + +<p> +Having thus, as we thought, attained the primary object of our +explorations, we determined on trying now for the second--that is, the +investigation of the upper reaches of the River. Trout we had not +accomplished at this lake, but the existence of fish of some sort was +attested by the presence of the two loons and the gull, so we laid our +non-success to fisherman's luck. After two false starts we managed to +strike into a good country near enough our direction. The travel was +much the same as before. The second day, however, we came to a +surveyor's base-line cut through the woods. Then we followed that as a +matter of convenience. The base-line, cut the fall before, was the only +evidence of man we saw in the high country. It meant nothing in itself, +but was intended as a starting-point for the township surveys, whenever +the country should become civilized enough to warrant them. That +condition of affairs might not occur for years to come. Therefore the +line was cut out clear for a width of twenty feet. +</p> + +<p> +We continued along it as along a trail until we discovered our last +lake--a body of water possessing many radiating arms. This was the +nearest we came to the real Kawágama. If we had skirted the lake, +mounted the ridge, followed a creek-bed, mounted another ridge, and +descended a slope, we should have made our discovery. Later we did just +that, under the guidance of Tawabinisáy himself. Floating in the birch +canoe we carried with us we looked back at the very spot on which we +stood this morning. +</p> + +<p> +But we turned sharp to the left, and so missed our chance. However, we +were in a happy frame of mind, for we imagined we had really made the +desired discovery. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing of moment happened until we reached the valley of the River. +Then we found we were treed. We had been travelling all the time among +hills and valleys, to be sure, but on a high elevation. Even the bottom +lands, in which lay the lakes, were several hundred feet above +Superior. Now we emerged from the forest to find ourselves on bold +mountains at least seven or eight hundred feet above the main valley. +And in the main valley we could make out the River. +</p> + +<p> +It was rather dizzy work. Three or four times we ventured over the +rounded crest of the hill, only to return after forty or fifty feet +because the slope had become too abrupt. This grew to be monotonous and +aggravating. It looked as though we might have to parallel the River's +course, like scouts watching an army, on the top of the hill. Finally a +little ravine gave us hope. We scrambled down it; ended in a very steep +slant, and finished at a sheer tangle of cedar-roots. The latter we +attempted. Billy went on ahead. I let the packs down to him by means of +a tump-line. He balanced them on roof; until I had climbed below him. +And so on. It was exactly like letting a bucket down a well. If one of +the packs had slipped off the cedar-roots, it would have dropped like a +plummet to the valley, and landed on Heaven knows what. The same might +be said of ourselves. We did this because we were angry all through. +</p> + +<p> +Then we came to the end of the cedar-roots. Right and left offered +nothing; below was a sheer, bare drop. Absolutely nothing remained but +to climb back, heavy packs and all, to the top of the mountain. False +hopes had wasted a good half day and innumerable foot-pounds. Billy and +I saw red. We bowed our heads and snaked those packs to the top of the +mountain at a gait that ordinarily would have tired us out in fifty +feet. Dick did not attempt to keep up. When we reached the top we sat +down to wait for him. After a while he appeared, climbing leisurely. He +gazed on us from behind the mask of his Indian imperturbability. Then +he grinned. That did us good, for we all three laughed aloud, and +buckled down to business in a better frame of mind. +</p> + +<p> +That day we discovered a most beautiful waterfall. A stream about +twenty feet in width, and with a good volume of water, dropped some +three hundred feet or more into the River. It was across the valley +from us, so we had a good view of its beauties. Our estimates of its +height were carefully made on the basis of some standing pine that grew +near its foot. +</p> + +<p> +And then we entered a steep little ravine, and descended it with +misgivings to a cañon, and walked easily down the cañon to a slope that +took us by barely sensible gradations to a wooded plain. At six o'clock +we stood on the banks of the River, and the hills were behind us. +</p> + +<p> +Of our down-stream travel there is little really to be said. We +established a number of facts--that the River dashes most scenically +from rapid to rapid, so that the stagnant pool theory is henceforth +untenable; that the hills get higher and wilder the farther you +penetrate to the interior, and their cliffs and rock-precipices bolder +and more naked; that there are trout in the upper reaches, but not so +large as in the lower pools; and, above all, that travel is not a joy +for ever. +</p> + +<p> +For we could not ford the River above the Falls--it is too deep and +swift. As a consequence, we had often to climb, often to break through +the narrowest thicket strips, and once to feel our way cautiously along +a sunken ledge under a sheer rock cliff. That was Billy's idea. We came +to the sheer rock cliff after a pretty hard scramble, and we were most +loth to do the necessary climbing. Billy suggested that we might be +able to wade. As the pool below the cliff was black water and of +indeterminate depth, we scouted the idea. Billy, however, poked around +with a stick, and, as I have said, discovered a little ledge about a +foot and a half wide and about two feet and a half below the surface. +This was spectacular, but we did it. A slip meant a swim and the loss +of the pack. We did not happen to slip. Shortly after, we came to the +Big Falls, and so after further painful experiment descended joyfully +into known country. +</p> + +<p> +The freshet had gone down, the weather had warmed, the sun shone, we +caught trout for lunch below the Big Falls; everything was lovely. By +three o'clock, after thrice wading the stream, we regained our +canoe--now at least forty feet from the water. We paddled across. Deuce +followed easily, where a week before he had been sucked down and nearly +drowned. We opened the cache and changed our very travel-stained +garments. We cooked ourselves a luxurious meal. We built a +friendship-fire. And at last we stretched our tired bodies full length +on balsam a foot thick, and gazed drowsily at the canvas-blurred moon +before sinking to a dreamless sleep. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xv">XV.</a></h2> + +<h3>ON WOODS INDIANS.</h3> + +<p> +Far in the North dwell a people practically unknown to any but the +fur-trader and the explorer. Our information as to Mokis, Sioux, +Cheyennes Nez Percés, and indirectly many others, through the pages of +Cooper, Parkman, and allied writers, is varied enough, so that our +ideas of Indians are pretty well established. If we are romantic, we +hark back to the past and invent fairy-tales with ourselves anent the +Noble Red Man who has Passed Away. If we are severely practical, we +take notice of filth, vice, plug-hats, tin cans, and laziness. In fact, +we might divide all Indian concepts into two classes, following these +mental and imaginative bents. Then we should have quite simply and +satisfactorily the Cooper Indian and the Comic Paper Indian. It must be +confessed that the latter is often approximated by reality--and +everybody knows it. That the former is by no means a myth--at least in +many qualities--the average reader might be pardoned for doubting. +</p> + +<p> +Some time ago I desired to increase my knowledge of the Woods Indians +by whatever others had accomplished. Accordingly I wrote to the +Ethnological Department at Washington asking what had been done in +regard to the Ojibways and Wood Crees north of Lake Superior. The +answer was "nothing." +</p> + +<p> +And "nothing" is more nearly a comprehensive answer than at first you +might believe. Visitors at Mackinac, Traverse, Sault Ste. Marie, and +other northern resorts are besought at certain times of the year by +silent calico-dressed squaws to purchase basket and bark work. If the +tourist happens to follow these women for more wholesale examination of +their wares, he will be led to a double-ended Mackinaw-built +sailing-craft with red-dyed sails, half pulled out on the beach. In the +stern sit two or three bucks wearing shirts, jean trousers, and broad +black hats. Some of the oldest men may sport a patched pair of +moccasins or so, but most are conventional enough in clumsy shoes. +After a longer or shorter stay they hoist their red sails and drift +away toward some mysterious destination on the north shore. If the +buyer is curious enough and persistent enough, he may elicit the fact +that they are Ojibways. +</p> + +<p> +Now, if this same tourist happens to possess a mildly venturesome +disposition, a sailing-craft, and a chart of the region, he will sooner +or later blunder across the dwelling-place of his silent vendors. At +the foot of some rarely-frequented bay he will come on a diminutive +village of small whitewashed log houses. It will differ from other +villages in that the houses are arranged with no reference whatever to +one another, but in the haphazard fashion of an encampment. Its +inhabitants are his summer friends. If he is of an insinuating address, +he may get a glimpse of their daily life. Then he will go away firmly +convinced that he knows quite a lot about the North Woods Indian. +</p> + +<p> +And so he does. But this North Woods Indian is the Reservation Indian. +And in the North a Reservation Indian is as different from a Woods +Indian as a negro is from a Chinese. +</p> + +<p> +Suppose, on the other hand, your tourist is unfortunate enough to get +left at some North Woods railway station where he has descended from +the transcontinental to stretch his legs, and suppose him to have +happened on a fur-town like Missináibie at the precise time when the +trappers are in from the wilds. Near the borders of the village he will +come upon a little encampment of conical tepees. At his approach the +women and children will disappear into inner darkness. A dozen +wolf-like dogs will rush out barking. Grave-faced men will respond +silently to his salutation. +</p> + +<p> +These men, he will be interested to observe, wear still the deer or +moose skin moccasin--the lightest and easiest foot-gear for the woods; +bind their long hair with a narrow fillet, and their waists with a red +or striped worsted sash; keep warm under the blanket thickness of a +Hudson Bay capote; and deck their clothes with a variety of barbaric +ornament. He will see about camp weapons whose acquaintance he has made +only in museums, peltries of whose identification he is by no means +sure, and as matters of daily use--snow-shoes, bark canoes, bows and +arrows--what to him have been articles of ornament or curiosity. +To-morrow these people will be gone for another year, carrying with +them the results of the week's barter. Neither he nor his kind will see +them again, unless they too journey far into the Silent Places. But he +has caught a glimpse of the stolid mask of the Woods Indian, concerning +whom officially "nothing" is known. +</p> + +<p> +In many respects the Woods Indian is the legitimate descendant of the +Cooper Indian. His life is led entirely in the forests; his subsistence +is assured by hunting, fishing, and trapping; his dwelling is the +wigwam, and his habitation the wide reaches of the wilderness lying +between Lake Superior and the Hudson Bay; his relation to humanity +confined to intercourse with his own people and acquaintance with the +men who barter for his peltries. So his dependence is not on the world +the white man has brought, but on himself and his natural environment. +Civilization has merely ornamented his ancient manner. It has given him +the convenience of cloth, of firearms, of steel traps, of iron kettles, +of matches; it has accustomed him to the luxuries of white +sugar--though he had always his own maple product--tea, flour, and +white man's tobacco. That is about all. He knows nothing of whisky. The +towns are never visited by him, and the Hudson's Bay Company will sell +him no liquor. His concern with you is not great, for he has little to +gain from you. +</p> + +<p> +This people, then, depending on natural resources for subsistence, has +retained to a great extent the qualities of the early aborigines. +</p> + +<p> +To begin with, it is distinctly nomadic. The great rolls of birch bark +to cover the pointed tepees are easily transported in the bottoms of +canoes, and the poles are quickly cut and put in place. As a +consequence, the Ojibway family is always on the move. It searches out +new trapping-grounds, new fisheries, it pays visits, it seems even to +enjoy travel for the sake of exploration. In winter a tepee of double +wall is built, whose hollow is stuffed with moss to keep out the cold; +but even that approximation of permanence cannot stand against the +slightest convenience. When an Indian kills, often he does not +transport his game to camp, but moves his camp to the vicinity of the +carcass. There are of these woods dwellers no villages, no permanent +clearings. The vicinity of a Hudson's Bay post is sometimes occupied +for a month or so during the summer, but that is all. +</p> + +<p> +An obvious corollary of this is that tribal life does not consistently +obtain. Throughout the summer months, when game and fur are at their +poorest, the bands assemble, probably at the times of barter with the +traders. Then for the short period of the idling season they drift +together up and down the North Country streams, or camp for big +pow-wows and conjuring near some pleasant conflux of rivers. But when +the first frosts nip the leaves, the families separate to their +allotted trapping districts, there to spend the winter in pursuit of +the real business of life. +</p> + +<p> +The tribe is thus split into many groups, ranging in numbers from +the solitary trapper, eager to win enough fur to buy him a wife, to a +compact little group of three or four families closely related in +blood. The most striking consequence is that, unlike other Indian +bodies politic, there are no regularly constituted and acknowledged +chiefs. Certain individuals gain a remarkable reputation and an equally +remarkable respect for wisdom, or hunting skill, or power of woodcraft, +or travel. These men are the so-called "old men" often mentioned in +Indian manifestoes, though age has nothing to do with the deference +accorded them. Tawabinisáy is not more than thirty-five years old; +Peter, our Hudson Bay Indian, is hardly more than a boy. Yet both are +obeyed implicitly by whomever they happen to be with; both lead the way +by river or trail; and both, where question arises, are sought in +advice by men old enough to be their fathers. Perhaps this is as good a +democracy as another. +</p> + +<p> +The life so briefly hinted at in the foregoing lines inevitably +develops and fosters an expertness of woodcraft almost beyond belief. +The Ojibway knows his environment. The forest is to him so familiar in +each and every one of its numerous and subtle aspects that the +slightest departure from the normal strikes his attention at once. A +patch of brown shadow where green shadow should fall, a shimmering of +leaves where should be merely a gentle waving, a cross-light where the +usual forest growth should adumbrate, a flash of wings at a time of day +when feathered creatures ordinarily rest quiet--these, and hundreds of +others which you and I should never even guess at, force themselves as +glaringly on an Indian's notice as a brass band in a city street. A +white man <i>looks</i> for game; an Indian sees it because it differs +from the forest. +</p> + +<p> +That is, of course, a matter of long experience and lifetime habit. +Were it a question merely of this, the white man might also in time +attain the same skill. But the Indian is a better animal. His senses +are appreciably sharper than our own. +</p> + +<p> +In journeying down the Kapúskasíng River, our Indians--who had come +from the woods to guide us--always saw game long before we did. They +would never point it out to us. The bow of the canoe would swing +silently in its direction, there to rest motionless until we indicated +we had seen something. +</p> + +<p> +"Where is it, Peter?" I would whisper. +</p> + +<p> +But Peter always remained contemptuously silent. +</p> + +<p> +One evening we paddled directly into the eye of the setting sun +across a shallow little lake filled with hardly sunken boulders. There +was no current, and no breath of wind to stir the water into betraying +riffles. But invariably those Indians twisted the canoe into a new +course ten feet before we reached one of the obstructions, whose +existence our dazzled vision could not attest until they were actually +below us. They <i>saw</i> those rocks, through the shimmer of the +surface glare. +</p> + +<p> +Another time I discovered a small black animal lying flat on a point of +shale. Its head was concealed behind a boulder, and it was so far away +that I was inclined to congratulate myself on having differentiated it +from the shadow. +</p> + +<p> +"What is it, Peter?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +Peter hardly glanced at it. +</p> + +<p> +"Ninny-moósh" (dog), he replied. +</p> + +<p> +Now we were a hundred miles south of the Hudson's Bay post, and two +weeks north of any other settlement. Saving a horse, a dog would be +about the last thing to occur to one in guessing at the identity of any +strange animal. This looked like a little black blotch, without form. +Yet Peter knew it. It was a dog, lost from some Indian hunting-party, +and mightily glad to see us. +</p> + +<p> +The sense of smell, too, is developed to an extent positively uncanny +to us who have needed it so little. Your Woods Indian is always +sniffing, always testing the impressions of other senses by his +olfactories. Instances numerous and varied might be cited, but probably +one will do as well as a dozen. It once became desirable to kill a +caribou in country where the animals are not at all abundant. +Tawabinisáy volunteered to take Jim within shot of one. Jim describes +their hunt as the most wonderful bit of stalking he had ever seen. The +Indian followed the animal's tracks as easily as you or I could have +followed them over snow. He did this rapidly and certainly. Every once +in a while he would get down on all fours to sniff inquiringly at the +crushed herbage. Always on rising to his feet he would give the result +of his investigations. "Ah-téek [caribou] one hour." +</p> + +<p> +And later, "Ah-téek half hour." +</p> + +<p> +Or again, "Ah-téek quarter hour." +</p> + +<p> +And finally, "Ah-téek over nex' hill." +</p> + +<p> +And it was so. +</p> + +<p> +In like manner, but most remarkable to us because the test of direct +comparison with our own sense was permitted us, was their acuteness of +hearing. Often while "jumping" a roaring rapids in two canoes, my +companion and I have heard our men talking to each other in quite an +ordinary tone of voice. That is to say, I could hear my Indian, and Jim +could hear his; but personally we were forced to shout loudly to carry +across the noise of the stream. The distant approach of animals they +announce accurately. +</p> + +<p> +"Wawashkeshí" (deer), says Peter. +</p> + +<p> +And sure enough, after an interval, we too could distinguish the +footfalls on the dry leaves. +</p> + +<p> +As both cause and consequence of these physical endowments--which place +them nearly on a parity with the game itself--they are most expert +hunters. Every sportsman knows the importance--and also the +difficulty--of discovering game before it discovers him. The Indian has +here an immense advantage. And after game is discovered, he is +furthermore most expert in approaching it with all the refined art of +the still hunter. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Caspar Whitney describes in exasperation his experience with the +Indians of the Far North-West. He complains that when they blunder on +game they drop everything and enter into almost hopeless chase, two +legs against four. Occasionally the quarry becomes enough bewildered so +that the wild shooting will bring it down. He quite justly argues that +the merest pretence at caution in approach would result in much greater +success. +</p> + +<p> +The Woods Indian is no such fool. He is a mighty poor shot--and he +knows it. Personally I believe he shuts both eyes before pulling +trigger. He is armed with a long flint or percussion lock musket, whose +gas-pipe barrel is bound to the wood that runs its entire length by +means of brass bands, and whose effective range must be about ten +yards. This archaic implement is known as a "trade gun" and has the +single merit of never getting out of order. Furthermore ammunition is +precious. In consequence, the wilderness hunter is not going to be +merely pretty sure; he intends to be absolutely certain. If he cannot +approach near enough to blow a hole in his prey, he does not fire. +</p> + +<p> +I have seen Peter drop into marsh-grass so thin that apparently we +could discern the surface of the ground through it, and disappear so +completely that our most earnest attention could not distinguish even a +rustling of the herbage. After an interval his gun would go off from +some distant point, exactly where some ducks had been feeding serenely +oblivious to fate. Neither of us white men would have considered for a +moment the possibility of getting any of them. Once I felt rather proud +of myself for killing six ruffed grouse out of some trees with the +pistol, until Peter drifted in carrying three he had bagged with a +stick. +</p> + +<p> +Another interesting phase of this almost perfect correspondence to +environment is the readiness with which an Indian will meet an +emergency. We are accustomed to rely first of all on the skilled labour +of some one we can hire; second, if we undertake the job ourselves, on +the tools made for us by skilled labour; and third, on the shops to +supply us with the materials we may need. Not once in a lifetime are we +thrown entirely on our own resources. Then we improvise bunglingly a +makeshift. +</p> + +<p> +The Woods Indian possesses his knife and his light axe. Nails, planes, +glue, chisels, vices, cord, rope, and all the rest of it he has to do +without. But he never improvises makeshifts. No matter what the +exigency or how complicated the demand, his experience answers with +accuracy. +</p> + +<p> +Utensils and tools he knows exactly where to find. His job is neat and +workmanlike, whether it is a bark receptacle--water-tight or not--a +pair of snow-shoes, the repairing of a badly-smashed canoe, the +construction of a shelter, or the fashioning of a paddle. About noon +one day Tawabinisáy broke his axe-helve square off. This to us would +have been a serious affair. Probably we should, left to ourselves, have +stuck in some sort of a rough straight sapling handle which would have +answered well enough until we could have bought another. By the time we +had cooked dinner that Indian had fashioned another helve. We compared +it with the store article. It was as well shaped, as smooth, as nicely +balanced. In fact, as we laid the new and the old side by side, we +could not have selected, from any evidence of the workmanship, which +had been made by machine and which by hand. Tawabinisáy then burned out +the wood from the axe, retempered the steel, set the new helve, and +wedged it neatly with ironwood wedges. The whole affair, including the +cutting of the timber, consumed perhaps half an hour. +</p> + +<p> +To travel with a Woods Indian is a constant source of delight on this +account. So many little things that the white man does without, because +he will not bother with their transportation, the Indian makes for +himself. And so quickly and easily! I have seen a thoroughly +waterproof, commodious, and comfortable bark shelter made in about the +time it would take one to pitch a tent. I have seen a raft built of +cedar logs and cedar bark ropes in an hour. I have seen a badly-stove +canoe made as good as new in fifteen minutes. The Indian rarely needs +to hunt for the materials he requires. He knows exactly where they +grow, and he turns as directly to them as a clerk would turn to his +shelves. No problem of the living of physical life is too obscure to +have escaped his varied experience. You may travel with Indians for +years, and learn something new and delightful as to how to take care of +yourself every summer. +</p> + +<p> +The qualities I have mentioned come primarily from the fact that the +Woods Indian is a hunter. I have now to instance two whose development +can be traced to the other fact--that he is a nomad. I refer to his +skill with the bark canoe and his ability to carry. +</p> + +<p> +I was once introduced to a man at a little way station of the Canadian +Pacific Railway in the following words:-- +</p> + +<p> +"Shake hands with Munson; he's as good a canoeman as an Indian." +</p> + +<p> +A little later one of the bystanders remarked to me:-- +</p> + +<p> +"That fellow you was just talking with is as good a canoeman as an +Injun." +</p> + +<p> +Still later, at an entirely different place, a member of the bar +informed me, in the course of discussion:-- +</p> + +<p> +"The only man I know of who can do it is named Munson. He is as good a +canoeman as an Indian." +</p> + +<p> +At the time this unanimity of praise puzzled me a little. I thought I +had seen some pretty good canoe work, and even cherished a mild conceit +that occasionally I could keep right side up myself. I knew Munson to +be a great woods-traveller, with many striking qualities, and why this +of canoemanship should be so insistently chosen above the others was +beyond my comprehension. Subsequently a companion and I journeyed to +Hudson Bay with two birch canoes and two Indians. Since that trip I +have had a vast respect for Munson. +</p> + +<p> +Undoubtedly among the half-breed and white guides of Lower Canada, +Maine, and the Adirondacks are many skilful men. But they know their +waters; they follow a beaten track. The Woods Indian--well, let me tell +you something of what he does. +</p> + +<p> +We went down the Kapúskasíng River to the Mattágami, and then down that +to the Moose. These rivers are at first but a hundred feet or so wide, +but rapidly swell with the influx of numberless smaller streams. Two +days' journey brings you to a watercourse nearly half a mile in +breadth; two weeks finds you on a surface approximately a mile and a +half across. All this water descends from the Height of Land to the sea +level. It does so through a rock country. The result is a series of +roaring, dashing boulder rapids and waterfalls that would make your +hair stand on end merely to contemplate from the banks. +</p> + +<p> +The regular route to Moose Factory is by the Missinaíbie. Our way was +new and strange. No trails; no knowledge of the country. When we came +to a stretch of white water, the Indians would rise to their feet for a +single instant's searching examination of the stretch of tumbled water +before them. In that moment they picked the passage they were to follow +as well as a white man could have done so in half an hour's study. Then +without hesitation they shot their little craft at the green water. +</p> + +<p> +From that time we merely tried to sit still, each in his canoe. Each +Indian did it all with his single paddle. He seemed to possess absolute +control over his craft. +</p> + +<p> +Even in the rush of water which seemed to hurry us on at almost +railroad speed, he could stop for an instant, work directly sideways, +shoot forward at a slant, swing either his bow or his stern. An error +in judgment or in the instantaneous acting upon it meant a hit; and a +hit in these savage North Country Rivers meant destruction. How my man +kept in his mind the passage he had planned during his momentary +inspection was always to me a miracle. How he got so unruly a beast as +the birch canoe to follow it in that tearing volume of water was always +another. Big boulders he dodged, eddies he took advantage of, slants of +current he utilized. A fractional second of hesitation could not be +permitted him. But always the clutching of white hands from the rip at +the eddy finally conveyed to my spray-drenched faculties that the rapid +was safely astern. And this, mind you, in strange waters. +</p> + +<p> +Occasionally we would carry our outfit through the woods, while the +Indians would shoot some especially bad water in the light canoe. As a +spectacle nothing could be finer. The flash of the yellow bark, the +movement of the broken waters, the gleam of the paddle, the tense +alertness of the men's figures, their carven, passive faces, with the +contrast of the flashing eyes and the distended nostrils, then the leap +into space over some half-cataract, the smash of spray, the exultant +yells of the canoemen! For your Indian enjoys the game thoroughly. And +it requires very bad water indeed to make him take to the brush. +</p> + +<p> +This is, of course, the spectacular. But also in the ordinary gray +business of canoe travel the Woods Indian shows his superiority. He is +tireless, and composed as to wrist and shoulder of a number of +whale-bone springs. From early dawn to dewy eve, and then a few +gratuitous hours into the night, he will dig energetic holes in the +water with his long, narrow blade. And every stroke counts. The water +boils out in a splotch of white air-bubbles, the little suction holes +pirouette like dancing-girls, the fabric of the craft itself trembles +under the power of the stroke. Jim and I used, in the lake stretches, +to amuse ourselves--and probably the Indians--by paddling in furious +rivalry one against the other. Then Peter would make up his mind he +would like to speak to Jacob. His canoe would shoot up alongside as +though the Old Man of the Lake had laid his hand across its stern. +Would I could catch that trick of easy, tireless speed! I know it lies +somewhat in keeping both elbows always straight and stiff, in a lurch +forward of the shoulders at the end of the stroke. But that, and more! +Perhaps one needs a copper skin and beady black eyes with surface +lights. +</p> + +<p> +Nor need you hope to pole a canoe upstream as do these people. +Tawabinisáy uses two short poles, one in either hand, kneels amidships, +and snakes that little old canoe of his upstream so fast that you would +swear the rapids an easy matter--until you tried them yourself. We were +once trailed up a river by an old Woods Indian and his interesting +family. The outfit consisted of canoe Number One--<i>item</i>, one old +Injin, one boy of eight years, one dog; canoe Number Two--<i>item</i>, +one old Injin squaw, one girl of eighteen or twenty, one dog; canoe +Number Three--<i>item</i>, two little girls of ten and twelve, one +dog. We tried desperately for three days to get away from this party. +It did not seem to work hard at all. We did. Even the two little girls +appeared to dip the contemplative paddle from time to time. Water +boiled back of our own blades. We started early and quit late, and +about as we congratulated ourselves over our evening fire that we had +distanced our followers at last, those three canoes would steal +silently and calmly about the lower bend to draw ashore below us. In +ten minutes the old Indian was delivering an oration to us, squatted in +resignation. +</p> + +<p> +The Red Gods alone know what he talked about. He had no English, and +our Ojibway was of the strictly utilitarian. But for an hour he would +hold forth. We called him Talk-in-the-Face, the Great Indian Chief. +Then he would drop a mild hint for sáymon, which means tobacco, and +depart. By ten o'clock the next morning he and his people would +overtake us in spite of our earlier start. Usually we were in the act +of dragging our canoe through an especially vicious rapid by means of a +tow-line. Their three canoes, even to the children's, would ascend +easily by means of poles. Tow-lines appeared to be +unsportsmanlike--like angle-worms. Then the entire nine--including the +dogs--would roost on rocks and watch critically our methods. +</p> + +<p> +The incident had one value, however: it showed us just why these people +possess the marvellous canoe skill I have attempted to sketch. The +little boy in the leading canoe was not over eight or nine years of +age, but he had his little paddle and his little canoe-pole, and, what +is more, he already used them intelligently and well. As for the little +girls--well, they did easily feats I never hope to emulate, and that +without removing the cowl-like coverings from their heads and +shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +The same early habitude probably accounts for their ability to carry +weights long distances. The Woods Indian is not a mighty man +physically. Most of them are straight and well built, but of only +medium height, and not wonderfully muscled. Peter was most beautiful, +but in the fashion of the flying Mercury, with long smooth panther +muscles. He looked like Uncas, especially when his keen hawk-face was +fixed in distant attention. But I think I could have wrestled Peter +down. Yet time and again I have seen that Indian carry two hundred +pounds for some miles through a rough country absolutely without +trails. And once I was witness of a feat of Tawabinisáy, when that wily +savage portaged a pack of fifty pounds and a two-man canoe through a +hill country for four hours and ten minutes without a rest. Tawabinisáy +is even smaller than Peter. +</p> + +<p> +So much for the qualities developed by the woods life. Let us now +examine what may be described as the inherent characteristics of the +people. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xvi">XVI.</a></h2> + +<h3>ON WOODS INDIANS (<i>continued</i>).</h3> + +<p> +It must be understood, of course, that I offer you only the best of my +subject. A people counts for what it does well. Also I instance men of +standing in the loose Indian body politic. A traveller can easily +discover the reverse of the medal. These have their shirks, their +do-nothings, their men of small account, just as do other races. I have +no thought of glorifying the noble red man, nor of claiming for him a +freedom from human imperfection--even where his natural quality and +training count the most--greater than enlightenment has been able to +reach. +</p> + +<p> +In my experience the honesty of the Woods Indian is of a very high +order. The sense of <i>mine</i> and <i>thine</i> is strongly forced by +the exigencies of the North Woods life. A man is always on the move; he +is always exploring the unknown countries. Manifestly it is impossible +for him to transport the entire sum of his worldly effects. The +implements of winter are a burden in summer. Also the return journey +from distant shores must be provided for by food-stations, to be relied +on. The solution of these needs is the cache. +</p> + +<p> +And the cache is not a literal term at all. It <i>conceals</i> nothing. +Rather does it hold aloft in long-legged prominence, for the inspection +of all who pass, what the owner has seen fit to leave behind. A heavy +platform high enough from the ground to frustrate the investigations of +animals is all that is required. Visual concealment is unnecessary, +because in the North Country a cache is sacred. On it may depend the +life of a man. He who leaves provisions must find them on his return, +for he may reach them starving, and the length of his out-journey may +depend on his certainty of relief at this point on his in-journey. So +men passing touch not his hoard, for some day they may be in the same +fix, and a precedent is a bad thing. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a name="6.jpg"></a> +<a href="images/6.jpg"><img src="images/6th.jpg" alt="NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE PEOPLE."></a> +</p> + +<p> +Thus in parts of the wildest countries of northern Canada I have +unexpectedly come upon a birch canoe in capsized suspension between two +trees; or a whole bunch of snow-shoes depending fruit-like beneath the +fans of a spruce; or a tangle of steel traps thrust into the crevice of +a tree-root; or a supply of pork and flour, swathed like an Egyptian +mummy, occupying stately a high bier. These things we have passed by +reverently, as symbols of a people's trust in its kind. +</p> + +<p> +The same sort of honesty holds in regard to smaller things. I have +never hesitated to leave in my camp firearms, fishing-rods, utensils +valuable from a woods point of view, even a watch or money. Not only +have I never lost anything in that manner, but once an Indian lad +followed me some miles after the morning's start to restore to me a +half-dozen trout flies I had accidentally left behind. +</p> + +<p> +It might be readily inferred that this quality carries over into the +subtleties, as indeed is the case. Mr. MacDonald of Brunswick House +once discussed with me the system of credits carried on by the Hudson's +Bay Company with the trappers. Each family is advanced goods to the +value of two hundred dollars, with the understanding that the debt is +to be paid from the season's catch. +</p> + +<p> +"I should think you would lose a good deal," I ventured. "Nothing could +be easier than for an Indian to take his two hundred dollars' worth and +disappear in the woods. You'd never be able to find him." + +Mr. MacDonald's reply struck me, for the man had twenty years' trading +experience. +</p> + +<p> +"I have never," said he, "in a long woods life known but one Indian +liar." +</p> + +<p> +This my own limited woods-wandering has proved to be true to a +sometimes almost ridiculous extent. The most trivial statement of fact +can be relied on, provided it is given outside of trade or enmity or +absolute indifference. The Indian loves to fool the tenderfoot. But a +sober, measured statement you can conclude is accurate. And if an +Indian promises a thing, he will accomplish it. He expects you to do +the same. Watch your lightest words carefully and you would retain the +respect of your red associates. +</p> + +<p> +On our way to the Hudson Bay we rashly asked Peter, towards the last, +when we should reach Moose Factory. He deliberated. +</p> + +<p> +"T'ursday," said he. +</p> + +<p> +Things went wrong; Thursday supplied a head wind. We had absolutely no +interest in reaching Moose Factory next day; the next week would have +done as well. But Peter, deaf to expostulation, entreaty, and command, +kept us travelling from six in the morning until after twelve at night. +We couldn't get him to stop. Finally he drew the canoes ashore. +</p> + +<p> +"Moose-amik quarter hour," said he. +</p> + +<p> +He had kept his word. +</p> + +<p> +The Ojibway possesses a great pride which the unthinking can ruffle +quite unconsciously in many ways. Consequently the Woods Indian is +variously described as a good guide or a bad one. The difference lies +in whether you suggest or command. +</p> + +<p> +"Peter, you've got to make Chicawgun to-night. Get a move on you!" will +bring you sullen service, and probably breed kicks on the grub supply, +which is the immediate precursor of mutiny. +</p> + +<p> +"Peter, it's a long way to Chicawgun. Do you think we make him +to-night?" on the other hand, will earn you at least a serious +consideration of the question. And if Peter says you can, you will. +</p> + +<p> +For the proper man the Ojibway takes a great pride in his woodcraft, +the neatness of his camps, the savoury quality of his cookery, the +expedition of his travel, the size of his packs, the patience of his +endurance. On the other hand, he can be as sullen, inefficient, stupid, +and vindictive as any man of any race on earth. I suppose the faculty +of getting along with men is largely inherent. Certainly it is blended +of many subtleties. To be friendly, to retain respect, to praise, to +preserve authority, to direct and yet to leave detail, to exact what is +due, and yet to deserve it--these be the qualities of a leader, and +cannot be taught. +</p> + +<p> +In general the Woods Indian is sober. He cannot get whisky regularly, +to be sure, but I have often seen the better class of Ojibways refuse a +drink, saying that they did not care for it. He starves well, and keeps +going on nothing long after hope is vanished. He is patient--yea, very +patient--under toil, and so accomplishes great journeys, overcomes +great difficulties, and does great deeds by means of this handmaiden of +genius. According to his own standards is he clean. To be sure his +baths are not numerous, nor his laundry-days many, but he never cooks +until he has washed his hands and arms to the very shoulders. Other +details would but corroborate the impression of this instance--that his +ideas differ from ours, as is his right, but that he lives up to his +ideas. Also is he hospitable, expecting nothing in return. After your +canoe is afloat and your paddle in the river, two or three of his +youngsters will splash in after you to toss silver fish to your +necessities. And so always he will wait until this last moment of +departure, in order that you will not feel called on to give him +something in return. Which is true tact and kindliness, and worthy of +high praise. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps I have not strongly enough insisted that the Indian nations +differ as widely from one another as do unallied races. We found this +to be true even in the comparatively brief journey from Chapleau to +Moose. After pushing through a trackless wilderness without having laid +eyes on a human being, excepting the single instance of three French +<i>voyageurs</i> going Heaven knows where, we were anticipating +pleasurably our encounter with the traders at the Factory, and +naturally supposed that Peter and Jacob would be equally pleased at the +chance of visiting with their own kind. Not at all. When we reached +Moose our Ojibways wrapped themselves in a mantle of dignity, and +stalked scornful amidst obsequious clans. For the Ojibway is great +among Indians, verily much greater than the Moose River Crees. Had it +been a question of Rupert's River Crees with their fierce blood-laws, +their conjuring-lodges, and their pagan customs, the affair might have +been different. +</p> + +<p> +For, mark you, the Moose River Cree is little among hunters, and he +conducts the chase miscellaneously over his district without thought to +the preservation of the beaver, and he works in the hay marshes during +the summer, and is short, squab, and dirty, and generally +<i>ka-win-ni-shi-shin</i>. The old sacred tribal laws, which are better +than a religion because they are practically adapted to northern life, +have among them been allowed to lapse. Travellers they are none, nor do +their trappers get far from the Company's pork-barrels. So they inbreed +ignobly for lack of outside favour, and are dying from the face of the +land through dire diseases, just as their reputations have already died +from men's respect. +</p> + +<p> +The great unwritten law of the forest is that, save as provision during +legitimate travel, one may not hunt in his neighbour's district. Each +trapper has assigned him, or gets by inheritance or purchase, certain +territorial power. In his land he alone may trap. He knows the +beaver-dams, how many animals each harbours, how large a catch each +will stand without diminution of the supply. So the fur is made to +last. In the southern district this division is tacitly agreed upon. It +is not etiquette to poach. What would happen to a poacher no one knows, +simply because the necessity for finding out has not arisen. +Tawabinisáy controls from Batchawanúng to Agawa. There old Waboos takes +charge. And so on. But in the Far North the control is more often +disputed, and there the blood-law still holds. An illegal trapper baits +his snares with his life. If discovered, he is summarily shot. So is +the game preserved. +</p> + +<p> +The Woods Indian never kills waste-fully. The mere presence of game +does not breed in him a lust to slaughter something. Moderation you +learn of him first of all. Later, provided you are with him long enough +and your mind is open to mystic influence, you will feel the strong +impress of his idea--that the animals of the forest are not lower than +man, but only different. Man is an animal living the life of the +forest; the beasts are also a body politic speaking a different +language and with different view-points. Amik, the beaver, has certain +ideas as to the conduct of life, certain habits of body, and certain +bias of thought. His scheme of things is totally at variance with that +held by Me-en-gan, the wolf, but even to us whites the two are on a +parity. Man has still another system. One is no better than another. +They are merely different. And just as Me-en-gan preys on Amik, so does +Man kill for his own uses. +</p> + +<p> +Thence are curious customs. A Rupert River Cree will not kill a bear +unless he, the hunter, is in gala attire, and then not until he has +made a short speech in which he assures his victim that the affair is +not one of personal enmity, but of expedience, and that anyway he, the +bear, will be better off in the Hereafter. And then the skull is +cleaned and set on a pole near running water, there to remain during +twelve moons. Also at the tail-root of a newly-deceased beaver is tied +a thong braided of red wool and deerskin. And many other curious +habitudes which would be of slight interest here. Likewise do they +conjure up by means of racket and fasting the familiar spirits of +distant friends or enemies, and on these spirits fasten a blessing or a +curse. +</p> + +<p> +From this it may be deduced that missionary work has not been as +thorough as might be hoped. That is true. The Woods Indian loves to +sing, and possesses quaint melodies, or rather intonations, of his own. +But especially does he delight in the long-drawn wail of some of our +old-fashioned hymns. The church oftenest reaches him through them. I +know nothing stranger than the sight of a little half-lit church filled +with Indians swaying unctuously to and fro in the rhythm of a cadence +old Watts would have recognized with difficulty. The religious feeling +of the performance is not remarkable, but perhaps it does as a +starting-point. +</p> + +<p> +Exactly how valuable the average missionary work is I have been puzzled +to decide. Perhaps the church needs more intelligence in the men it +sends out. The evangelist is usually filled with narrow, preconceived +notions as to the proper physical life. He squeezes his savage into log +houses, boiled shirts, and boots. When he has succeeded in getting his +tuberculosis crop well started, he offers as compensation a doctrinal +religion admirably adapted to us, who have within reach of +century-trained perceptions a thousand of the subtler associations a +savage can know nothing about. If there is enough glitter and tin +steeple and high-sounding office and gilt good-behaviour card to it, +the red man's pagan heart is tickled in its vanity, and he dies in the +odour of sanctity--and of a filth his out-of-door life has never taught +him how to avoid. The Indian is like a raccoon: in his proper +surroundings he is clean morally and physically because he knows how to +be so; but in a cage he is filthy because he does not know how to be +otherwise. +</p> + +<p> +I must not be understood as condemning missionary work; only the stupid +missionary work one most often sees in the North. Surely Christianity +should be adaptable enough in its little things to fit any people with +its great. It seems hard for some men to believe that it is not +essential for a real Christian to wear a plug-hat. One God, love, +kindness, charity, honesty, right living, may thrive as well in the +wigwam as in a foursquare house--provided you let them wear moccasins +and a <i>capote</i> wherewith to keep themselves warm and vital. +</p> + +<p> +Tawabinisáy must have had his religious training at the hands of a good +man. He had lost none of his aboriginal virtue and skill, as may be +gathered from what I have before said of him, and had gained in +addition certain of the gentle qualities. I have never been able to +gauge exactly the extent of his religious <i>understanding</i>, for +Tawabinisáy is a silent individual, and possesses very little English; +but I do know that his religious <i>feeling</i> was deep and reverent. +He never swore in English; he did not drink; he never travelled or +hunted or fished on Sunday when he could possibly help it. These +virtues he wore modestly and unassumingly as an accustomed garment. Yet +he was the most gloriously natural man I have ever met. +</p> + +<p> +The main reliance of his formalism when he was off in the woods seemed +to be a little tattered volume, which he perused diligently all Sunday, +and wrapped carefully in a strip of oiled paper during the rest of the +week. One day I had a chance to look at this book while its owner was +away after spring water. Every alternate page was in the phonetic +Indian symbols, of which more hereafter. The rest was in French, and +evidently a translation. Although the volume was of Roman Catholic +origin, creed was conspicuously subordinated to the needs of the class +it aimed to reach. A confession of faith, quite simple, in one God, a +Saviour, a Mother of Heaven; a number of Biblical extracts rich in +imagery and applicability to the experience of a woods-dweller; a dozen +simple prayers of the kind the natural man would oftenest find occasion +to express--a prayer for sickness, for bounty, for fair weather, for +ease of travel, for the smiling face of Providence; and then some +hymns. To me the selection seemed most judicious. It answered the needs +of Tawabinisáy's habitual experiences, and so the red man was a good +and consistent convert. Irresistibly I was led to contemplate the idea +of any one trying to get Tawabinisáy to live in a house, to cut +cordwood with an axe, to roost on a hard bench under a tin steeple, to +wear stiff shoes, and to quit forest roaming. +</p> + +<p> +The written language mentioned above you will see often in the +Northland. Whenever an Indian band camps, it blazes a tree and leaves, +as record for those who may follow, a message written in the phonetic +character. I do not understand exactly the philosophy of it, but I +gather that each sound has a symbol of its own, like shorthand, and +that therefore even totally different languages--such as Ojibway, the +Wood Cree, or the Hudson Bay Eskimos--may all be written in the same +character. It was invented nearly a hundred years ago by a priest. So +simple is it, and so needed a method of intercommunication, that its +use is now practically universal. Even the youngsters understand it, +for they are early instructed in its mysteries during the long winter +evenings. On the preceding page is a message I copied from a spruce +tree two hundred miles from anywhere on the Mattágami River. +</p> + +<p> +[Illustration] +</p> + +<p> +Besides this are numberless formal symbols in constant use. Forerunners +on a trail stick a twig in the ground whose point indicates exactly the +position of the sun. Those who follow are able to estimate, by noting +how far beyond the spot the twig points to the sun has travelled, how +long a period of time has elapsed. A stick pointed in any given +direction tells the route, of course. Another planted upright across +the first shows by its position how long a journey is contemplated. A +little sack suspended at the end of the pointer conveys information as +to the state of the larder, lean or fat according as the little sack +contains more or less gravel or sand. A shred of rabbit-skin means +starvation. And so on in variety useless in any but an ethnological +work. +</p> + +<p> +[Illustration 1: A short journey.] +</p> + +<p> +[Illustration 2: A medium journey.] +</p> + +<p> +[Illustration 3: A long journey.] +</p> + +<p> +The Ojibways' tongue is soft, and full of decided lisping and sustained +hissing sounds. It is spoken with somewhat of a sing-song drawl. We +always had a fancy that somehow it was of forest growth, and that its +syllables were intended in the scheme of things to blend with the woods +noises, just as the feathers of the mother partridge blend with the +woods colours. In general it is polysyllabic. That applies especially +to concepts borrowed of the white men. On the other hand, the Ojibways +describe in monosyllables many ideas we could express only in phrase. +They have a single word for the notion, +Place-where-an-animal-slept-last-night. Our "lair," "form," etc., do +not mean exactly that. Its genius, moreover, inclines to a flexible +verb-form, by which adjectives and substantives are often absorbed into +the verb itself, so that one beautiful singing word will convey a whole +paragraph of information. My little knowledge of it is so entirely +empirical that it can possess small value. +</p> + +<p> +In concluding these desultory remarks, I want to tell you of a very +curious survival among the Ojibways and Ottawas of the Georgian Bay. It +seems that some hundreds of years ago these ordinarily peaceful folk +descended on the Iroquois in what is now New York, and massacred a +village or so. Then, like small boys who have thrown only too +accurately at the delivery wagon, they scuttled back home again. +</p> + +<p> +Since that time they have lived in deadly fear of retribution. The +Iroquois have long since disappeared from the face of the earth, but +even to-day the Georgian Bay Indians are subject to periodical spasms +of terror. Some wild-eyed and imaginative youth sees at sunset a canoe +far down the horizon. Immediately the villages are abandoned in haste, +and the entire community moves up to the head-waters of streams, there +to lurk until convinced that all danger is past. It does no good to +tell these benighted savages that they are safe from vengeance, at +least in this world. The dreaded name of Iroquois is potent, even +across the centuries. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xvii">XVII.</a></h2> + +<h3>THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH.</h3> + +<p> +We settled down peacefully on the River, and the weather, after so much +enmity, was kind to us. Likewise did the flies disappear from the woods +utterly. +</p> + +<p> +Each morning we arose as the Red Gods willed; generally early, when the +sun was just gilding the peaks to the westward; but not too early, +before the white veil had left the River. Billy, with woodsman's +contempt for economy, hewed great logs and burned them nobly in the +cooking of trout, oatmeal, pancakes, and the like. We had constructed +ourselves tables and benches between green trees, and there we ate. And +great was the eating beyond the official capacity of the human stomach. +There offered little things to do, delicious little things just on the +hither side of idleness. A rod wrapping needed more waxed silk; a +favourite fly required attention to prevent dissolution; the pistol was +to be cleaned; a flag-pole seemed desirable; a trifle more of balsam +could do no harm; clothes might stand drying, blankets airing. We +accomplished these things leisurely, pausing for the telling of +stories, for the puffing of pipes, for the sheer joy of contemplations. +Deerskin slipper moccasins and flapping trousers attested our +deshabille. And then somehow it was noon, and Billy again at the Dutch +oven and the broiler. +</p> + +<p> +Trout we ate, and always more trout. Big fellows broiled with strips of +bacon craftily sewn in and out of the pink flesh; medium fellows cut +into steaks; little fellows fried crisp in corn-meal; big, medium, and +little fellows mingled in component of the famous North Country +<i>bouillon</i>, whose other ingredients are partridges, and tomatoes, +and potatoes, and onions, and salt pork, and flour in combination +delicious beyond belief. Nor ever did we tire of them, three times a +day, printed statement to the contrary notwithstanding. And besides +were many crafty dishes over whose construction the major portion of +morning idleness was spent. +</p> + +<p> +Now at two o'clock we groaned temporary little groans; and crawled +shrinking into our river clothes, which we dared not hang too near the +fire for fear of the disintegrating scorch, and drew on soggy hobnailed +shoes with holes cut in the bottom and plunged with howls of disgust +into the upper riffles. Then the cautious leg-straddled passage of the +swift current, during which we forgot for ever--which eternity alone +circles the bliss of an afternoon on the River--the chill of the water, +and so came to the trail. +</p> + +<p> +Now, at the Idiot's Delight Dick and I parted company. By three o'clock +I came again to the River, far up, halfway to the Big Falls. Deuce +watched me gravely. With the first click of the reel he retired to the +brush away from the back cast, there to remain until the pool was +fished and we could continue our journey. +</p> + +<p> +In the swift leaping water, at the smooth back of the eddy, in the +white foam, under the dark cliff shadow, here, there, everywhere the +bright flies drop softly like strange snowflakes. The game is as +interesting as pistol-shooting. To hit the mark, that is enough. And +then a swirl of water and a broad lazy tail wake you to the fact that +other matters are yours. Verily the fish of the North Country are +mighty beyond all others. +</p> + +<p> +Over the River rests the sheen of light; over the hills rests the sheen +of romance. The land is enchanted. Birds dip and sway, advance and +retreat; leaves toss their hands in greeting, or bend and whisper one +to the other; splashes of sun fall heavy as metal through the yielding +screens of branches; little breezes wander hesitatingly here and there +to sink like spent kites on the nearest bar of sun-warmed shingle; the +stream shouts and gurgles, murmurs, hushes, lies still and secret as +though to warn you to discretion, breaks away with a shriek of hilarity +when your discretion has been assured. There is in you a great leisure, +as though the day would never end. There is in you a great keenness. +One part of you is vibrantly alive. Your wrist muscles contract almost +automatically at the swirl of a rise, and the hum of life along the +gossamer of your line gains its communication with every nerve in your +body. The question of gear and method you attack clear-minded. What +fly? Montreal, Parmachenee Belle, Royal Coachman, Silver Doctor, +Professor, Brown Hackle, Cow-dung--these grand lures for the North +Country trout receive each its due test and attention. And on the tail +snell what fisherman has not the Gamble--the unusual, obscure, +multinamed fly which may, in the occultism of his taste, attract the +Big Fellows? Besides, there remains always the handling. Does your +trout to-day fancy the skittering of his food, or the withdrawal in +three jerks, or the inch-deep sinking of the fly? Does he want it +across current or up current; will he rise with a snap, or is he going +to come slowly, or is he going to play? These be problems interesting, +insistent to be solved, with the ready test within the reach of your +skill. +</p> + +<p> +But that alertness is only one side of your mood. No matter how +difficult the selection, how strenuous the fight, there is in you a +large feeling that might almost be described as Buddhistic. Time has +nothing to do with your problems. The world has quietly run down, and +has been embalmed with all its sweetness of light and colour and sound +in a warm Lethe bath of sun. This afternoon is going to last for ever. +You note and enjoy and savour the little pleasures unhurried by the +thought that anything else, whether of pleasure or duty, is to follow. +</p> + +<p> +And so for long delicious eons. The River flows on, ever on; the hills +watch, watch always; the birds sing, the sun shines grateful across +your shoulders; the big trout and the little rise in predestined order, +and make their predestined fight, and go their predestined way either +to liberty or the creel; the pools and the rapids and the riffles slip +by upstream as though they had been withdrawn rather than as though you +had advanced. +</p> + +<p> +Then suddenly the day has dropped its wings. The earth moves forward +with a jar. Things are to be accomplished; things are being +accomplished. The River is hurrying down to the Lake; the birds have +business of their own to attend to, an it please you; the hills are +waiting for something that has not yet happened, but they are ready. +Startled, you look up. The afternoon has finished. Your last step has +taken you over the edge of the shadow cast by the setting sun across +the range of hills. +</p> + +<p> +For the first time you look about you to see where you are. It has not +mattered before. Now you know that shortly it will be dark. Still +remain below you four pools. A great haste seizes you. +</p> + +<p> +"If I take my rod apart and strike through the woods," you argue, "I +can make the Narrows, and I am sure there is a big trout there." +</p> + +<p> +Why the Narrows should be any more likely to contain a big trout than +any of the other three pools you would not be able to explain. In half +an hour it will be dark. You hurry. In the forest it is already +twilight, but by now you know the forest well. Preoccupied, feverish +with your great idea, you hasten on. The birds, silent all in the +brooding of night, rise ghostly to right and left. Shadows steal away +like hostile spies among the treetrunks. The silver of last daylight +gleams ahead of you through the brush. You know it for the Narrows, +whither the instinct of your eagerness has led you as accurately as a +compass through the forest. +</p> + +<p> +Fervently, as though this were of world's affairs the most important, +you congratulate yourself on being in time. Your rod seems to join +itself. In a moment the cast drops like a breath on the molten silver. +Nothing. Another try a trifle lower down. Nothing. A little wandering +breeze spoils your fourth attempt, carrying the leader far to the left. +Curses, deep and fervent. The daylight is fading, draining away. A +fifth cast falls forty feet out. Slowly you drag the flies across the +current, reluctant to recover until the latest possible moment. And so, +when your rod is foolishly upright, your line slack, and your flies +motionless, there rolls slowly up and over the trout of trouts. You see +a broad side, the whirl of a fantail that looks to you to be at least +six inches across; and the current slides on, silver-like, smooth, +indifferent to the wild leap of your heart. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<a name="7.jpg"></a> +<a href="images/7.jpg"><img src="images/7th.jpg" alt="THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THEY BATHE."></a> +</p> + +<p> +Like a crazy man you shorten your line. Six seconds later your flies +fall skilfully just upstream from where last you saw that wonderful +tail. +</p> + +<p> +But six seconds may be a long, long period of time. You have feared and +hoped and speculated and realized; feared that the leviathan has +pricked himself, and so will not rise again; hoped that his appearance +merely indicated curiosity which he will desire further to satisfy; +speculated on whether your skill can drop the fly exactly on that spot, +as it must be dropped; and realized that, whatever be the truth as to +all those fears and hopes and speculations, this is irrevocably your +last chance. +</p> + +<p> +For an instant you allow the flies to drift downstream, to be floated +here and there by idle little eddies, to be sucked down and spat out of +tiny suction-holes. Then cautiously you draw them across the surface of +the waters. <i>Thump--thump--thump</i>--your heart slows up with +disappointment. Then mysteriously, like the stirring of the waters by +some invisible hand, the molten silver is broken in its smoothness. The +Royal Coachman quietly disappears. With all the brakes shrieking on +your desire to shut your eyes and heave a mighty heave, you depress +your butt and strike. +</p> + +<p> +Then in the twilight the battle. No leisure is here, only quivering, +intense, agonized anxiety. The affair transcends the moment. Purposes +and necessities of untold ages have concentrated, so that somehow back +of your consciousness rest hosts of disembodied hopes, tendencies, +evolutionary progressions, all breathless lest you prove unequal to the +struggle for which they have been so long preparing. +Responsibility--vast, vague, formless--is yours. Only the fact that you +are wholly occupied with the exigence of the moment prevents your +understanding of what it is, but it hovers dark and depressing behind +your possible failure. You must win. This is no fish; it is opportunity +itself, and once gone it will never return. The mysticism of lower dusk +in the forest, of upper afterglow on the hills, of the chill of evening +waters and winds, of the glint of strange phantoms under the darkness +of cliffs, of the whisperings and shoutings of Things you are too busy +to identify out in the gray of North Country awe--all these menace you +with indeterminate dread. Knee-deep, waist-deep, swift water, slack +water, downstream, upstream, with red eyes straining into the dimness, +with every muscle taut and every nerve quivering, you follow the +ripping of your line. You have consecrated yourself to the uttermost. +The minutes stalk by you gigantic. You are a stable pin-point in +whirling phantasms. And you are very little, very small, very +inadequate among these Titans of circumstance. +</p> + +<p> +Thrice he breaks water, a white and ghostly apparition from the deep. +Your heart stops with your reel, and only resumes its office when again +the line sings safely. The darkness falls, and with it, like the +mysterious strength of Sir Gareth's opponent, falls the power of your +adversary. His rushes shorten. The blown world of your uncertainty +shrinks to the normal. From the haze of your consciousness, as through +a fog, loom the old familiar forest, and the hills, and the River. +Slowly you creep from that strange enchanted land. The sullen trout +yields. In all gentleness you float him within reach of your net. +Quietly, breathlessly you walk ashore, and over the beach, and yet an +unnecessary hundred feet from the water lest he retain still a flop. +Then you lay him upon the stones and lift up your heart in rejoicing. +</p> + +<p> +How you get to camp you never clearly know. Exultation lifts your feet. +Wings, wings, O ye Red Gods, wings to carry the body whither the spirit +hath already soared, and stooped, and circled back in impatience to see +why still the body lingers! Ordinarily you can cross the riffles above +the Halfway Pool only with caution and prayer and a stout staff +craftily employed. This night you can--and do--splash across hand-free, +as recklessly as you would wade a little brook. There is no stumble in +you, for you have done a great deed, and the Red Gods are smiling. +</p> + +<p> +Through the trees glows a light, and in the centre of that light are +leaping flames, and in the circle of that light stand, rough-hewn in +orange, the tent and the table and the waiting figures of your +companions. You stop short, and swallow hard, and saunter into camp as +one indifferent. +</p> + +<p> +Carelessly you toss aside your creel--into the darkest corner, as +though it were unimportant--nonchalantly you lean your rod against the +slant of your tent, wearily you seat yourself and begin to draw off +your drenched garments. Billy bends toward the fire. Dick gets you your +dry clothes. Nobody says anything, for everybody is hungry. No one asks +you any questions, for on the River you get in almost any time of +night. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, as you are hanging your wet things near the fire, you inquire +casually over your shoulder,-- +</p> + +<p> +"Dick, have any luck?" +</p> + +<p> +Dick tells you. You listen with apparent interest. He has caught a +three-pounder. He describes the spot and the method and the struggle. +He is very much pleased. You pity him. +</p> + +<p> +The three of you eat supper, lots of supper. Billy arises first, +filling his pipe. He hangs water over the fire for the dish-washing. +You and Dick sit hunched on a log, blissfully happy in the moments of +digestion, ruminative, watching the blaze. The tobacco smoke eddies and +sucks upward to join the wood smoke. Billy moves here and there in the +fulfilment of his simple tasks, casting his shadow wavering and +gigantic against the fire-lit trees. By-and-by he has finished. He +gathers up the straps of Dick's creel, and turns to the shadow for your +own. He is going to clean the fish. It is the moment you have watched +for. You shroud yourself in profound indifference. +</p> + +<p> +"<i>Sacré!</i>" shrieks Billy. +</p> + +<p> +You do not even turn your head. +</p> + +<p> +"Jumping giraffes! why, it's a whale!" cries Dick. +</p> + +<p> +You roll a <i>blasé</i> eye in their direction, as though such puerile +enthusiasm wearies you. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it's quite a little fish," you concede. +</p> + +<p> +They swarm down upon you, demanding particulars. These you accord +laconically, a word at a time, in answer to direct question, between +puffs of smoke. +</p> + +<p> +"At the Narrows. Royal Coachman. Just before I came in. Pretty fair +fight. Just at the edge of the eddy." And so on. But your soul glories. +</p> + +<p> +The tape-line is brought out. Twenty-nine inches it records. Holy +smoke, what a fish! Your air implies that you will probably catch three +more just like him on the morrow. Dick and Billy make tracings of him +on the birch bark. You retain your lofty calm: but inside you are +little quivers of rapture. And when you awake, late in the night, you +are conscious, first of all, that you are happy, happy, happy, all +through; and only when the drowse drains away do you remember why. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xviii">XVIII.</a></h2> + +<h3>MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT.</h3> + +<p> +We had been joined on the River by friends. "Doug," who never fished +more than forty rods from camp, and was always inventing water-gauges, +patent indicators, and other things, and who wore in his soft slouch +hat so many brilliant trout flies that he irresistibly reminded you of +flower-decked Ophelia; "Dinnis," who was large and good-natured, and +bubbling and popular; Johnny, whose wide eyes looked for the first time +on the woods-life, and whose awe-struck soul concealed itself behind +assumptions; "Jim," six feet tall and three feet broad, with whom the +season before I had penetrated to Hudson Bay; and finally, "Doc," tall, +granite, experienced, the best fisherman that ever hit the river. With +these were Indians. Buckshot, a little Indian with a good knowledge of +English; Johnnie Challán, a half-breed Indian, ugly, furtive, an +efficient man about camp; and Tawabinisáy himself. This was an honour +due to the presence of Doc. Tawabinisáy approved of Doc. That was all +there was to say about it. +</p> + +<p> +After a few days, inevitably the question of Kawágama came up. Billy, +Johnnie Challán, and Buckshot squatted in a semi-circle, and drew +diagrams in the soft dirt with a stick. Tawabinisáy sat on a log and +overlooked the proceedings. Finally he spoke. +</p> + +<p> +"Tawabinisáy" (they always gave him his full title; we called him +Tawáb) "tell me lake you find he no Kawágama," translated Buckshot. "He +called Black Beaver Lake." +</p> + +<p> +"Ask him if he'll take us to Kawágama," I requested. +</p> + +<p> +Tawabinisáy looked very doubtful. +</p> + +<p> +"Come on, Tawáb," urged Doc, nodding at him vigorously. "Don't be a +clam. We won't take anybody else up there." +</p> + +<p> +The Indian probably did not comprehend the words, but he liked Doc. +</p> + +<p> +"A'-right," he pronounced laboriously. +</p> + +<p> +Buckshot explained to us his plans. +</p> + +<p> +"Tawabinisáy tell me," said he, "he don' been to Kawágama seven year. +To-morrow he go blaze trail. Nex' day we go." +</p> + +<p> +"How would it be if one or two of us went with him to-morrow to see how +he does it?" asked Jim. +</p> + +<p> +Buckshot looked at us strangely. +</p> + +<p> +"<i>I</i> don't want to follow him," he replied, with a significant +simplicity. "He run like a deer." +</p> + +<p> +"Buckshot," said I, pursuing the inevitable linguistics, "what does +Kawágama mean?" +</p> + +<p> +Buckshot thought for quite two minutes. Then he drew a semicircle. +</p> + +<p> +"W'at you call dat?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Crescent, like moon? half-circle? horseshoe? bow?" we proposed. +</p> + +<p> +Buckshot shook his head at each suggestion. He made a wriggling mark, +then a wide sweep, then a loop. +</p> + +<p> +"All dose," said he, "w'at you call him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Curve!" we cried. +</p> + +<p> +"Áh hah," assented Buckshot, satisfied. +</p> + +<p> +"Buckshot," we went on, "what does Tawabinisáy mean?" +</p> + +<p> +"Man-who-travels-by-moonlight," he replied promptly. +</p> + +<p> +The following morning Tawabinisáy departed, carrying a lunch and a +hand-axe. At four o'clock he was back, sitting on a log and smoking a +pipe. In the meantime we had made up our party. +</p> + +<p> +Tawabinisáy himself had decided that the two half-breeds must stay at +home. He wished to share his secret only with his own tribesmen. The +fiat grieved Billy, for behold he had already put in much time on this +very search, and naturally desired to be in at the finish. Dick, too, +wanted to go, but him we decided too young and light for a fast march. +Dinnis had to leave the River in a day or so; Johnnie was a little +doubtful as to the tramp, although he concealed his doubt--at least to +his own satisfaction--under a variety of excuses. Jim and Doc would go, +of course. There remained Doug. +</p> + +<p> +We found that individual erecting a rack of many projecting arms--like +a Greek warrior's trophy--at the precise spot where the first rays of +the morning sun would strike it. On the projecting arms he purposed +hanging his wet clothes. +</p> + +<p> +"Doug," said we, "do you want to go to Kawágama to-morrow?" +</p> + +<p> +Doug turned on us a sardonic eye. He made no direct answer, but told +the following story:-- +</p> + +<p> +"Once upon a time Judge Carter was riding through a rural district in +Virginia. He stopped at a negro's cabin to get his direction. +</p> + +<p> +"'Uncle,' said he, 'can you direct me to Colonel Thompson's?' +</p> + +<p> +"'Yes, sah,' replied the negro; 'yo' goes down this yah road 'bout two +mile till yo' comes to an ol' ailm tree, and then yo' tu'us sha'p to +th' right down a lane fo' 'bout a qua'ter of a mile. Thah you sees a +big white house. Yo' wants to go through th' ya'd, to a paf that takes +you a spell to a gate. Yo' follows that road to th' lef till yo' comes +to three roads goin' up a hill; and, jedge, <i>it don' mattah which one +of them thah roads yo' take, yo' gets lost surer 'n hell anyway!</i>'" +</p> + +<p> +Then Doug turned placidly back to the construction of his trophy. +</p> + +<p> +We interpreted this as an answer, and made up an outfit for five. +</p> + +<p> +The following morning at six o'clock we were under way. Johnnie Challán +ferried us across the river in two instalments. We waved our hands and +plunged through the brush screen. +</p> + +<p> +Thenceforth it was walk half an hour, rest five minutes, with almost +the regularity of clockwork. We timed the Indians secretly, and found +they varied by hardly a minute from absolute fidelity to this schedule. +We had at first, of course, to gain the higher level of the hills, but +Tawabinisáy had the day before picked out a route that mounted as +easily as the country would allow, and through a hardwood forest free +of underbrush. Briefly indicated, our way led first through the big +trees and up the hills, then behind a great cliff knob into a creek +valley, through a quarter-mile of bottom-land thicket, then by an open +strip to the first little lake. This we ferried by means of the bark +canoe carried on the shoulders of Tawabinisáy. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of the morning we thus passed four lakes. Throughout the +entire distance to Kawágama were the fresh axe-blazes the Indian had +made the day before. These were neither so frequent nor as plainly cut +as a white man's trail, but each represented a pause long enough for +the clip of an axe. In addition the trail had been made passable for a +canoe. That meant the cutting out of overhanging branches wherever they +might catch the bow of the craft. In the thicket a little road had been +cleared, and the brush had been piled on either side. To an +unaccustomed eye it seemed the work of two days at least. Yet +Tawabinisáy had picked out his route, cleared and marked it thus, +skirted the shores of the lakes we were able to traverse in the canoe, +and had returned to the River in less time than we consumed in merely +reaching the Lake itself! Truly, as Buckshot said, he must have "run +like a deer." +</p> + +<p> +Tawabinisáy has a delightful grin which he displays when pleased or +good-humoured or puzzled or interested or comprehending, just as a dog +sneezes and wrinkles up his nose in like case. He is essentially +kind-hearted. If he likes you and approves of you, he tries to teach +you, to help you, to show you things. But he never offers to do any +part of your work, and on the march he never looks back to see if you +are keeping up. You can shout at him until you are black in the face, +but never will he pause until rest-time. Then he squats on his heels, +lights his pipe, and grins. +</p> + +<p> +Buckshot adored him. This opportunity of travelling with him was an +epoch. He drank in eagerly the brief remarks of his "old man," and +detailed them to us with solemnity, prefaced always by his "Tawabinisáy +tell me." Buckshot is of the better class of Indian himself, but +occasionally he is puzzled by the woods-noises. Tawabinisáy never. As +we cooked lunch, we heard the sound of steady footsteps in the +forest--<i>pat</i>; then a pause; then <i>pat</i>; just like a deer +browsing. To make sure I inquired of Buckshot. +</p> + +<p> +"What is it?" +</p> + +<p> +Buckshot listened a moment. +</p> + +<p> +"Deer," said he decisively; then, not because he doubted his own +judgment, but from habitual deference, he turned to where Tawabinisáy +was frying things. +</p> + +<p> +"Qwaw?" he inquired. +</p> + +<p> +Tawabinisáy never even looked up. +</p> + +<p> +"Adjí-domo" (squirrel), said he. +</p> + +<p> +We looked at each other incredulously. It sounded like a deer. It did +not sound in the least like a squirrel. An experienced Indian had +pronounced it a deer. Nevertheless it was a squirrel. +</p> + +<p> +We approached Kawágama by way of a gradual slope clothed with a +beautiful beech and maple forest whose trees were the tallest of those +species I have ever seen. Ten minutes brought us to the shore. There +was no abrupt bursting in on Kawágama through screens of leaves; we +entered leisurely to her presence by way of an ante-chamber whose +spaciousness permitted no vulgar surprises. After a time we launched +our canoe from a natural dock afforded by a cedar root, and so stood +ready to cross to our permanent camp. But first we drew our knives and +erased from a giant birch the half-grown-over name of the banker +Clement. +</p> + +<p> +There seems to me little use in telling you that Kawágama is about four +miles long by a mile wide, is shaped like a crescent, and lies in a +valley surrounded by high hills; nor that its water is so transparent +that the bottom is visible until it fades into the sheer blackness of +depth; nor that it is alive with trout; nor that its silence is the +silence of a vast solitude, so that always, even at daybreak or at high +midday, it seems to be late afternoon. That would convey little to you. +I will inform you quite simply that Kawágama is a very beautiful +specimen of the wilderness lake; that it is as the Lord made it; and +that we had a good time. +</p> + +<p> +Did you ever fish with the fly from a birch-bark canoe on absolutely +still water? You do not seem to move. But far below you, gliding, +silent, ghostlike, the bottom slips beneath. Like a weather-vane in an +imperceptible current of air, your bow turns to right or left in +apparent obedience to the mere will of your companion. And the flies +drop softly like down. Then the silence becomes sacred. You +swhisper--although there is no reason for your whispering; you move cautiously, +lest your reel scrape the gunwale. An inadvertent click of the paddle +is a profanation. The only creatures in all God's world possessing the +right to utter aloud a single syllable are the loon, far away, and the +winter wren, near at hand. Even the trout fight grimly, without noise, +their white bodies flashing far down in the dimness. +</p> + +<p> +Hour after hour we stole here and there like conspirators. Where showed +the circles of a fish's rise, thither crept we to drop a fly on their +centre as in the bull's-eye of a target. The trout seemed to linger +near their latest capture, so often we would catch one exactly where we +had seen him break water some little time before. In this was the charm +of the still hunt. Shoal water, deep water, it seemed all the same to +our fortunes. The lake was full of fish, and beautiful fish they were, +with deep, glowing bronze bellies, and all of from a pound to a pound +and a half in weight. The lake had not been fished. Probably somewhere +in those black depths over one of the bubbling spring-holes that must +feed so cold and clear a body of water, are big fellows lying, and +probably the crafty minnow or spoon might lure them out. But we were +satisfied with our game. +</p> + +<p> +At other times we paddled here and there in exploration of coves, +inlets, and a tiny little brook that flowed westward from a reed marsh +to join another river running parallel to our own. +</p> + +<p> +The Indians had erected a huge lean-to of birch bark, from the ribs of +which hung clothes and the little bags of food. The cooking-fire was +made in front of it between two giant birch trees. At evening the light +and heat reflected strongly beneath the shelter, leaving the forest in +impenetrable darkness. To the very edge of mystery crowded the strange +woods noises, the eerie influences of the night, like wolves afraid of +the blaze. We felt them hovering, vague, huge, dreadful, just outside +the circle of safety our fire had traced about us. The cheerful flames +were dancing familiars who cherished for us the home feeling in the +middle of a wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Two days we lingered, then took the back track. A little after noon we +arrived at the camp, empty save for Johnnie Challán. Towards dark the +fishermen straggled in. Time had been paid them in familiar coinage. +They had demanded only accustomed toll of the days, but we had returned +laden with strange and glittering memories. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="xix">XIX.</a></h2> + +<h3>APOLOGIA.</h3> + +<p> +The time at last arrived for departure. +</p> + +<p> +Deep laden were the canoes; heavy laden were we. The Indians shot away +down the current. We followed for the last time the dim blazed trail, +forded for the last time the shallows of the river. At the Burned Rock +Pool we caught our lunch fish from the ranks of leviathans. Then the +trodden way of the Fur Trail, worn into a groove so deep and a surface +so smooth that vegetation has left it as bare as ever, though the Post +has been abandoned these many years. At last the scrub spruce, and the +sandy soil, and the blue, restless waters of the Great Lake. With the +appearance of the fish-tug early the following day the summer ended. +</p> + +<p> +How often have I ruminated in the long marches the problem of the +Forest! Subtle she is, and mysterious, and gifted with a charm that +lures. Vast she is, and dreadful, so that man bows before her fiercer +moods, a little thing. Gentle she is, and kindly, so that she denies +nothing, whether of the material or spiritual, to those of her chosen +who will seek. August she is, and yet of a homely, sprightly +gentleness. Variable she is in her many moods. Night, day, sun, cloud, +rain, snow, wind, lend to her their best of warmth and cold, of comfort +and awe, of peace and of many shoutings, and she accepts them, but yet +remains greater and more enduring than they. In her is all the +sweetness of little things. Murmurs of water and of breeze, faint +odours, wandering streams of tepid air, stray bird-songs in fragment as +when a door is opened and closed, the softness of moss, the coolness of +shade, the glimpse of occult affairs in the woods life, accompany her +as Titania her court. How to express these things; how to fix on paper +in a record, as one would describe the Capitol at Washington, what the +Forest is--that is what I have asked myself often, and that is what I +have never yet found out. +</p> + +<p> +This is the wisdom reflection has taught. One cannot imprison the ocean +in a vial of sea-water; one cannot imprison the Forest inside the +covers of a book. +</p> + +<p> +There remains the second best. I have thought that perhaps if I were to +attempt a series of detached impressions, without relation, without +sequence; if I were to suggest a little here the beauty of a moon-beam, +there the humour of a rainstorm, at the last you might, by dint of +imagination and sympathy, get some slight feeling of what the great +woods are. It is the method of the painter. Perhaps it may suffice. +</p> + +<p> +For this reason let no old camper look upon this volume as a treatise +on woodcraft. Woodcraft there is in it, just as there is woodcraft in +the Forest itself, but much of the simplest and most obvious does not +appear. The painter would not depict every twig, as would the +naturalist. +</p> + +<p> +Equally it cannot be considered a book of travel nor of description. +The story is not consecutive; the adventures not exciting; the +landscape not denned. Perhaps it may be permitted to call it a book of +suggestion. Often on the street we have had opened to us by the merest +sketches of incident limitless vistas of memory. A momentary pose of +the head of a passer-by, a chance word, the breath of a faint +perfume--these bring back to us the entirety of forgotten scenes. Some +of these essays may perform a like office for you. I cannot hope to +give you the Forest. But perhaps a word or a sentence, an incident, an +impression, may quicken your imagination, so that through no conscious +direction of my own the wonder of the Forest may fill you, as the mere +sight of a conch-shell will sometimes till you with the wonder of the +sea. +<br> +<br> +<br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="s">SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT.</a></h2> + +<p> +In reply to inquiries as to necessary outfit for camping and +woods-travelling, the author furnishes the following lists:-- +</p> + +<p> +1. <i>Provisions per man, one week.</i> +</p> + +<p> +7 lbs. flour; 5 lbs. pork; 1-5 lb. tea; 2 lbs. beans; 1 1-2 lbs. sugar; +1 1-2 lbs. rice; 1 1-2 lbs. prunes and raisins; 1-1-2 lb. lard; 1 lb. +oatmeal; baking-powder; matches; soap; pepper; salt; 1-3 lb. +tobacco--(weight, a little over 20 lbs.). This will last much longer if +you get game and fish. +</p> + +<p> +2. <i>Pack one, or absolute necessities for hard trip.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Wear</i> hat; suit woollen underwear; shirt; trousers; socks; silk +handkerchief; cotton handkerchief; moccasins. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Carry</i> sweater (3 lbs.); extra drawers (1 1-2 lbs.); 2 extra +pairs socks; gloves (buckskin); towel; 2 extra pairs moccasins; +surgeon's plaster; laxative; pistol and cartridges; fishing-tackle; +blanket (7 1-2 lbs.); rubber blanket (1 lb.); tent (8 lbs.); small axe +(2 1-2 lbs.); knife; mosquito-dope; compass; match-box; tooth-brush; +comb; small whetstone--(weight, about 25 lbs.); 2 tin or aluminium +pails; 1 frying-pan; 1 cup; 1 knife, fork, and spoon--(weight, 4 lbs. +if of aluminium). +</p> + +<p> +Whole pack under 50 lbs. In case of two or more people, each pack would +be lighter, as tent, tinware, etc., would do for both. +</p> + +<p> +3. <i>Pack two--for luxuries and easy trips--extra to pack one.</i> +</p> + +<p> +More fishing-tackle; camera; 1 more pair socks; 1 more suit +underclothes; extra sweater; wading-shoes of canvas; large axe; +mosquito net; mending materials; kettle; candles; more +cooking-utensils; extra shirt; whisky. +</p> + +<h2>THE END.</h2> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest, by Stewart Edward White + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + +***** This file should be named 9376-h.htm or 9376-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/3/7/9376/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Forest + +Author: Stewart Edward White + +Posting Date: August 11, 2012 [EBook #9376] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 26, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE +MOMENT] + +THE FOREST + +BY + +STEWART EDWARD WHITE + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE CALLING +II. THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT +III. THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE +IV. ON MAKING CAMP +V. ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT +VI. THE 'LUNGE +VII. ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING +VIII. THE STRANDED STRANGERS +IX. ON FLIES +X. CLOCHE +XI. THE HABITANTS +XII. THE RIVER +XIII. THE HILLS +XIV. ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS +XV. ON WOODS INDIANS +XVI. ON WOODS INDIANS _(continued)_ +XVII. THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH +XVIII. MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT +XIX. APOLOGIA + +SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE MOMENT + +THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR AGAIN THE FLAG +OF HIS COUNTRY + +AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES + +EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT +SWAMPING + +WATCHED THE LONG NORTH-COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A GRAY CLOUD FROM +THE EAST + +IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF THAT MORNING + +NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE PEOPLE + +THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THE BATTLE + + + + + +THE FOREST + + + + + +I. + +THE CALLING. + +"The Red Gods make their medicine again." + + +Some time in February, when the snow and sleet have shut out from the +wearied mind even the memory of spring, the man of the woods generally +receives his first inspiration. He may catch it from some companion's +chance remark, a glance at the map, a vague recollection of a dim past +conversation, or it may flash on him from the mere pronouncement of a +name. The first faint thrill of discovery leaves him cool, but +gradually, with the increasing enthusiasm of cogitation, the idea gains +body, until finally it has grown to plan fit for discussion. + +Of these many quickening potencies of inspiration, the mere name of a +place seems to strike deepest at the heart of romance. Colour, mystery, +the vastnesses of unexplored space are there, symbolized compactly for +the aliment of imagination. It lures the fancy as a fly lures the +trout. Mattagami, Peace River, Kananaw, the House of the Touchwood +Hills, Rupert's House, the Land of Little Sticks, Flying Post, +Conjuror's House--how the syllables roll from the tongue, what pictures +rise in instant response to their suggestion! The journey of a thousand +miles seems not too great a price to pay for the sight of a place +called the Hills of Silence, for acquaintance with the people who dwell +there, perhaps for a glimpse of the saga-spirit that so named its +environment. On the other hand, one would feel but little desire to +visit Muggin's Corners, even though at their crossing one were assured +of the deepest flavour of the Far North. + +The first response to the red god's summons is almost invariably the +production of a fly-book and the complete rearrangement of all its +contents. The next is a resumption of practice with the little pistol. +The third, and last, is pencil and paper, and lists of grub and duffel, +and estimates of routes and expenses, and correspondence with men who +spell queerly, bear down heavily with blunt pencils, and agree to be at +Black Beaver Portage on a certain date. Now, though the February snow +and sleet still shut him in, the spring has draw very near. He can +feel the warmth of her breath rustling through his reviving memories. + +There are said to be sixty-eight roads to heaven, of which but one is +the true way, although here and there a by-path offers experimental +variety to the restless and bold. The true way for the man in the woods +to attain the elusive best of his wilderness experience is to go as +light as possible, and the by-paths of departure from that principle +lead only to the slightly increased carrying possibilities of +open-water canoe trips, and permanent camps. + +But these prove to be not very independent side paths, never diverging +so far from the main road that one may dare hope to conceal from a +vigilant eye that he is _not_ going light. + +To go light is to play the game fairly. The man in the woods matches +himself against the forces of nature. In the towns he is warmed and fed +and clothed so spontaneously and easily that after a time he perforce +begins to doubt himself, to wonder whether his powers are not atrophied +from disuse. And so, with his naked soul, he fronts the wilderness. It +is a test, a measuring of strength, a proving of his essential pluck +and resourcefulness and manhood, an assurance of man's highest potency, +the ability to endure and to take care of himself. In just so far as he +substitutes the ready-made of civilization for the wit-made of the +forest, the pneumatic bed for the balsam boughs, in just so far is he +relying on other men and other men's labour to take care of him. To +exactly that extent is the test invalidated. He has not proved a +courteous antagonist, for he has not stripped to the contest. + +To go light is to play the game sensibly. For even when it is not so +earnest, nor the stake so high, a certain common-sense should take the +place on a lower plane of the fair-play sense on the higher. A great +many people find enjoyment in merely playing with nature. Through +vacation they relax their minds, exercise mildly their bodies, and +freshen the colours of their outlook on life. Such people like to live +comfortably, work little, and enjoy existence lazily. Instead of +modifying themselves to fit the life of the wilderness, they modify +their city methods to fit open-air conditions. They do not need to +strip to the contest, for contest there is none, and Indian packers are +cheap at a dollar a day. But even so the problem of the greatest +comfort--defining comfort as an accurate balance of effort expended to +results obtained--can be solved only by the one formula. And that +formula is, again, _go light_, for a superabundance of paraphernalia +proves always more of a care than a satisfaction. When the woods offer +you a thing ready made, it is the merest foolishness to transport that +same thing a hundred miles for the sake of the manufacturer's trademark. + +I once met an outfit in the North Woods, plodding diligently across +portage, laden like the camels of the desert. Three Indians swarmed +back and forth a half-dozen trips apiece. An Indian can carry over two +hundred pounds. That evening a half-breed and I visited their camp and +examined their outfit, always with growing wonder. They had tent-poles +and about fifty pounds of hardwood tent pegs--in a wooded country where +such things can be had for a clip of the axe. They had a system of +ringed iron bars which could be so fitted together as to form a low +open grill on which trout could be broiled--weight twenty pounds, and +split wood necessary for its efficiency. They had air mattresses and +camp-chairs and oil lanterns. They had corpulent duffel bags apiece +that would stand alone, and enough changes of clothes to last out +dry-skinned a week's rain. And the leader of the party wore the +wrinkled brow of tribulation. For he had to keep track of everything +and see that package number twenty-eight was not left, and that package +number sixteen did not get wet; that the pneumatic bed did not get +punctured, and that the canned goods did. Beside which, the caravan was +moving at the majestic rate of about five miles a day. + +Now tent-pegs can always be cut, and trout broiled beautifully by a +dozen other ways, and candle lanterns fold up, and balsam can be laid +in such a manner as to be as springy as a pneumatic mattress, and +camp-chairs, if desired, can be quickly constructed with an axe, and +clothes can always be washed or dried as long as fire burns and water +runs, and any one of fifty other items of laborious burden could have +been ingeniously and quickly substituted by any one of the Indians. It +was not that we concealed a bucolic scorn of effete but solid comfort; +only it did seem ridiculous that a man should cumber himself with a +fifth wheel on a smoothly macadamized road. + +The next morning Billy and I went cheerfully on our way. We were +carrying an axe, a gun, blankets, an extra pair of drawers and socks +apiece, a little grub, and an eight-pound shelter tent. We had been out +a week, and we were having a good time. + + + + +II. + +THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT. + +"Now the Four-Way lodge is opened--now the smokes of Council rise-- +Pleasant smokes ere yet 'twixt trail and trail they choose." + + +You can no more be told how to go light than you can be told how to hit +a ball with a bat. It is something that must be lived through, and all +advice on the subject has just about the value of an answer to a +bashful young man who begged from one of our woman's periodicals help +in overcoming the diffidence felt on entering a crowded room. The reply +read: "Cultivate an easy, graceful manner." In like case I might +hypothecate, "To go light, discard all but the really necessary +articles." + +The sticking-point, were you to press me close, would be the definition +of the word "necessary," for the terms of such definition would have to +be those solely and simply of a man's experience. Comforts, even most +desirable comforts, are not necessities. A dozen times a day trifling +emergencies will seem precisely to call for some little handy +contrivance that would be just the thing, were it in the pack rather +than at home. A disgorger does the business better than a pocket-knife; +a pair of oilskin trousers turns the wet better than does kersey; a +camp-stove will burn merrily in a rain lively enough to drown an open +fire. Yet neither disgorger, nor oilskins, nor camp-stove can be +considered in the light of necessities, for the simple reason that the +conditions of their use occur too infrequently to compensate for the +pains of their carriage. Or, to put it the other way, a few moments' +work with a knife, wet knees occasionally, or an infrequent soggy meal +are not too great a price to pay for unburdened shoulders. + +Nor on the other hand must you conclude that because a thing is a mere +luxury in town, it is nothing but that in the woods. Most woodsmen own +some little ridiculous item of outfit without which they could not be +happy. And when a man cannot be happy lacking a thing, that thing +becomes a necessity. I knew one who never stirred without borated +talcum powder; another who must have his mouth-organ; a third who was +miserable without a small bottle of salad dressing; I confess to a pair +of light buckskin gloves. Each man must decide for himself--remembering +always the endurance limit of human shoulders. + +A necessity is that which, _by your own experience_, you have +found you cannot do without. As a bit of practical advice, however, the +following system of elimination may be recommended. When you return +from a trip, turn your duffel bag upside down on the floor. Of the +contents make three piles--three piles conscientiously selected in the +light of what has happened rather than what ought to have happened, or +what might have happened. It is difficult to do this. Preconceived +notions, habits of civilization, theory for future, imagination, all +stand in the eye of your honesty. Pile number one should comprise those +articles you have used every day; pile number two, those you have used +occasionally; pile number three, those you have not used at all. If you +are resolute and singleminded, you will at once discard the latter two. + +Throughout the following winter you will be attacked by misgivings. To +be sure, you wore the mosquito hat but once or twice, and the fourth +pair of socks not at all; but then the mosquitoes might be thicker next +time, and a series of rainy days and cold nights might make it +desirable to have a dry pair of socks to put on at night. The past has +been _x_, but the future might be _y_. One by one the discarded creep +back into the list. And by the opening of next season you have made +toward perfection by only the little space of a mackintosh coat and a +ten-gauge gun. + +But in the years to come you learn better and better the simple woods +lesson of substitution or doing without. You find that discomfort is as +soon forgotten as pain; that almost anything can be endured if it is +but for the time being; that absolute physical comfort is worth but a +very small price in avoirdupois. Your pack shrinks. + +In fact, it really never ceases shrinking. Only last summer taught me +the uselessness of an extra pair of trousers. It rains in the woods; +streams are to be waded; the wetness of leaves is greater than the +wetness of many rivers. Logically, naturally, inevitably, such +conditions point to change of garments when camp is made. We always +change our clothes when we get wet in the city. So for years I carried +those extra nether garments--and continued in the natural exposure to +sun and wind and camp-fire to dry off before change time, or to hang +the damp clothes from the ridge-pole for resumption in the morning. And +then one day the web of that particular convention broke. We change wet +trousers in the town; we do not in the woods. The extras were relegated +to pile number three, and my pack, already apparently down to a +minimum, lost a few pounds more. + +You will want a hat, a _good_ hat to turn rain, with a medium +brim. If you are wise, you will get it too small for your head, and rip +out the lining. The felt will cling tenaciously to your hair, so that +you will find the snatches of the brush and the wind generally +unavailing. + +By way of undergarments wear woollen. Buy winter weights even for +midsummer. In travelling with a pack a man is going to sweat in +streams, no matter what he puts on or takes off, and the thick garment +will be found no more oppressive than the thin. And then in the cool of +the woods or of the evening he avoids a chill. And he can plunge into +the coldest water with impunity, sure that ten minutes of the air will +dry him fairly well. Until you have shivered in clammy cotton, you +cannot realize the importance of this point. Ten minutes of cotton +underwear in cold water will chill. On the other hand, suitably clothed +in wool, I have waded the ice water of north country streams when the +thermometer was so low I could see my breath in the air, without other +discomfort than a cold ring around my legs to mark the surface of the +water, and a slight numbness in my feet when I emerged. Therefore, even +in hot weather, wear heavy wool. It is the most comfortable. +Undoubtedly you will come to believe this only by experience. + +Do not carry a coat. This is another preconception of civilization, +exceedingly difficult to get rid of. You will never wear it while +packing. In a rain you will find that it wets through so promptly as to +be of little use; or, if waterproof, the inside condensation will more +than equal the rain-water. In camp you will discard it because it will +impede the swing of your arms. The end of that coat will be a brief +half-hour after supper, and a makeshift roll to serve as a pillow +during the night. And for these a sweater is better in every way. + +In fact, if you feel you must possess another outside garment, let it +be an extra sweater. You can sleep in it, use it when your day garment +is soaked, or even tie things in it as in a bag. It is not necessary, +however. + +One good shirt is enough. When you wash it, substitute the sweater +until it dries. In fact, by keeping the sweater always in your +waterproof bag, you possess a dry garment to change into. Two +handkerchiefs are enough. One should be of silk, for neck, head, or--in +case of cramps or intense cold--the _stomach_; the other of +coloured cotton for the pocket. Both can be quickly washed, and dried +_en route_. Three pairs of heavy wool socks will be enough--one +for wear, one for night, and one for extra. A second pair of drawers +supplements the sweater when a temporary day change is desirable. Heavy +kersey "driver's" trousers are the best. They are cheap, dry very +quickly, and are not easily "picked out" by the brush. + +The best blanket is that made by the Hudson's Bay Company for its +servants--a "three-point" for summer is heavy enough. The next best is +our own gray army blanket. One of rubber should fold about it, and a +pair of narrow buckle straps is handy to keep the bundle right and +tight and waterproof. As for a tent, buy the smallest shelter you can +get along with, have it made of balloon silk well waterproofed, and +supplement it with a duplicate tent of light cheesecloth to suspend +inside as a fly-proof defence. A seven-by-seven three-man A-tent, which +would weigh between twenty and thirty pounds if made of duck, means +only about eight pounds constructed of this material. And it is +waterproof. I own one which I have used for three seasons. It has been +employed as tarpaulin, fly, even blanket on a pinch; it has been packed +through the roughest country; I have even pressed it into service as a +sort of canoe lining; but it is still as good as ever. Such a tent +sometimes condenses a little moisture in a cold rain, but it never +"sprays" as does a duck shelter; it never leaks simply because you have +accidentally touched its under-surface; and, best of all, it weighs no +more after a rain than before it. This latter item is perhaps its best +recommendation. The confronting with equanimity of a wet day's journey +in the shower-bath brush of our northern forests requires a degree of +philosophy which a gratuitous ten pounds of soaked-up water sometimes +most effectually breaks down. I know of but one place where such a tent +can be bought. The address will be gladly sent to any one practically +interested. + +As for the actual implements of the trade, they are not many, although +of course the sporting goods stores are full of all sorts of "handy +contrivances." A small axe--one of the pocket size will do, if you get +the right shape and balance, although a light regulation axe is better; +a thin-bladed sheath-knife of the best steel; a pocket-knife; a +compass; a waterproof match-safe; fishing-tackle; firearms; and cooking +utensils comprise the list. All others belong to permanent camps, or +open-water cruises--not to "hikes" in the woods. + +The items, with the exception of the last two, seem to explain +themselves. During the summer months in the North Woods you will not +need a rifle. Partridges, spruce hens, ptarmigan, rabbits, ducks, and +geese are usually abundant enough to fill the provision list. For them, +of course, a shotgun is the thing; but since such a weapon weighs many +pounds, and its ammunition many more, I have come gradually to depend +entirely on a pistol. The instrument is single shot, carries a six-inch +barrel, is fitted with a special butt, and is built on the graceful +lines of a 38-calibre Smith and Wesson revolver. Its cartridge is the +22 long-rifle, a target size, that carries as accurately as you can +hold for upwards of a hundred yards. With it I have often killed a +half-dozen of partridges from the same tree. The ammunition is light. +Altogether it is a most satisfactory, convenient, and accurate weapon, +and quite adequate to all small game. In fact, an Indian named +Tawabinisay, after seeing it perform, once borrowed it to kill a moose. + +[Illustration: THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR +AGAIN THE FLAG OF HIS COUNTRY.] + +"I shootum in eye," said he. + +By way of cooking utensils, buy aluminium. It is expensive, but so +light and so easily cleaned that it is well worth all you may have to +pay. If you are alone you will not want to carry much hardware. I made +a twenty-day trip once with nothing but a tin cup and a frying-pan. +Dishes, pails, wash-basins, and other receptacles can always be made of +birch bark and cedar withes--by one who knows how. The ideal outfit for +two or three is a cup, fork, and spoon apiece, one tea-pail, two +kettle-pails, and a frying-pan. The latter can be used as a bread-oven. + +A few minor items, of practically no weight, suggest themselves--toilet +requisites, fly-dope, needle and thread, a cathartic, pain-killer, a +roll of surgeon's bandage, pipe and tobacco. But when the pack is made +up, and the duffel bag tied, you find that, while fitted for every +emergency but that of catastrophe, you are prepared to "go light." + + + + +III. + +THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE. + + +Sometime, no matter how long your journey, you will reach a spot whose +psychological effect is so exactly like a dozen others that you will +recognize at once its kinship with former experience. Mere physical +likeness does not count at all. It may possess a water-front of laths +and sawdust, or an outlook over broad, shimmering, heat-baked plains. +It may front the impassive fringe of a forest, or it may skirt the calm +stretch of a river. But whether of log or mud, stone or unpainted +board, its identity becomes at first sight indubitably evident. Were +you, by the wave of some beneficent wand, to be transported direct to +it from the heart of the city, you could not fail to recognize it. "The +jumping-off place!" you would cry ecstatically, and turn with unerring +instinct to the Aromatic Shop. + +For here is where begins the Long Trail. Whether it will lead you +through the forests, or up the hills, or over the plains, or by +invisible water paths; whether you will accomplish it on horseback, or +in canoe, or by the transportation of your own two legs; whether your +companions shall be white or red, or merely the voices of the +wilds--these things matter not a particle. In the symbol of this little +town you loose your hold on the world of made things, and shift for +yourself among the unchanging conditions of nature. + +Here the faint forest flavour, the subtle, invisible breath of freedom, +stirs faintly across men's conventions. The ordinary affairs of life +savour of this tang--a trace of wildness in the domesticated berry. In +the dress of the inhabitants is a dash of colour, a carelessness of +port; in the manner of their greeting is the clear, steady-eyed +taciturnity of the silent places; through the web of their gray talk of +ways and means and men's simpler beliefs runs a thread of colour. One +hears strange, suggestive words and phrases--arapajo, capote, arroyo, +the diamond hitch, cache, butte, coule, muskegs, portage, and a dozen +others coined into the tender of daily use. And occasionally, when the +expectation is least alert, one encounters suddenly the very symbol of +the wilderness itself--a dust-whitened cowboy, an Indian packer with +his straight, fillet-confined hair, a voyageur gay in red sash and +ornamented moccasins, one of the Company's canoemen, hollow-cheeked +from the river--no costumed show exhibit, but fitting naturally into +the scene, bringing something of the open space with him--so that in +your imagination the little town gradually takes on the colour of +mystery which an older community utterly lacks. + +But perhaps the strongest of the influences which unite to assure the +psychological kinships of the jumping-off places is that of the +Aromatic Shop. It is usually a board affair, with a broad high sidewalk +shaded by a wooden awning. You enter through a narrow door, and find +yourself facing two dusky aisles separated by a narrow division of +goods, and flanked by wooden counters. So far it is exactly like the +corner store of our rural districts. But in the dimness of these two +aisles lurks the spirit of the wilds. There in a row hang fifty pair of +smoke-tanned moccasins; in another an equal number of oil-tanned; +across the background you can make out snowshoes. The shelves are high +with blankets--three-point, four-point--thick and warm for the +out-of-doors. Should you care to examine, the storekeeper will hook +down from aloft capotes of different degrees of fineness. Fathoms of +black tobacco-rope lie coiled in tubs. Tump-lines welter in a tangle of +dimness. On a series of little shelves is the ammunition, fascinating +in the attraction of mere numbers--44 Winchester, 45 Colt, 40-82, +30-40, 44 S. & W.--they all connote something to the accustomed mind, +just as do the numbered street names of New York. + +An exploration is always bringing something new to light among the +commonplaces of ginghams and working shirts, and canned goods and +stationery, and the other thousands of civilized drearinesses to found +in every country store. From under the counter you drag out a mink skin +or so; from the dark corner an assortment of steel traps. In a loft a +birch-bark mokok, fifty pounds heavy with granulated maple sugar, +dispenses a faint perfume. + +For this is, above all, the Aromatic Shop. A hundred ghosts of odours +mingle to produce the spirit of it. The reek of the camp-fires is in +its buckskin, of the woods in its birch bark, of the muskegs in its +sweet grass, of the open spaces in its peltries, of the evening meal in +its coffees and bacons, of the portage trail in the leather of the +tump-lines. I am speaking now of the country of which we are to write. +The shops of the other jumping-off places are equally aromatic--whether +with the leather of saddles, the freshness of ash paddles, or the +pungency of marline; and once the smell of them is in your nostrils you +cannot but away. + +The Aromatic Shop is always kept by the wisest, the most accommodating, +the most charming shopkeeper in the world. He has all leisure to give +you, and enters into the innermost spirit of your buying. He is of +supernal sagacity in regard to supplies and outfits, and if he does not +know all about routes, at least he is acquainted with the very man who +can tell you everything you want to know. He leans both elbows on the +counter, you swing your feet, and together you go over the list, while +the Indian stands smoky and silent in the background. "Now, if I was +you," says he, "I'd take just a little more pork. You won't be eatin' +so much yourself, but these Injuns ain't got no bottom when it comes to +sow-belly. And I wouldn't buy all that coffee. You ain't goin' to want +much after the first edge is worn off. Tea's the boy." The Indian +shoots a few rapid words across the discussion. "He says you'll want +some iron shoes to fit on canoe poles for when you come back +up-stream," interprets your friend. "I guess that's right. I ain't got +none, but th' blacksmith'll fit you out all right. You'll find him just +below--never mind, don't you bother, I'll see to all that for you." + +The next morning he saunters into view at the river-bank. "Thought I'd +see you off," he replies to your expression of surprise at his early +rising. "Take care of yourself." And so the last hand-clasp of +civilization is extended to you from the little Aromatic Shop. + +Occasionally, however, though very rarely, you step to the Long Trail +from the streets of a raw modern town. The chance presence of some +local industry demanding a large population of workmen, combined with +first-class railroad transportation, may plant an electric-lighted, +saloon-lined, brick-hoteled city in the middle of the wilderness. +Lumber, mines--especially of the baser metals or commercial +minerals--fisheries, a terminus of water freightage, may one or all +call into existence a community a hundred years in advance of its +environment. Then you lose the savour of the jump-off. Nothing can +quite take the place of the instant plunge into the wilderness, for you +must travel three or four days from such a place before you sense the +forest in its vastness, even though deer may eat the cabbages at the +edge of town. Occasionally, however, by force of crude contrast to the +brick-heated atmosphere, the breath of the woods reaches your cheek, +and always you own a very tender feeling for the cause of it. + +Dick and myself were caught in such a place. It was an unfinished +little town, with brick-fronted stores, arc-lights swaying over +fathomless mud, big superintendent's and millowner's houses of bastard +architecture in a blatant superiority of hill location, a hotel whose +office chairs supported a variety of cheap drummers, and stores +screeching in an attempt at metropolitan smartness. We inspected the +standpipe and the docks, walked a careless mile of board walk, kicked a +dozen pugnacious dogs from our setter, Deuce, and found ourselves at +the end of our resources. As a crowd seemed to be gathering about the +wooden railway station, we joined it in sheer idleness. + +It seemed that an election had taken place the day before, that one +Smith had been chosen to the Assembly, and that, though this district +had gone anti-Smith, the candidate was expected to stop off an hour on +his way to a more westerly point. Consequently the town was on hand to +receive him. + +The crowd, we soon discovered, was bourgeois in the extreme. Young men +from the mill escorted young women from the shops. The young men wore +flaring collars three sizes too large; the young women white cotton +mitts three sizes too small. The older men spat, and talked through +their noses; the women drawled out a monotonous flow of speech +concerning the annoyances of domestic life. A gang of uncouth practical +jokers, exploding in horse-laughter, skylarked about, jostling rudely. +A village band, uniformed solely with cheap carriage-cloth caps, brayed +excruciatingly. The reception committee had decorated, with red and +white silesia streamers and rosettes, an ordinary side-bar buggy, to +which a long rope had been attached, that the great man might be +dragged by his fellow-citizens to the public square. + +Nobody seemed to be taking the affair too seriously. It was evidently +more than half a joke. Anti-Smith was more good-humouredly in evidence +than the winning party. Just this touch of buffoonery completed our +sense of the farce-comedy character of the situation. The town was +tawdry in its preparations--and knew it; but half sincere in its +enthusiasm--and knew it. If the crowd had been composed of Americans, +we should have anticipated an unhappy time for Smith; but good, loyal +Canadians, by the limitations of temperament, could get no further than +a spirit of manifest irreverence. + +In the shifting of the groups Dick and I became separated, but shortly +I made him out worming his way excitedly toward me, his sketch-book +open in his hand. + +"Come here," he whispered. "There's going to be fun. They're going to +open up on old Smith after all." + +I followed. The decorated side-bar buggy might be well meant; the +village band need not have been interpreted as an ironical compliment; +the rest of the celebration might indicate paucity of resource rather +than facetious intent; but surely the figure of fun before us could not +be otherwise construed than as a deliberate advertising in the face of +success of the town's real attitude toward the celebration. + +The man was short. He wore a felt hat, so big that it rested on his +ears. A gray wool shirt hung below his neck. A cutaway coat miles too +large depended below his knees and to the first joints of his fingers. +By way of official uniform his legs were incased in an ordinary rough +pair of miller's white trousers, on which broad strips of red flannel +had been roughly sewn. Everything was wrinkled in the folds of +too-bigness. As though to accentuate the note, the man stood very +erect, very military, and supported in one hand the staff of an English +flag. This figure of fun, this man made from the slop-chest, this +caricature of a scarecrow, had been put forth by heavy-handed +facetiousness to the post of greatest honour. He was Standard-Bearer to +the occasion! Surely subtle irony could go no further. + +A sudden movement caused the man to turn. One sleeve of the faded, +ridiculous old cutaway was empty. He turned again. From under the +ear-flanging hat looked unflinchingly the clear, steady blue eye of the +woodsman. And so we knew. This old soldier had come in from the Long +Trail to bear again the flag of his country. If his clothes were old +and ill-fitting, at least they were his best, and the largeness of the +empty sleeve belittled the too-largeness of the other. In all this +ribald, laughing, irreverent, commonplace, semi-vicious crowd he was +the one note of sincerity. To him this was a real occasion, and the +exalted reverence in his eye for the task he was so simply performing +was Smith's real triumph--if he could have known it. We understood now, +we felt the imminence of the Long Trail. For the first time the little +brick, tawdry town gripped our hearts with the well-known thrill of the +Jumping-Off Place. Suddenly the great, simple, unashamed wilderness +drew near us as with the rush of wings. + + + + +IV. + +ON MAKING CAMP. + +"Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight? Who hath + heard the birch log burning? +Who is quick to read the noises of the night? +Let him follow with the others, for the young men's feet are turning +To the camps of proved desire and known delight." + + +In the Ojibway language _wigwam_ means a good spot for camping, a +place cleared for a camp, a camp as an abstract proposition, and a camp +in the concrete as represented by a tent, a thatched shelter, or a +conical tepee. In like manner, the English word _camp_ lends +itself to a variety of concepts. I once slept in a four-poster bed over +a polished floor in an elaborate servant-haunted structure which, +mainly because it was built of logs and overlooked a lake, the owner +always spoke of as his camp. Again, I once slept on a bed of prairie +grass, before a fire of dried buffalo chips and mesquite, wrapped in a +single light blanket, while a good vigorous rain-storm made new cold +places on me and under me all night. In the morning the cowboy with +whom I was travelling remarked that this was "sure a lonesome +proposition as a camp." + +Between these two extremes is infinite variety, grading upwards through +the divers bivouacs of snow, plains, pines, or hills to the bark +shelter; past the dog-tent, the A-tent, the wall-tent, to the elaborate +permanent canvas cottage of the luxurious camper, the dug-out winter +retreat of the range cowboy, the trapper's cabin, the great log-built +lumber-jack communities, and the last refinements of sybaritic summer +homes in the Adirondacks. All these are camps. And when you talk of +making camp you must know whether that process is to mean only a search +for rattlesnakes and enough acrid-smoked fuel to boil tea, or a +winter's consultation with an expert architect; whether your camp is to +be made on the principle of Omar's one-night Sultan, or whether it is +intended to accommodate the full days of an entire summer. + +But to those who tread the Long Trail the making of camp resolves +itself into an algebraical formula. After a man has travelled all day +through the Northern wilderness he wants to rest, and anything that +stands between himself and his repose he must get rid of in as few +motions as is consistent with reasonable thoroughness. The end in view +is a hot meal and a comfortable dry place to sleep. The straighter he +can draw the line to those two points the happier he is. + +Early in his woods experience, Dick became possessed with the desire to +do everything for himself. As this was a laudable striving for +self-sufficiency, I called a halt at about three o'clock one afternoon +in order to give him plenty of time. + +Now Dick is a good, active, able-bodied boy, possessed of average +intelligence and rather more than average zeal. He even had theory of a +sort, for he had read various "Boy Campers, or the Trapper's Guide," +"How to Camp Out," "The Science of Woodcraft," and other able works. He +certainly had ideas enough and confidence enough. I sat down on a log. + +At the end of three hours' flusteration, heat, worry, and good hard +work, he had accomplished the following results: A tent, very saggy, +very askew, covered a four-sided area--it was not a rectangle--of very +bumpy ground. A hodge-podge bonfire, in the centre of which an +inaccessible coffee-pot toppled menacingly, alternately threatened to +ignite the entire surrounding forest or to go out altogether through +lack of fuel. Personal belongings strewed the ground near the fire, and +provisions cumbered the entrance to the tent. Dick was anxiously mixing +batter for the cakes, attempting to stir a pot of rice often enough to +prevent it from burning, and trying to rustle sufficient dry wood to +keep the fire going. This diversity of interests certainly made him sit +up and pay attention. At each instant he had to desert his flour-sack +to rescue the coffee-pot, or to shift the kettle, or to dab hastily at +the rice, or to stamp out the small brush, or to pile on more dry +twigs. His movements were not graceful. They raised a scurry of dry +bark, ashes, wood dust, twigs, leaves, and pine needles, a certain +proportion of which found their way into the coffee, the rice, and the +sticky batter, while the smaller articles of personal belonging, +hastily dumped from the duffel-bag, gradually disappeared from view in +the manner of Pompeii and ancient Vesuvius. Dick burned his fingers and +stumbled about and swore, and looked so comically-pathetically +red-faced through the smoke that I, seated on the log, at the same time +laughed and pitied. And in the end, when he needed a continuous steady +fire to fry his cakes, he suddenly discovered that dry twigs do not +make coals, and that his previous operations had used up all the fuel +within easy circle of the camp. + +So he had to drop everything for the purpose of rustling wood, +while the coffee chilled, the rice cooled, the bacon congealed, and all +the provisions, cooked and uncooked, gathered entomological specimens. +At the last, the poor bedeviled theorist made a hasty meal of scorched +food, brazenly postponed the washing of dishes until the morrow, and +coiled about his hummocky couch to dream the nightmares of complete +exhaustion. + +Poor Dick! I knew exactly how he felt, how the low afternoon sun +scorched, how the fire darted out at unexpected places, how the smoke +followed him around, no matter on which side of the fire he placed +himself, how the flies all took to biting when both hands were +occupied, and how they all miraculously disappeared when he had set +down the frying-pan and knife to fight them. I could sympathize, too, +with the lonely, forlorn, lost-dog feeling that clutched him after it +was all over. I could remember how big and forbidding and unfriendly +the forest had once looked to me in like circumstances, so that I had +felt suddenly thrust outside into empty spaces. Almost was I tempted to +intervene; but I liked Dick, and I wanted to do him good. This +experience was harrowing, but it prepared his mind for the seeds of +wisdom. By the following morning he had chastened his spirit, forgotten +the assurance breathed from the windy pages of the Boy Trapper Library, +and was ready to learn. + +Have you ever watched a competent portraitist at work? The infinite +pains a skilled man spends on the preliminaries before he takes one +step towards a likeness nearly always wears down the patience of the +sitter. He measures with his eye, he plumbs, he sketches tentatively, +he places in here a dab, there a blotch, he puts behind him apparently +unproductive hours--and then all at once he is ready to begin something +that will not have to be done over again. An amateur, however, is +carried away by his desire for results. He dashes in a hit-or-miss +early effect, which grows into an approximate likeness almost +immediately, but which will require infinite labour, alteration, and +anxiety to beat into finished shape. + +The case of the artist in making camps is exactly similar, and the +philosophical reasons for his failure are exactly the same. To the +superficial mind a camp is a shelter, a bright fire, and a smell of +cooking. So when a man is very tired he cuts across lots to those three +results. He pitches his tent, lights his fire, puts over his food--and +finds himself drowned in detail, like my friend Dick. + +The following is, in brief, what during the next six weeks I told that +youth, by precept, by homily, and by making the solution so obvious +that he could work it out for himself. + +When five or six o'clock draws near, begin to look about you for a good +level dry place, elevated some few feet above the surroundings. Drop +your pack or beach your canoe. Examine the location carefully. You +will want two trees about ten feet apart, from which to suspend your +tent, and a bit of flat ground underneath them. Of course the flat +ground need not be particularly unencumbered by brush or saplings, so +the combination ought not to be hard to discover. Now return to your +canoe. Do not unpack the tent. + +With the little axe clear the ground thoroughly. By bending a sapling +over strongly with the left hand, clipping sharply at the strained +fibres, and then bending it as strongly the other way to repeat the axe +stroke on the other side, you will find that treelets of even two or +three inches diameter can be felled by two blows. In a very few +moments you will have accomplished a hole in the forest, and your two +supporting trees will stand sentinel at either end of a most +respectable-looking clearing. Do not unpack the tent. + +Now, although the ground seems free of all but unimportant growths, go +over it thoroughly for little shrubs and leaves. They look soft and +yielding, but are often possessed of unexpectedly abrasive roots. +Besides, they mask the face of the ground. When you have finished +pulling them up by the roots, you will find that your supposedly level +plot is knobby with hummocks. Stand directly over each little mound; +swing the back of your axe vigorously against it, adze-wise, between +your legs. Nine times out of ten it will crumble, and the tenth time +means merely a root to cut or a stone to pry out. At length you are +possessed of a plot of clean, fresh earth, level and soft, free from +projections. But do not unpack your tent. + +Lay a young birch or maple an inch or so in diameter across a log. Two +clips will produce you a tent-peg. If you are inexperienced, and +cherish memories of striped lawn marquees, you will cut them about six +inches long. If you are wise and old and gray in woods experience, you +will multiply that length by four. Then your loops will not slip off, +and you will have a real grip on mother earth, than which nothing can +be more desirable in the event of a heavy rain and wind squall about +midnight. If your axe is as sharp as it ought to be, you can point +them more neatly by holding them suspended in front of you while you +snip at their ends with the axe, rather than by resting them against a +solid base. Pile them together at the edge of the clearing. Cut a +crotched sapling eight or ten feet long. Now unpack your tent. + +In a wooded country you will not take the time to fool with tent-poles. +A stout line run through the eyelets and along the apex will string it +successfully between your two trees. Draw the line as tight as +possible, but do not be too unhappy if, after your best efforts, it +still sags a little. That is what your long crotched stick is for. +Stake out your four corners. If you get them in a good rectangle, and +in such relation to the apex as to form two isosceles triangles of the +ends, your tent will stand smoothly. Therefore, be an artist and do it +right. Once the four corners are well placed, the rest follows +naturally. Occasionally in the North Country it will be found that the +soil is too thin over the rocks to grip the tent-pegs. In that case +drive them at a sharp angle as deep as they will go, and then lay a +large flat stone across the slant of them. Thus anchored, you will +ride out a gale. Finally, wedge your long sapling crotch under the +line--outside the tent, of course--to tighten it. Your shelter is up. +If you are a woodsman, ten or fifteen minutes has sufficed to +accomplish all this. + +There remains the question of a bed, and you'd better attend to it now, +while your mind is still occupied with the shelter problem. Fell a +good thrifty young balsam and set to work pulling off the fans. Those +you cannot strip off easily with your hands are too tough for your +purpose. Lay them carelessly crisscross against the blade of your axe +and up the handle. They will not drop off, and when you shoulder that +axe you will resemble a walking haystack, and will probably experience +a genuine emotion of surprise at the amount of balsam that can be thus +transported. In the tent lay smoothly one layer of fans, convex side +up, butts toward the foot. Now thatch the rest on top of this, +thrusting the butt ends underneath the layer already placed in such a +manner as to leave the fan ends curving up and down towards the foot of +your bed. Your second emotion of surprise will assail you as you +realize how much spring inheres in but two or three layers thus +arranged. When you have spread your rubber blanket, you will be +possessed of a bed as soft and a great deal more aromatic and luxurious +than any you would be able to buy in town. + +Your next care is to clear a living space in front of the tent. This +will take you about twenty seconds, for you need not be particular as +to stumps, hummocks, or small brush. All you want is room for cooking, +and suitable space for spreading out your provisions. But do not +unpack anything yet. + +Your fireplace you will build of two green logs laid side by side. The +fire is to be made between them. They should converge slightly, in +order that the utensils to be rested across them may be of various +sizes. If your vicinity yields flat stones, they build up even better +than the logs--unless they happen to be of granite. Granite explodes +most disconcertingly. Poles sharpened, driven upright into the ground, +and then pressed down to slant over the fireplace, will hold your +kettles a suitable height above the blaze. + +Fuel should be your next thought. A roll of birch bark first of all. +Then some of the small, dry, resinous branches that stick out from the +trunks of medium-sized pines, living or dead. Finally, the wood +itself. If you are merely cooking supper, and have no thought for a +warmth-fire or a friendship-fire, I should advise you to stick to the +dry pine branches, helped out, in the interest of coals for frying, by +a little dry maple or birch. If you need more of a blaze, you will +have to search out, fell, and split a standing dead tree. This is not +at all necessary. I have travelled many weeks in the woods without +using a more formidable implement than a one-pound hatchet. Pile your +fuel--a complete supply, all you are going to need--by the side of your +already improvised fireplace. But, as you value your peace of mind, do +not fool with matches. + +It will be a little difficult to turn your mind from the concept of +fire, to which all these preparations have compellingly led +it--especially as a fire is the one cheerful thing your weariness needs +the most at this time of day--but you must do so. Leave everything just +as it is, and unpack your provisions. + +First of all, rinse your utensils. Hang your tea-pail, with the proper +quantity of water, from one slanting pole, and your kettle from the +other. Salt the water in the latter receptacle. Peel your potatoes, +if you have any; open your little provision sacks; puncture your tin +cans, if you have any; slice your bacon; clean your fish; pluck your +birds; mix your dough or batter; spread your table tinware on your +tarpaulin or a sheet of birch bark; cut a kettle-lifter; see that +everything you are going to need is within direct reach of your hand as +you squat on your heels before the fireplace. Now light your fire. + +The civilized method is to build a fire and then to touch a match to +the completed structure. If well done and in a grate or steve, this +works beautifully. Only in the woods you have no grate. The only sure +way is as follows: Hold a piece of birch bark in your hand. Shelter +your match all you know how. When the bark has caught, lay it in your +fireplace, assist it with more bark, and gradually build up, twig by +twig, stick by stick, from the first pin-point of flame, all the fire +you are going to need. It will not be much. The little hot blaze +rising between the parallel logs directly against the aluminium of your +utensils will do the business in a very short order. In fifteen +minutes at most your meal is ready. And you have been able to attain +to hot food thus quickly because you were prepared. + +In case of very wet weather the affair is altered somewhat. If the +rain has just commenced, do not stop to clear out very thoroughly, but +get your tent up as quickly as possible, in order to preserve an area +of comparatively dry ground. But if the earth is already soaked, you +had best build a bonfire to dry out by, while you cook over a smaller +fire a little distance removed, leaving the tent until later. Or it +may be well not to pitch the tent at all, but to lay it across slanting +supports at an angle to reflect the heat against the ground. + +It is no joke to light a fire in the rain. An Indian can do it more +easily than a white man, but even an Indian has more trouble than the +story-books acknowledge. You will need a greater quantity of birch +bark, a bigger pile of resinous dead limbs from the pine trees, and +perhaps the heart of a dead pine stub or stump. Then, with infinite +patience, you may be able to tease the flame. Sometimes a small dead +birch contains in the waterproof envelope of its bark a species of +powdery, dry touchwood that takes the flame readily. Still, it is easy +enough to start a blaze--a very fine-looking, cheerful, healthy blaze; +the difficulty is to prevent its petering out the moment your back is +turned. + +But the depths of woe are sounded and the limit of patience reached +when you are forced to get breakfast in the dripping forest. After the +chill of early dawn you are always reluctant in the best of +circumstances to leave your blankets, to fumble with numbed fingers for +matches, to handle cold steel and slippery fish. But when every leaf, +twig, sapling, and tree contains a douche of cold water; when the +wetness oozes about your moccasins from the soggy earth with every step +you take; when you look about you and realize that somehow, before you +can get a mouthful to banish that before-breakfast ill-humour, you must +brave cold water in an attempt to find enough fuel to cook with, then +your philosophy and early religious training avail you little. The +first ninety-nine times you are forced to do this you will probably +squirm circumspectly through the bush in a vain attempt to avoid +shaking water down on yourself; you will resent each failure to do so, +and at the end your rage will personify the wilderness for the purpose +of one sweeping anathema. The hundredth time will bring you wisdom. You +will do the anathema--rueful rather than enraged--from the tent +opening. Then you will plunge boldly in and get wet. It is not +pleasant, but it has to be done, and you will save much temper, not to +speak of time. + +Dick and I earned our diplomas at this sort of work. It rained twelve +of the first fourteen days we were out. Towards the end of that two +weeks I doubt if even an Indian could have discovered a dry stick of +wood in the entire country. The land was of Laurentian rock formation, +running in parallel ridges of bare stone separated by hollows carpeted +with a thin layer of earth. The ridges were naturally ill-adapted to +camping, and the cup hollows speedily filled up with water until they +became most creditable little marshes. Often we hunted for an hour or +so before we could find any sort of a spot to pitch our tent. As for a +fire, it was a matter of chopping down dead trees large enough to have +remained dry inside, of armfuls of birch bark, and of the patient +drying out, by repeated ignition, of enough fuel to cook very simple +meals. Of course we could have kept a big fire going easily enough, +but we were travelling steadily and had not the time for that. In +these trying circumstances, Dick showed that, no matter how much of a +tenderfoot he might be, he was game enough under stress. + +But to return to our pleasant afternoon. While you are consuming the +supper you will hang over some water to heat for the dish-washing, and +the dish-washing you will attend to the moment you have finished +eating. Do not commit the fallacy of sitting down for a little rest. +Better finish the job completely while you are about it. You will +appreciate leisure so much more later. In lack of a wash-rag you will +find that a bunch of tall grass bent double makes an ideal swab. + +Now brush the flies from your tent, drop the mosquito-proof lining, and +enjoy yourself. The whole task, from first to last, has consumed but a +little over an hour. And you are through for the day. + +In the woods, as nowhere else, you will earn your leisure only by +forethought. Make no move until you know it follows the line of +greatest economy. To putter is to wallow in endless desolation. If you +cannot move directly and swiftly and certainly along the line of least +resistance in everything you do, take a guide with you; you are not of +the woods people. You will never enjoy doing for yourself, for your +days will be crammed with unending labour. + +It is but a little after seven. The long crimson shadows of the North +Country are lifting across the aisles of the forest. You sit on a log, +or lie on your back, and blow contented clouds straight up into the +air. Nothing can disturb you now. The wilderness is yours, for you have +taken from it the essentials of primitive civilization--shelter, +warmth, and food. An hour ago a rainstorm would have been a minor +catastrophe. Now you do not care. Blow high, blow low, you have made +for yourself an abiding-place, so that the signs of the sky are less +important to you than to the city dweller who wonders if he should take +an umbrella. From your doorstep you can look placidly out on the great +unknown. The noises of the forest draw close about you their circle of +mystery, but the circle cannot break upon you, for here you have +conjured the homely sounds of kettle and crackling flame to keep ward. +Thronging down through the twilight steal the jealous woodland shadows, +awful in the sublimity of the Silent Places, but at the sentry outposts +of your firelit trees they pause like wild animals, hesitating to +advance. The wilderness, untamed, dreadful at night, is all about; but +this one little spot you have reclaimed. Here is something before +unknown to the eerie spirits of the woods. As you sleepily knock the +ashes from the pipe, you look about on the familiar scene with +accustomed satisfaction. You are at home. + + + + +V. + +ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT. + +"Who hath lain alone to hear the wild goose cry?" + + +About once in so often you are due to lie awake at night. Why this is +so I have never been able to discover. It apparently comes from no +predisposing uneasiness of indigestion, no rashness in the matter of +too much tea or tobacco, no excitation of unusual incident or +stimulating conversation. In fact, you turn in with the expectation of +rather a good night's rest. Almost at once the little noises of the +forest grow larger, blend in the hollow bigness of the first drowse; +your thoughts drift idly back and forth between reality and dream; +when--_snap!_--you are broad awake! + +Perhaps the reservoir of your vital forces is full to the overflow of a +little waste; or perhaps, more subtly, the great Mother insists thus +that you enter the temple of her larger mysteries. + +For, unlike mere insomnia, lying awake at night in the woods is +pleasant. The eager, nervous straining for sleep gives way to a +delicious indifference. You do not care. Your mind is cradled in an +exquisite poppy-suspension of judgment and of thought. Impressions slip +vaguely into your consciousness and as vaguely out again. Sometimes +they stand stark and naked for your inspection; sometimes they lose +themselves in the midst of half-sleep. Always they lay soft velvet +fingers on the drowsy imagination, so that in their caressing you feel +the vaster spaces from which they have come. Peaceful-brooding your +faculties receive. Hearing, sight, smell--all are preternaturally keen +to whatever of sound and sight and woods perfume is abroad through the +night; and yet at the same time active appreciation dozes, so these +things lie on it sweet and cloying like fallen rose leaves. + +In such circumstance you will hear what the _voyageurs_ call the +voices of the rapids. Many people never hear them at all. They speak +very soft and low and distinct beneath the steady roar and dashing, +beneath even the lesser tinklings and gurglings whose quality +superimposes them over the louder sounds. They are like the tear-forms +swimming across the field of vision, which disappear so quickly when +you concentrate your sight to look at them, and which reappear so +magically when again your gaze turns vacant. In the stillness of your +hazy half-consciousness they speak; when you bend your attention to +listen, they are gone, and only the tumults and the tinklings remain. + +But in the moments of their audibility they are very distinct. Just as +often an odour will wake all a vanished memory, so these voices, by the +force of a large impressionism, suggest whole scenes. Far off are the +cling-clang-cling of chimes and the swell-and-fall murmur of a +multitude _en fete_, so that subtly you feel the gray old town, +with its walls, the crowded marketplace, the decent peasant crowd, the +booths, the mellow church building with its bells, the warm, dust-moted +sun. Or, in the pauses between the swish-dash-dashings of the waters, +sound faint and clear voices singing intermittently, calls, distant +notes of laughter, as though many canoes were working against the +current; only the flotilla never gets any nearer, nor the voices +louder. The _voyageurs_ call these mist people the Huntsmen, and +look frightened. To each is his vision, according to his experience. +The nations of the earth whisper to their exiled sons through the +voices of the rapids. Curiously enough, by all reports, they suggest +always peaceful scenes--a harvest field, a street fair, a Sunday +morning in a cathedral town, careless travellers--never the turmoils +and struggles. Perhaps this is the great Mother's compensation in a +harsh mode of life. + +Nothing is more fantastically unreal to tell about, nothing more +concretely real to experience, than this undernote of the quick water. +And when you do lie awake at night, it is always making its unobtrusive +appeal. Gradually its hypnotic spell works. The distant chimes ring +louder and nearer as you cross the borderland of sleep. And then +outside the tent some little woods noise snaps the thread. An owl +hoots, a whippoorwill cries, a twig cracks beneath the cautious prowl +of some night creature--at once the yellow sunlit French meadows puff +away--you are staring at the blurred image of the moon spraying through +the texture of your tent. + +The voices of the rapids have dropped into the background, as have the +dashing noises of the stream. Through the forest is a great silence, +but no stillness at all. The whippoorwill swings down and up the short +curve of his regular song; over and over an owl says his rapid +_whoo_, _whoo_, _whoo_. These, with the ceaseless dash of the rapids, +are the web on which the night traces her more delicate embroideries +of the unexpected. Distant crashes, single and impressive; +stealthy footsteps near at hand; the subdued scratching of claws; a +faint _sniff! sniff! sniff!_ of inquiry; the sudden clear tin-horn +_ko-ko-ko-oh_ of the little owl; the mournful, long-drawn-out cry +of the loon, instinct with the spirit of loneliness; the ethereal +call-note of the birds of passage high in the air; a _patter_, +_patter_, _patter_ among the dead leaves, immediately stilled; +and then at the last, from the thicket close at hand, the +beautiful silver purity of the white-throated sparrow--the nightingale +of the North--trembling with the ecstasy of beauty, as though a +shimmering moonbeam had turned to sound; and all the while the blurred +figure of the moon mounting to the ridge-line of your tent--these +things combine subtly, until at last the great Silence of which they +are a part overarches the night and draws you forth to contemplation. + +No beverage is more grateful than the cup of spring water you drink at +such a time; no moment more refreshing than that in which you look +about you at the darkened forest. You have cast from you with the warm +blanket the drowsiness of dreams. A coolness, physical and spiritual, +bathes you from head to foot. All your senses are keyed to the last +vibrations. You hear the littler night prowlers, you glimpse the +greater. A faint, searching woods perfume of dampness greets your +nostrils. And somehow, mysteriously, in a manner not to be understood, +the forces of the world seem in suspense, as though a touch might +crystallize infinite possibilities into infinite power and motion. But +the touch lacks. The forces hover on the edge of action, unheeding the +little noises. In all humbleness and awe, you are a dweller of the +Silent Places. + +At such a time you will meet with adventures. One night we put +fourteen inquisitive porcupines out of camp. Near M'Gregor's Bay I +discovered in the large grass park of my camp-site nine deer, cropping +the herbage like so many beautiful ghosts. A friend tells me of a fawn +that every night used to sleep outside his tent and within a foot of +his head, probably by way of protection against wolves. Its mother had +in all likelihood been killed. The instant my friend moved toward the +tent opening the little creature would disappear, and it was always +gone by earliest daylight. Nocturnal bears in search of pork are not +uncommon. But even though your interest meets nothing but the bats and +the woods shadows and the stars, that few moments of the sleeping world +forces is a psychical experience to be gained in no other way. You +cannot know the night by sitting up; she will sit up with you. Only by +coming into her presence from the borders of sleep can you meet her +face to face in her intimate mood. + +The night wind from the river, or from the open spaces of the wilds, +chills you after a time. You begin to think of your blankets. In a few +moments you roll yourself in their soft wool. Instantly it is morning. + +And, strange to say, you have not to pay by going through the day +unrefreshed. You may feel like turning in at eight instead of nine, and +you may fall asleep with unusual promptitude, but your journey will +begin clear-headedly, proceed springily, and end with much in reserve. +No languor, no dull headache, no exhaustion, follows your experience. +For this once your two hours of sleep have been as effective as nine. + + + + +VI. + +THE 'LUNGE. + +"Do you know the chosen water where the ouananiche is waiting?" + + +Dick and I travelled in a fifteen-foot wooden canoe, with grub, duffel, +tent, and Deuce, the black-and-white setter dog. As a consequence we +were pretty well down toward the water-line, for we had not realized +that a wooden canoe would carry so little weight for its length in +comparison with a birch-bark. A good heavy sea we could ride--with +proper management and a little baling; but sloppy waves kept us busy. + +Deuce did not like it at all. He was a dog old in the wisdom of +experience. It had taken him just twenty minutes to learn all about +canoes. After a single tentative trial he jumped lightly to the very +centre of his place, with the lithe caution of a cat. Then if the water +happened to be smooth, he would sit gravely on his haunches, or would +rest his chin on the gunwale to contemplate the passing landscape. But +in rough weather he crouched directly over the keel, his nose between +his paws, and tried not to dodge when the cold water dashed in on him. +Deuce was a true woodsman in that respect. Discomfort he always bore +with equanimity, and he must often have been very cold and very +cramped. + +For just over a week we had been travelling in open water, and the +elements had not been kind to us at all. We had crept up under +rock-cliff points; had weathered the rips of white water to shelter on +the other side; had struggled across open spaces where each wave was +singly a problem to fail in whose solution meant instant swamping; had +baled, and schemed, and figured, and carried, and sworn, and tried +again, and succeeded with about two cupfuls to spare, until we as well +as Deuce had grown a little tired of it. For the lust of travel was on +us. + +The lust of travel is a very real disease. It usually takes you when +you have made up your mind that there is no hurry. Its predisposing +cause is a chart or map, and its main symptom is the feverish delight +with which you check off the landmarks of your journey. A fair wind of +some force is absolutely fatal. With that at your back you cannot +stop. Good fishing, fine scenery, interesting bays, reputed game, even +camps where friends might be visited--all pass swiftly astern. Hardly +do you pause for lunch at noon. The mad joy of putting country behind +you eats all other interests. You recover only when you have come to +your journey's end a week too early, and must then search out new +voyages to fill in the time. + +All this morning we had been bucking a strong north wind. Fortunately, +the shelter of a string of islands had given us smooth water enough, +but the heavy gusts sometimes stopped us as effectively as though we +had butted solid land. Now about noon we came to the last island, and +looked out on a five-mile stretch of tumbling seas. We landed the canoe +and mounted a high rock. + +"Can't make it like this," said I. "I'll take the outfit over and land +it, and come back for you and the dog. Let's see that chart." + +We hid behind the rock and spread out the map. + +"Four miles," measured Dick. "It's going to be a terror." + +We looked at each other vaguely, suddenly tired. + +"We can't camp here--at this time of day," objected Dick, to our +unspoken thoughts. + +And then the map gave him an inspiration. "Here's a little river," +ruminated Dick, "that goes to a little lake, and then there's another +little river that flows from the lake and comes out about ten miles +above here." + +"It's a good thirty miles," I objected. + +"What of it?" asked Dick calmly. + +So the fever-lust of travel broke. We turned to the right behind the +last island, searched out the reed-grown opening to the stream, and +paddled serenely and philosophically against the current. Deuce sat up +and yawned with a mighty satisfaction. + +We had been bending our heads to the demon of wind; our ears had been +filled with his shoutings, our eyes blinded with tears, our breath +caught away from us, our muscles strung to the fiercest endeavour. +Suddenly we found ourselves between the ranks of tall forest trees, +bathed in a warm sunlight, gliding like a feather from one grassy bend +to another of the laziest little stream that ever hesitated as to which +way the grasses of its bed should float. As for the wind, it was lost +somewhere away up high, where we could hear it muttering to itself +about something. + +The woods leaned over the fringe of bushes cool and green and silent. +Occasionally through tiny openings we caught instant impressions of +straight column trunks and transparent shadows. Miniature grass marshes +jutted out from the bends of the little river. We idled along as with a +homely rustic companion through the aloofness of patrician multitudes. + +Every bend offered us charming surprises. Sometimes a muskrat swam +hastily in a pointed furrow of ripple; vanishing wings, barely sensed +in the flash, left us staring; stealthy withdrawals of creatures, whose +presence we realized only in the fact of those withdrawals, snared our +eager interest; porcupines rattled and rustled importantly and regally +from the water's edge to the woods; herons, ravens, an occasional duck, +croaked away at our approach; thrice we surprised eagles, once a +tassel-eared Canada lynx. Or, if all else lacked, we still experienced +the little thrill of pleased novelty over the disclosure of a group of +silvery birches on a knoll; a magnificent white pine towering over the +beech and maple forest; the unexpected aisle of a long, straight +stretch of the little river. + +Deuce approved thoroughly. He stretched himself and yawned and shook +off the water, and glanced at me open-mouthed with doggy good-nature, +and set himself to acquiring a conscientious olfactory knowledge of +both banks of the river. I do not doubt he knew a great deal more +about it than we did. Porcupines aroused his special enthusiasm. +Incidentally, two days later he returned to camp after an expedition of +his own, bristling as to the face with that animal's barbed weapons. +Thenceforward his interest waned. + +We ascended the charming little river two or three miles. At a sharp +bend to the east a huge sheet of rock sloped from a round grass knoll +sparsely planted with birches directly down into a pool. Two or three +tree trunks jammed directly opposite had formed a sort of half dam +under which the water lay dark. A tiny grass meadow forty feet in +diameter narrowed the stream to half its width. + +We landed. Dick seated himself on the shelving rock. I put my fish-rod +together. Deuce disappeared. + +Deuce always disappeared whenever we landed. With nose down, hind +quarters well tucked under him, ears flying, he quartered the forest at +high speed, investigating every nook and cranny of it for the radius of +a quarter of a mile. When he has quite satisfied himself that we were +safe for the moment, he would return to the fire, where he would lie, +six inches of pink tongue vibrating with breathlessness, beautiful in +the consciousness of virtue. Dick generally sat on a rock and thought. +I generally fished. + +After a time Deuce returned. I gave up flies, spoons, phantom minnows, +artificial frogs, and crayfish. As Dick continued to sit on the rock +and think, we both joined him. The sun was very warm and grateful, and +I am sure we both acquired an added respect for Dick's judgment. + +Just when it happened neither of us was afterwards able to decide. +Perhaps Deuce knew. But suddenly, as often a figure appears in a +cinematograph, the diminutive meadow thirty feet away contained two +deer. They stood knee-deep in the grass, wagging their little tails in +impatience of the flies. + +"Look a' there!" stammered Dick aloud. + +Deuce sat up on his haunches. + +I started for my camera. + +The deer did not seem to be in the slightest degree alarmed. They +pointed four big ears in our direction, ate a few leisurely mouthfuls +of grass, sauntered to the stream for a drink of water, wagged their +little tails some more, and quietly faded into the cool shadows of the +forest. + +[Illustration: AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES.] + +An hour later we ran out into reeds, and so to the lake. It was a +pretty lake, forest-girt. Across the distance we made out a moving +object which shortly resolved itself into a birch canoe. The canoe +proved to contain an Indian, an Indian boy of about ten years, a black +dog, and a bundle. When within a few rods of each other we ceased +paddling, and drifted by with the momentum. The Indian was a +fine-looking man of about forty, his hair bound with a red fillet, his +feet incased in silk-worked moccasins, but otherwise dressed in white +men's garments. He smoked a short pipe, and contemplated us gravely. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," we called in the usual double-barrelled North +Country salutation. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou," he replied. + +"Kee-gons?" we inquired as to the fishing in the lake. + +"Ah-hah," he assented. + +We drifted by each other without further speech. When the decent +distance of etiquette separated us we resumed our paddles. + +I produced a young cable terminated by a tremendous spoon and a solid +brass snell as thick as a telegraph wire. We had laid in this +formidable implement in hopes of a big muscallunge. It had been trailed +for days at a time. We had become used to its vibration, which actually +seemed to communicate itself to every fibre of the light canoe. Every +once in a while we would stop with a jerk that would nearly snap our +heads off. Then we would know we had hooked the American continent. We +had become used to that also. It generally happened when we attempted a +little burst of speed. So when the canoe brought up so violently that +all our tinware rolled on Deuce, Dick was merely disgusted. + +"There she goes again," he grumbled. "You've hooked Canada." + +Canada held quiescent for about three seconds. Then it started due +south. + +"Suffering serpents!" shrieked Dick. + +"Paddle, you sulphurated idiot!" yelled I. + +It was most interesting. All I had to do was to hang on and try to stay +in the boat. Dick paddled and fumed and splashed water and got more +excited. Canada dragged us bodily backward. + +Then Canada changed his mind and started in our direction. I was plenty +busy taking in slack, so I did not notice Dick. Dick was absolutely +demented. His mind automatically reacted in the direction of paddling. +He paddled, blindly, frantically. Canada came surging in, his mouth +open, his wicked eyes flaming, a tremendous indistinct body lashing +foam. Dick glanced once over his shoulder, and let out a frantic howl. + +"You've got the sea-serpent!" he shrieked. + +I turned to fumble for the pistol. We were headed directly for a log +stranded on shore, and about ten feet from it. + +"Dick!" I yelled in warning. + +He thrust his paddle out forward just in time. The stout maple bent and +cracked. The canoe hit with a bump that threw us forward. I returned to +the young cable. It came in limp and slack. + +We looked at each other sadly. + +"No use," sighed Dick at last. "They've never invented the words, and +we'd upset if we kicked the dog." + +I had the end of the line in my hands. + +"Look here!" I cried. That thick brass wire had been as cleanly bitten +through as though it had been cut with clippers. "He must have caught +sight of you," said I. + +Dick lifted up his voice in lamentation. "You had four feet of him out +of water," he wailed, "and there was a lot more." + +"If you had kept cool," said I severely, "we shouldn't have lost him. +You don't want to get rattled in an emergency; there's no sense in it." + +"What were you going to do with that?" asked Dick, pointing to where I +had laid the pistol. + +"I was going to shoot him in the head," I replied with dignity. "It's +the best way to land them." + +Dick laughed disagreeably. I looked down. At my side lay our largest +iron spoon. + +We skirted the left-hand side of the lake in silence. Far out from +shore the water was ruffled where the wind swept down, but with us it +was as still and calm as the forest trees that looked over into it. +After a time we turned short to the left through a very narrow passage +between two marshy shores, and so, after a sharp bend of but a few +hundred feet, came into the other river. + +This was a wide stream, smoothly hurrying, without rapids or tumult. +The forest had drawn to either side to let us pass. Here were the +wilder reaches after the intimacies of the little river. Across +stretches of marsh we could see an occasional great blue heron standing +mid-leg deep. Long strings of ducks struggled quacking from invisible +pools. The faint marsh odour saluted our nostrils from the point where +the lily-pads flashed broadly, ruffling in the wind. We dropped out the +smaller spoon and masterfully landed a five-pound pickerel. Even Deuce +brightened. He cared nothing for raw fish, but he knew their +possibilities. Towards evening we entered the hilly country, and so at +the last turned to the left into a sand cove where grew maples and +birches in beautiful park order under a hill. There we pitched camp, +and, as the flies lacked, built a friendship-fire about which to +forgather when the day was done. + +Dick still vocally regretted the muscallunge told him of my big bear. + +One day, late in the summer, I was engaged in packing some supplies +along an old fur trail north of Lake Superior. I had accomplished one +back-load, and with empty straps was returning to the cache for +another. The trail at one point emerged into and crossed an open park +some hundreds of feet in diameter, in which the grass grew to the +height of the knee. When I was about halfway across, a black bear arose +to his hind legs not ten feet from me, and remarked _Woof!_ in a +loud tone of voice. Now, if a man were to say _woof_ to you +unexpectedly, even in the formality of an Italian garden or the +accustomedness of a city street, you would be somewhat startled. So I +went to camp. There I told them about the bear. I tried to be +conservative in my description, because I did not wish to be accused of +exaggeration. My impression of the animal was that he and a spruce tree +that grew near enough for ready comparison were approximately of the +same stature. We returned to the grass park. After some difficulty we +found a clear footprint. It was a little larger than that made by a +good-sized coon. + +"So, you see," I admonished didactically, "that lunge probably was not +quite so large as you thought." + +"It may have been a Chinese bear," said Dick dreamily--"a Chinese lady +bear of high degree." + +I gave him up. + + + + +VII. + +ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING. + +"It is there that I am going, with an extra hand to bail her-- +Just one single long-shore loafer that I know. He can take his chance +of drowning while I sail and sail and sail her, For the Red Gods call +me out, and I must go." + + +The following morning the wind had died, but had been succeeded by a +heavy pall of fog. After we had felt our way beyond the mouth of the +river we were forced to paddle north-west by north, in blind reliance +on our compass. Sounds there were none. Involuntarily we lowered our +voices. The inadvertent click of the paddle against the gunwale seemed +to desecrate a foreordained stillness. + +Occasionally to the right hand or the left we made out faint +shadow-pictures of wooded islands that endured but a moment and then +deliberately faded into whiteness. They formed on the view exactly as +an image develops on a photographic plate. Sometimes a faint +_lisp-lisp-lisp_ of tiny waves against a shore nearer than it +seemed cautioned us anew not to break the silence. Otherwise we were +alone, intruders, suffered in the presence of a brooding nature only as +long as we refrained from disturbances. + +Then at noon the vapours began to eddy, to open momentarily in +revelation of vivid green glimpses, to stream down the rising wind. +Pale sunlight dashed fitfully across us like a shower. Somewhere in the +invisibility a duck quacked. Deuce awoke, looked about him, and +_yow-yow-yowed_ in doggish relief. Animals understand thoroughly +these subtleties of nature. + +In half an hour the sun was strong, the air clear and sparkling, and a +freshening wind was certifying our prognostications of a lively +afternoon. + +A light canoe will stand almost anything in the way of a sea, although +you may find it impossible sometimes to force it in the direction you +wish to go. A loaded canoe will weather a great deal more than you +might think. However, only experience in balance and in the nature of +waves will bring you safely across a stretch of whitecaps. + +With the sea dead ahead you must not go too fast; otherwise you will +dip water over the bow. You must trim the craft absolutely on an even +keel; otherwise the comb of the wave, too light to lift you, will slop +in over one gunwale or the other. You must be perpetually watching your +chance to gain a foot or so between the heavier seas. + +With the sea over one bow you must paddle on the leeward side. When the +canoe mounts a wave, you must allow the crest to throw the bow off a +trifle, but the moment it starts down the other slope you must twist +your paddle sharply to regain the direction of your course. The +careening tendency of this twist you must counteract by a corresponding +twist of your body in the other direction. Then the hollow will allow +you two or three strokes wherewith to assure a little progress. The +double twist at the very crest of the wave must be very delicately +performed, or you will ship water the whole length of your craft. + +With the sea abeam you must simply paddle straight ahead. The +adjustment is to be accomplished entirely by the poise of the body. You +must prevent the capsize of your canoe when clinging to the angle of a +wave by leaning to one side. The crucial moment, of course, is that +during which the peak of the wave slips under you. In case of a +breaking comber, thrust the flat of your paddle deep in the water to +prevent an upset, and lean well to leeward, thus presenting the side +and half the bottom of the canoe to the shock of water. Your recovery +must be instant, however. If you lean a second too long, over you go. +This sounds more difficult than it is. After a time you do it +instinctively, as a skater balances. + +With the sea over the quarter you have merely to take care that the +waves do not slue you around sidewise, and that the canoe does not dip +water on one side or the other under the stress of your twists with the +paddle. Dead astern is perhaps the most difficult of all, for the +reason that you must watch both gunwales at once, and must preserve an +absolutely even keel, in spite of the fact that it generally requires +your utmost strength to steer. In really heavy weather one man only +can do any work. The other must be content to remain passenger, and he +must be trained to absolute immobility. No matter how dangerous a +careen the canoe may take, no matter how much good cold water may pour +in over his legs, he must resist his tendency to shift his weight. The +entire issue depends on the delicacy of the steersman's adjustments, so +he must be given every chance. + +The main difficulty rests in the fact that such canoeing is a good deal +like air-ship travel--there is not much opportunity to learn by +experience. In a four-hour run across an open bay you will encounter +somewhat over a thousand waves, no two of which are exactly alike, and +any one of which can fill you up only too easily if it is not correctly +met. Your experience is called on to solve instantly and practically a +thousand problems. No breathing-space in which to recover is permitted +you between them. At the end of the four hours you awaken to the fact +that your eyes are strained from intense concentration, and that you +taste copper. + +Probably nothing, however, can more effectively wake you up to the last +fibre of your physical, intellectual, and nervous being. You are filled +with an exhilaration. Every muscle, strung tight, answers immediately +and accurately to the slightest hint. You quiver all over with +restrained energy. Your mind thrusts behind you the problem of the last +wave as soon as solved, and leaps with insistent eagerness to the next. +You attain that superordinary condition when your faculties react +instinctively, like a machine. It is a species of intoxication. After a +time you personify each wave; you grapple with it as with a personal +adversary; you exult as, beaten and broken, it hisses away to leeward. +"Go it, you son of a gun!" you shout. "Ah, you would, would you! think +you can, do you?" and in the roar and rush of wind and water you crouch +like a boxer on the defence, parrying the blows, but ready at the +slightest opening to gain a stroke of the paddle. + +In such circumstances you have not the leisure to consider distance. +You are too busily engaged in slaughtering waves to consider your rate +of progress. The fact that slowly you are pulling up on your objective +point does not occur to you until you are within a few hundred yards of +it. Then, unless you are careful, you are undone. + +Probably the most difficult thing of all to learn is that the waves to +be encountered in the last hundred yards of an open sweep are exactly +as dangerous as those you dodged so fearfully four miles from shore. +You are so nearly in that you unconsciously relax your efforts. Calmly, +almost contemptuously, a big roller rips along your gunwale. You are +wrecked--fortunately within easy swimming distance. But that doesn't +save your duffel. Remember this: be just as careful with the very last +wave as you were with the others. Get inside before you draw that deep +breath of relief. + +Strangely enough, in out-of-door sports, where it would seem that +convention would rest practically at the zero point, the bugbear of +good form, although mashed and disguised, rises up to confuse the +directed practicality. The average man is wedded to his theory. He has +seen a thing done in a certain way, and he not only always does it that +way himself, but he is positively unhappy at seeing any one else +employing a different method. From the swing at golf to the manner of +lighting a match in the wind, this truism applies. I remember once +hearing a long argument with an Eastern man on the question of the +English riding-seat in the Western country. + +"Your method is all very well," said the Westerner, "for where it came +from. In England they ride to hunt, so they need a light saddle and +very short stirrups set well forward. That helps them in jumping. But +it is most awkward. Out here you want your stirrups very long and +directly under you, so your legs hang loose, and you depend on your +balance and the grip of your thighs--not your knees. It is less tiring, +and better sense, and infinitely more graceful, for it more nearly +approximates the bareback seat. Instead of depending on stirrups, you +are part of the horse. You follow his every movement. And as for your +rising trot, I'd like to see you accomplish it safely on our mountain +trails, where the trot is the only gait practicable, unless you take +for ever to get anywhere." To all of which the Easterner found no +rebuttal except the, to him, entirely efficient plea that his own +method was good form. + +Now, of course, it is very pleasant to do things always accurately, +according to the rules of the game, and if you are out merely for +sport, perhaps it is as well to stick to them. But utility is another +matter. Personally, I do not care at all to kill trout unless by the +fly; but when we need meat and they do not need flies, I never hesitate +to offer them any kind of doodle-bug they may fancy. I have even at a +pinch clubbed them to death in a shallow, land-locked pool. Time will +come in your open-water canoe experience when you will pull into +shelter half full of water, when you will be glad of the fortuity of a +chance cross-wave to help you out, when sheer blind luck, or main +strength and awkwardness, will be the only reasons you can honestly +give for an arrival, and a battered and dishevelled arrival at that. Do +not, therefore, repine, or bewail your awkwardness, or indulge in undue +self-accusations of "tenderfoot." Method is nothing; the arrival is the +important thing. You are travelling, and if you can make time by nearly +swamping yourself, or by dragging your craft across a point, or by +taking any other base advantage of the game's formality, by all means +do so. Deuce used to solve the problem of comfort by drinking the +little pool of cold water in which he sometimes was forced to lie. In +the woods, when a thing is to be done, do not consider how you have +done it, or how you have seen it done, or how you think it ought to be +done, but how it _can_ be accomplished. Absolute fluidity of +expedient, perfect adaptability, is worth a dozen volumes of +theoretical knowledge. "If you can't talk," goes the Western +expression, "raise a yell; if you can't yell, make signs; if you can't +make signs, wave a bush." + +And do not be too ready to take advice as to what you can or cannot +accomplish, even from the woods people. Of course the woods Indians or +the _voyageurs_ know all about canoes, and you would do well to +listen to them. But the mere fact that your interlocutor lives in the +forest, while you normally inhabit the towns, does not necessarily give +him authority. A community used to horses looks with horror on the +instability of all water craft less solid than canal boats. Canoemen +stand in awe of the bronco. The fishermen of the Georgian Bay, +accustomed to venture out with their open sailboats in weather that +forces the big lake schooners to shelter, know absolutely nothing about +canoes. Dick and I made an eight-mile run from the Fox island to +Killarney in a trifling sea, to be cheered during our stay at the +latter place by doleful predictions of an early drowning. And this from +a seafaring community. It knew all about boats; it knew nothing about +canoes; and yet the unthinking might have been influenced by the advice +of these men simply because they had been brought up on the water. The +point is obvious. Do not attempt a thing unless you are sure of +yourself; but do not relinquish it merely because some one else is not +sure of you. + +The best way to learn is with a bathing-suit. Keep near shore, and try +everything. Don't attempt the real thing until your handling in a heavy +sea has become as instinctive as snap-shooting or the steps of dancing. +Remain on the hither side of caution when you start out. Act at first +as though every wavelet would surely swamp you. Extend the scope of +your operations very gradually, until you know just what you can do. +_Never_ get careless. Never take any _real_ chances. That's +all. + + + + +VIII. + +THE STRANDED STRANGERS. + + +As we progressed, the country grew more and more solemnly aloof. In the +Southland is a certain appearance of mobility, lent by the deciduous +trees, the warm sun, the intimate nooks in which grow the commoner +homely weeds and flowers, the abundance of bees and musical insects, +the childhood familiarity of the well-known birds, even the pleasantly +fickle aspects of the skies. But the North wraps itself in a mantle of +awe. Great hills rest not so much in the stillness of sleep as in the +calm of a mighty comprehension. The pines, rank after rank, file after +file, are always trooping somewhere, up the slope, to pause at the +crest before descending on the other side into the unknown. Bodies of +water exactly of the size, shape, and general appearance we are +accustomed to see dotted with pleasure craft and bordered with wharves, +summer cottages, pavilions, and hotels, accentuate by that very fact a +solitude that harbours only a pair of weirdly laughing loons. Like the +hills, these lakes are lying in a deep, still repose, but a repose that +somehow suggests the comprehending calm of those behind the veil. The +whole country seems to rest in a suspense of waiting. A shot breaks the +stillness for an instant, but its very memory is shadowy a moment after +the echoes die. Inevitably the traveller feels thrust in upon himself +by a neutrality more deadly than open hostility would be. Hostility at +least supposes recognition of his existence, a rousing of forces to +oppose him. This ignores. One can no longer wonder at the taciturnity +of the men who dwell here; nor does one fail to grasp the eminent +suitability to the country of its Indian name--the Silent Places. + +Even the birds, joyful, lively, commonplace little people that they +are, draw some of this aloofness to themselves. The North is full of +the homelier singers. A dozen species of warblers lisp music-box +phrases, two or three sparrows whistle a cheerful repertoire, the +nuthatches and chickadees toot away in blissful _bourgeoisie_. And +yet, somehow, that very circumstance thrusts the imaginative voyager +outside the companionship of their friendliness. In the face of the +great gods they move with accustomed familiarity. Somehow they possess +in their little experience that which explains the mystery, so that +they no longer stand in its awe. Their everyday lives are spent under +the shadow of the temple whither you dare not bend your footsteps. The +intimacy of occult things isolates also these wise little birds. + +The North speaks, however, only in the voices of three--the two +thrushes, and the white-throated sparrow. You must hear these each at +his proper time. + +The hermit thrush you will rarely see. But late some afternoon, when +the sun is lifting along the trunks of the hardwood forest, if you are +very lucky and very quiet, you will hear him far in the depth of the +blackest swamps. Musically expressed, his song is very much like that +of the wood thrush--three cadenced liquid notes, a quivering pause, +then three more notes of another phrase, and so on. But the fineness of +its quality makes of it an entirely different performance. If you +symbolize the hermit thrush by the flute, you must call the wood thrush +a chime of little tinkling bells. One is a rendition; the other the +essence of liquid music. An effect of gold-embroidered richness, of +depth going down to the very soul of things, a haunting suggestion of +having touched very near to the source of tears, a conviction that the +just interpretation of the song would be an equally just interpretation +of black woods, deep shadows, cloistered sunlight, brooding +hills--these are the subtle and elusive impressions you will receive in +the middle of the ancient forest. + +The olive-backed thrush you will enjoy after your day's work is quite +finished. You will see him through the tobacco haze, perched on a limb +against the evening sky. He utters a loud joyful _chirp_ pauses +for the attention he thus solicits, and then deliberately runs up five +mellow double notes, ending with a metallic "_ting_ chee chee +chee" that sounds as though it had been struck on a triangle. Then a +silence of exactly nine seconds and repeat. As regularly as clock-work +this performance goes on. Time him as often as you will, you can never +convict him of a second's variation. And he is so optimistic and +willing, and his notes are so golden with the yellow of sunshine! + +The white-throated sparrow sings nine distinct variations of the same +song. He may sing more, but that is all I have counted. He inhabits +woods, berry-vines, brules, and clearings. Ordinarily he is cheerful, +and occasionally aggravating. One man I knew he drove nearly crazy. To +that man he was always saying, "_And he never heard the man say drink +and the_----." Toward the last my friend used wildly to offer him a +thousand dollars if he would, if he only _would_, finish that +sentence. But occasionally, in just the proper circumstances, he +forgets his stump corners, his vines, his jolly sunlight, and his +delightful bugs to become the intimate voice of the wilds. It is night, +very still, Very dark. The subdued murmur of the forest ebbs and flows +with the voices of the furtive folk--an undertone fearful to break the +night calm. Suddenly across the dusk of silence flashes a single thread +of silver, vibrating, trembling with some unguessed ecstasy of emotion: +"_Ah! poor Canada Canada Canada Canada!_" it mourns passionately, +and falls silent. That is all. + +You will hear at various times other birds peculiarly of the North. +Loons alternately calling and uttering their maniac laughter; purple +finches or some of the pine sparrows warbling high and clear; the +winter wren, whose rapturous ravings never fail to strike the attention +of the dullest passer; all these are exclusively Northern voices, and +each expresses some phase or mood of the Silent Places. But none +symbolizes as do the three. And when first you hear one of them after +an absence, you are satisfied that things are right in the world, for +the North Country's spirit is as it was. + +Now ensued a spell of calm weather, with a film of haze over the sky. +The water lay like quicksilver, heavy and inert. Toward afternoon it +became opalescent. The very substance of the liquid itself seemed +impregnated with dyes ranging in shade from wine colour to the most +delicate lilac. Through a smoke veil the sun hung, a ball of red, while +beneath every island, every rock, every tree, every wild fowl floating +idly in a medium apparently too delicate for its support, lurked the +beautiful crimson shadows of the North. + +[Illustration: EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE +SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT SWAMPING.] + +Hour after hour, day after day, we slipped on. Point after point, +island after island, presented itself silently to our inspection and +dropped quietly astern. The beat of paddles fitted monotonously into +the almost portentous stillness. It seemed that we might be able to go +on thus for ever, lapped in the dream of some forgotten magic that had +stricken breathless the life of the world. And then, suddenly, three +weeks on our journey, we came to a town. + +It was not the typical fur town of the Far North, but it lay at the +threshold. A single street, worn smooth by the feet of men and dogs, +but innocent of hoofs, fronted the channel. A board walk, elevated +against the snows, bordered a row of whitewashed log and frame houses, +each with its garden of brilliant flowers. A dozen wharves of various +sizes, over whose edges peeped the double masts of Mackinaw boats, +spoke of a fishing community. Between the roofs one caught glimpses of +a low sparse woods and some thousand-foot hills beyond. We subsequently +added the charm of isolation in learning that the nearest telegraph +line was fifteen miles distant, while the railroad passed some fifty +miles away. + +Dick immediately went wild. It was his first glimpse of the mixed +peoples. A dozen loungers, handsome, careless, graceful with the +inimitable elegance of the half-breed's leisure, chatted, rolled +cigarettes, and surveyed with heavy-eyed indolence such of the town as +could be viewed from the shade in which they lay. Three girls, in whose +dark cheeks glowed a rich French comeliness, were comparing purchases +near the store. A group of rivermen, spike-booted, short-trousered, +reckless of air, with their little round hats over one ear, sat +chair-tilted outside the "hotel." Across the dividing fences of two of +the blazoned gardens a pair of old crones gossiped under their breaths. +Some Indians smoked silently at the edge of one of the docks. In the +distance of the street's end a French priest added the quaintness of +his cassock to the exotic atmosphere of the scene. At once a pack of +the fierce sledge-dogs left their foraging for the offal of the +fisheries, to bound challenging in the direction of poor Deuce. That +highbred animal fruitlessly attempted to combine dignity with a +discretionary lurking between our legs. We made demonstrations with +sticks, and sought out the hotel, for it was about time to eat. + +We had supper at a table with three Forest Rangers, two lumber-jacks, +and a cat-like handsome "breed" whose business did not appear. Then we +lit up and strolled about to see what we could see. + +On the text of a pair of brass knuckles hanging behind the hotel bar I +embroidered many experiences with the lumberjack. I told of a Wisconsin +town where an enforced wait of five hours enabled me to establish the +proportion of fourteen saloons out of a total of twenty frame +buildings. I descanted craftily on the character of the woodsman out of +the woods and in the right frame of mind for deviltry. I related how +Jack Boyd, irritated beyond endurance at the annoyances of a stranger, +finally with the flat of his hand boxed the man's head so mightily that +he whirled around twice and sat down. + +"Now," said Jack softly, "be more careful, my friend, or next time I'll +_hit_ you." Or of a little Irishman who shouted to his friends +about to pull a big man from pounding the life quite out of him, "Let +him alone! let him alone! I may be on top myself in a few minutes!" And +of Dave Walker, who fought to a standstill with his bare fists alone +five men who had sworn to kill him. And again of that doughty knight of +the peavie who, when attacked by an axe, waved aside interference with +the truly dauntless cry, "Leave him be, boys; there's an axe between +us!" + +I tried to sketch, too, the drive, wherein a dozen times in an hour +these men face death with a smile or a curse--the raging untamed river, +the fierce rush of the logs, the cool little human beings poising with +a certain contemptuous preciosity on the edge of destruction as they +herd their brutish multitudes. + +There was Jimmy, the river boss, who could not swim a stroke, and who +was incontinently swept over a dam and into the boiling back-set of the +eddy below. Three times, gasping, strangling, drowning, he was carried +in the wide swirl of the circle, sometimes under, sometimes on top. +Then his knee touched a sand-bar, and he dragged himself painfully +ashore. He coughed up a quantity of water, and gave vent to his +feelings over a miraculous escape. "Damn it all!" he wailed, "I lost my +peavie!" + +"On the Paint River drive one spring," said I, "a jam formed that +extended up river some three miles. The men were working at the breast +of it, some underneath, some on top. After a time the jam apparently +broke, pulled downstream a hundred feet or so, and plugged again. Then +it was seen that only a small section had moved, leaving the main body +still jammed, so that between the two sections lay a narrow stretch of +open water. Into this open water one of the men had fallen. Before he +could recover, the second or tail section of the jam started to pull. +Apparently nothing could prevent him from being crushed. A man called +Sam--I don't know his last name--ran down the tail of the first +section, across the loose logs bobbing in the open water, seized the +victim of the accident by the collar, desperately scaled the face of +the moving jam, and reached the top just as the two sections ground +together with the brutish noise of wrecking timbers. It was a +magnificent rescue. Any but these men of iron would have adjourned for +thanks and congratulations. + +"Still retaining his hold on the other man's collar, Sam twisted him +about and delivered a vigorous kick. '_There_, damn you!' said he. +That was all. They fell to work at once to keep the jam moving." + +I instanced, too, some of the feats of river-work these men could +perform. Of how Jack Boyd has been known to float twenty miles without +shifting his feet, on a log so small that he carried it to the water on +his shoulder; of how a dozen rivermen, one after the other, would often +go through the chute of a dam standing upright on single logs; of +O'Donnell, who could turn a somersault on a floating pine log; of the +birling matches, wherein two men on a single log try to throw each +other into the river by treading, squirrel fashion, in faster and +faster rotation; of how a riverman and spiked boots and a saw-log can +do more work than an ordinary man with a rowboat. + +I do not suppose Dick believed all this--although it was strictly and +literally true--but his imagination was impressed. He gazed with +respect on the group at the far end of the street, where fifteen or +twenty lumber-jacks were interested in some amusement concealed from +us. + +"What do you suppose they are doing?" murmured Dick, awestricken. + +"Wrestling, or boxing, or gambling, or jumping," said I. + +We approached. Gravely, silently, intensely interested, the +cock-hatted, spikeshod, dangerous men were playing--croquet! + +The sight was too much for our nerves. We went away. + +The permanent inhabitants of the place we discovered to be friendly to +a degree. + +The Indian strain was evident in various dilution through all. Dick's +enthusiasm grew steadily until his artistic instincts became +aggressive, and he flatly announced his intention of staying at least +four days for the purpose of making sketches. We talked the matter +over. Finally it was agreed. Deuce and I were to make a wide circle to +the north and west as far as the Hudson's Bay post of Cloche, while +Dick filled his notebook. That night we slept in beds for the first +time. + +That is to say, we slept until about three o'clock. Then we became +vaguely conscious, through a haze of drowse--as one becomes conscious +in the pause of a sleeping-car--of voices outside our doors. Some one +said something about its being hardly much use to go to bed. Another +hoped the sheets were not damp. A succession of lights twinkled across +the walls of our room, and were vaguely explained by the coughing of a +steamboat. We sank into oblivion until the calling-bell brought us to +our feet. + +I happened to finish my toilet a little before Dick, and so descended +to the sunlight until he might be ready. Roosting on a gray old boulder +ten feet outside the door were two figures that made me want to rub my +eyes. + +The older was a square, ruddy-faced man of sixty, with neatly trimmed, +snow-white whiskers. He had on a soft Alpine hat of pearl gray, a +modishly cut gray homespun suit, a tie in which glimmered an opal pin, +wore tan gloves, and had slung over one shoulder by a narrow black +strap a pair of field-glasses. + +The younger was a tall and angular young fellow, of an eager and +sophomoric youth. His hair was very light and very smoothly brushed, +his eyes blue and rather near-sighted, his complexion pink, with an +obviously recent and superficial sunburn, and his clothes, from the +white Panama to the broad-soled low shoes, of the latest cut and +material. Instinctively I sought his fraternity pin. He looked as +though he might say "Rah! Rah!" something or other. A camera completed +his outfit. + +Tourists! How in the world did they get here? And then I remembered the +twinkle of the lights and the coughing of the steamboat. But what in +time could they be doing here? Picturesque as the place was, it held +nothing to appeal to the Baedeker spirit. I surveyed the pair with some +interest. + +"I suppose there is pretty good fishing around here," ventured the +elder. + +He evidently took me for an inhabitant. Remembering my faded blue shirt +and my floppy old hat and the red handkerchief about my neck and the +moccasins on my feet, I did not blame him. + +"I suppose there are bass among the islands," I replied. + +We fell into conversation. I learned that he and his son were from New +York. + +He learned, by a final direct question which was most significant of +his not belonging to the country, who I was. By chance he knew my name. +He opened his heart. + +"We came down on the _City of Flint_," said he. "My son and I are +on a vacation. We have been as far as the Yellowstone, and thought we +would like to see some of this country. I was assured that on this date +I could make connection with the _North Star_ for the south. I +told the purser of the _Flint_ not to wake us up unless the +_North Star_ was here at the docks. He bundled us off here at +three in the morning. The _North Star_ was not here; it is an +outrage!" + +He uttered various threats. + +"I thought the _North Star_ was running away south around the +Perry Sound region," I suggested. + +"Yes, but she was to begin to-day, June 16, to make this connection." +He produced a railroad folder. "It's in this," he continued. + +"Did you go by that thing?" I marvelled. + +"Why, of course," said he. + +"I forgot you were an American," said I. "You're in Canada now." + +He looked his bewilderment, so I hunted up Dick. I detailed the +situation. "He doesn't know the race," I concluded. "Soon he will be +trying to get information out of the agent. Let's be on hand." + +We were on hand. The tourist, his face very red, his whiskers very +white and bristly, marched importantly to the agent's office. The +latter comprised also the post-office, the fish depot, and a general +store. The agent was for the moment dickering _in re_ two pounds +of sugar. This transaction took five minutes to the pound. Mr. Tourist +waited. Then he opened up. The agent heard him placidly, as one who +listens to a curious tale. + +"What I want to know is, where's that boat?" ended the tourist. + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"Aren't you the agent of this company?" + +"Sure," replied the agent. + +"Then why don't you know something about its business and plans and +intentions?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"Do you think it would be any good to wait for the _North Star_? +Do you suppose they can be coming? Do you suppose they've altered the +schedule?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"When is the next boat through here?" + +I listened for the answer in trepidation, for I saw that another +"Couldn't say" would cause the red-faced tourist to blow up. To my +relief, the agent merely inquired,-- + +"North or south?" + +"South, of course. I just came from the north. What in the name of +everlasting blazes should I want to go north again for?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. "The next boat south gets in next +week, Tuesday or Wednesday." + +"Next week!" shrieked the tourist. + +"When's the next boat north?" interposed the son. + +"To-morrow morning." + +"What time?" + +"Couldn't say; you'd have to watch for her." + +"That's our boat, dad," said the young man. + +"But we've just _come_ from there!" snorted his father; "it's +three hundred miles back. It'll put us behind two days. I've got to be +in New York Friday. I've got an engagement." He turned suddenly to the +agent. "Here, I've got to send a telegram." + +The agent blinked placidly. "You'll not send it from here. This ain't a +telegraph station." + +"Where's the nearest station?" + +"Fifteen mile." + +Without further parley the old man turned and walked, stiff and +military, from the place. Near the end of the broad walk he met the +usual doddering but amiable oldest inhabitant. + +"Fine day," chirped the patriarch in well-meant friendliness. "They +jest brought in a bear cub over to Antoine's. If you'd like to take a +look at him, I'll show you where it is." + +The tourist stopped short and glared fiercely. + +"Sir," said he, "damn your bear!" Then he strode on, leaving grandpa +staring after him. + +In the course of the morning we became quite well acquainted, and he +resigned. The son appeared to take somewhat the humorous view all +through the affair, which must have irritated the old gentleman. They +discussed it rather thoroughly, and finally decided to retrace their +steps for a fresh start over a better-known route. This settled, the +senior seemed to feel relieved of a weight. He even saw and relished +certain funny phases of the incident, though he never ceased to +foretell different kinds of trouble for the company, varying in range +from mere complaints to the most tremendous of damage suits. + +He was much interested, finally, in our methods of travel, and then, in +logical sequence, with what he could see about him. He watched +curiously my loading of the canoe, for I had a three-mile stretch of +open water, and the wind was abroad. Deuce's empirical boat wisdom +aroused his admiration. He and his son were both at the shore to see me +off. + +Deuce settled himself in the bottom. I lifted the stern from the shore +and gently set it afloat. In a moment I was ready to start. + +"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" suddenly cried the father. + +I swirled my paddle back. The old gentleman was hastily fumbling in his +pockets. After an instant he descended to the water's edge. + +"Here," said he, "you are a judge of fiction; take this." + +It was his steamboat and railway folder. + + + + +IX. + +ON FLIES. + + +All the rest of the day I paddled under the frowning cliffs of the hill +ranges. Bold, bare, scarred, seamed with fissures, their precipice +rocks gave the impression of ten thousand feet rather that only so many +hundreds. Late in the afternoon we landed against a formation of +basaltic blocks cut as squarely up and down as a dock, and dropping off +into as deep water. The waves _chug-chug-chugged_ sullenly against +them, and the fringe of a dark pine forest, drawn back from a breadth +of natural grass, lowered across the horizon like a thunder-cloud. + +Deuce and I made camp with the uneasy feeling of being under inimical +inspection. A cold wind ruffled lead-like waters. No comfort was in the +prospect, so we retired early. Then it appeared that the coarse grass +of the park had bred innumerable black flies, and that we had our work +cut out for us. + +The question of flies--using that, to a woodsman, eminently connotive +word in its wide embracement of mosquitoes, sandflies, deer-flies, +black flies, and midges--is one much mooted in the craft. On no +subject are more widely divergent ideas expressed. One writer claims +that black flies' bites are but the temporary inconvenience of a +pin-prick; another tells of boils lasting a week as the invariable +result of their attentions; a third sweeps aside the whole question as +unimportant to concentrate his anathemas on the musical mosquito; still +a fourth descants on the maddening midge, and is prepared to defend his +claims against the world. A like dogmatic partisanship obtains in the +question of defences. Each and every man possessed of a tongue +wherewith to speak or a pen wherewith to write, heralds the particular +merits of his own fly-dope, head-net, or mosquito-proof tent-lining. +Eager advocates of the advantages of pork fat, kerosene, pine tar, +pennyroyal, oil of cloves, castor oil, lollacapop, or a half hundred +other concoctions, will assure you, tears in eyes, that his is the only +true faith. So many men, so many minds, until the theorist is confused +into doing the most uncomfortable thing possible--that is, to learn by +experience. + +As for the truth, it is at once in all of them and in none of them. The +annoyance of after-effects from a sting depends entirely on the +individual's physical makeup. Some people are so poisoned by mosquito +bites that three or four on the forehead suffice to close entirely the +victim's eyes. On others they leave but a small red mark without +swelling. Black flies caused festering sores on one man I accompanied +to the woods. In my own case they leave only a tiny blood-spot the size +of a pin-head, which bothers me not a bit. Midges nearly drove crazy +the same companion of mine, so that finally he jumped into the river, +clothes and all, to get rid of them. Again, merely my own experience +would lead me to regard them as a tremendous nuisance, but one quite +bearable. Indians are less susceptible than whites; nevertheless I have +seen them badly swelled behind the ears from the bites of the big +hardwood mosquito. + +You can make up your mind to one thing: from the first warm weather +until August you must expect to cope with insect pests. The black fly +will keep you busy until late afternoon; the midges will swarm you +about sunset; and the mosquito will preserve the tradition after you +have turned in. As for the deer-fly, and others of his piratical breed, +he will bite like a dog at any time. + +To me the most annoying species is the mosquito. The black fly is +sometimes most industrious--I have seen trout fishermen come into camp +with the blood literally streaming from their faces--but his great +recommendation is that he holds still to be killed. No frantic slaps, +no waving of arms, no muffled curses. You just place your finger calmly +and firmly on the spot. You get him every time. In this is great, +heart-lifting joy. It may be unholy joy, perhaps even vengeful, but it +leaves the spirit ecstatic. The satisfaction of _murdering_ the +beast that has had the nerve to light on you just as you are reeling in +almost counterbalances the pain of a sting. The midge, again, or +punkie, or "no-see-'um," just as you please, swarms down upon you +suddenly and with commendable vigour, so that you feel as though +red-hot pepper were being sprinkled on your bare skin; and his +invisibility and intangibility are such that you can never tell whether +you have killed him or not; but he doesn't last long, and dope routs +him totally. Your mosquito, however, is such a deliberate brute. He has +in him some of that divine fire which causes a dog to turn around nine +times before lying down. + +Whether he is selecting or gloating I do not know, but I do maintain +that the price of your life's blood is often not too great to pay for +the cessation of that hum. + +"Eet is not hees bite," said Billy the half-breed to me once--"eet is +hees sing." + +I agree with Billy. One mosquito in a tent can keep you awake for +hours. + +As to protection, it is varied enough in all conscience, and always +theoretically perfect. A head-net falling well down over your chest, or +even tied under your arm-pits, is at once the simplest and most +fallacious of these theories. It will keep vast numbers of flies out, +to be sure. It will also keep the few adventurous discoverers in, where +you can neither kill nor eject. Likewise you are deprived of your pipe; +and the common homely comfort of spitting on your bait is totally +denied you. The landscape takes on the prismatic colours of refraction, +so that, while you can easily make out red, white, and blue Chinese +dragons and mythological monsters, you are unable to discover the more +welcome succulence, say, of a partridge on a limb. And the end of that +head-net is to be picked to holes by the brush, and finally to be +snatched from you to sapling height, whence your pains will rescue it +only in a useless condition. Probably then you will dance the war-dance +of exasperation on its dismembered remains. Still, there are times--in +case of straight-away river paddling, or open walking, or lengthened +waiting--when the net is a great comfort. And it is easily included in +the pack. + +Next in order come the various "dopes." And they are various. From the +stickiest, blackest pastes to the silkiest, suavest oils they range, +through the grades of essence, salve, and cream. Every man has his own +recipe--the infallible. As a general rule, it may be stated that the +thicker kinds last longer and are generally more thoroughly effective, +but the lighter are pleasanter to wear, though requiring more frequent +application. At a pinch, ordinary pork fat is good. The Indians often +make temporary use of the broad caribou leaf, crushing it between their +palms and rubbing the juices on the skin. I know by experience that +this is effective, but very transitory. It is, however, a good thing to +use when resting on the trail, for, by the grace of Providence, flies +are rarely bothersome as long as you are moving at a fair gait. + +This does not always hold good, however, any more than the best +fly-dope is always effective. I remember most vividly the first day of +a return journey from the shores of the Hudson Bay. The weather was +rather oppressively close and overcast. + +We had paddled a few miles up river from the fur trading-post, and then +had landed in order to lighten the canoe for the ascent against the +current. At that point the forest has already begun to dwindle towards +the Land of Little Sticks, so that often miles and miles of open +muskegs will intervene between groups of the stunted trees. Jim and I +found ourselves a little over waist deep in luxuriant and tangled +grasses that impeded and clogged our every footstep. Never shall I +forget that country--its sad and lonely isolation, its dull lead sky, +its silence, and the closeness of its stifling atmosphere--and never +shall I see it otherwise than as in a dense brown haze, a haze composed +of swarming millions of mosquitoes. There is not the slightest +exaggeration in the statement. At every step new multitudes rushed into +our faces to join the old. At times Jim's back was so covered with them +that they almost overlaid the colour of the cloth. And as near as we +could see, every square foot of the thousands of acres quartered its +hordes. + +We doped liberally, but without the slightest apparent effect. Probably +two million squeamish mosquitoes were driven away by the disgust of our +medicaments, but what good did that do us when eight million others +were not so particular? At the last we hung bandanas under our hats, +cut fans of leaves, and stumbled on through a most miserable day until +we could build a smudge at evening. + +For smoke is usually a specific. Not always, however: some midges seem +to delight in it. The Indians make a tiny blaze of birch bark and pine +twigs deep in a nest of grass and caribou leaves. When the flame is +well started, they twist the growing vegetation canopy-wise above it. + +In that manner they gain a few minutes of dense, acrid smoke, which is +enough for an Indian. A white man, however, needs something more +elaborate. + +The chief reason for your initial failure in making an effective smudge +will be that you will not get your fire well started before piling on +the damp smoke-material. It need not be a conflagration, but it should +be bright and glowing, so that the punk birch or maple wood you add +will not smother it entirely. After it is completed, you will not have +to sit coughing in the thick of fumigation, as do many, but only to +leeward and underneath. Your hat used as a fan will eddy the smoke +temporarily into desirable nooks and crevices. I have slept without +annoyance on the Great Plains, where the mosquitoes seem to go in +organized and predatory bands, merely by lying beneath a smudge that +passed at least five feet above me. You will find the frying-pan a +handy brazier for the accommodation of a movable smoke to be +transported to the interior of the tent. And it does not in the least +hurt the frying-pan. These be hints, briefly spoken, out of which at +times you may have to construct elaborate campaigns. + +But you come to grapples in the defence of comfort when night +approaches. If you can eat and sleep well, you can stand almost any +hardship. The night's rest is as carefully to be fore-assured as the +food that sustains you. No precaution is too elaborate to certify +unbroken repose. By dark you will discover the peak of your tent to be +liberally speckled with insects of all sorts. Especially is this true +of an evening that threatens rain. Your smudge-pan may drive away the +mosquitoes, but merely stupefies the other varieties. You are forced to +the manipulation of a balsam fan. + +In your use of this simple implement you will betray the extent of your +experience. Dick used at first to begin at the rear peak and brush as +rapidly as possible toward the opening. The flies, thoroughly aroused, +eddied about a few frantic moments, like leaves in an autumn wind, +finally to settle close to the sod in the crannies between the +tent-wall and the ground. Then Dick would lie flat on his belly in +order to brush with equal vigour at these new lurking-places. The flies +repeated the autumn-leaf effect, and returned to the rear peak. This +was amusing to me, and furnished the flies with healthful, appetizing +exercise, but was bad for Dick's soul. After a time he discovered the +only successful method is the gentle one. Then he began at the peak and +brushed forward slowly, very, very slowly, so that the limited +intellect of his visitors did not become confused. Thus when they +arrived at the opening they saw it and used it, instead of searching +frantically for corners in which to hide from apparently vengeful +destruction. Then he would close his tent-flap securely, and turn in at +once. So he was able to sleep until earliest daylight. At that time the +mosquitoes again found him out. + +Nine out of ten--perhaps ninety-nine out of a hundred--sleep in open +tents. For absolute and perfect comfort proceed as follows:--Have your +tent-maker sew you a tent of cheese-cloth[*] with the same dimensions +as your shelter, except that the walls should be loose and voluminous +at the bottom. It should have no openings. + +[Footnote *: Do not allow yourself to be talked into substituting +mosquito-bar or bobinet. Any mesh coarser than cheese-cloth will prove +pregnable to the most enterprising of the smaller species.] + +Suspend this affair inside your tent by means of cords or tapes. Drop +it about you. Spread it out. Lay rod-cases, duffel-bags, or rocks along +its lower edges to keep it spread. You will sleep beneath it like a +child in winter. No driving out of reluctant flies; no enforced early +rising; no danger of a single overlooked insect to make the midnight +miserable. The cheese-cloth weighs almost nothing, can be looped up out +of the way in the daytime, admits the air readily. Nothing could fill +the soul with more ecstatic satisfaction than to lie for a moment +before going to sleep listening to a noise outside like an able-bodied +sawmill that indicates the _ping-gosh_ are abroad. + +It would be unfair to leave the subject without a passing reference to +its effect on the imagination. We are all familiar with comic paper +mosquito stories, and some of them are very good. But until actual +experience takes you by the hand and leads you into the realm of pure +fancy, you will never know of what improvisation the human mind is +capable. + +The picture rises before my mind of the cabin of a twenty-eight-foot +cutter-sloop just before the dawn of a midsummer day. The sloop was +made for business, and the cabin harmonized exactly with the +sloop--painted pine, wooden bunks without mattresses, camp-blankets, +duffel-bags slung up because all the floor place had been requisitioned +for sleeping purposes. We were anchored a hundred feet off land from +Pilot Cove, on the uninhabited north shore. The mosquitoes had +adventured on the deep. We lay half asleep. + +"On the middle rafter," murmured the Football Man, "is one old fellow +giving signals." + +"A quartette is singing drinking-songs on my nose," muttered the Glee +Club Man. + +"We won't need to cook," I suggested somnolently. "We can run up and +down on deck with our mouths open and get enough for breakfast." + +The fourth member opened one eye. "Boys," he breathed, "we won't be +able to go on to-morrow unless we give up having any more biscuits." + +After a time some one murmured, "Why?" + +"We'll have to use all the lard on the mast. They're so mad because +they can't get at us that they're biting the mast. It's already swelled +up as big as a barrel. We'll never be able to get the mainsail up. Any +of you boys got any vaseline? Perhaps a little fly-dope--" + +But we snored vigorously in unison. The Indians say that when Kitch' +Manitou had created men he was dissatisfied, and so brought women into +being. At once love-making began, and then, as now, the couples sought +solitude for their exchanges of vows, their sighings to the moon, their +claspings of hands. Marriages ensued. The situation remained unchanged. +Life was one perpetual honeymoon. I suppose the novelty was fresh and +the sexes had not yet realized they would not part as abruptly as they +had been brought together. The villages were deserted, while the woods +and bushes were populous with wedded and unwedded lovers. Kitch' +Manitou looked on the proceedings with disapproval. All this was most +romantic and beautiful, no doubt, but in the meantime mi-daw-min, the +corn, mi-no-men, the rice, grew rank and uncultivated; while bis-iw, +the lynx, and swingwaage, the wolverine, and me-en-gan, the wolf, +committed unchecked depredations among the weaker forest creatures. The +business of life was being sadly neglected. So Kitch' Manitou took +counsel with himself, and created saw-gi-may, the mosquito, to whom he +gave as dwelling the woods and bushes. That took the romance out of the +situation. As my narrator grimly expressed it, "Him come back, go to +work." + +Certainly it should be most effective. Even the thick-skinned moose is +not exempt from discomfort. At certain seasons the canoe voyager in the +Far North will run upon a dozen in the course of a day's travel, +standing nose-deep in the river merely to escape the insect pests. + +However, this is to be remembered: after the first of August they +bother very little; before that time the campaign I have outlined is +effective; even in fly season the worst days are infrequent. In the +woods you must expect to pay a certain price in discomfort for a very +real and very deep pleasure. Wet, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, difficult +travel, insects, hard beds, aching muscles--all these at one time or +another will be your portion. If you are of the class that cannot have +a good time unless everything is right with it, stay out of the woods. +One thing at least will always be wrong. When you have gained the +faculty of ignoring the one disagreeable thing and concentrating your +powers on the compensations, then you will have become a true woodsman, +and to your desires the forest will always be calling. + + + + +X. + +CLOCHE. + + +Imagine a many-armed lake, like a starfish, nested among rugged +Laurentian hills, whose brows are bare and forbidding, but whose +concealed ravines harbour each its cool screen of forest growth. +Imagine a brawling stream escaping at one of the arms, to tumble, +intermittently visible among the trees, down a series of cascades and +rapids, to the broad, island-dotted calm of the big lake. Imagine a +meadow at the mouth of this stream, and on the meadow a single white +dot. Thus you will see Cloche, a trading-post of the Honourable the +Hudson's Bay Company, as Deuce and I saw it from the summit of the +hills. + +We had accomplished a very hard scramble, which started well enough in +a ravine so leafy and green and impenetrable that we might well have +imagined ourselves in a boundless forest. Deuce had scented sundry +partridges, which he had pointed with entire deference to the good form +of a sporting dog's conventions. As usual, to Deuce's never-failing +surprise and disgust, the birds had proved themselves most uncultivated +and rude persons by hopping promptly into trees instead of lying to +point and then flushing as a well-taught partridge should. I had +refused to pull pistol on them. Deuce's heart was broken. Then, +finally, we came to cliffs up which we had to scale, and boulders which +we had to climb, and fissures which we had to jump or cross on fallen +trees, and wide, bare sweeps of rock and blueberry bushes which we had +to cover, until at last we stood where we could look all ways at once. + +The starfish thrust his insinuating arms in among the distant hills to +the north. League after league, rising and falling and rising again +into ever bluer distance, forest-covered, mysterious, other ranges and +systems lifted, until at last, far out, nearly at the horizon-height of +my eye, flashed again the gleam of water. And so the starfish arms of +the little lake at my feet seemed to have plunged into this wilderness +tangle only to reappear at greater distance. Like swamp-fire, it lured +the imagination always on and on and on through the secret waterways of +the uninhabited North. It was as though I stood on the dividing ridge +between the old and the new. Through the southern haze, hull down, I +thought to make out the smoke of a Great Lake freighter; from the +shelter of a distant cove I was not surprised a moment later to see +emerge a tiny speck whose movements betrayed it as a birch canoe. The +great North was at this, the most southern of the Hudson's Bay posts, +striking a pin-point of contact with the world of men. + +Deuce and I angled down the mountain toward the stream. Our arrival +coincided with that of the canoe. It was of the Ojibway three-fathom +pattern, and contained a half-dozen packs, a sledge-dog, with whom +Deuce at once opened guarded negotiations, an old Indian, a squaw, and +a child of six or eight. We exchanged brief greetings. Then I sat on a +stump and watched the portage. + +These were evidently "Woods Indians," an entirely different article +from the "Post Indians." They wore their hair long, and bound by a +narrow strip or fillet; their faces were hard and deeply lined, with a +fine, bold, far-seeing look to the eyes which comes only from long +woods dwelling. They walked, even under heavy loads, with a sagging, +springy gait, at once sure-footed and swift. Instead of tump-lines the +man used his sash, and the woman a blanket knotted loosely together at +the ends. The details of their costumes were interesting in combination +of jeans and buckskin, broadcloth and blanket, stroud and a material +evidently made from the strong white sacking in which flour intended +for frontier consumption is always packed. After the first +double-barrelled "bo' jou', bo' jou'," they paid no further attention +to me. In a few moments the portage was completed. The woman thrust her +paddle against the stream's bottom and the canoe, and so embarked. The +man stepped smoothly to his place like a cat leaping from a chair. They +shot away with the current, leaving behind them a strange and +mysterious impression of silence. + +I followed down a narrow but well-beaten trail, and so at the end of a +half-mile came to the meadow and the post of Cloche. + +The building itself was accurately of the Hudson Bay type--a steep, +sloping roof greater in front than behind, a deep recessed veranda, +squared logs sheathed with whitewashed boards. About it was a little +garden, which, besides the usual flowers and vegetables, contained such +exotics as a deer confined to a pen and a bear chained to a stake. As I +approached, the door opened and the Trader came out. + +Now, often along the southern fringe your Hudson's Bay Trader will +prove to be a distinct disappointment. In fact, one of the historic old +posts is now kept by a pert little cockney Englishman, cringing or +impudent as the main chance seems to advise. When you have penetrated +further into the wilderness, however, where the hardships of winter and +summer travel, the loneliness of winter posts, the necessity of dealing +directly with savage men and savage nature, develops the quality of a +man or wrecks him early in the game, you will be certain of meeting +your type. But here, within fifty miles of the railroad! + +The man who now stepped into view, however, preserved in his appearance +all the old traditions. He was, briefly, a short black-and-white man +built very square. Immense power lurked in the broad, heavy shoulders, +the massive chest, the thick arms, the sturdy, column-like legs. As for +his face, it was almost entirely concealed behind a curly square black +beard that grew above his cheek-bones nearly to his eyes. Only a thick +hawk nose, an inscrutable pair of black eyes under phenomenally heavy +eyebrows, and a short black pipe showed plainly from the hirsute +tangle. He was lock, stock, and barrel of the Far North, one of the old +_regime_. I was rejoiced to see him there, but did not betray a +glimmer of interest. I knew my type too well for that. + +"How are you?" he said grudgingly. + +"Good-day," said I. + +We leaned against the fence and smoked, each contemplating carefully +the end of his pipe. I knew better than to say anything. The Trader was +looking me over, making up his mind about me. Speech on my part would +argue lightness of disposition, for it would seem to indicate that I +was not also making up my mind about him. + +In this pause there was not the least unfriendliness. Only, in the +woods you prefer to know first the business and character of a chance +acquaintance. Afterwards you may ingratiate to his good will. All of +which possesses a beautiful simplicity, for it proves that good or bad +opinion need not depend on how gracefully you can chatter assurances. +At the end of a long period the Trader inquired, "Which way you +headed?" + +"Out in a canoe for pleasure. Headed almost anywhere." + +Again we smoked. + +"Dog any good?" asked the Trader, removing his pipe and pointing to the +observant Deuce. + +"He'll hunt shade on a hot day," said I tentatively. "How's the fur in +this district?" + +We were off. He invited me in and showed me his bear. In ten minutes we +were seated chair-tilted on the veranda, and slowly, very cautiously, +in abbreviated syncopation, were feeling our way toward an intimacy. + +Now came the Indians I had seen at the lake to barter for some flour +and pork. I was glad of the chance to follow them all into the +trading-room. A low wooden counter backed by a grill divided the main +body of the room from the entrance. It was deliciously dim. All the +charm of the Aromatic Shop was in the place, and an additional flavour +of the wilds. Everything here was meant for the Indian trade: bolts of +bright-patterned ginghams, blankets of red or blue, articles of +clothing, boxes of beads for decoration, skeins of brilliant silk, lead +bars for bullet-making, stacks of long brass-bound "trade guns" in the +corner, small mirrors, red and parti-coloured worsted sashes with +tassels on the ends, steel traps of various sizes, and a dozen other +articles to be desired by the forest people. And here, unlike the +Aromatic Shop, were none of the products of the Far North. All that, I +knew, was to be found elsewhere, in another apartment, equally dim, but +delightful in the orderly disorder of a storeroom. + +Afterwards I made the excuse of a pair of moccasins to see this other +room. We climbed a steep, rough flight of stairs to emerge through a +sort of trap-door into a space directly under the roof. It was lit only +by a single little square at one end. Deep under the eaves I could make +out row after row of boxes and chests. From the rafters hung a dozen +pair of snow-shoes. In the centre of the floor, half overturned, lay an +open box from which tumbled dozens of pairs of moose-hide snow-shoe +moccasins. + +Shades of childhood, what a place! No one of us can fail to recall with +a thrill the delights of a rummage in the attic--the joy of pulling +from some half-forgotten trunk a wholly forgotten shabby garment, which +nevertheless has taken to itself from the stillness of undisturbed +years the faint aroma of romance; the rapture of discovering in the +dusk of a concealed nook some old spur or broken knife or rusty pistol +redolent of the open road. Such essentially commonplace affairs they +are, after all, in the light of our mature common sense, but such +unspeakable ecstasies to the romance-breathing years of fancy. Here +would no fancy be required. To rummage in these silent chests and boxes +would be to rummage, not in the fictions of imagination, but the facts +of the most real picturesque. In yonder square box are the smoke-tanned +shoes of silence; that velvet dimness would prove to be the fur of a +bear; this birch-bark package contains maple sugar savoured of the +wilds. Buckskin, both white and buff, bears' claws in strings, bundles +of medicinal herbs, sweet-grass baskets fragrant as an Eastern tale, +birch-bark boxes embroidered with stained quills of the porcupines, +bows of hickory and arrows of maple, queer half-boots of stiff sealskin +from the very shores of the Hudson Bay, belts of beadwork, yellow and +green, for the Corn Dance, even a costume or so of buckskin complete +for ceremonial--all these the fortunate child would find were he to +take the rainy-day privilege in this, the most wonderful attic in all +the world. And then, after he had stroked the soft fur, and smelled the +buckskin and sweet grasses, and tasted the crumbling maple sugar, and +dressed himself in the barbaric splendours of the North, he could +flatten his little nose against the dim square of light and look out +over the glistening yellow backs of a dozen birchbark canoes to the +distant, rain-blurred hills, beyond which lay the country whence all +these things had come. Do you wonder that in after years that child +hits the Long Trail? Do you still wonder at finding these strange, +taciturn, formidable, tender-hearted men dwelling lonely in the Silent +Places? + +The Trader yanked several of the boxes to the centre and prosaically +tumbled about their contents. He brought to light heavy moose-hide +moccasins with high linen tops for the snow; lighter buckskin +moccasins, again with the high tops, but this time of white tanned +doeskin; slipper-like deer-skin moccasins with rolled edges, for the +summer; oil-tanned shoepacs, with and without the flexible leather +sole; "cruisers" of varying degree of height--each and every sort of +footgear in use in the Far North, excepting and saving always the +beautiful soft doeskin slippers finished with white fawnskin and +ornamented with the Ojibway flower pattern for which I sought. Finally +he gave it up. + +"I had a few pair. They must have been sent out," said he. + +We rummaged a little further for luck's sake, then descended to the +outer air. I left him to fetch my canoe, but returned in the afternoon. +We became friends. That evening we sat in the little sitting-room and +talked far into the night. + +He was a true Hudson's Bay man, steadfastly loyal to the Company. I +mentioned the legend of _La Longue Traverse_; he stoutly asserted +he had never heard of it. I tried to buy a mink-skin or so to hang on +the wall as souvenir of my visit; he was genuinely distressed, but had +to refuse because the Company had not authorized him to sell, and he +had nothing of his own to give. I mentioned the River of the Moose, the +Land of Little Sticks; his deep eyes sparkled with excitement, and he +asked eagerly a multitude of details concerning late news from the +northern posts. + +And as the evening dwindled, after the manner of Traders everywhere, he +began to tell me the "ghost stories" of this station of Cloche. Every +post has gathered a mass of legendary lore in the slow years, but this +had been on the route of the _voyageurs_ from Montreal and Quebec +at the time when the lords of the North journeyed to the scenes of +their annual revels at Fort Williams. The Trader had much to say of the +magnificence and luxury of these men--their cooks, their silken tents, +their strange and costly foods, their rare wines, their hordes of +French and Indian canoemen and packers. Then Cloche was a halting-place +for the night. Its meadows had blossomed many times with the gay tents +and banners of a great company. He told me, as vividly as though he had +been an eye-witness, of how the canoes must have loomed up suddenly +from between the islands. By-and-by he seized the lamp and conducted me +outside, where hung ponderous ornamental steelyards, on which in the +old days the peltries were weighed. + +"It is not so now," said he. "We buy by count, and modern scales weigh +the provisions. And the beaver are all gone." + +We re-entered the house in silence. After a while he began briefly to +sketch his own career. Then, indeed, the flavour of the Far North +breathed its crisp, bracing ozone through the atmosphere of the room. + +He had started life at one of the posts of the Far North-West. At the +age of twelve he enlisted in the Company. Throughout forty years he had +served her. He had travelled to all the strange places of the North, +and claimed to have stood on the shores of that half-mythical lake of +Yamba Tooh. + +"It was snowing at the time," he said prosaically; "and I couldn't see +anything, except that I'd have to bear to the east to get away from +open water. Maybe she wasn't the lake. The Injins said she was, but I +was too almighty shy of grub to bother with lakes." + +Other names fell from him in the course of talk, some of which I had +heard and some not, but all of which rang sweet and clear with no +uncertain note of adventure. Especially haunts my memory an impression +of desolate burned trees standing stick-like in death on the shores of +Lost River. + +He told me he had been four years at Cloche, but expected shortly to be +transferred, as the fur was getting scarce, and another post one +hundred miles to the west could care for the dwindling trade. He hoped +to be sent into the North-West, but shrugged his shoulders as he said +so, as though that were in the hands of the gods. At the last he fished +out a concertina and played for me. Have you ever heard, after dark, in +the North, where the hills grow big at sunset, _a la Claire +Fontaine_ crooned to such an accompaniment, and by a man of +impassive bulk and countenance, but with glowing eyes? + +I said good-night, and stumbled, sight-dazed, through the cool dark to +my tent near the beach. The weird minor strains breathed after me as I +went. + +"A la claire fontaine +M'en allant promener, +J'ai trouve l'eau si belle +Que je m'y suis baigne, +Il y a longtemps que je t'aime +Jamais je ne t'oublierai." + +The next day, with the combers of a howling north-westerly gale +clutching at the stern of the canoe, I rode in a glory of spray and +copper-tasting excitement back to Dick and his half-breed settlement. + +But the incident had its sequel. The following season, as I was sitting +writing at my desk, a strange package was brought me. It was wrapped in +linen sewn strongly with waxed cord. Its contents lie before me now--a +pair of moccasins fashioned of the finest doeskin, tanned so +beautifully that the delicious smoke fragrance fills the room, and so +effectively that they could be washed with soap and water without +destroying their softness. The tongue-shaped piece over the instep is +of white fawnskin heavily ornamented in five colours of silk. Where it +joins the foot of the slipper it is worked over and over into a narrow +cord of red and blue silk. The edge about the ankle is turned over, +deeply scalloped, and bound at the top with a broad band of blue silk +stitched with pink. Two tiny blue bows at either side the ankle +ornament the front. Altogether a most magnificent foot-gear. No word +accompanied them, apparently, but after some search I drew a bit of +paper from the toe of one of them. It was inscribed simply--"Fort la +Cloche." + + + + +XI. + +THE HABITANTS. + + +During my absence Dick had made many friends. Wherein lies his secret I +do not know, but he has a peculiar power of ingratiation with people +whose lives are quite outside his experience or sympathies. In the +short space of four days he had earned joyous greetings from every one +in town. The children grinned at him cheerfully; the old women cackled +good-natured little teasing jests to him as he passed; the pretty, +dusky half-breed girls dropped their eyelashes fascinatingly across +their cheeks, tempering their coyness with a smile; the men painfully +demanded information as to artistic achievement which was evidently as +well meant as it was foreign to any real thirst for knowledge they +might possess; even the lumber-jacks addressed him as "Bub." And withal +Dick's methods of approach were radically wrong, for he blundered upon +new acquaintance with a beaming smile, which is ordinarily a sure +repellent to the cautious, taciturn men of the woods. Perhaps their +keenness penetrated to the fact that he was absolutely without guile, +and that his kindness was an essential part of himself. I should be +curious to know whether Billy Knapp of the Black Hills would surrender +his gun to Dick for inspection. + +"I want you to go out this afternoon to see some friends of mine," said +Dick. "They're on a farm about two miles back in the brush. They're +ancestors." + +"They're what?" I inquired. + +"Ancestors. You can go down to Grosse Point near Detroit, and find +people living in beautiful country places next the water, and after +dinner they'll show you an old silhouette or a daguerreotype or +something like that, and will say to you proudly, 'This is old Jules, +my ancestor, who was a pioneer in this country. The Place has been in +the family ever since his time.'" + +"Well?" + +"Well, this is a French family, and they are pioneers, and the family +has a place that slopes down to the water through white birch trees, +and it is of the kind very tenacious of its own land. In two hundred +years this will be a great resort; bound to be--beautiful, salubrious, +good sport, fine scenery, accessible--" + +"Railroad fifty miles away; boat every once in a while," said I +sarcastically. + +"Accessible in two hundred years, all right," insisted Dick serenely. +"Even Canada can build a quarter of a mile of railway a year. +Accessible," he went on; "good shipping-point for country now +undeveloped." + +"You ought to be a real estate agent," I advised. + +"Lived two hundred years too soon," disclaimed Dick. "What more +obvious? These are certainly ancestors." + +"Family may die out," I suggested. + +"It has a good start," said Dick sweetly. "There are eighty-seven in it +now." + +"What!" I gasped. + +"One great-grandfather, twelve grandparents, thirty-seven parents, and +thirty-seven children," tabulated Dick. + +"I should like to see the great-grandfather," said I; "he must be very +old and feeble." + +"He is eighty-five years old," said Dick, "and the last time I saw him +he was engaged with an axe in clearing trees off his farm." + +All of these astonishing statements I found to be absolutely true. + +We started out afoot soon after dinner, through a scattering growth of +popples that alternately drew the veil of coyness over the blue hills +and caught our breath with the delight of a momentary prospect. Deuce, +remembering autumn days, concluded partridges, and scurried away on the +expert diagonal, his hind legs tucked well under his flanks. The road +itself was a mere cutting through the miniature woods, winding to right +or left for the purpose of avoiding a log-end or a boulder, surmounting +little knolls with an idle disregard for the straight line, knobby with +big, round stones, and interestingly diversified by circular mud holes +a foot or so in diameter. After a mile and a half we came to the corner +of a snake fence. This, Dick informed me, marked the limits of the +"farm." + +We burst through the screen of popples definitely into the clear. A +two-storied house of squared logs crested a knoll in the middle +distance. Ten acres of grass marsh, perhaps twenty of ploughed land, +and then the ash-white-green of popples. We dodged the grass marsh and +gained the house. Dick was at once among friends. + +The mother had no English, so smiled expansively, her bony arms folded +across her stomach. Her oldest daughter, a frail-looking girl in the +twenties, but with a sad and spiritual beauty of the Madonna in her big +eyes and straight black hair, gave us a shy good-day. Three boys, just +alike in their slender, stolid Indian good looks, except that they +differed in size, nodded with the awkwardness of the male. Two babies +stared solemnly. A little girl with a beautiful, oval face, large +mischievous gray eyes behind long black lashes, a mischievously quirked +mouth to match the eyes, and black hair banged straight, both front and +behind, in almost mediaeval fashion, twirked a pair of brown bare legs +all about us. Another light-haired, curly little girl, surmounted by an +old yachting-cap, spread apart sturdy shoes in an attitude at once +critical and expectant. + +Dick rose to the occasion by sorting out from some concealed recess of +his garments a huge paper parcel of candy. + +With infinite tact, he presented this bag to Madame rather than the +children. Madame instituted judicious distribution and appropriate +reservation for the future. We entered the cabin. + +Never have I seen a place more exquisitely neat. The floor had not only +been washed clean; it had been scrubbed white. The walls of logs were +freshly whitewashed. The chairs were polished. The few ornaments were +new, and not at all dusty or dingy or tawdry. Several religious +pictures, a portrait of royalty, a lithographed advertisement of some +buggy, a photograph or so--and then just the fresh, wholesome +cleanliness of scrubbed pine. Madame made us welcome with smiles--a +faded, lean woman with a remnant of beauty peeping from her soft eyes, +but worn down to the first principles of pioneer bone and gristle by +toil, care, and the bearing of children. I spoke to her in French, +complimenting her on the appearance of the place. She was genuinely +pleased, saying in reply that one did one's possible, but that +children!--with an expressive pause. + +Next we called for volunteers to show us to the great-grandfather. Our +elfish little girls at once offered, and went dancing off down the +trail like autumn leaves in a wind. Whether it was the Indian in them, +or the effects of environment, or merely our own imaginations, we both +had the same thought--that in these strange, taciturn, friendly, +smiling, pirouetting little creatures was some eerie, wild strain akin +to the woods and birds and animals. As they danced on ahead of us, +turning to throw us a delicious smile or a half-veiled roguish glance +of nascent coquetry, we seemed to swing into an orbit of experience +foreign to our own. These bright-eyed woods people were in the last +analysis as inscrutable to us as the squirrels. + +We followed our swirling, airy guides down through a trail to another +clearing planted with potatoes. On the farther side of this they +stopped, hand in hand, at the woods' fringe, and awaited us in a +startlingly sudden repose. + +"V'la le gran'pere," said they in unison. + +At the words a huge gaunt man clad in shirt and jeans arose and +confronted us. Our first impression was of a vast framework stiffened +and shrunken into the peculiar petrifaction of age; our second, of a +Jove-like wealth of iron-gray beard and hair; our third, of eyes, wide, +clear, and tired with looking out on a century of the world's time. His +movements, as he laid one side his axe and passed a great, gnarled hand +across his forehead, were angular and slow. We knew instinctively the +quality of his work--a deliberate pause, a mighty blow, another pause, +a painful recovery--labour compounded of infinite slow patience, but +wonderfully effective in the week's result. It would go on without +haste, without pause, inevitable as the years slowly closing about the +toiler. His mental processes would be of the same fibre. The apparent +hesitation might seem to waste the precious hours remaining, but in the +end, when the engine started, it would move surely and unswervingly +along the appointed grooves. In his wealth of hair; in his wide eyes, +like the mysterious blanks of a marble statue; in his huge frame, +gnarled and wasted to the strange, impressive, powerful age-quality of +Phidias's old men, he seemed to us to deserve a wreath and a marble +seat with strange inscriptions and the graceful half-draperies of +another time and a group of old Greeks like himself with whom to +exchange slow sentences on the body politic. Indeed, the fact that his +seat was of fallen pine, and his draperies of butternut brown, and his +audience two half-breed children, an artist, and a writer, and his body +politic two hundred acres in the wilderness, did not filch from him the +impressiveness of his estate. He was a Patriarch. It did not need the +park of birch trees, the grass beneath them sloping down to the water, +the wooded knoll fairly insisting on a spacious mansion, to +substantiate Dick's fancy that he had discovered an ancestor. + +Neat piles of brush, equally neat piles of cord-wood, knee-high stumps +as cleanly cut as by a saw, attested the old man's efficiency. We +conversed. + +Yes, said he, the soil was good. It is laborious to clear away the +forest. Still, one arrives. M'sieu has but to look. In the memory of +his oldest grandson, even, all this was a forest. Le bon Dieu had +blessed him. His family was large. Yes, it was as M'sieu said, +eighty-seven--that is, counting himself. The soil was not wonderful. It +is indeed a large family and much labour, but somehow there was always +food for all. For his part he had a great pity for those whom God had +not blessed. It must be very lonesome without children. + +We spared a private thought that this old man was certainly in no +danger of loneliness. + +Yes, he went on, he was old--eighty-five. He was not as quick as he +used to be; he left that for the young ones. Still, he could do a day's +work. He was most proud to have made these gentlemen's acquaintance. He +wished us good-day. + +We left him seated on the pine log, his axe between his knees, his +great, gnarled brown hands hanging idly. After a time we heard the +_whack_ of his implement; then after another long time we heard it +_whack_ again. We knew that those two blows had gone straight and +true and forceful to the mark. So old a man had no energy to expend in +the indirections of haste. + +Our elfish guides led us back along the trail to the farmhouse. A girl +of thirteen had just arrived from school. In the summer the little ones +divided the educational advantages among themselves, turn and turn +about. + +The newcomer had been out into the world, and was dressed accordingly. +A neat dark-blue cloth dress, plainly made, a dull red and blue checked +apron; a broad, round hat, shoes and stockings, all in the best and +quietest taste--marked contrast to the usual garish Sunday best of the +Anglo-Saxon. She herself exemplified the most striking type of beauty +to be found in the mixed bloods. Her hair was thick and glossy and +black in the mode that throws deep purple shadows under the rolls and +coils. Her face was a regular oval, like the opening in a wishbone. Her +skin was dark, but rich and dusky with life and red blood that ebbed +and flowed with her shyness. Her lips were full, and of a dark cherry +red. Her eyes were deep, rather musing, and furnished with the most +gloriously tangling of eyelashes. Dick went into ecstasies, took +several photographs which did not turn out well, and made one sketch +which did. Perpetually did he bewail the absence of oils. The type is +not uncommon, but its beauty rarely remains perfect after the fifteenth +year. + +We made our ceremonious adieus to the Madame, and started back to town +under the guidance of one of the boys, who promised us a short cut. + +This youth proved to be filled with the old, wandering spirit that +lures so many of his race into the wilderness life. He confided to us +as we walked that he liked to tramp extended distances, and that the +days were really not made long enough for those who had to return home +at night. + +"I is been top of dose hills," he said. "Bime by I mak' heem go to dose +lak' beyon'." + +He told us that some day he hoped to go out with the fur traders. In +his vocabulary "I wish" occurred with such wistful frequency that +finally I inquired curiously what use he would make of the Fairy Gift. + +"If you could have just one wish come true, Pierre," I asked, "what +would you desire?" + +His answer came without a moment's hesitation. + +"I is lak' be one giant," said he. + +"Why?" I demanded. + +"So I can mak' heem de walk far," he replied simply. + +I was tempted to point out to him the fact that big men do not outlast +the little men, and that vast strength rarely endures, but then a +better feeling persuaded me to leave him his illusions. The power, even +in fancy, of striding on seven-league boots across the fascinations +spread out below his kindling vision from "dose hills" was too precious +a possession lightly to be taken away. + +Strangely enough, though his woodcraft naturally was not +inconsiderable, it did not hold his paramount interest. He knew +something about animals and their ways and their methods of capture, +but the chase did not appeal strongly to him, nor apparently did he +possess much skill along that line. He liked the actual physical +labour, the walking, the paddling, the tump-line, the camp-making, the +new country, the companionship of the wild life, the wilderness as a +whole rather than in any one of its single aspects as Fish Pond, Game +Preserve, Picture Gallery. In this he showed the true spirit of the +_voyageur_. I should confidently look to meet him in another ten +years--if threats of railroads spare the Far North so long--girdled +with the red sash, shod in silent moccasins, bending beneath the +portage load, trolling _Isabeau_ to the silent land somewhere +under the Arctic Circle. The French of the North have never been great +fighters nor great hunters, in the terms of the Anglo-Saxon +frontiersmen, but they have laughed in farther places. + + + + +XII. + +THE RIVER. + + +At a certain spot on the North Shore--I am not going to tell you +where--you board one of the two or three fishing-steamers that collect +from the different stations the big ice-boxes of Lake Superior +whitefish. After a certain number of hours--I am not going to tell you +how many--your craft will turn in toward a semicircle of bold, +beautiful hills, that seem at first to be many less miles distant than +the reality, and at the last to be many more miles remote than is the +fact. From the prow you will make out first a uniform velvet green; +then the differentiation of many shades; then the dull neutrals of +rocks and crags; finally the narrow white of a pebble beach against +which the waves utter continually a rattling undertone. The steamer +pushes boldly in. The cool green of the water underneath changes to +gray. Suddenly you make out the bottom, as through a thick green glass, +and the big suckers and catfish idling over its riffled sands, +inconceivably far down through the unbelievably clear liquid. So +absorbed are you in this marvellous clarity that a slight, grinding jar +alone brings you to yourself. The steamer's nose is actually touching +the white strip of pebbles! + +Now you can do one of a number of things. The forest slants down to +your feet in dwindling scrub, which half conceals an abandoned log +structure. This latter is the old Hudson's Bay post. Behind it is the +Fur Trail, and the Fur Trail will take you three miles to Burned Rock +Pool, where are spring water and mighty trout. But again, half a mile +to the left, is the mouth of the River. And the River meanders +charmingly through the woods of the flat country over numberless +riffles and rapids, beneath various steep gravel banks, until it sweeps +boldly under the cliff of the first high hill. There a rugged precipice +rises sheer and jagged and damp-dark to overhanging trees clinging to +the shoulder of the mountain. And precisely at that spot is a bend +where the water hits square, to divide right and left in whiteness, to +swirl into convolutions of foam, to lurk darkly for a moment on the +edge of tumult before racing away. And there you can stand hip-deep, +and just reach the eddy foam with a cast tied craftily of Royal +Coachman, Parmachenee Belle, and Montreal. + +From that point you are with the hills. They draw back to leave wide +forest, but always they return to the River--as you would return season +after season were I to tell you how--throwing across your +woods-progress a sheer cliff forty or fifty feet high, shouldering you +incontinently into the necessity of fording to the other side. More and +more jealous they become as you penetrate, until at the Big Falls they +close in entirely, warning you that here they take the wilderness to +themselves. At the Big Falls anglers make their last camp. About the +fire they may discuss idly various academic questions--as to whether +the great inaccessible pool below the Falls really contains the +legendary Biggest Trout; what direction the River takes above; whether +it really becomes nothing but a series of stagnant pools connected by +sluggish water-reaches; whether there are any trout above the Falls; +and so on. + +These questions, as I have said, are merely academic. Your true angler +is a philosopher. Enough is to him worth fifteen courses, and if the +finite mind of man could imagine anything to be desired as an addition +to his present possessions on the River, he at least knows nothing of +it. Already he commands ten miles of water--swift, clear water--running +over stone, through a freshet bed so many hundreds of feet wide that he +has forgotten what it means to guard his back cast. It is to be waded +in the riffles, so that he can cross from one shore to the other as the +mood suits him. One bank is apt to be precipitous, the other to stretch +away in a mile or so of the coolest, greenest, stillest primeval forest +to be imagined. Thus he can cut across the wide bends of the River, +should he so desire and should haste be necessary to make camp before +dark. And, last, but not least by any manner of means, there are trout. + +I mean real trout--big fellows, the kind the fishers of little streams +dream of but awake to call Morpheus a liar, just as they are too polite +to call you a liar when you are so indiscreet as to tell them a few +plain facts. I have one solemnly attested and witnessed record of +twenty-nine inches, caught in running water. I saw a friend land on one +cast three whose aggregate weight was four and one half pounds. I +witnessed, and partly shared, an exciting struggle in which three fish +on three rods were played in the same pool at the same time. They +weighed just fourteen pounds. One pool, a backset, was known as the +Idiot's Delight, because any one could catch fish there. I have lain on +my stomach at the Burned Rock Pool and seen the great fish lying so +close together as nearly to cover the bottom, rank after rank of them, +and the smallest not under a half pound. As to the largest--well, every +true fisherman knows him! + +So it came about for many years that the natural barrier interposed by +the Big Falls successfully turned the idle tide of anglers' +exploration. Beyond them lay an unknown country, but you had to climb +cruelly to see it, and you couldn't gain above what you already had in +any case. The nearest settlement was nearly sixty miles away, so even +added isolation had not its usual quickening effect on camper's effort. +The River is visited by few, anyway. An occasional adventurous steam +yacht pauses at the mouth, fishes a few little ones from the shallow +pools there, or a few big ones from the reefs, and pushes on. It never +dreams of sending an expedition to the interior. Our own people, and +two other parties, are all I know of who visit the River regularly. Our +camp-sites alone break the forest; our blazes alone continue the +initial short cut of the Fur Trail; our names alone distinguish the +various pools. We had always been satisfied to compromise with the +frowning Hills. In return for the delicious necks and points and forest +areas through which our clipped trails ran, we had tacitly respected +the mystery of the upper reaches. + +This year, however, a number of unusual conditions changed our spirit. +I have perhaps neglected to state that our trip up to now had been a +rather singularly damp one. Of the first fourteen days twelve had been +rainy. This was only a slightly exaggerated sample for the rest of the +time. As a consequence we found the River filled even to the limit of +its freshet banks. The broad borders of stone beach between the +stream's edge and the bushes had quite disappeared; the riffles had +become rapids, and the rapids roaring torrents; the bends boiled +angrily with a smashing eddy that sucked air into pirouetting cavities +inches in depth. Plainly, fly-fishing was out of the question. No +self-respecting trout would rise to the surface of such a moil, or +abandon for syllabubs of tinsel the magnificent solidities of +ground-bait such a freshet would bring down from the hills. Also the +River was unfordable. + +We made camp at the mouth and consulted together. Billy, the half-breed +who had joined us for the labour of a permanent camp, shook his head. + +"I t'ink one week, ten day," he vouchsafed. "P'rhaps she go down den. +We mus' wait." We did not want to wait; the idleness of a permanent +camp is the most deadly in the world. + +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been above the Big Falls?" + +The half-breed's eyes flashed. + +"Non," he replied simply. "Ba, I lak' mak' heem firs' rate." + +"All right, Billy; we'll do it." + +The next day it rained, and the River went up two inches. The morning +following was fair enough, but so cold you could see your breath. We +began to experiment. + +Now, this expedition had become a fishing vacation, so we had all the +comforts of home with us. When said comforts of home were laden into +the canoe, there remained forward and aft just about one square foot of +space for Billy and me, and not over two inches of freeboard for the +River. We could not stand up and pole; tracking with a tow-line was out +of the question, because there existed no banks on which to walk; the +current was too swift for paddling. So we knelt and poled. We knew it +before, but we had to be convinced by trial, that two inches of +freeboard will dip under the most gingerly effort. It did so. We +groaned, stepped out into ice-water up to our waists, and so began the +day's journey with fleeting reference to Dante's nethermost hell. + +Next the shore the water was most of the time a little above our knees, +but the swirl of a rushing current brought an apron of foam to our +hips. Billy took the bow and pulled; I took the stern and pushed. In +places our combined efforts could but just counterbalance the strength +of the current. Then Billy had to hang on until I could get my shoulder +against the stern for a mighty heave, the few inches gain of which he +would guard as jealously as possible, until I could get into position +for another shove. At other places we were in nearly to our armpits, +but close under the banks where we could help ourselves by seizing +bushes. + +Sometimes I lost my footing entirely and trailed out behind like a +streamer; sometimes Billy would be swept away, the canoe's bow would +swing down-stream, and I would have to dig my heels and hang on until +he had floundered upright. Fortunately for our provisions, this never +happened to both at the same time. The difficulties were still further +complicated by the fact that our feet speedily became so numb from the +cold that we could not feel the bottom, and so were much inclined to +aimless stumblings. By-and-by we got out and kicked trees to start the +circulation. In the meantime the sun had retired behind thick, leaden +clouds. + +At the First Bend we were forced to carry some fifty feet. There the +River rushed down in a smooth apron straight against the cliff, where +its force actually raised the mass of water a good three feet higher +than the level of the surrounding pool. I tied on a bait-hook, and two +cartridges for sinkers, and in fifteen minutes had caught three trout, +one of which weighed three pounds, and the others two pounds and a +pound and a half respectively. At this point Dick and Deuce, who had +been paralleling through the woods, joined us. We broiled the trout, +and boiled tea, and shivered as near the fire as we could. That +afternoon, by dint of labour and labour, and yet more labour, we +made Burned Rock, and there we camped for the night, utterly +beaten out by about as hard a day's travel as a man would want to +undertake. + +The following day was even worse, for as the natural bed of the River +narrowed, we found less and less footing and swifter and swifter water. +The journey to Burned Rock had been a matter of dogged hard work; this +was an affair of alertness, of taking advantage of every little eddy, +of breathless suspense during long seconds while the question of +supremacy between our strength and the stream's was being debated. And +the thermometer must have registered well towards freezing. Three times +we were forced to cross the River in order to get even precarious +footing. Those were the really doubtful moments. We had to get in +carefully, to sit craftily, and to paddle gingerly and firmly, without +attempting to counteract the downward sweep of the current. All our +energies and care were given to preventing those miserable curling +little waves from over-topping our precious two inches, and that +miserable little canoe from departing even by a hair's-breadth from the +exactly level keel. Where we were going did not matter. After an +interminable interval the tail of our eyes would catch the sway of +bushes near at hand. + +"Now," Billy would mutter abstractedly. + +With one accord we would arise from six inches of wet and step swiftly +into the River. The lightened canoe would strain back; we would brace +our legs. The traverse was accomplished. + +[Illustration: WATCHED THE LONG NORTH COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A +GRAY CLOUD FROM THE EAST.] + +Being thus under the other bank, I would hold the canoe while Billy, +astraddle the other end for the purpose of depressing the water to +within reach of his hand, would bail away the consequences of our +crossing. Then we would make up the quarter of a mile we had lost. + +We quit at the Organ Pool about three o'clock of the afternoon. Not +much was said that evening. + +The day following we tied into it again. This time we put Dick and +Deuce on an old Indian trail that promised a short cut, with +instructions to wait at the end of it. In the joyous anticipation of +another wet day we forgot they had never before followed an Indian +trail. Let us now turn aside to the adventures of Dick and Deuce. + +Be it premised here that Dick is a regular Indian of taciturnity when +it becomes a question of his own experience, so that for a long time we +knew of what follows but the single explanatory monosyllable which you +shall read in due time. But Dick has a beloved uncle. In moments of +expansion to this relative after his return he held forth as to the +happenings of that morning. + +Dick and the setter managed the Indian trail for about twenty rods. +They thought they managed it for perhaps twice that distance. Then it +became borne in on them that the bushes went back, the faint +knife-clippings, and the half weather-browned brush-cuttings that alone +constitute an Indian trail had taken another direction, and that they +had now their own way to make through the forest. Dick knew the +direction well enough, so he broke ahead confidently. After a +half-hour's walk he crossed a tiny streamlet. After another half-hour's +walk he came to another. It was flowing the wrong way. + +Dick did not understand this. He had never known of little streams +flowing away from rivers and towards eight-hundred-foot hills. This +might be a loop, of course. He resolved to follow it up-stream far +enough to settle the point. The following brought him in time to a +soggy little thicket with three areas of moss-covered mud and two +round, pellucid pools of water about a foot in diameter. As the little +stream had wound and twisted, Dick had by now lost entirely his sense +of direction. He fished out his compass and set it on a rock. The River +flows nearly north-east to the Big Falls, and Dick knew himself to be +somewhere east of the River. The compass appeared to be wrong. Dick was +a youth of sense, so he did not quarrel with the compass; he merely +became doubtful as to which was the north end of the needle--the white +or the black. After a few moments' puzzling he was quite at sea, and +could no more remember how he had been taught as to this than you can +clinch the spelling of a doubtful word after you have tried on paper a +dozen variations. But being a youth of sense he did not desert the +streamlet. + +After a short half-mile of stumbling the apparent wrong direction in +the brook's bed, he came to the River. The River was also flowing the +wrong way, and uphill. Dick sat down and covered his eyes with his +hands, as I had told him to do in like instance, and so managed to +swing the country around where it belonged. + +Now here was the River--and Dick resolved to desert it for no more +short cuts--but where was the canoe? + +This point remained unsettled in Dick's mind, or rather it was +alternately settled in two ways. Sometimes the boy concluded we must be +still below him, so he would sit on a rock to wait. Then, after a few +moments, inactivity would bring him panic. The canoe must have passed +this point long since, and every second he wasted stupidly sitting on +that stone separated him farther from his friends and from food. Then +he would tear madly through the forest. Deuce enjoyed this game, but +Dick did not. + +In time Dick found his farther progress along the banks cut off by a +hill. The hill ended abruptly at the water's edge in a sheer rock cliff +thirty feet high. This was in reality the end of the Indian trail short +cut--the point where Dick was to meet us--but he did not know it. He +happened for the moment to be obsessed by one of his canoe up-stream +panics, so he turned inland to a spot where the hill appeared +climbable, and started in to surmount the obstruction. + +This was comparatively easy at first. Then the shoulder of the cliff +intervened. Dick mounted still a little higher up the hill, then +higher, then still higher. Far down to his left, through the trees, +broiled the River. The slope of the hill to it had become steeper than +a roof, and at the edge of the eaves came a cliff drop of thirty feet. +Dick picked his way gingerly over curving moss-beds, assisting his +balance by a number of little cedar trees. Then something happened. + +Dick says the side of the hill slid out from under him. The fact of the +matter is, probably, the skin-moss over loose rounded stones gave way. +Dick sat down and began slowly to bump down the slant of the roof. He +never really lost his equilibrium, nor until the last ten feet did he +abandon the hope of checking his descent. Sometimes he did actually +succeed in stopping himself for a moment; but on his attempting to +follow up the advantage, the moss always slipped or the sapling let go +a tenuous hold and he continued on down. At last the River flashed out +below him. He saw the sheer drop. He saw the boiling eddies of the +Halfway Pool, capable of sucking down a saw-log. Then, with a final +rush of loose round stones, he shot the chutes feet first into space. + +In the meantime Billy and I repeated our experience of the two previous +days, with a few variations caused by the necessity of passing two +exceptionally ugly rapids whose banks left little footing. We did this +precariously, with a rope. The cold water was beginning to tell on our +vitality, so that twice we went ashore and made hot tea. Just below the +Halfway Pool we began to do a little figuring ahead, which is a bad +thing. The Halfway Pool meant much inevitable labour, with its two +swift rapids and its swirling, eddies, as sedulously to be avoided as +so many steel bear-traps. Then there were a dozen others, and the three +miles of riffles, and all the rest of it. At our present rate it would +take us a week to make the Falls. Below the Halfway Pool we looked for +Dick. He was not to be seen. This made us cross. At the Halfway Pool we +intended to unload for portage, and also to ferry over Dick and the +setter in the lightened canoe. The tardiness of Dick delayed the game. + +However, we drew ashore to the little clearing of the Halfway Camp, +made the year before, and wearily discharged our cargo. Suddenly, +upstream, and apparently up in the air, we heard distinctly the excited +yap of a dog. Billy and I looked at each other. Then we looked +upstream. + +Close under the perpendicular wall of rock, and fifty feet from the end +of it, waist deep in water that swirled angrily about him, stood Dick. + +I knew well enough what he was standing on--a little ledge of shale not +over five or six feet in length and two feet wide--for in lower water I +had often from its advantage cast a fly down below the big boulder. But +I knew it to be surrounded by water fifteen feet deep. It was +impossible to wade to the spot, impossible to swim to it. And why in +the name of all the woods gods would a man want to wade or swim to it +if he could? The affair, to our cold-benumbed intellects, was simply +incomprehensible. + +Billy and I spoke no word. We silently, perhaps a little fearfully, +launched the empty canoe. Then we went into a space of water whose +treading proved us no angels. From the slack water under the cliff we +took another look. It was indeed Dick. He carried a rod-case in one +hand. His fish-creel lay against his hip. His broad hat sat accurately +level on his head. His face was imperturbable. Above, Deuce agonized, +afraid to leap into the stream, but convinced that his duty required +him to do so. + +We steadied the canoe while Dick climbed in. You would have thought he +was embarking at the regularly appointed rendezvous. In silence we shot +the rapids, and collected Deuce from the end of the trail, whither he +followed us. In silence we worked our way across to where our duffel +lay scattered. In silence we disembarked. + +"In Heaven's name, Dick," I demanded at last, "how did you get +_there_?" + +"Fell," said he, succinctly. And that was all. + + + + +XIII. + +THE HILLS. + + +We explained carefully to Dick that he had lit on the only spot in the +Halfway Pool where the water was at once deep enough to break his fall +and not too deep to stand in. We also pointed out that he had escaped +being telescoped or drowned by the merest hair's-breadth. From this we +drew moral conclusions. It did us good, but undoubtedly Dick knew it +already. + +Now we gave our attention to the wetness of garments, for we were +chilled blue. A big fire and a clothes-rack of forked sticks and a +sapling, an open-air change, a lunch of hot tea and trout and cold +galette and beans, a pipe--and then the inevitable summing up. + +We had in two and a half days made the easier half of the distance to +the Falls. At this rate we would consume a week or more in reaching the +starting-point of our explorations. It was a question whether we could +stand a week of ice-water and the heavy labour combined. Ordinarily we +might be able to abandon the canoe and push on afoot, as we were +accustomed to do when trout-fishing, but that involved fording the +river three times--a feat manifestly impossible in present freshet +conditions. + +"I t'ink we quit heem," said Billy. + +But then I was seized with an inspiration. Judging by the configuration +of the hills, the River bent sharply above the Falls. Why would it not +be possible to cut loose entirely at this point, to strike across +through the forest, and so to come out on the upper reaches? Remained +only the probability of our being able, encumbered by a pack, to scale +the mountains. + +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been over in those hills?". + +"No," said he. + +"Do you know anything about the country? Are there any trails?" + +"Dat countree is belong Tawabinisay. He know heem. I don' know heem. I +t'ink he is have many hills, some lak'." + +"Do you think we can climb those hills with packs?" + +Billy cast a doubtful glance on Dick. Then his eye lit up. + +"Tawabinisay is tell me 'bout dat Lak' Kawagama. P'rhaps we fine heem." + +In so saying Billy decided the attempt. What angler on the River has +not discussed--again idly, again academically--that mysterious Lake +alive with the burnished copper trout, lying hidden and wonderful in +the high hills, clear as crystal, bottomed with gravel like a fountain, +shaped like a great crescent whose curves were haunted of forest trees +grim and awesome with the solemnity of the primeval? That its exact +location was known to Tawabinisay alone, that the trail to it was +purposely blinded and muddled with the crossing of many little ponds, +that the route was laborious--all those things, along with the minor +details so dear to winter fire-chats, were matters of notoriety. +Probably more expeditions to Kawagama have been planned--in +February--than would fill a volume with an account of anticipated +adventures. Only, none of them ever came off. We were accustomed to +gaze at the forbidden cliff ramparts of the hills, to think of the +Idiot's Delight, and the Halfway Pool, and the Organ Pool, and the +Burned Rock Pool, and the Rolling Stone Pool, and all the rest of them +even up to the Big Falls; and so we would quietly allow our February +plannings to lapse. One man Tawabinisay had honoured. But this man, +named Clement, a banker from Peoria, had proved unworthy. Tawabinisay +told how he caught trout, many, many trout, and piled them on the +shores of Kawagama to defile the air. Subsequently this same +"sportsman" buried another big catch on the beach of Superior. These +and other exploits finally earned him his exclusion from the delectable +land. I give his name because I have personally talked with his guides, +and heard their circumstantial accounts of his performances. Unless +three or four woodsmen are fearful liars, I do Mr. Clement no +injustice. + +Since then Tawabinisay had hidden himself behind his impenetrable grin. + +So you can easily see that the discovery of Kawagama would be a feat +worthy even high hills. + +That afternoon we rested and made our cache. A cache in the forest +country is simply a heavily constructed rustic platform on which +provisions and clothing are laid and wrapped completely about in sheets +of canoe bark tied firmly with strips of cedar bark, or withes made +from a bush whose appearance I know well, but whose name I cannot say. +In this receptacle we left all our canned goods, our extra clothing, +and our Dutch oven. We retained for transportation some pork, flour, +rice, baking-powder, oatmeal, sugar, and tea, cooking utensils, +blankets, the tent, fishing-tackle, and the little pistol. As we were +about to go into the high country where presumably both game and fish +might lack, we were forced to take a full supply for four--counting +Deuce as one--to last ten days. The packs counted up about one hundred +and fifteen pounds of grub, twenty pounds of blankets, ten of tent, say +eight or ten of hardware including the axe, about twenty of duffel. +This was further increased by the idiosyncrasy of Billy. He, like most +woodsmen, was wedded to a single utterly foolish article of personal +belonging, which he worshipped as a fetish, and without which he was +unhappy. In his case it was a huge winter overcoat that must have +weighed fifteen pounds. The total amounted to about one hundred and +ninety pounds. We gave Dick twenty, I took seventy-six, and Billy +shouldered the rest. + +The carrying we did with the universal tump-line. This is usually +described as a strap passed about a pack and across the forehead of the +bearer. The description is incorrect. It passes across the top of the +head. The weight should rest on the small of the back just above the +hips--not on the broad of the back as most beginners place it. Then the +chin should be dropped, the body slanted sharply forward, and you may +be able to stagger forty rods at your first attempt. + +Use soon accustoms you to carrying, however. The first time I ever did +any packing I had a hard time stumbling a few hundred feet over a hill +portage with just fifty pounds on my back. By the end of that same trip +I could carry a hundred pounds and a lot of miscellaneous traps, like +canoe-poles and guns, without serious inconvenience and over a long +portage. This quickly-gained power comes partly from a strengthening of +the muscles of the neck, but more from a mastery of balance. A pack can +twist you as suddenly and expertly on your back as the best of +wrestlers. It has a head lock on you, and you have to go or break your +neck. After a time you adjust your movements, just as after a time you +can travel on snow-shoes through heavy down timber without taking +conscious thought as to the placing of your feet. + +But at first packing is as near infernal punishment as merely mundane +conditions can compass. Sixteen brand-new muscles ache, at first dully, +then sharply, then intolerably, until it seems you cannot bear it +another second. You are unable to keep your feet. A stagger means an +effort at recovery, and an effort at recovery means that you trip when +you place your feet, and that means, if you are lucky enough not to be +thrown, an extra tweak for every one of the sixteen new muscles. At +first you rest every time you feel tired. Then you begin to feel very +tired every fifty feet. Then you have to do the best you can, and prove +the pluck that is in you. + +Mr. Tom Friant, an old woodsman of wide experience, has often told me +with relish of his first try at carrying. He had about sixty pounds, +and his companion double that amount. Mr. Friant stood it a few +centuries and then sat down. He couldn't have moved another step if a +gun had been at his ear. + +"What's the matter?" asked his companion. + +"Del," said Friant, "I'm all in. I can't navigate. Here's where I +quit." + +"Can't you carry her any farther?" + +"Not an inch." + +"Well, pile her on. I'll carry her for you." + +Friant looked at him a moment in silent amazement. + +"Do you mean to say that you are going to carry your pack and mine +too?" + +"That's what I mean to say. I'll do it if I have to." + +Friant drew a long breath. + +"Well," said he at last, "if a little sawed-off cuss like you can +wiggle under a hundred and eighty, I guess I can make it under sixty." + +"That's right," said Del imperturbably. "_If you think you can, you +can_." + +"And I did," ends Friant, with a chuckle. + +Therein lies the whole secret. The work is irksome, sometimes even +painful, but if you think you can do it, you can, for though great is +the protest of the human frame against what it considers abuse, greater +is the power of a man's grit. + +We carried the canoe above the larger eddies, where we embarked +ourselves and our packs for traverse, leaving Deuce under strict +command to await a second trip. Deuce disregarded the strict command. +From disobedience came great peril, for when he attempted to swim +across after us he was carried downstream, involved in a whirlpool, +sucked under, and nearly drowned. We could do nothing but watch. When, +finally, the River spued out a frightened and bedraggled dog, we drew a +breath of very genuine relief, for Deuce was dear to us through much +association. + +The canoe we turned bottom up and left in the bushes, and so we set off +through the forest. + +At the end of fifteen minutes we began to mount a gentle ascent. The +gentle ascent speedily became a sharp slope, the sharp slope an abrupt +hill, and the latter finally an almost sheer face of rock and thin +soil. We laid hold doggedly of little cedars; we dug our fingers into +little crevices, and felt for the same with our toes; we perspired in +streams and breathed in gasps; we held the strained muscles of our +necks rigid, for the twisting of a pack meant here a dangerous fall; we +flattened ourselves against the face of the mountain with always the +heavy, ceaseless pull of the tump-line attempting to tear us backward +from our holds. And so at last, when the muscles of our thighs refused +to strengthen our legs for the ascent of another foot, we would turn +our backs to the slant and sink gratefully into the only real luxury in +the world. + +For be it known that real luxury cannot be bought; it must be worked +for. I refer to luxury as the exquisite savour of a pleasant sensation. +The keenest sense-impressions are undoubtedly those of contrast. In +looking back over a variety of experience, I have no hesitation at all +in selecting as the moment in which I have experienced the liveliest +physical pleasure one hot afternoon in July. The thermometer might have +stood anywhere. We would have placed childlike trust in any of its +statements, even three figures great. Our way had led through unbroken +forest oppressed by low brush and an underfooting of brakes. There had +been hills. Our clothes were wringing wet, to the last stitch; even the +leather of the tump-line was saturated. The hot air we gulped down did +not seem to satisfy our craving for oxygen any more than lukewarm water +ever seems to cut a real thirst. The woods were literally like an oven +in their hot dryness. Finally we skirted a little hill, and at the base +of that hill a great tree had fallen, and through the aperture thus +made in the forest a tiny current of cool air flowed like a stream. It +was not a great current, nor a wide; if we moved three feet in any +direction, we were out of it. But we sat us down directly across its +flow. And never have dinners or wines or men or women, or talks of +books or scenery or adventure or sport, or the softest, daintiest +refinements of man's invention given me the half of luxury I drank in +from that little breeze. So the commonest things--a dash of cool water +on the wrists, a gulp of hot tea, a warm, dry blanket, a whiff of +tobacco, a ray of sunshine--are more really the luxuries than all the +comforts and sybaritisms we buy. Undoubtedly the latter would also rise +to the higher category if we were to work for their essence instead of +merely signing club cheques or paying party calls for them. + +Which means that when we three would rest our packs against the side of +that hill, and drop our head-straps below our chins, we were not at all +to be pitied, even though the forest growth denied us the encouragement +of knowing how much farther we had to go. + +Before us the trees dropped away rapidly, so that twenty feet out in a +straight line we were looking directly into their tops. There, quite on +an equality with their own airy estate, we could watch the fly-catchers +and warblers conducting their small affairs of the chase. It lent us +the illusion of imponderability; we felt that we too might be able to +rest securely on graceful gossamer twigs. And sometimes, through a +chance opening, we could see down over billows of waving leaves to a +single little spot of blue, like a turquoise sunk in folds of green +velvet, which meant that the River was dropping below us. This, in the +mercy of the Red Gods, was meant as encouragement. + +The time came, however, when the ramparts we scaled rose sheer and bare +in impregnability. Nothing could be done on the straight line, so we +turned sharp to the north. The way was difficult, for it lay over great +fragments of rock stricken from the cliff by winter, and further +rendered treacherous by the moss and wet by a thousand trickles of +water. At the end of one hour we found what might be called a ravine, +if you happened not to be particular, or a steep cleft in the precipice +if you were. Here we deserted the open air for piled-up brushy tangles, +many sharp-cornered rock fragments, and a choked streamlet. Finally the +whole outfit abruptly ceased. We climbed ten feet of crevices and stood +on the ridge. + +The forest trees shut us in our own little area, so that we were for +the moment unable to look abroad over the country. + +The descent, abrupt where we had mounted, stretched away gently toward +the north and west. And on that slope, protected as it was from the +severer storms that sweep up the open valleys in winter, stood the most +magnificent primeval forest it has ever been my fortune to behold. The +huge maple, beech, and birch trees lifted column-like straight up to a +lucent green canopy, always twinkling and shifting in the wind and the +sunlight. Below grew a thin screen of underbrush, through which we had +no difficulty at all in pushing, but which threw about us face-high a +tender green partition. The effect was that of a pew in an +old-fashioned church, so that, though we shared the upper stillnesses, +a certain delightful privacy of our own seemed assured us. This privacy +we knew to be assured also to many creatures besides ourselves. On the +other side of the screen of broad leaves we sensed the presence of +life. It did not intrude on us, nor were we permitted to intrude on it. +But it was there. We heard it rustling, pattering, scrambling, +whispering, scurrying with a rush of wings. More subtly we felt it, as +one knows of a presence in a darkened room. By the exercise of +imagination and experience we identified it in its manifestations--the +squirrel, the partridge, the weasel, the spruce hens, once or twice the +deer. We knew it saw us perfectly, although we could not see it, and +that gave us an impression of companionship; so the forest was not +lonely. + +Next to this double sense of isolation and company was the feeling of +transparent shadow. The forest was thick and cool. Only rarely did the +sun find an orifice in the roof through which to pour a splash of +liquid gold. All the rest was in shadow. But the shadow was that of the +bottom of the sea--cool, green, and, above all, transparent. We saw +into the depth of it, but dimly, as we would see into the green +recesses of a tropic ocean. It possessed the same liquid quality. +Finally the illusion overcame us completely. We bathed in the shadows +as though they were palpable, and from that came great refreshment. + +Under foot the soil was springy with the mould of numberless autumns. +The axe had never hurried slow old servant decay. Once in a while we +came across a prostrate trunk lying in the trough of destruction its +fall had occasioned. But the rest of the time we trod a carpet to the +making of which centuries of dead forest warriors had wrapped +themselves in mould and soft moss and gentle dissolution. Sometimes a +faint rounded shell of former fair proportion swelled above the level, +to crumble to punkwood at the lightest touch of our feet. Or, again, +the simulacrum of a tree trunk would bravely oppose our path, only to +melt away into nothing, like the opposing phantoms of Aeneas, when we +placed a knee against it for the surmounting. + +If the pine woods be characterized by cathedral solemnity, and the +cedars and tamaracks by certain horrifical gloom, and the popples by a +silvery sunshine, and the berry-clearings by grateful heat and the +homely manner of familiar birds, then the great hardwood must be known +as the dwelling-place of transparent shadows, of cool green lucency, +and the repository of immemorial cheerful forest tradition which the +traveller can hear of, but which he is never permitted actually to +know. + +[Illustration: IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF +THAT MORNING.] + +In this lovable mystery we journeyed all the rest of that morning. The +packs were heavy with the first day's weight, and we were tired from +our climb; but the deep physical joy of going on and ever on into +unknown valleys, down a long, gentle slope that must lead somewhere, +through things animate and things of an almost animate life, opening +silently before us to give us passage, and closing as silently behind +us after we had passed--these made us forget our aches and fatigues for +the moment. + +At noon we boiled tea near a little spring of clear, cold water. As yet +we had no opportunity of seeing farther than the closing in of many +trees. We were, as far as external appearances went, no more advanced +than our first resting-place after surmounting the ridge. This effect +is constant in the great forests. You are in a treadmill--though a +pleasant one withal. Your camp of to-day differs only in non-essentials +from that of yesterday, and your camp of to-morrow will probably be +almost exactly like to-day's. Only when you reach your objective point +do you come to a full realization that you have not been the Sisyphus +of the Red Gods. + +Deuce returning from exploration brought indubitable evidence of +porcupines. We picked the barbed little weapons from his face and nose +and tongue with much difficulty for ourselves and much pain for Deuce. +We offered consolation by voicing for his dumbness his undoubted +intention to avoid all future porcupines. Then we took up the afternoon +tramp. + +Now at last through the trees appeared the gleam of water. Tawabinisay +had said that Kawagama was the only lake in its district. We therefore +became quite excited at this sapphire promise. Our packs were thrown +aside, and like school-boys we raced down the declivity to the shore. + + + + +XIV. + +ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS. + + +We found ourselves peering through the thicket at a little reed and +grass grown body of water a few acres in extent. A short detour to the +right led us to an outlet--a brook of width and dash that convinced us +the little pond was only a stopping-place in the stream, and not a +headwater as we had at first imagined. Then a nearer approach led us +past pointed tree-stumps exquisitely chiselled with the marks of teeth; +so we knew we looked, not on a natural pond, but on the work of +beavers. + +I examined the dam more closely. It was a marvel of engineering skill +in the accuracy with which the big trees had been felled exactly along +the most effective lines, the efficiency of the filling in, and the +just estimate of the waste water to be allowed. We named the place +obviously Beaver Pond, resumed our packs, and pushed on. + +Now I must be permitted to celebrate by a little the pluck of Dick. He +was quite unused to the tump-line, comparatively inexperienced in +woods-walking, and weighed but one hundred and thirty-five pounds. Yet +not once in the course of that trip did he bewail his fate. Towards the +close of this first afternoon I dropped behind to see how he was making +it. The boy had his head down, his lips shut tight together, his legs +well straddled apart. As I watched he stumbled badly over the merest +twig. + +"Dick," said I, "are you tired?" + +"Yes," he confessed frankly. + +"Can you make it another half-hour?" + +"I guess so; I'll try." + +At the end of the half-hour we dropped our packs. Dick had manifested +no impatience--not once had he even asked how nearly time was up--but +now he breathed a deep sigh of relief. + +"I thought you were never going to stop," said he simply. + +From Dick those words meant a good deal. For woods-walking differs as +widely from ordinary walking as trap-shooting from field-shooting. A +good pedestrian may tire very quickly in the forest. No two successive +steps are of the same length; no two successive steps fall on the same +quality of footing; no two successive steps are on the same level. +Those three are the major elements of fatigue. Add further the facts +that your way is continually obstructed both by real difficulties--such +as trees, trunks, and rocks--and lesser annoyances, such as branches, +bushes, and even spider-webs. These things all combine against +endurance. The inexperienced does not know how to meet them with a +minimum of effort. The tenderfoot is in a constant state of muscular +and mental rigidity against a fall or a stumble or a cut across the +face from some one of the infinitely numerous woods scourges. This +rigidity speedily exhausts the vital force. + +So much for the philosophy of it. Its practical side might be +infinitely extended. Woodsmen are tough and enduring and in good +condition; but no more so than the average college athlete. Time and +again I have seen men of the latter class walked to a standstill. I +mean exactly that. They knew, and were justly proud, of their physical +condition, and they hated to acknowledge, even to themselves, that the +rest of us were more enduring. As a consequence they played on their +nerve, beyond their physical powers. When the collapse came it was +complete. I remember very well a crew of men turning out from a lumber +camp on the Sturgeon River to bring in on a litter a young fellow who +had given out while attempting to follow Bethel Bristol through a hard +day. Bristol said he dropped finally as though he had been struck on +the head. The woodsman had thereupon built him a little fire, made him +as comfortable as possible with both coats, and hiked for assistance. I +once went into the woods with a prominent college athlete. We walked +rather hard over a rough country until noon. Then the athlete lay on +his back for the rest of the day, while I finished alone the business +we had come on. + +Now, these instances do not imply that Bristol, and certainly not +myself, were any stronger physically, or possessed more nervous force, +than the men we had tired out. Either of them on a road could have +trailed us, step for step, and as long as we pleased. But we knew the +game. + +It comes at the last to be entirely a matter of experience. Any man can +walk in the woods all day at some gait. But his speed will depend on +his skill. It is exactly like making your way through heavy, dry sand. +As long as you restrain yourself to a certain leisurely plodding, you +get along without extraordinary effort, while even a slight increase of +speed drags fiercely at your feet. So it is with the woods. As long as +you walk slowly enough, so that you can pick your footing and lift +aside easily the branches that menace your face, you will expend little +nervous energy. But the slightest pressing, the slightest inclination +to go beyond what may be called your physical foresight, lands you +immediately in difficulties. You stumble, you break through the brush, +you shut your eyes to avoid sharp switchings. The reservoir of your +energy is open full cock. In about an hour you feel very, very tired. + +This principle holds rigidly true of every one, from the softest +tenderfoot to the expertest forest-runner. For each there exists a +normal rate of travel, beyond which are penalties. Only, the +forest-runner, by long use, has raised the exponent of his powers. +Perhaps as a working hypothesis the following might be recommended: +_One good step is worth six stumbling steps; go only fast enough to +assure that good one._ + +You will learn, besides, a number of things practically which memory +cannot summon to order for instance here. "Brush slanted across your +path is easier lifted over your head and dropped behind you than pushed +aside," will do as an example. + +A good woods-walker progresses without apparent hurry. I have followed +the disappearing back of Tawabinisay when, as my companion elegantly +expressed it, "if you stopped to spit you got lost." Tawabinisay +wandered through the forest, his hands in his pockets, humming a little +Indian hymn. And we were breaking madly along behind him with the +crashing of many timbers. + +Of your discoveries probably one of the most impressive will be that in +the bright lexicon of woodscraft the word "mile" has been entirely left +out. To count by miles is a useless and ornamental elegance of +civilization. Some of us once worked hard all one day only to camp +three miles downstream from our resting-place of the night before. And +the following day we ran nearly sixty with the current. The space of +measured country known as a mile may hold you five minutes or five +hours from your destination. The Indian counts by time, and after a +little you follow his example. "Four miles to Kettle Portage" means +nothing. "Two hours to Kettle Portage" does. Only when an Indian tells +you two hours you would do well to count it as four. + +Well, our trip practically amounted to seven days to nowhere; or +perhaps seven days to everywhere would be more accurate. It was all in +the high hills until the last day and a half, and generally in the +hardwood forests. Twice we intersected and followed for short distances +Indian trails, neither of which apparently had been travelled since the +original party that had made them. They led across country for greater +or lesser distances in the direction we wished to travel, and then +turned aside. Three times we blundered on little meadows of +moose-grass. Invariably they were tramped muddy like a cattle-yard +where the great animals had stood as lately as the night before. +Caribou were not uncommon. There were a few deer, but not many, for the +most of the deer country lies to the south of this our district. +Partridge, as we had anticipated, lacked in such high country. + +In the course of the five days and a half we were in the hills we +discovered six lakes of various sizes. The smallest was a mere pond; +the largest would measure some three or four miles in diameter. We came +upon that very late one afternoon. A brook of some size crossed our +way, so, as was our habit, we promptly turned upstream to discover its +source. In the high country the head-waters are never more than a few +miles distant; and at the same time the magnitude of this indicated a +lake rather than a spring as the supply. The lake might be Kawagama. + +Our packs had grown to be very heavy, for they had already the weight +of nine hours piled on top. And the stream was exceedingly difficult to +follow. It flowed in one of those aggravating little ravines whose +banks are too high and steep and uneven for good footing, and whose +beds are choked with a too abundant growth. In addition, there had +fallen many trees over which one had to climb. We kept at it for +perhaps an hour. The brook continued of the same size, and the country +of the same character. Dick for the first time suggested that it might +be well to camp. + +"We've got good water here," he argued, quite justly, "and we can push +on to-morrow just as well as to-night." + +We balanced our packs against a prostrate tree-trunk. Billy contributed +his indirect share to the argument. + +"I lak' to have the job mak' heem this countree all over," he sighed. +"I mak' heem more level." + +"All right," I agreed; "you fellows sit here and rest a minute, and +I'll take a whirl a little ways ahead." + +I slipped my tump-line and started on light. After carrying a heavy +pack so long, I seemed to tread on air. The thicket, before so +formidable, amounted to nothing at all. Perhaps the consciousness that +the day's work was in reality over lent a little factitious energy to +my tired legs. At any rate, the projected two hundred feet of my +investigations stretched to a good quarter-mile. At the end of that +space I debouched on a widening of the ravine. The hardwood ran off +into cedars. I pushed through the stiff rods and yielding fans of the +latter, and all at once found myself leaning out over the waters of the +lake. + +It was almost an exact oval, and lay in a cup of hills. Three wooded +islands, swimming like ducks in the placid evening waters, added a +touch of diversity. A huge white rock balanced the composition to the +left, and a single white sea-gull, like a snowflake against pines, +brooded on its top. + +I looked abroad to where the perfect reflection of the hills confused +the shore line. I looked down through five feet of crystal water to +where pebbles shimmered in refraction. I noted the low rocks jutting +from the wood's shelter whereon one might stand to cast a fly. Then I +turned and yelled and yelled and yelled again at the forest. + +Billy came through the brush, crashing in his haste. He looked long and +comprehendingly. Without further speech, we turned back to where Dick +was guarding the packs. + +That youth we found profoundly indifferent. + +"Kawagama," we cried, "a quarter-mile ahead." + +He turned on us a lack-lustre eye. + +"You going to camp here?" he inquired dully. + +"Course not! We'll go on and camp at the lake." + +"All right," he replied. + +We resumed our packs, a little stiffly and reluctantly, for we had +tasted of woods-travel without them. At the lake we rested. + +"Going to camp here?" inquired Dick. + +We looked about, but noted that the ground under the cedars was +hummocky, and that the hardwood grew on a slope. Besides, we wanted to +camp as near the shore as possible. Probably a trifle further along +there would be a point of high land and delightful little +paper-birches. + +"No," we answered cheerfully, "this isn't much good. Suppose we push +along a ways and find something better." + +"All right," Dick replied. + +We walked perhaps a half-mile more to the westward before we discovered +what we wanted, stopping from time to time to discuss the merits of +this or that place. Billy and I were feeling pretty good. After such a +week Kawagama was a tonic. Finally we agreed. + +"This'll do," said we. + +"Thank God!" said Dick unexpectedly, and dropped his pack to the ground +with a thud, and sat on it. + +I looked at him closely. Then I undid my own pack. "Billy," said I, +"start in on grub. Never mind the tent just now." + +"A' right," grinned Billy. He had been making his own observations. + +"Dick," said I, "let's go down and sit on the rock over the water. We +might fish a little." + +"All right," Dick replied. + +He stumbled dully after me to the shore. + +"Dick," I continued, "you're a kid, and you have high principles, and +your mother wouldn't like it, but I'm going to prescribe for you, and +I'm going to insist on your following the prescription. This flask does +not contain fly-dope--that's in the other flask--it contains whisky. I +have had it in my pack since we started, and it has not been opened. I +don't believe in whisky in the woods; not because I am temperance, but +because a man can't travel on it. But here is where you break your +heaven-born principles. Drink." + +Dick hesitated, then he drank. By the time grub was ready his vitality +had come to normal, and so he was able to digest his food and get some +good out of it; otherwise he could not have done so. Thus he furnished +an admirable example of the only real use for whisky in woods-travel. +Also it was the nearest Dick ever came to being completely played out. + +That evening was delightful. We sat on the rock and watched the long +North Country twilight steal up like a gray cloud from the east. Two +loons called to each other, now in the shrill maniac laughter, now with +the long, mournful cry. It needed just that one touch to finish the +picture. We were looking, had we but known it, on a lake no white man +had ever visited before. Clement alone had seen Kawagama, so in our +ignorance we attained much the same mental attitude. For I may as well +let you into the secret; this was not the fabled lake after all. We +found that out later from Tawabinisay. But it was beautiful enough, and +wild enough, and strange enough in its splendid wilderness isolation to +fill the heart of the explorer with a great content. + +Having thus, as we thought, attained the primary object of our +explorations, we determined on trying now for the second--that is, the +investigation of the upper reaches of the River. Trout we had not +accomplished at this lake, but the existence of fish of some sort was +attested by the presence of the two loons and the gull, so we laid our +non-success to fisherman's luck. After two false starts we managed to +strike into a good country near enough our direction. The travel was +much the same as before. The second day, however, we came to a +surveyor's base-line cut through the woods. Then we followed that as a +matter of convenience. The base-line, cut the fall before, was the only +evidence of man we saw in the high country. It meant nothing in itself, +but was intended as a starting-point for the township surveys, whenever +the country should become civilized enough to warrant them. That +condition of affairs might not occur for years to come. Therefore the +line was cut out clear for a width of twenty feet. + +We continued along it as along a trail until we discovered our last +lake--a body of water possessing many radiating arms. This was the +nearest we came to the real Kawagama. If we had skirted the lake, +mounted the ridge, followed a creek-bed, mounted another ridge, and +descended a slope, we should have made our discovery. Later we did just +that, under the guidance of Tawabinisay himself. Floating in the birch +canoe we carried with us we looked back at the very spot on which we +stood this morning. + +But we turned sharp to the left, and so missed our chance. However, we +were in a happy frame of mind, for we imagined we had really made the +desired discovery. + +Nothing of moment happened until we reached the valley of the River. +Then we found we were treed. We had been travelling all the time among +hills and valleys, to be sure, but on a high elevation. Even the bottom +lands, in which lay the lakes, were several hundred feet above +Superior. Now we emerged from the forest to find ourselves on bold +mountains at least seven or eight hundred feet above the main valley. +And in the main valley we could make out the River. + +It was rather dizzy work. Three or four times we ventured over the +rounded crest of the hill, only to return after forty or fifty feet +because the slope had become too abrupt. This grew to be monotonous and +aggravating. It looked as though we might have to parallel the River's +course, like scouts watching an army, on the top of the hill. Finally a +little ravine gave us hope. We scrambled down it; ended in a very steep +slant, and finished at a sheer tangle of cedar-roots. The latter we +attempted. Billy went on ahead. I let the packs down to him by means of +a tump-line. He balanced them on roof; until I had climbed below him. +And so on. It was exactly like letting a bucket down a well. If one of +the packs had slipped off the cedar-roots, it would have dropped like a +plummet to the valley, and landed on Heaven knows what. The same might +be said of ourselves. We did this because we were angry all through. + +Then we came to the end of the cedar-roots. Right and left offered +nothing; below was a sheer, bare drop. Absolutely nothing remained but +to climb back, heavy packs and all, to the top of the mountain. False +hopes had wasted a good half day and innumerable foot-pounds. Billy and +I saw red. We bowed our heads and snaked those packs to the top of the +mountain at a gait that ordinarily would have tired us out in fifty +feet. Dick did not attempt to keep up. When we reached the top we sat +down to wait for him. After a while he appeared, climbing leisurely. He +gazed on us from behind the mask of his Indian imperturbability. Then +he grinned. That did us good, for we all three laughed aloud, and +buckled down to business in a better frame of mind. + +That day we discovered a most beautiful waterfall. A stream about +twenty feet in width, and with a good volume of water, dropped some +three hundred feet or more into the River. It was across the valley +from us, so we had a good view of its beauties. Our estimates of its +height were carefully made on the basis of some standing pine that grew +near its foot. + +And then we entered a steep little ravine, and descended it with +misgivings to a canyon, and walked easily down the canyon to a slope that +took us by barely sensible gradations to a wooded plain. At six o'clock +we stood on the banks of the River, and the hills were behind us. + +Of our down-stream travel there is little really to be said. We +established a number of facts--that the River dashes most scenically +from rapid to rapid, so that the stagnant pool theory is henceforth +untenable; that the hills get higher and wilder the farther you +penetrate to the interior, and their cliffs and rock-precipices bolder +and more naked; that there are trout in the upper reaches, but not so +large as in the lower pools; and, above all, that travel is not a joy +for ever. + +For we could not ford the River above the Falls--it is too deep and +swift. As a consequence, we had often to climb, often to break through +the narrowest thicket strips, and once to feel our way cautiously along +a sunken ledge under a sheer rock cliff. That was Billy's idea. We came +to the sheer rock cliff after a pretty hard scramble, and we were most +loth to do the necessary climbing. Billy suggested that we might be +able to wade. As the pool below the cliff was black water and of +indeterminate depth, we scouted the idea. Billy, however, poked around +with a stick, and, as I have said, discovered a little ledge about a +foot and a half wide and about two feet and a half below the surface. +This was spectacular, but we did it. A slip meant a swim and the loss +of the pack. We did not happen to slip. Shortly after, we came to the +Big Falls, and so after further painful experiment descended joyfully +into known country. + +The freshet had gone down, the weather had warmed, the sun shone, we +caught trout for lunch below the Big Falls; everything was lovely. By +three o'clock, after thrice wading the stream, we regained our +canoe--now at least forty feet from the water. We paddled across. Deuce +followed easily, where a week before he had been sucked down and nearly +drowned. We opened the cache and changed our very travel-stained +garments. We cooked ourselves a luxurious meal. We built a +friendship-fire. And at last we stretched our tired bodies full length +on balsam a foot thick, and gazed drowsily at the canvas-blurred moon +before sinking to a dreamless sleep. + + + + +XV. + +ON WOODS INDIANS. + + +Far in the North dwell a people practically unknown to any but the +fur-trader and the explorer. Our information as to Mokis, Sioux, +Cheyennes Nez Perces, and indirectly many others, through the pages of +Cooper, Parkman, and allied writers, is varied enough, so that our +ideas of Indians are pretty well established. If we are romantic, we +hark back to the past and invent fairy-tales with ourselves anent the +Noble Red Man who has Passed Away. If we are severely practical, we +take notice of filth, vice, plug-hats, tin cans, and laziness. In fact, +we might divide all Indian concepts into two classes, following these +mental and imaginative bents. Then we should have quite simply and +satisfactorily the Cooper Indian and the Comic Paper Indian. It must be +confessed that the latter is often approximated by reality--and +everybody knows it. That the former is by no means a myth--at least in +many qualities--the average reader might be pardoned for doubting. + +Some time ago I desired to increase my knowledge of the Woods Indians +by whatever others had accomplished. Accordingly I wrote to the +Ethnological Department at Washington asking what had been done in +regard to the Ojibways and Wood Crees north of Lake Superior. The +answer was "nothing." + +And "nothing" is more nearly a comprehensive answer than at first you +might believe. Visitors at Mackinac, Traverse, Sault Ste. Marie, and +other northern resorts are besought at certain times of the year by +silent calico-dressed squaws to purchase basket and bark work. If the +tourist happens to follow these women for more wholesale examination of +their wares, he will be led to a double-ended Mackinaw-built +sailing-craft with red-dyed sails, half pulled out on the beach. In the +stern sit two or three bucks wearing shirts, jean trousers, and broad +black hats. Some of the oldest men may sport a patched pair of +moccasins or so, but most are conventional enough in clumsy shoes. +After a longer or shorter stay they hoist their red sails and drift +away toward some mysterious destination on the north shore. If the +buyer is curious enough and persistent enough, he may elicit the fact +that they are Ojibways. + +Now, if this same tourist happens to possess a mildly venturesome +disposition, a sailing-craft, and a chart of the region, he will sooner +or later blunder across the dwelling-place of his silent vendors. At +the foot of some rarely-frequented bay he will come on a diminutive +village of small whitewashed log houses. It will differ from other +villages in that the houses are arranged with no reference whatever to +one another, but in the haphazard fashion of an encampment. Its +inhabitants are his summer friends. If he is of an insinuating address, +he may get a glimpse of their daily life. Then he will go away firmly +convinced that he knows quite a lot about the North Woods Indian. + +And so he does. But this North Woods Indian is the Reservation Indian. +And in the North a Reservation Indian is as different from a Woods +Indian as a negro is from a Chinese. + +Suppose, on the other hand, your tourist is unfortunate enough to get +left at some North Woods railway station where he has descended from +the transcontinental to stretch his legs, and suppose him to have +happened on a fur-town like Missinaibie at the precise time when the +trappers are in from the wilds. Near the borders of the village he will +come upon a little encampment of conical tepees. At his approach the +women and children will disappear into inner darkness. A dozen +wolf-like dogs will rush out barking. Grave-faced men will respond +silently to his salutation. + +These men, he will be interested to observe, wear still the deer or +moose skin moccasin--the lightest and easiest foot-gear for the woods; +bind their long hair with a narrow fillet, and their waists with a red +or striped worsted sash; keep warm under the blanket thickness of a +Hudson Bay capote; and deck their clothes with a variety of barbaric +ornament. He will see about camp weapons whose acquaintance he has made +only in museums, peltries of whose identification he is by no means +sure, and as matters of daily use--snow-shoes, bark canoes, bows and +arrows--what to him have been articles of ornament or curiosity. +To-morrow these people will be gone for another year, carrying with +them the results of the week's barter. Neither he nor his kind will see +them again, unless they too journey far into the Silent Places. But he +has caught a glimpse of the stolid mask of the Woods Indian, concerning +whom officially "nothing" is known. + +In many respects the Woods Indian is the legitimate descendant of the +Cooper Indian. His life is led entirely in the forests; his subsistence +is assured by hunting, fishing, and trapping; his dwelling is the +wigwam, and his habitation the wide reaches of the wilderness lying +between Lake Superior and the Hudson Bay; his relation to humanity +confined to intercourse with his own people and acquaintance with the +men who barter for his peltries. So his dependence is not on the world +the white man has brought, but on himself and his natural environment. +Civilization has merely ornamented his ancient manner. It has given him +the convenience of cloth, of firearms, of steel traps, of iron kettles, +of matches; it has accustomed him to the luxuries of white +sugar--though he had always his own maple product--tea, flour, and +white man's tobacco. That is about all. He knows nothing of whisky. The +towns are never visited by him, and the Hudson's Bay Company will sell +him no liquor. His concern with you is not great, for he has little to +gain from you. + +This people, then, depending on natural resources for subsistence, has +retained to a great extent the qualities of the early aborigines. + +To begin with, it is distinctly nomadic. The great rolls of birch bark +to cover the pointed tepees are easily transported in the bottoms of +canoes, and the poles are quickly cut and put in place. As a +consequence, the Ojibway family is always on the move. It searches out +new trapping-grounds, new fisheries, it pays visits, it seems even to +enjoy travel for the sake of exploration. In winter a tepee of double +wall is built, whose hollow is stuffed with moss to keep out the cold; +but even that approximation of permanence cannot stand against the +slightest convenience. When an Indian kills, often he does not +transport his game to camp, but moves his camp to the vicinity of the +carcass. There are of these woods dwellers no villages, no permanent +clearings. The vicinity of a Hudson's Bay post is sometimes occupied +for a month or so during the summer, but that is all. + +An obvious corollary of this is that tribal life does not consistently +obtain. Throughout the summer months, when game and fur are at their +poorest, the bands assemble, probably at the times of barter with the +traders. Then for the short period of the idling season they drift +together up and down the North Country streams, or camp for big +pow-wows and conjuring near some pleasant conflux of rivers. But when +the first frosts nip the leaves, the families separate to their +allotted trapping districts, there to spend the winter in pursuit of +the real business of life. + +The tribe is thus split into many groups, ranging in numbers from +the solitary trapper, eager to win enough fur to buy him a wife, to a +compact little group of three or four families closely related in +blood. The most striking consequence is that, unlike other Indian +bodies politic, there are no regularly constituted and acknowledged +chiefs. Certain individuals gain a remarkable reputation and an equally +remarkable respect for wisdom, or hunting skill, or power of woodcraft, +or travel. These men are the so-called "old men" often mentioned in +Indian manifestoes, though age has nothing to do with the deference +accorded them. Tawabinisay is not more than thirty-five years old; +Peter, our Hudson Bay Indian, is hardly more than a boy. Yet both are +obeyed implicitly by whomever they happen to be with; both lead the way +by river or trail; and both, where question arises, are sought in +advice by men old enough to be their fathers. Perhaps this is as good a +democracy as another. + +The life so briefly hinted at in the foregoing lines inevitably +develops and fosters an expertness of woodcraft almost beyond belief. +The Ojibway knows his environment. The forest is to him so familiar in +each and every one of its numerous and subtle aspects that the +slightest departure from the normal strikes his attention at once. A +patch of brown shadow where green shadow should fall, a shimmering of +leaves where should be merely a gentle waving, a cross-light where the +usual forest growth should adumbrate, a flash of wings at a time of day +when feathered creatures ordinarily rest quiet--these, and hundreds of +others which you and I should never even guess at, force themselves as +glaringly on an Indian's notice as a brass band in a city street. A +white man _looks_ for game; an Indian sees it because it differs +from the forest. + +That is, of course, a matter of long experience and lifetime habit. +Were it a question merely of this, the white man might also in time +attain the same skill. But the Indian is a better animal. His senses +are appreciably sharper than our own. + +In journeying down the Kapuskasing River, our Indians--who had come +from the woods to guide us--always saw game long before we did. They +would never point it out to us. The bow of the canoe would swing +silently in its direction, there to rest motionless until we indicated +we had seen something. + +"Where is it, Peter?" I would whisper. + +But Peter always remained contemptuously silent. + +One evening we paddled directly into the eye of the setting sun +across a shallow little lake filled with hardly sunken boulders. There +was no current, and no breath of wind to stir the water into betraying +riffles. But invariably those Indians twisted the canoe into a new +course ten feet before we reached one of the obstructions, whose +existence our dazzled vision could not attest until they were actually +below us. They _saw_ those rocks, through the shimmer of the +surface glare. + +Another time I discovered a small black animal lying flat on a point of +shale. Its head was concealed behind a boulder, and it was so far away +that I was inclined to congratulate myself on having differentiated it +from the shadow. + +"What is it, Peter?" I asked. + +Peter hardly glanced at it. + +"Ninny-moosh" (dog), he replied. + +Now we were a hundred miles south of the Hudson's Bay post, and two +weeks north of any other settlement. Saving a horse, a dog would be +about the last thing to occur to one in guessing at the identity of any +strange animal. This looked like a little black blotch, without form. +Yet Peter knew it. It was a dog, lost from some Indian hunting-party, +and mightily glad to see us. + +The sense of smell, too, is developed to an extent positively uncanny +to us who have needed it so little. Your Woods Indian is always +sniffing, always testing the impressions of other senses by his +olfactories. Instances numerous and varied might be cited, but probably +one will do as well as a dozen. It once became desirable to kill a +caribou in country where the animals are not at all abundant. +Tawabinisay volunteered to take Jim within shot of one. Jim describes +their hunt as the most wonderful bit of stalking he had ever seen. The +Indian followed the animal's tracks as easily as you or I could have +followed them over snow. He did this rapidly and certainly. Every once +in a while he would get down on all fours to sniff inquiringly at the +crushed herbage. Always on rising to his feet he would give the result +of his investigations. "Ah-teek [caribou] one hour." + +And later, "Ah-teek half hour." + +Or again, "Ah-teek quarter hour." + +And finally, "Ah-teek over nex' hill." + +And it was so. + +In like manner, but most remarkable to us because the test of direct +comparison with our own sense was permitted us, was their acuteness of +hearing. Often while "jumping" a roaring rapids in two canoes, my +companion and I have heard our men talking to each other in quite an +ordinary tone of voice. That is to say, I could hear my Indian, and Jim +could hear his; but personally we were forced to shout loudly to carry +across the noise of the stream. The distant approach of animals they +announce accurately. + +"Wawashkeshi" (deer), says Peter. + +And sure enough, after an interval, we too could distinguish the +footfalls on the dry leaves. + +As both cause and consequence of these physical endowments--which place +them nearly on a parity with the game itself--they are most expert +hunters. Every sportsman knows the importance--and also the +difficulty--of discovering game before it discovers him. The Indian has +here an immense advantage. And after game is discovered, he is +furthermore most expert in approaching it with all the refined art of +the still hunter. + +Mr. Caspar Whitney describes in exasperation his experience with the +Indians of the Far North-West. He complains that when they blunder on +game they drop everything and enter into almost hopeless chase, two +legs against four. Occasionally the quarry becomes enough bewildered so +that the wild shooting will bring it down. He quite justly argues that +the merest pretence at caution in approach would result in much greater +success. + +The Woods Indian is no such fool. He is a mighty poor shot--and he +knows it. Personally I believe he shuts both eyes before pulling +trigger. He is armed with a long flint or percussion lock musket, whose +gas-pipe barrel is bound to the wood that runs its entire length by +means of brass bands, and whose effective range must be about ten +yards. This archaic implement is known as a "trade gun" and has the +single merit of never getting out of order. Furthermore ammunition is +precious. In consequence, the wilderness hunter is not going to be +merely pretty sure; he intends to be absolutely certain. If he cannot +approach near enough to blow a hole in his prey, he does not fire. + +I have seen Peter drop into marsh-grass so thin that apparently we +could discern the surface of the ground through it, and disappear so +completely that our most earnest attention could not distinguish even a +rustling of the herbage. After an interval his gun would go off from +some distant point, exactly where some ducks had been feeding serenely +oblivious to fate. Neither of us white men would have considered for a +moment the possibility of getting any of them. Once I felt rather proud +of myself for killing six ruffed grouse out of some trees with the +pistol, until Peter drifted in carrying three he had bagged with a +stick. + +Another interesting phase of this almost perfect correspondence to +environment is the readiness with which an Indian will meet an +emergency. We are accustomed to rely first of all on the skilled labour +of some one we can hire; second, if we undertake the job ourselves, on +the tools made for us by skilled labour; and third, on the shops to +supply us with the materials we may need. Not once in a lifetime are we +thrown entirely on our own resources. Then we improvise bunglingly a +makeshift. + +The Woods Indian possesses his knife and his light axe. Nails, planes, +glue, chisels, vices, cord, rope, and all the rest of it he has to do +without. But he never improvises makeshifts. No matter what the +exigency or how complicated the demand, his experience answers with +accuracy. + +Utensils and tools he knows exactly where to find. His job is neat and +workmanlike, whether it is a bark receptacle--water-tight or not--a +pair of snow-shoes, the repairing of a badly-smashed canoe, the +construction of a shelter, or the fashioning of a paddle. About noon +one day Tawabinisay broke his axe-helve square off. This to us would +have been a serious affair. Probably we should, left to ourselves, have +stuck in some sort of a rough straight sapling handle which would have +answered well enough until we could have bought another. By the time we +had cooked dinner that Indian had fashioned another helve. We compared +it with the store article. It was as well shaped, as smooth, as nicely +balanced. In fact, as we laid the new and the old side by side, we +could not have selected, from any evidence of the workmanship, which +had been made by machine and which by hand. Tawabinisay then burned out +the wood from the axe, retempered the steel, set the new helve, and +wedged it neatly with ironwood wedges. The whole affair, including the +cutting of the timber, consumed perhaps half an hour. + +To travel with a Woods Indian is a constant source of delight on this +account. So many little things that the white man does without, because +he will not bother with their transportation, the Indian makes for +himself. And so quickly and easily! I have seen a thoroughly +waterproof, commodious, and comfortable bark shelter made in about the +time it would take one to pitch a tent. I have seen a raft built of +cedar logs and cedar bark ropes in an hour. I have seen a badly-stove +canoe made as good as new in fifteen minutes. The Indian rarely needs +to hunt for the materials he requires. He knows exactly where they +grow, and he turns as directly to them as a clerk would turn to his +shelves. No problem of the living of physical life is too obscure to +have escaped his varied experience. You may travel with Indians for +years, and learn something new and delightful as to how to take care of +yourself every summer. + +The qualities I have mentioned come primarily from the fact that the +Woods Indian is a hunter. I have now to instance two whose development +can be traced to the other fact--that he is a nomad. I refer to his +skill with the bark canoe and his ability to carry. + +I was once introduced to a man at a little way station of the Canadian +Pacific Railway in the following words:-- + +"Shake hands with Munson; he's as good a canoeman as an Indian." + +A little later one of the bystanders remarked to me:-- + +"That fellow you was just talking with is as good a canoeman as an +Injun." + +Still later, at an entirely different place, a member of the bar +informed me, in the course of discussion:-- + +"The only man I know of who can do it is named Munson. He is as good a +canoeman as an Indian." + +At the time this unanimity of praise puzzled me a little. I thought I +had seen some pretty good canoe work, and even cherished a mild conceit +that occasionally I could keep right side up myself. I knew Munson to +be a great woods-traveller, with many striking qualities, and why this +of canoemanship should be so insistently chosen above the others was +beyond my comprehension. Subsequently a companion and I journeyed to +Hudson Bay with two birch canoes and two Indians. Since that trip I +have had a vast respect for Munson. + +Undoubtedly among the half-breed and white guides of Lower Canada, +Maine, and the Adirondacks are many skilful men. But they know their +waters; they follow a beaten track. The Woods Indian--well, let me tell +you something of what he does. + +We went down the Kapuskasing River to the Mattagami, and then down that +to the Moose. These rivers are at first but a hundred feet or so wide, +but rapidly swell with the influx of numberless smaller streams. Two +days' journey brings you to a watercourse nearly half a mile in +breadth; two weeks finds you on a surface approximately a mile and a +half across. All this water descends from the Height of Land to the sea +level. It does so through a rock country. The result is a series of +roaring, dashing boulder rapids and waterfalls that would make your +hair stand on end merely to contemplate from the banks. + +The regular route to Moose Factory is by the Missinaibie. Our way was +new and strange. No trails; no knowledge of the country. When we came +to a stretch of white water, the Indians would rise to their feet for a +single instant's searching examination of the stretch of tumbled water +before them. In that moment they picked the passage they were to follow +as well as a white man could have done so in half an hour's study. Then +without hesitation they shot their little craft at the green water. + +From that time we merely tried to sit still, each in his canoe. Each +Indian did it all with his single paddle. He seemed to possess absolute +control over his craft. + +Even in the rush of water which seemed to hurry us on at almost +railroad speed, he could stop for an instant, work directly sideways, +shoot forward at a slant, swing either his bow or his stern. An error +in judgment or in the instantaneous acting upon it meant a hit; and a +hit in these savage North Country Rivers meant destruction. How my man +kept in his mind the passage he had planned during his momentary +inspection was always to me a miracle. How he got so unruly a beast as +the birch canoe to follow it in that tearing volume of water was always +another. Big boulders he dodged, eddies he took advantage of, slants of +current he utilized. A fractional second of hesitation could not be +permitted him. But always the clutching of white hands from the rip at +the eddy finally conveyed to my spray-drenched faculties that the rapid +was safely astern. And this, mind you, in strange waters. + +Occasionally we would carry our outfit through the woods, while the +Indians would shoot some especially bad water in the light canoe. As a +spectacle nothing could be finer. The flash of the yellow bark, the +movement of the broken waters, the gleam of the paddle, the tense +alertness of the men's figures, their carven, passive faces, with the +contrast of the flashing eyes and the distended nostrils, then the leap +into space over some half-cataract, the smash of spray, the exultant +yells of the canoemen! For your Indian enjoys the game thoroughly. And +it requires very bad water indeed to make him take to the brush. + +This is, of course, the spectacular. But also in the ordinary gray +business of canoe travel the Woods Indian shows his superiority. He is +tireless, and composed as to wrist and shoulder of a number of +whale-bone springs. From early dawn to dewy eve, and then a few +gratuitous hours into the night, he will dig energetic holes in the +water with his long, narrow blade. And every stroke counts. The water +boils out in a splotch of white air-bubbles, the little suction holes +pirouette like dancing-girls, the fabric of the craft itself trembles +under the power of the stroke. Jim and I used, in the lake stretches, +to amuse ourselves--and probably the Indians--by paddling in furious +rivalry one against the other. Then Peter would make up his mind he +would like to speak to Jacob. His canoe would shoot up alongside as +though the Old Man of the Lake had laid his hand across its stern. +Would I could catch that trick of easy, tireless speed! I know it lies +somewhat in keeping both elbows always straight and stiff, in a lurch +forward of the shoulders at the end of the stroke. But that, and more! +Perhaps one needs a copper skin and beady black eyes with surface +lights. + +Nor need you hope to pole a canoe upstream as do these people. +Tawabinisay uses two short poles, one in either hand, kneels amidships, +and snakes that little old canoe of his upstream so fast that you would +swear the rapids an easy matter--until you tried them yourself. We were +once trailed up a river by an old Woods Indian and his interesting +family. The outfit consisted of canoe Number One--_item_, one old +Injin, one boy of eight years, one dog; canoe Number Two--_item_, +one old Injin squaw, one girl of eighteen or twenty, one dog; canoe +Number Three--_item_, two little girls of ten and twelve, one +dog. We tried desperately for three days to get away from this party. +It did not seem to work hard at all. We did. Even the two little girls +appeared to dip the contemplative paddle from time to time. Water +boiled back of our own blades. We started early and quit late, and +about as we congratulated ourselves over our evening fire that we had +distanced our followers at last, those three canoes would steal +silently and calmly about the lower bend to draw ashore below us. In +ten minutes the old Indian was delivering an oration to us, squatted in +resignation. + +The Red Gods alone know what he talked about. He had no English, and +our Ojibway was of the strictly utilitarian. But for an hour he would +hold forth. We called him Talk-in-the-Face, the Great Indian Chief. +Then he would drop a mild hint for saymon, which means tobacco, and +depart. By ten o'clock the next morning he and his people would +overtake us in spite of our earlier start. Usually we were in the act +of dragging our canoe through an especially vicious rapid by means of a +tow-line. Their three canoes, even to the children's, would ascend +easily by means of poles. Tow-lines appeared to be unsportsmanlike--like +angle-worms. Then the entire nine--including the dogs--would roost on +rocks and watch critically our methods. + +The incident had one value, however: it showed us just why these people +possess the marvellous canoe skill I have attempted to sketch. The +little boy in the leading canoe was not over eight or nine years of +age, but he had his little paddle and his little canoe-pole, and, what +is more, he already used them intelligently and well. As for the little +girls--well, they did easily feats I never hope to emulate, and that +without removing the cowl-like coverings from their heads and +shoulders. + +The same early habitude probably accounts for their ability to carry +weights long distances. The Woods Indian is not a mighty man +physically. Most of them are straight and well built, but of only +medium height, and not wonderfully muscled. Peter was most beautiful, +but in the fashion of the flying Mercury, with long smooth panther +muscles. He looked like Uncas, especially when his keen hawk-face was +fixed in distant attention. But I think I could have wrestled Peter +down. Yet time and again I have seen that Indian carry two hundred +pounds for some miles through a rough country absolutely without +trails. And once I was witness of a feat of Tawabinisay, when that wily +savage portaged a pack of fifty pounds and a two-man canoe through a +hill country for four hours and ten minutes without a rest. Tawabinisay +is even smaller than Peter. + +So much for the qualities developed by the woods life. Let us now +examine what may be described as the inherent characteristics of the +people. + + + + +XVI. + +ON WOODS INDIANS (_continued_). + + +It must be understood, of course, that I offer you only the best of my +subject. A people counts for what it does well. Also I instance men of +standing in the loose Indian body politic. A traveller can easily +discover the reverse of the medal. These have their shirks, their +do-nothings, their men of small account, just as do other races. I have +no thought of glorifying the noble red man, nor of claiming for him a +freedom from human imperfection--even where his natural quality and +training count the most--greater than enlightenment has been able to +reach. + +In my experience the honesty of the Woods Indian is of a very high +order. The sense of _mine_ and _thine_ is strongly forced by +the exigencies of the North Woods life. A man is always on the move; he +is always exploring the unknown countries. Manifestly it is impossible +for him to transport the entire sum of his worldly effects. The +implements of winter are a burden in summer. Also the return journey +from distant shores must be provided for by food-stations, to be relied +on. The solution of these needs is the cache. + +And the cache is not a literal term at all. It _conceals_ nothing. +Rather does it hold aloft in long-legged prominence, for the inspection +of all who pass, what the owner has seen fit to leave behind. A heavy +platform high enough from the ground to frustrate the investigations of +animals is all that is required. Visual concealment is unnecessary, +because in the North Country a cache is sacred. On it may depend the +life of a man. He who leaves provisions must find them on his return, +for he may reach them starving, and the length of his out-journey may +depend on his certainty of relief at this point on his in-journey. So +men passing touch not his hoard, for some day they may be in the same +fix, and a precedent is a bad thing. + +[Illustration: NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE +PEOPLE.] + +Thus in parts of the wildest countries of northern Canada I have +unexpectedly come upon a birch canoe in capsized suspension between two +trees; or a whole bunch of snow-shoes depending fruit-like beneath the +fans of a spruce; or a tangle of steel traps thrust into the crevice of +a tree-root; or a supply of pork and flour, swathed like an Egyptian +mummy, occupying stately a high bier. These things we have passed by +reverently, as symbols of a people's trust in its kind. + +The same sort of honesty holds in regard to smaller things. I have +never hesitated to leave in my camp firearms, fishing-rods, utensils +valuable from a woods point of view, even a watch or money. Not only +have I never lost anything in that manner, but once an Indian lad +followed me some miles after the morning's start to restore to me a +half-dozen trout flies I had accidentally left behind. + +It might be readily inferred that this quality carries over into the +subtleties, as indeed is the case. Mr. MacDonald of Brunswick House +once discussed with me the system of credits carried on by the Hudson's +Bay Company with the trappers. Each family is advanced goods to the +value of two hundred dollars, with the understanding that the debt is +to be paid from the season's catch. + +"I should think you would lose a good deal," I ventured. "Nothing could +be easier than for an Indian to take his two hundred dollars' worth and +disappear in the woods. You'd never be able to find him." + +Mr. MacDonald's reply struck me, for the man had twenty years' trading +experience. + +"I have never," said he, "in a long woods life known but one Indian +liar." + +This my own limited woods-wandering has proved to be true to a +sometimes almost ridiculous extent. The most trivial statement of fact +can be relied on, provided it is given outside of trade or enmity or +absolute indifference. The Indian loves to fool the tenderfoot. But a +sober, measured statement you can conclude is accurate. And if an +Indian promises a thing, he will accomplish it. He expects you to do +the same. Watch your lightest words carefully and you would retain the +respect of your red associates. + +On our way to the Hudson Bay we rashly asked Peter, towards the last, +when we should reach Moose Factory. He deliberated. + +"T'ursday," said he. + +Things went wrong; Thursday supplied a head wind. We had absolutely no +interest in reaching Moose Factory next day; the next week would have +done as well. But Peter, deaf to expostulation, entreaty, and command, +kept us travelling from six in the morning until after twelve at night. +We couldn't get him to stop. Finally he drew the canoes ashore. + +"Moose-amik quarter hour," said he. + +He had kept his word. + +The Ojibway possesses a great pride which the unthinking can ruffle +quite unconsciously in many ways. Consequently the Woods Indian is +variously described as a good guide or a bad one. The difference lies +in whether you suggest or command. + +"Peter, you've got to make Chicawgun to-night. Get a move on you!" will +bring you sullen service, and probably breed kicks on the grub supply, +which is the immediate precursor of mutiny. + +"Peter, it's a long way to Chicawgun. Do you think we make him +to-night?" on the other hand, will earn you at least a serious +consideration of the question. And if Peter says you can, you will. + +For the proper man the Ojibway takes a great pride in his woodcraft, +the neatness of his camps, the savoury quality of his cookery, the +expedition of his travel, the size of his packs, the patience of his +endurance. On the other hand, he can be as sullen, inefficient, stupid, +and vindictive as any man of any race on earth. I suppose the faculty +of getting along with men is largely inherent. Certainly it is blended +of many subtleties. To be friendly, to retain respect, to praise, to +preserve authority, to direct and yet to leave detail, to exact what is +due, and yet to deserve it--these be the qualities of a leader, and +cannot be taught. + +In general the Woods Indian is sober. He cannot get whisky regularly, +to be sure, but I have often seen the better class of Ojibways refuse a +drink, saying that they did not care for it. He starves well, and keeps +going on nothing long after hope is vanished. He is patient--yea, very +patient--under toil, and so accomplishes great journeys, overcomes +great difficulties, and does great deeds by means of this handmaiden of +genius. According to his own standards is he clean. To be sure his +baths are not numerous, nor his laundry-days many, but he never cooks +until he has washed his hands and arms to the very shoulders. Other +details would but corroborate the impression of this instance--that his +ideas differ from ours, as is his right, but that he lives up to his +ideas. Also is he hospitable, expecting nothing in return. After your +canoe is afloat and your paddle in the river, two or three of his +youngsters will splash in after you to toss silver fish to your +necessities. And so always he will wait until this last moment of +departure, in order that you will not feel called on to give him +something in return. Which is true tact and kindliness, and worthy of +high praise. + +Perhaps I have not strongly enough insisted that the Indian nations +differ as widely from one another as do unallied races. We found this +to be true even in the comparatively brief journey from Chapleau to +Moose. After pushing through a trackless wilderness without having laid +eyes on a human being, excepting the single instance of three French +_voyageurs_ going Heaven knows where, we were anticipating +pleasurably our encounter with the traders at the Factory, and +naturally supposed that Peter and Jacob would be equally pleased at the +chance of visiting with their own kind. Not at all. When we reached +Moose our Ojibways wrapped themselves in a mantle of dignity, and +stalked scornful amidst obsequious clans. For the Ojibway is great +among Indians, verily much greater than the Moose River Crees. Had it +been a question of Rupert's River Crees with their fierce blood-laws, +their conjuring-lodges, and their pagan customs, the affair might have +been different. + +For, mark you, the Moose River Cree is little among hunters, and he +conducts the chase miscellaneously over his district without thought to +the preservation of the beaver, and he works in the hay marshes during +the summer, and is short, squab, and dirty, and generally +_ka-win-ni-shi-shin_. The old sacred tribal laws, which are better +than a religion because they are practically adapted to northern life, +have among them been allowed to lapse. Travellers they are none, nor do +their trappers get far from the Company's pork-barrels. So they inbreed +ignobly for lack of outside favour, and are dying from the face of the +land through dire diseases, just as their reputations have already died +from men's respect. + +The great unwritten law of the forest is that, save as provision during +legitimate travel, one may not hunt in his neighbour's district. Each +trapper has assigned him, or gets by inheritance or purchase, certain +territorial power. In his land he alone may trap. He knows the +beaver-dams, how many animals each harbours, how large a catch each +will stand without diminution of the supply. So the fur is made to +last. In the southern district this division is tacitly agreed upon. It +is not etiquette to poach. What would happen to a poacher no one knows, +simply because the necessity for finding out has not arisen. +Tawabinisay controls from Batchawanung to Agawa. There old Waboos takes +charge. And so on. But in the Far North the control is more often +disputed, and there the blood-law still holds. An illegal trapper baits +his snares with his life. If discovered, he is summarily shot. So is +the game preserved. + +The Woods Indian never kills waste-fully. The mere presence of game +does not breed in him a lust to slaughter something. Moderation you +learn of him first of all. Later, provided you are with him long enough +and your mind is open to mystic influence, you will feel the strong +impress of his idea--that the animals of the forest are not lower than +man, but only different. Man is an animal living the life of the +forest; the beasts are also a body politic speaking a different +language and with different view-points. Amik, the beaver, has certain +ideas as to the conduct of life, certain habits of body, and certain +bias of thought. His scheme of things is totally at variance with that +held by Me-en-gan, the wolf, but even to us whites the two are on a +parity. Man has still another system. One is no better than another. +They are merely different. And just as Me-en-gan preys on Amik, so does +Man kill for his own uses. + +Thence are curious customs. A Rupert River Cree will not kill a bear +unless he, the hunter, is in gala attire, and then not until he has +made a short speech in which he assures his victim that the affair is +not one of personal enmity, but of expedience, and that anyway he, the +bear, will be better off in the Hereafter. And then the skull is +cleaned and set on a pole near running water, there to remain during +twelve moons. Also at the tail-root of a newly-deceased beaver is tied +a thong braided of red wool and deerskin. And many other curious +habitudes which would be of slight interest here. Likewise do they +conjure up by means of racket and fasting the familiar spirits of +distant friends or enemies, and on these spirits fasten a blessing or a +curse. + +From this it may be deduced that missionary work has not been as +thorough as might be hoped. That is true. The Woods Indian loves to +sing, and possesses quaint melodies, or rather intonations, of his own. +But especially does he delight in the long-drawn wail of some of our +old-fashioned hymns. The church oftenest reaches him through them. I +know nothing stranger than the sight of a little half-lit church filled +with Indians swaying unctuously to and fro in the rhythm of a cadence +old Watts would have recognized with difficulty. The religious feeling +of the performance is not remarkable, but perhaps it does as a +starting-point. + +Exactly how valuable the average missionary work is I have been puzzled +to decide. Perhaps the church needs more intelligence in the men it +sends out. The evangelist is usually filled with narrow, preconceived +notions as to the proper physical life. He squeezes his savage into log +houses, boiled shirts, and boots. When he has succeeded in getting his +tuberculosis crop well started, he offers as compensation a doctrinal +religion admirably adapted to us, who have within reach of +century-trained perceptions a thousand of the subtler associations a +savage can know nothing about. If there is enough glitter and tin +steeple and high-sounding office and gilt good-behaviour card to it, +the red man's pagan heart is tickled in its vanity, and he dies in the +odour of sanctity--and of a filth his out-of-door life has never taught +him how to avoid. The Indian is like a raccoon: in his proper +surroundings he is clean morally and physically because he knows how to +be so; but in a cage he is filthy because he does not know how to be +otherwise. + +I must not be understood as condemning missionary work; only the stupid +missionary work one most often sees in the North. Surely Christianity +should be adaptable enough in its little things to fit any people with +its great. It seems hard for some men to believe that it is not +essential for a real Christian to wear a plug-hat. One God, love, +kindness, charity, honesty, right living, may thrive as well in the +wigwam as in a foursquare house--provided you let them wear moccasins +and a _capote_ wherewith to keep themselves warm and vital. + +Tawabinisay must have had his religious training at the hands of a good +man. He had lost none of his aboriginal virtue and skill, as may be +gathered from what I have before said of him, and had gained in +addition certain of the gentle qualities. I have never been able to +gauge exactly the extent of his religious _understanding_, for +Tawabinisay is a silent individual, and possesses very little English; +but I do know that his religious _feeling_ was deep and reverent. +He never swore in English; he did not drink; he never travelled or +hunted or fished on Sunday when he could possibly help it. These +virtues he wore modestly and unassumingly as an accustomed garment. Yet +he was the most gloriously natural man I have ever met. + +The main reliance of his formalism when he was off in the woods seemed +to be a little tattered volume, which he perused diligently all Sunday, +and wrapped carefully in a strip of oiled paper during the rest of the +week. One day I had a chance to look at this book while its owner was +away after spring water. Every alternate page was in the phonetic +Indian symbols, of which more hereafter. The rest was in French, and +evidently a translation. Although the volume was of Roman Catholic +origin, creed was conspicuously subordinated to the needs of the class +it aimed to reach. A confession of faith, quite simple, in one God, a +Saviour, a Mother of Heaven; a number of Biblical extracts rich in +imagery and applicability to the experience of a woods-dweller; a dozen +simple prayers of the kind the natural man would oftenest find occasion +to express--a prayer for sickness, for bounty, for fair weather, for +ease of travel, for the smiling face of Providence; and then some +hymns. To me the selection seemed most judicious. It answered the needs +of Tawabinisay's habitual experiences, and so the red man was a good +and consistent convert. Irresistibly I was led to contemplate the idea +of any one trying to get Tawabinisay to live in a house, to cut +cordwood with an axe, to roost on a hard bench under a tin steeple, to +wear stiff shoes, and to quit forest roaming. + +The written language mentioned above you will see often in the +Northland. Whenever an Indian band camps, it blazes a tree and leaves, +as record for those who may follow, a message written in the phonetic +character. I do not understand exactly the philosophy of it, but I +gather that each sound has a symbol of its own, like shorthand, and +that therefore even totally different languages--such as Ojibway, the +Wood Cree, or the Hudson Bay Eskimos--may all be written in the same +character. It was invented nearly a hundred years ago by a priest. So +simple is it, and so needed a method of intercommunication, that its +use is now practically universal. Even the youngsters understand it, +for they are early instructed in its mysteries during the long winter +evenings. On the preceding page is a message I copied from a spruce +tree two hundred miles from anywhere on the Mattagami River. + +[Illustration] + +Besides this are numberless formal symbols in constant use. Forerunners +on a trail stick a twig in the ground whose point indicates exactly the +position of the sun. Those who follow are able to estimate, by noting +how far beyond the spot the twig points to the sun has travelled, how +long a period of time has elapsed. A stick pointed in any given +direction tells the route, of course. Another planted upright across +the first shows by its position how long a journey is contemplated. A +little sack suspended at the end of the pointer conveys information as +to the state of the larder, lean or fat according as the little sack +contains more or less gravel or sand. A shred of rabbit-skin means +starvation. And so on in variety useless in any but an ethnological +work. + +[Illustration 1: A short journey.] + +[Illustration 2: A medium journey.] + +[Illustration 3: A long journey.] + +The Ojibways' tongue is soft, and full of decided lisping and sustained +hissing sounds. It is spoken with somewhat of a sing-song drawl. We +always had a fancy that somehow it was of forest growth, and that its +syllables were intended in the scheme of things to blend with the woods +noises, just as the feathers of the mother partridge blend with the +woods colours. In general it is polysyllabic. That applies especially +to concepts borrowed of the white men. On the other hand, the Ojibways +describe in monosyllables many ideas we could express only in phrase. +They have a single word for the notion, +Place-where-an-animal-slept-last-night. Our "lair," "form," etc., do +not mean exactly that. Its genius, moreover, inclines to a flexible +verb-form, by which adjectives and substantives are often absorbed into +the verb itself, so that one beautiful singing word will convey a whole +paragraph of information. My little knowledge of it is so entirely +empirical that it can possess small value. + +In concluding these desultory remarks, I want to tell you of a very +curious survival among the Ojibways and Ottawas of the Georgian Bay. It +seems that some hundreds of years ago these ordinarily peaceful folk +descended on the Iroquois in what is now New York, and massacred a +village or so. Then, like small boys who have thrown only too +accurately at the delivery wagon, they scuttled back home again. + +Since that time they have lived in deadly fear of retribution. The +Iroquois have long since disappeared from the face of the earth, but +even to-day the Georgian Bay Indians are subject to periodical spasms +of terror. Some wild-eyed and imaginative youth sees at sunset a canoe +far down the horizon. Immediately the villages are abandoned in haste, +and the entire community moves up to the head-waters of streams, there +to lurk until convinced that all danger is past. It does no good to +tell these benighted savages that they are safe from vengeance, at +least in this world. The dreaded name of Iroquois is potent, even +across the centuries. + + + + +XVII. + +THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH. + + +We settled down peacefully on the River, and the weather, after so much +enmity, was kind to us. Likewise did the flies disappear from the woods +utterly. + +Each morning we arose as the Red Gods willed; generally early, when the +sun was just gilding the peaks to the westward; but not too early, +before the white veil had left the River. Billy, with woodsman's +contempt for economy, hewed great logs and burned them nobly in the +cooking of trout, oatmeal, pancakes, and the like. We had constructed +ourselves tables and benches between green trees, and there we ate. And +great was the eating beyond the official capacity of the human stomach. +There offered little things to do, delicious little things just on the +hither side of idleness. A rod wrapping needed more waxed silk; a +favourite fly required attention to prevent dissolution; the pistol was +to be cleaned; a flag-pole seemed desirable; a trifle more of balsam +could do no harm; clothes might stand drying, blankets airing. We +accomplished these things leisurely, pausing for the telling of +stories, for the puffing of pipes, for the sheer joy of contemplations. +Deerskin slipper moccasins and flapping trousers attested our +deshabille. And then somehow it was noon, and Billy again at the Dutch +oven and the broiler. + +Trout we ate, and always more trout. Big fellows broiled with strips of +bacon craftily sewn in and out of the pink flesh; medium fellows cut +into steaks; little fellows fried crisp in corn-meal; big, medium, and +little fellows mingled in component of the famous North Country +_bouillon_, whose other ingredients are partridges, and tomatoes, +and potatoes, and onions, and salt pork, and flour in combination +delicious beyond belief. Nor ever did we tire of them, three times a +day, printed statement to the contrary notwithstanding. And besides +were many crafty dishes over whose construction the major portion of +morning idleness was spent. + +Now at two o'clock we groaned temporary little groans; and crawled +shrinking into our river clothes, which we dared not hang too near the +fire for fear of the disintegrating scorch, and drew on soggy hobnailed +shoes with holes cut in the bottom and plunged with howls of disgust +into the upper riffles. Then the cautious leg-straddled passage of the +swift current, during which we forgot for ever--which eternity alone +circles the bliss of an afternoon on the River--the chill of the water, +and so came to the trail. + +Now, at the Idiot's Delight Dick and I parted company. By three o'clock +I came again to the River, far up, halfway to the Big Falls. Deuce +watched me gravely. With the first click of the reel he retired to the +brush away from the back cast, there to remain until the pool was +fished and we could continue our journey. + +In the swift leaping water, at the smooth back of the eddy, in the +white foam, under the dark cliff shadow, here, there, everywhere the +bright flies drop softly like strange snowflakes. The game is as +interesting as pistol-shooting. To hit the mark, that is enough. And +then a swirl of water and a broad lazy tail wake you to the fact that +other matters are yours. Verily the fish of the North Country are +mighty beyond all others. + +Over the River rests the sheen of light; over the hills rests the sheen +of romance. The land is enchanted. Birds dip and sway, advance and +retreat; leaves toss their hands in greeting, or bend and whisper one +to the other; splashes of sun fall heavy as metal through the yielding +screens of branches; little breezes wander hesitatingly here and there +to sink like spent kites on the nearest bar of sun-warmed shingle; the +stream shouts and gurgles, murmurs, hushes, lies still and secret as +though to warn you to discretion, breaks away with a shriek of hilarity +when your discretion has been assured. There is in you a great leisure, +as though the day would never end. There is in you a great keenness. +One part of you is vibrantly alive. Your wrist muscles contract almost +automatically at the swirl of a rise, and the hum of life along the +gossamer of your line gains its communication with every nerve in your +body. The question of gear and method you attack clear-minded. What +fly? Montreal, Parmachenee Belle, Royal Coachman, Silver Doctor, +Professor, Brown Hackle, Cow-dung--these grand lures for the North +Country trout receive each its due test and attention. And on the tail +snell what fisherman has not the Gamble--the unusual, obscure, +multinamed fly which may, in the occultism of his taste, attract the +Big Fellows? Besides, there remains always the handling. Does your +trout to-day fancy the skittering of his food, or the withdrawal in +three jerks, or the inch-deep sinking of the fly? Does he want it +across current or up current; will he rise with a snap, or is he going +to come slowly, or is he going to play? These be problems interesting, +insistent to be solved, with the ready test within the reach of your +skill. + +But that alertness is only one side of your mood. No matter how +difficult the selection, how strenuous the fight, there is in you a +large feeling that might almost be described as Buddhistic. Time has +nothing to do with your problems. The world has quietly run down, and +has been embalmed with all its sweetness of light and colour and sound +in a warm Lethe bath of sun. This afternoon is going to last for ever. +You note and enjoy and savour the little pleasures unhurried by the +thought that anything else, whether of pleasure or duty, is to follow. + +And so for long delicious eons. The River flows on, ever on; the hills +watch, watch always; the birds sing, the sun shines grateful across +your shoulders; the big trout and the little rise in predestined order, +and make their predestined fight, and go their predestined way either +to liberty or the creel; the pools and the rapids and the riffles slip +by upstream as though they had been withdrawn rather than as though you +had advanced. + +Then suddenly the day has dropped its wings. The earth moves forward +with a jar. Things are to be accomplished; things are being +accomplished. The River is hurrying down to the Lake; the birds have +business of their own to attend to, an it please you; the hills are +waiting for something that has not yet happened, but they are ready. +Startled, you look up. The afternoon has finished. Your last step has +taken you over the edge of the shadow cast by the setting sun across +the range of hills. + +For the first time you look about you to see where you are. It has not +mattered before. Now you know that shortly it will be dark. Still +remain below you four pools. A great haste seizes you. + +"If I take my rod apart and strike through the woods," you argue, "I +can make the Narrows, and I am sure there is a big trout there." + +Why the Narrows should be any more likely to contain a big trout than +any of the other three pools you would not be able to explain. In half +an hour it will be dark. You hurry. In the forest it is already +twilight, but by now you know the forest well. Preoccupied, feverish +with your great idea, you hasten on. The birds, silent all in the +brooding of night, rise ghostly to right and left. Shadows steal away +like hostile spies among the treetrunks. The silver of last daylight +gleams ahead of you through the brush. You know it for the Narrows, +whither the instinct of your eagerness has led you as accurately as a +compass through the forest. + +Fervently, as though this were of world's affairs the most important, +you congratulate yourself on being in time. Your rod seems to join +itself. In a moment the cast drops like a breath on the molten silver. +Nothing. Another try a trifle lower down. Nothing. A little wandering +breeze spoils your fourth attempt, carrying the leader far to the left. +Curses, deep and fervent. The daylight is fading, draining away. A +fifth cast falls forty feet out. Slowly you drag the flies across the +current, reluctant to recover until the latest possible moment. And so, +when your rod is foolishly upright, your line slack, and your flies +motionless, there rolls slowly up and over the trout of trouts. You see +a broad side, the whirl of a fantail that looks to you to be at least +six inches across; and the current slides on, silver-like, smooth, +indifferent to the wild leap of your heart. + +[Illustration: THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THEY BATHE.] + +Like a crazy man you shorten your line. Six seconds later your flies +fall skilfully just upstream from where last you saw that wonderful +tail. + +But six seconds may be a long, long period of time. You have feared and +hoped and speculated and realized; feared that the leviathan has +pricked himself, and so will not rise again; hoped that his appearance +merely indicated curiosity which he will desire further to satisfy; +speculated on whether your skill can drop the fly exactly on that spot, +as it must be dropped; and realized that, whatever be the truth as to +all those fears and hopes and speculations, this is irrevocably your +last chance. + +For an instant you allow the flies to drift downstream, to be floated +here and there by idle little eddies, to be sucked down and spat out of +tiny suction-holes. Then cautiously you draw them across the surface of +the waters. _Thump--thump--thump_--your heart slows up with +disappointment. Then mysteriously, like the stirring of the waters by +some invisible hand, the molten silver is broken in its smoothness. The +Royal Coachman quietly disappears. With all the brakes shrieking on +your desire to shut your eyes and heave a mighty heave, you depress +your butt and strike. + +Then in the twilight the battle. No leisure is here, only quivering, +intense, agonized anxiety. The affair transcends the moment. Purposes +and necessities of untold ages have concentrated, so that somehow back +of your consciousness rest hosts of disembodied hopes, tendencies, +evolutionary progressions, all breathless lest you prove unequal to the +struggle for which they have been so long preparing. + +Responsibility--vast, vague, formless--is yours. Only the fact that you +are wholly occupied with the exigence of the moment prevents your +understanding of what it is, but it hovers dark and depressing behind +your possible failure. You must win. This is no fish; it is opportunity +itself, and once gone it will never return. The mysticism of lower dusk +in the forest, of upper afterglow on the hills, of the chill of evening +waters and winds, of the glint of strange phantoms under the darkness +of cliffs, of the whisperings and shoutings of Things you are too busy +to identify out in the gray of North Country awe--all these menace you +with indeterminate dread. Knee-deep, waist-deep, swift water, slack +water, downstream, upstream, with red eyes straining into the dimness, +with every muscle taut and every nerve quivering, you follow the +ripping of your line. You have consecrated yourself to the uttermost. +The minutes stalk by you gigantic. You are a stable pin-point in +whirling phantasms. And you are very little, very small, very +inadequate among these Titans of circumstance. + +Thrice he breaks water, a white and ghostly apparition from the deep. +Your heart stops with your reel, and only resumes its office when again +the line sings safely. The darkness falls, and with it, like the +mysterious strength of Sir Gareth's opponent, falls the power of your +adversary. His rushes shorten. The blown world of your uncertainty +shrinks to the normal. From the haze of your consciousness, as through +a fog, loom the old familiar forest, and the hills, and the River. +Slowly you creep from that strange enchanted land. The sullen trout +yields. In all gentleness you float him within reach of your net. +Quietly, breathlessly you walk ashore, and over the beach, and yet an +unnecessary hundred feet from the water lest he retain still a flop. +Then you lay him upon the stones and lift up your heart in rejoicing. + +How you get to camp you never clearly know. Exultation lifts your feet. +Wings, wings, O ye Red Gods, wings to carry the body whither the spirit +hath already soared, and stooped, and circled back in impatience to see +why still the body lingers! Ordinarily you can cross the riffles above +the Halfway Pool only with caution and prayer and a stout staff +craftily employed. This night you can--and do--splash across hand-free, +as recklessly as you would wade a little brook. There is no stumble in +you, for you have done a great deed, and the Red Gods are smiling. + +Through the trees glows a light, and in the centre of that light are +leaping flames, and in the circle of that light stand, rough-hewn in +orange, the tent and the table and the waiting figures of your +companions. You stop short, and swallow hard, and saunter into camp as +one indifferent. + +Carelessly you toss aside your creel--into the darkest corner, as +though it were unimportant--nonchalantly you lean your rod against the +slant of your tent, wearily you seat yourself and begin to draw off +your drenched garments. Billy bends toward the fire. Dick gets you your +dry clothes. Nobody says anything, for everybody is hungry. No one asks +you any questions, for on the River you get in almost any time of +night. + +Finally, as you are hanging your wet things near the fire, you inquire +casually over your shoulder,-- + +"Dick, have any luck?" + +Dick tells you. You listen with apparent interest. He has caught a +three-pounder. He describes the spot and the method and the struggle. +He is very much pleased. You pity him. + +The three of you eat supper, lots of supper. Billy arises first, +filling his pipe. He hangs water over the fire for the dish-washing. +You and Dick sit hunched on a log, blissfully happy in the moments of +digestion, ruminative, watching the blaze. The tobacco smoke eddies and +sucks upward to join the wood smoke. Billy moves here and there in the +fulfilment of his simple tasks, casting his shadow wavering and +gigantic against the fire-lit trees. By-and-by he has finished. He +gathers up the straps of Dick's creel, and turns to the shadow for your +own. He is going to clean the fish. It is the moment you have watched +for. You shroud yourself in profound indifference. + +"_Sacre!_" shrieks Billy. + +You do not even turn your head. + +"Jumping giraffes! why, it's a whale!" cries Dick. + +You roll a _blase_ eye in their direction, as though such puerile +enthusiasm wearies you. + +"Yes, it's quite a little fish," you concede. + +They swarm down upon you, demanding particulars. These you accord +laconically, a word at a time, in answer to direct question, between +puffs of smoke. + +"At the Narrows. Royal Coachman. Just before I came in. Pretty fair +fight. Just at the edge of the eddy." And so on. But your soul glories. + +The tape-line is brought out. Twenty-nine inches it records. Holy +smoke, what a fish! Your air implies that you will probably catch three +more just like him on the morrow. Dick and Billy make tracings of him +on the birch bark. You retain your lofty calm: but inside you are +little quivers of rapture. And when you awake, late in the night, you +are conscious, first of all, that you are happy, happy, happy, all +through; and only when the drowse drains away do you remember why. + + + + +XVIII. + +MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT. + + +We had been joined on the River by friends. "Doug," who never fished +more than forty rods from camp, and was always inventing water-gauges, +patent indicators, and other things, and who wore in his soft slouch +hat so many brilliant trout flies that he irresistibly reminded you of +flower-decked Ophelia; "Dinnis," who was large and good-natured, and +bubbling and popular; Johnny, whose wide eyes looked for the first time +on the woods-life, and whose awe-struck soul concealed itself behind +assumptions; "Jim," six feet tall and three feet broad, with whom the +season before I had penetrated to Hudson Bay; and finally, "Doc," tall, +granite, experienced, the best fisherman that ever hit the river. With +these were Indians. Buckshot, a little Indian with a good knowledge of +English; Johnnie Challan, a half-breed Indian, ugly, furtive, an +efficient man about camp; and Tawabinisay himself. This was an honour +due to the presence of Doc. Tawabinisay approved of Doc. That was all +there was to say about it. + +After a few days, inevitably the question of Kawagama came up. Billy, +Johnnie Challan, and Buckshot squatted in a semi-circle, and drew +diagrams in the soft dirt with a stick. Tawabinisay sat on a log and +overlooked the proceedings. Finally he spoke. + +"Tawabinisay" (they always gave him his full title; we called him +Tawab) "tell me lake you find he no Kawagama," translated Buckshot. "He +called Black Beaver Lake." + +"Ask him if he'll take us to Kawagama," I requested. + +Tawabinisay looked very doubtful. + +"Come on, Tawab," urged Doc, nodding at him vigorously. "Don't be a +clam. We won't take anybody else up there." + +The Indian probably did not comprehend the words, but he liked Doc. + +"A'-right," he pronounced laboriously. + +Buckshot explained to us his plans. + +"Tawabinisay tell me," said he, "he don' been to Kawagama seven year. +To-morrow he go blaze trail. Nex' day we go." + +"How would it be if one or two of us went with him to-morrow to see how +he does it?" asked Jim. + +Buckshot looked at us strangely. + +"_I_ don't want to follow him," he replied, with a significant +simplicity. "He run like a deer." + +"Buckshot," said I, pursuing the inevitable linguistics, "what does +Kawagama mean?" + +Buckshot thought for quite two minutes. Then he drew a semicircle. + +"W'at you call dat?" he asked. + +"Crescent, like moon? half-circle? horseshoe? bow?" we proposed. + +Buckshot shook his head at each suggestion. He made a wriggling mark, +then a wide sweep, then a loop. + +"All dose," said he, "w'at you call him?" + +"Curve!" we cried. + +"Ah hah," assented Buckshot, satisfied. + +"Buckshot," we went on, "what does Tawabinisay mean?" + +"Man-who-travels-by-moonlight," he replied promptly. + +The following morning Tawabinisay departed, carrying a lunch and a +hand-axe. At four o'clock he was back, sitting on a log and smoking a +pipe. In the meantime we had made up our party. + +Tawabinisay himself had decided that the two half-breeds must stay at +home. He wished to share his secret only with his own tribesmen. The +fiat grieved Billy, for behold he had already put in much time on this +very search, and naturally desired to be in at the finish. Dick, too, +wanted to go, but him we decided too young and light for a fast march. +Dinnis had to leave the River in a day or so; Johnnie was a little +doubtful as to the tramp, although he concealed his doubt--at least to +his own satisfaction--under a variety of excuses. Jim and Doc would go, +of course. There remained Doug. + +We found that individual erecting a rack of many projecting arms--like +a Greek warrior's trophy--at the precise spot where the first rays of +the morning sun would strike it. On the projecting arms he purposed +hanging his wet clothes. + +"Doug," said we, "do you want to go to Kawagama to-morrow?" + +Doug turned on us a sardonic eye. He made no direct answer, but told +the following story:-- + +"Once upon a time Judge Carter was riding through a rural district in +Virginia. He stopped at a negro's cabin to get his direction. + +"'Uncle,' said he, 'can you direct me to Colonel Thompson's?' + +"'Yes, sah,' replied the negro; 'yo' goes down this yah road 'bout two +mile till yo' comes to an ol' ailm tree, and then yo' tu'us sha'p to +th' right down a lane fo' 'bout a qua'ter of a mile. Thah you sees a +big white house. Yo' wants to go through th' ya'd, to a paf that takes +you a spell to a gate. Yo' follows that road to th' lef till yo' comes +to three roads goin' up a hill; and, jedge, _it don' mattah which one +of them thah roads yo' take, yo' gets lost surer 'n hell anyway!_'" + +Then Doug turned placidly back to the construction of his trophy. + +We interpreted this as an answer, and made up an outfit for five. + +The following morning at six o'clock we were under way. Johnnie Challan +ferried us across the river in two instalments. We waved our hands and +plunged through the brush screen. + +Thenceforth it was walk half an hour, rest five minutes, with almost +the regularity of clockwork. We timed the Indians secretly, and found +they varied by hardly a minute from absolute fidelity to this schedule. +We had at first, of course, to gain the higher level of the hills, but +Tawabinisay had the day before picked out a route that mounted as +easily as the country would allow, and through a hardwood forest free +of underbrush. Briefly indicated, our way led first through the big +trees and up the hills, then behind a great cliff knob into a creek +valley, through a quarter-mile of bottom-land thicket, then by an open +strip to the first little lake. This we ferried by means of the bark +canoe carried on the shoulders of Tawabinisay. + +In the course of the morning we thus passed four lakes. Throughout the +entire distance to Kawagama were the fresh axe-blazes the Indian had +made the day before. These were neither so frequent nor as plainly cut +as a white man's trail, but each represented a pause long enough for +the clip of an axe. In addition the trail had been made passable for a +canoe. That meant the cutting out of overhanging branches wherever they +might catch the bow of the craft. In the thicket a little road had been +cleared, and the brush had been piled on either side. To an +unaccustomed eye it seemed the work of two days at least. Yet +Tawabinisay had picked out his route, cleared and marked it thus, +skirted the shores of the lakes we were able to traverse in the canoe, +and had returned to the River in less time than we consumed in merely +reaching the Lake itself! Truly, as Buckshot said, he must have "run +like a deer." + +Tawabinisay has a delightful grin which he displays when pleased or +good-humoured or puzzled or interested or comprehending, just as a dog +sneezes and wrinkles up his nose in like case. He is essentially +kind-hearted. If he likes you and approves of you, he tries to teach +you, to help you, to show you things. But he never offers to do any +part of your work, and on the march he never looks back to see if you +are keeping up. You can shout at him until you are black in the face, +but never will he pause until rest-time. Then he squats on his heels, +lights his pipe, and grins. + +Buckshot adored him. This opportunity of travelling with him was an +epoch. He drank in eagerly the brief remarks of his "old man," and +detailed them to us with solemnity, prefaced always by his "Tawabinisay +tell me." Buckshot is of the better class of Indian himself, but +occasionally he is puzzled by the woods-noises. Tawabinisay never. As +we cooked lunch, we heard the sound of steady footsteps in the +forest--_pat_; then a pause; then _pat_; just like a deer +browsing. To make sure I inquired of Buckshot. + +"What is it?" + +Buckshot listened a moment. + +"Deer," said he decisively; then, not because he doubted his own +judgment, but from habitual deference, he turned to where Tawabinisay +was frying things. + +"Qwaw?" he inquired. + +Tawabinisay never even looked up. + +"Adji-domo" (squirrel), said he. + +We looked at each other incredulously. It sounded like a deer. It did +not sound in the least like a squirrel. An experienced Indian had +pronounced it a deer. Nevertheless it was a squirrel. + +We approached Kawagama by way of a gradual slope clothed with a +beautiful beech and maple forest whose trees were the tallest of those +species I have ever seen. Ten minutes brought us to the shore. There +was no abrupt bursting in on Kawagama through screens of leaves; we +entered leisurely to her presence by way of an ante-chamber whose +spaciousness permitted no vulgar surprises. After a time we launched +our canoe from a natural dock afforded by a cedar root, and so stood +ready to cross to our permanent camp. But first we drew our knives and +erased from a giant birch the half-grown-over name of the banker +Clement. + +There seems to me little use in telling you that Kawagama is about four +miles long by a mile wide, is shaped like a crescent, and lies in a +valley surrounded by high hills; nor that its water is so transparent +that the bottom is visible until it fades into the sheer blackness of +depth; nor that it is alive with trout; nor that its silence is the +silence of a vast solitude, so that always, even at daybreak or at high +midday, it seems to be late afternoon. That would convey little to you. +I will inform you quite simply that Kawagama is a very beautiful +specimen of the wilderness lake; that it is as the Lord made it; and +that we had a good time. + +Did you ever fish with the fly from a birch-bark canoe on absolutely +still water? You do not seem to move. But far below you, gliding, +silent, ghostlike, the bottom slips beneath. Like a weather-vane in an +imperceptible current of air, your bow turns to right or left in +apparent obedience to the mere will of your companion. And the flies +drop softly like down. Then the silence becomes sacred. You +whisper--although there is no reason for your whispering; you move +cautiously, lest your reel scrape the gunwale. An inadvertent click of +the paddle is a profanation. The only creatures in all God's world +possessing the right to utter aloud a single syllable are the loon, +far away, and the winter wren, near at hand. Even the trout fight +grimly, without noise, their white bodies flashing far down in the +dimness. + +Hour after hour we stole here and there like conspirators. Where showed +the circles of a fish's rise, thither crept we to drop a fly on their +centre as in the bull's-eye of a target. The trout seemed to linger +near their latest capture, so often we would catch one exactly where we +had seen him break water some little time before. In this was the charm +of the still hunt. Shoal water, deep water, it seemed all the same to +our fortunes. The lake was full of fish, and beautiful fish they were, +with deep, glowing bronze bellies, and all of from a pound to a pound +and a half in weight. The lake had not been fished. Probably somewhere +in those black depths over one of the bubbling spring-holes that must +feed so cold and clear a body of water, are big fellows lying, and +probably the crafty minnow or spoon might lure them out. But we were +satisfied with our game. + +At other times we paddled here and there in exploration of coves, +inlets, and a tiny little brook that flowed westward from a reed marsh +to join another river running parallel to our own. + +The Indians had erected a huge lean-to of birch bark, from the ribs of +which hung clothes and the little bags of food. The cooking-fire was +made in front of it between two giant birch trees. At evening the light +and heat reflected strongly beneath the shelter, leaving the forest in +impenetrable darkness. To the very edge of mystery crowded the strange +woods noises, the eerie influences of the night, like wolves afraid of +the blaze. We felt them hovering, vague, huge, dreadful, just outside +the circle of safety our fire had traced about us. The cheerful flames +were dancing familiars who cherished for us the home feeling in the +middle of a wilderness. + +Two days we lingered, then took the back track. A little after noon we +arrived at the camp, empty save for Johnnie Challan. Towards dark the +fishermen straggled in. Time had been paid them in familiar coinage. +They had demanded only accustomed toll of the days, but we had returned +laden with strange and glittering memories. + + + + +XIX. + +APOLOGIA. + + +The time at last arrived for departure. + +Deep laden were the canoes; heavy laden were we. The Indians shot away +down the current. We followed for the last time the dim blazed trail, +forded for the last time the shallows of the river. At the Burned Rock +Pool we caught our lunch fish from the ranks of leviathans. Then the +trodden way of the Fur Trail, worn into a groove so deep and a surface +so smooth that vegetation has left it as bare as ever, though the Post +has been abandoned these many years. At last the scrub spruce, and the +sandy soil, and the blue, restless waters of the Great Lake. With the +appearance of the fish-tug early the following day the summer ended. + +How often have I ruminated in the long marches the problem of the +Forest! Subtle she is, and mysterious, and gifted with a charm that +lures. Vast she is, and dreadful, so that man bows before her fiercer +moods, a little thing. Gentle she is, and kindly, so that she denies +nothing, whether of the material or spiritual, to those of her chosen +who will seek. August she is, and yet of a homely, sprightly +gentleness. Variable she is in her many moods. Night, day, sun, cloud, +rain, snow, wind, lend to her their best of warmth and cold, of comfort +and awe, of peace and of many shoutings, and she accepts them, but yet +remains greater and more enduring than they. In her is all the +sweetness of little things. Murmurs of water and of breeze, faint +odours, wandering streams of tepid air, stray bird-songs in fragment as +when a door is opened and closed, the softness of moss, the coolness of +shade, the glimpse of occult affairs in the woods life, accompany her +as Titania her court. How to express these things; how to fix on paper +in a record, as one would describe the Capitol at Washington, what the +Forest is--that is what I have asked myself often, and that is what I +have never yet found out. + +This is the wisdom reflection has taught. One cannot imprison the ocean +in a vial of sea-water; one cannot imprison the Forest inside the +covers of a book. + +There remains the second best. I have thought that perhaps if I were to +attempt a series of detached impressions, without relation, without +sequence; if I were to suggest a little here the beauty of a moon-beam, +there the humour of a rainstorm, at the last you might, by dint of +imagination and sympathy, get some slight feeling of what the great +woods are. It is the method of the painter. Perhaps it may suffice. + +For this reason let no old camper look upon this volume as a treatise +on woodcraft. Woodcraft there is in it, just as there is woodcraft in +the Forest itself, but much of the simplest and most obvious does not +appear. The painter would not depict every twig, as would the +naturalist. + +Equally it cannot be considered a book of travel nor of description. +The story is not consecutive; the adventures not exciting; the +landscape not denned. Perhaps it may be permitted to call it a book of +suggestion. Often on the street we have had opened to us by the merest +sketches of incident limitless vistas of memory. A momentary pose of +the head of a passer-by, a chance word, the breath of a faint +perfume--these bring back to us the entirety of forgotten scenes. Some +of these essays may perform a like office for you. I cannot hope to +give you the Forest. But perhaps a word or a sentence, an incident, an +impression, may quicken your imagination, so that through no conscious +direction of my own the wonder of the Forest may fill you, as the mere +sight of a conch-shell will sometimes till you with the wonder of the +sea. + + + + +SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT. + + +In reply to inquiries as to necessary outfit for camping and +woods-travelling, the author furnishes the following lists:-- + +1. _Provisions per man, one week._ + +7 lbs. flour; 5 lbs. pork; 1-5 lb. tea; 2 lbs. beans; 1 1-2 lbs. sugar; +1 1-2 lbs. rice; 1 1-2 lbs. prunes and raisins; 1-1-2 lb. lard; 1 lb. +oatmeal; baking-powder; matches; soap; pepper; salt; 1-3 lb. +tobacco--(weight, a little over 20 lbs.). This will last much longer if +you get game and fish. + +2. _Pack one, or absolute necessities for hard trip._ + +_Wear_ hat; suit woollen underwear; shirt; trousers; socks; silk +handkerchief; cotton handkerchief; moccasins. + +_Carry_ sweater (3 lbs.); extra drawers (1 1-2 lbs.); 2 extra +pairs socks; gloves (buckskin); towel; 2 extra pairs moccasins; +surgeon's plaster; laxative; pistol and cartridges; fishing-tackle; +blanket (7 1-2 lbs.); rubber blanket (1 lb.); tent (8 lbs.); small axe +(2 1-2 lbs.); knife; mosquito-dope; compass; match-box; tooth-brush; +comb; small whetstone--(weight, about 25 lbs.); 2 tin or aluminium +pails; 1 frying-pan; 1 cup; 1 knife, fork, and spoon--(weight, 4 lbs. +if of aluminium). + +Whole pack under 50 lbs. In case of two or more people, each pack would +be lighter, as tent, tinware, etc., would do for both. + +3. _Pack two--for luxuries and easy trips--extra to pack one._ + +More fishing-tackle; camera; 1 more pair socks; 1 more suit +underclothes; extra sweater; wading-shoes of canvas; large axe; +mosquito net; mending materials; kettle; candles; more cooking-utensils; +extra shirt; whisky. + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest, by Stewart Edward White + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + +***** This file should be named 9376.txt or 9376.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/3/7/9376/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Forest + +Author: Stewart Edward White + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9376] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 26, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Illustration: THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE +MOMENT] + +THE FOREST + +BY + +STEWART EDWARD WHITE + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE CALLING +II. THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT +III. THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE +IV. ON MAKING CAMP +V. ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT +VI. THE 'LUNGE +VII. ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING +VIII. THE STRANDED STRANGERS +IX. ON FLIES +X. CLOCHE +XI. THE HABITANTS +XII. THE RIVER +XIII. THE HILLS +XIV. ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS +XV. ON WOODS INDIANS +XVI. ON WOODS INDIANS _(continued)_ +XVII. THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH +XVIII. MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT +XIX. APOLOGIA + +SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE MOMENT + +THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR AGAIN THE FLAG +OF HIS COUNTRY + +AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES + +EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT +SWAMPING + +WATCHED THE LONG NORTH-COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A GRAY CLOUD FROM +THE EAST + +IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF THAT MORNING + +NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE PEOPLE + +THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THE BATTLE + + + + + +THE FOREST + + + + + +I. + +THE CALLING. + +"The Red Gods make their medicine again." + + +Some time in February, when the snow and sleet have shut out from the +wearied mind even the memory of spring, the man of the woods generally +receives his first inspiration. He may catch it from some companion's +chance remark, a glance at the map, a vague recollection of a dim past +conversation, or it may flash on him from the mere pronouncement of a +name. The first faint thrill of discovery leaves him cool, but +gradually, with the increasing enthusiasm of cogitation, the idea gains +body, until finally it has grown to plan fit for discussion. + +Of these many quickening potencies of inspiration, the mere name of a +place seems to strike deepest at the heart of romance. Colour, mystery, +the vastnesses of unexplored space are there, symbolized compactly for +the aliment of imagination. It lures the fancy as a fly lures the +trout. Mattagami, Peace River, Kananaw, the House of the Touchwood +Hills, Rupert's House, the Land of Little Sticks, Flying Post, +Conjuror's House--how the syllables roll from the tongue, what pictures +rise in instant response to their suggestion! The journey of a thousand +miles seems not too great a price to pay for the sight of a place +called the Hills of Silence, for acquaintance with the people who dwell +there, perhaps for a glimpse of the saga-spirit that so named its +environment. On the other hand, one would feel but little desire to +visit Muggin's Corners, even though at their crossing one were assured +of the deepest flavour of the Far North. + +The first response to the red god's summons is almost invariably the +production of a fly-book and the complete rearrangement of all its +contents. The next is a resumption of practice with the little pistol. +The third, and last, is pencil and paper, and lists of grub and duffel, +and estimates of routes and expenses, and correspondence with men who +spell queerly, bear down heavily with blunt pencils, and agree to be at +Black Beaver Portage on a certain date. Now, though the February snow +and sleet still shut him in, the spring has draw very near. He can +feel the warmth of her breath rustling through his reviving memories. + +There are said to be sixty-eight roads to heaven, of which but one is +the true way, although here and there a by-path offers experimental +variety to the restless and bold. The true way for the man in the woods +to attain the elusive best of his wilderness experience is to go as +light as possible, and the by-paths of departure from that principle +lead only to the slightly increased carrying possibilities of +open-water canoe trips, and permanent camps. + +But these prove to be not very independent side paths, never diverging +so far from the main road that one may dare hope to conceal from a +vigilant eye that he is _not_ going light. + +To go light is to play the game fairly. The man in the woods matches +himself against the forces of nature. In the towns he is warmed and fed +and clothed so spontaneously and easily that after a time he perforce +begins to doubt himself, to wonder whether his powers are not atrophied +from disuse. And so, with his naked soul, he fronts the wilderness. It +is a test, a measuring of strength, a proving of his essential pluck +and resourcefulness and manhood, an assurance of man's highest potency, +the ability to endure and to take care of himself. In just so far as he +substitutes the ready-made of civilization for the wit-made of the +forest, the pneumatic bed for the balsam boughs, in just so far is he +relying on other men and other men's labour to take care of him. To +exactly that extent is the test invalidated. He has not proved a +courteous antagonist, for he has not stripped to the contest. + +To go light is to play the game sensibly. For even when it is not so +earnest, nor the stake so high, a certain common-sense should take the +place on a lower plane of the fair-play sense on the higher. A great +many people find enjoyment in merely playing with nature. Through +vacation they relax their minds, exercise mildly their bodies, and +freshen the colours of their outlook on life. Such people like to live +comfortably, work little, and enjoy existence lazily. Instead of +modifying themselves to fit the life of the wilderness, they modify +their city methods to fit open-air conditions. They do not need to +strip to the contest, for contest there is none, and Indian packers are +cheap at a dollar a day. But even so the problem of the greatest +comfort--defining comfort as an accurate balance of effort expended to +results obtained--can be solved only by the one formula. And that +formula is, again, _go light_, for a superabundance of paraphernalia +proves always more of a care than a satisfaction. When the woods offer +you a thing ready made, it is the merest foolishness to transport that +same thing a hundred miles for the sake of the manufacturer's trademark. + +I once met an outfit in the North Woods, plodding diligently across +portage, laden like the camels of the desert. Three Indians swarmed +back and forth a half-dozen trips apiece. An Indian can carry over two +hundred pounds. That evening a half-breed and I visited their camp and +examined their outfit, always with growing wonder. They had tent-poles +and about fifty pounds of hardwood tent pegs--in a wooded country where +such things can be had for a clip of the axe. They had a system of +ringed iron bars which could be so fitted together as to form a low +open grill on which trout could be broiled--weight twenty pounds, and +split wood necessary for its efficiency. They had air mattresses and +camp-chairs and oil lanterns. They had corpulent duffel bags apiece +that would stand alone, and enough changes of clothes to last out +dry-skinned a week's rain. And the leader of the party wore the +wrinkled brow of tribulation. For he had to keep track of everything +and see that package number twenty-eight was not left, and that package +number sixteen did not get wet; that the pneumatic bed did not get +punctured, and that the canned goods did. Beside which, the caravan was +moving at the majestic rate of about five miles a day. + +Now tent-pegs can always be cut, and trout broiled beautifully by a +dozen other ways, and candle lanterns fold up, and balsam can be laid +in such a manner as to be as springy as a pneumatic mattress, and +camp-chairs, if desired, can be quickly constructed with an axe, and +clothes can always be washed or dried as long as fire burns and water +runs, and any one of fifty other items of laborious burden could have +been ingeniously and quickly substituted by any one of the Indians. It +was not that we concealed a bucolic scorn of effete but solid comfort; +only it did seem ridiculous that a man should cumber himself with a +fifth wheel on a smoothly macadamized road. + +The next morning Billy and I went cheerfully on our way. We were +carrying an axe, a gun, blankets, an extra pair of drawers and socks +apiece, a little grub, and an eight-pound shelter tent. We had been out +a week, and we were having a good time. + + + + +II. + +THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT. + +"Now the Four-Way lodge is opened--now the smokes of Council rise-- +Pleasant smokes ere yet 'twixt trail and trail they choose." + + +You can no more be told how to go light than you can be told how to hit +a ball with a bat. It is something that must be lived through, and all +advice on the subject has just about the value of an answer to a +bashful young man who begged from one of our woman's periodicals help +in overcoming the diffidence felt on entering a crowded room. The reply +read: "Cultivate an easy, graceful manner." In like case I might +hypothecate, "To go light, discard all but the really necessary +articles." + +The sticking-point, were you to press me close, would be the definition +of the word "necessary," for the terms of such definition would have to +be those solely and simply of a man's experience. Comforts, even most +desirable comforts, are not necessities. A dozen times a day trifling +emergencies will seem precisely to call for some little handy +contrivance that would be just the thing, were it in the pack rather +than at home. A disgorger does the business better than a pocket-knife; +a pair of oilskin trousers turns the wet better than does kersey; a +camp-stove will burn merrily in a rain lively enough to drown an open +fire. Yet neither disgorger, nor oilskins, nor camp-stove can be +considered in the light of necessities, for the simple reason that the +conditions of their use occur too infrequently to compensate for the +pains of their carriage. Or, to put it the other way, a few moments' +work with a knife, wet knees occasionally, or an infrequent soggy meal +are not too great a price to pay for unburdened shoulders. + +Nor on the other hand must you conclude that because a thing is a mere +luxury in town, it is nothing but that in the woods. Most woodsmen own +some little ridiculous item of outfit without which they could not be +happy. And when a man cannot be happy lacking a thing, that thing +becomes a necessity. I knew one who never stirred without borated +talcum powder; another who must have his mouth-organ; a third who was +miserable without a small bottle of salad dressing; I confess to a pair +of light buckskin gloves. Each man must decide for himself--remembering +always the endurance limit of human shoulders. + +A necessity is that which, _by your own experience_, you have +found you cannot do without. As a bit of practical advice, however, the +following system of elimination may be recommended. When you return +from a trip, turn your duffel bag upside down on the floor. Of the +contents make three piles--three piles conscientiously selected in the +light of what has happened rather than what ought to have happened, or +what might have happened. It is difficult to do this. Preconceived +notions, habits of civilization, theory for future, imagination, all +stand in the eye of your honesty. Pile number one should comprise those +articles you have used every day; pile number two, those you have used +occasionally; pile number three, those you have not used at all. If you +are resolute and singleminded, you will at once discard the latter two. + +Throughout the following winter you will be attacked by misgivings. To +be sure, you wore the mosquito hat but once or twice, and the fourth +pair of socks not at all; but then the mosquitoes might be thicker next +time, and a series of rainy days and cold nights might make it +desirable to have a dry pair of socks to put on at night. The past has +been _x_, but the future might be _y_. One by one the discarded creep +back into the list. And by the opening of next season you have made +toward perfection by only the little space of a mackintosh coat and a +ten-gauge gun. + +But in the years to come you learn better and better the simple woods +lesson of substitution or doing without. You find that discomfort is as +soon forgotten as pain; that almost anything can be endured if it is +but for the time being; that absolute physical comfort is worth but a +very small price in avoirdupois. Your pack shrinks. + +In fact, it really never ceases shrinking. Only last summer taught me +the uselessness of an extra pair of trousers. It rains in the woods; +streams are to be waded; the wetness of leaves is greater than the +wetness of many rivers. Logically, naturally, inevitably, such +conditions point to change of garments when camp is made. We always +change our clothes when we get wet in the city. So for years I carried +those extra nether garments--and continued in the natural exposure to +sun and wind and camp-fire to dry off before change time, or to hang +the damp clothes from the ridge-pole for resumption in the morning. And +then one day the web of that particular convention broke. We change wet +trousers in the town; we do not in the woods. The extras were relegated +to pile number three, and my pack, already apparently down to a +minimum, lost a few pounds more. + +You will want a hat, a _good_ hat to turn rain, with a medium +brim. If you are wise, you will get it too small for your head, and rip +out the lining. The felt will cling tenaciously to your hair, so that +you will find the snatches of the brush and the wind generally +unavailing. + +By way of undergarments wear woollen. Buy winter weights even for +midsummer. In travelling with a pack a man is going to sweat in +streams, no matter what he puts on or takes off, and the thick garment +will be found no more oppressive than the thin. And then in the cool of +the woods or of the evening he avoids a chill. And he can plunge into +the coldest water with impunity, sure that ten minutes of the air will +dry him fairly well. Until you have shivered in clammy cotton, you +cannot realize the importance of this point. Ten minutes of cotton +underwear in cold water will chill. On the other hand, suitably clothed +in wool, I have waded the ice water of north country streams when the +thermometer was so low I could see my breath in the air, without other +discomfort than a cold ring around my legs to mark the surface of the +water, and a slight numbness in my feet when I emerged. Therefore, even +in hot weather, wear heavy wool. It is the most comfortable. +Undoubtedly you will come to believe this only by experience. + +Do not carry a coat. This is another preconception of civilization, +exceedingly difficult to get rid of. You will never wear it while +packing. In a rain you will find that it wets through so promptly as to +be of little use; or, if waterproof, the inside condensation will more +than equal the rain-water. In camp you will discard it because it will +impede the swing of your arms. The end of that coat will be a brief +half-hour after supper, and a makeshift roll to serve as a pillow +during the night. And for these a sweater is better in every way. + +In fact, if you feel you must possess another outside garment, let it +be an extra sweater. You can sleep in it, use it when your day garment +is soaked, or even tie things in it as in a bag. It is not necessary, +however. + +One good shirt is enough. When you wash it, substitute the sweater +until it dries. In fact, by keeping the sweater always in your +waterproof bag, you possess a dry garment to change into. Two +handkerchiefs are enough. One should be of silk, for neck, head, or--in +case of cramps or intense cold--the _stomach_; the other of +coloured cotton for the pocket. Both can be quickly washed, and dried +_en route_. Three pairs of heavy wool socks will be enough--one +for wear, one for night, and one for extra. A second pair of drawers +supplements the sweater when a temporary day change is desirable. Heavy +kersey "driver's" trousers are the best. They are cheap, dry very +quickly, and are not easily "picked out" by the brush. + +The best blanket is that made by the Hudson's Bay Company for its +servants--a "three-point" for summer is heavy enough. The next best is +our own gray army blanket. One of rubber should fold about it, and a +pair of narrow buckle straps is handy to keep the bundle right and +tight and waterproof. As for a tent, buy the smallest shelter you can +get along with, have it made of balloon silk well waterproofed, and +supplement it with a duplicate tent of light cheesecloth to suspend +inside as a fly-proof defence. A seven-by-seven three-man A-tent, which +would weigh between twenty and thirty pounds if made of duck, means +only about eight pounds constructed of this material. And it is +waterproof. I own one which I have used for three seasons. It has been +employed as tarpaulin, fly, even blanket on a pinch; it has been packed +through the roughest country; I have even pressed it into service as a +sort of canoe lining; but it is still as good as ever. Such a tent +sometimes condenses a little moisture in a cold rain, but it never +"sprays" as does a duck shelter; it never leaks simply because you have +accidentally touched its under-surface; and, best of all, it weighs no +more after a rain than before it. This latter item is perhaps its best +recommendation. The confronting with equanimity of a wet day's journey +in the shower-bath brush of our northern forests requires a degree of +philosophy which a gratuitous ten pounds of soaked-up water sometimes +most effectually breaks down. I know of but one place where such a tent +can be bought. The address will be gladly sent to any one practically +interested. + +As for the actual implements of the trade, they are not many, although +of course the sporting goods stores are full of all sorts of "handy +contrivances." A small axe--one of the pocket size will do, if you get +the right shape and balance, although a light regulation axe is better; +a thin-bladed sheath-knife of the best steel; a pocket-knife; a +compass; a waterproof match-safe; fishing-tackle; firearms; and cooking +utensils comprise the list. All others belong to permanent camps, or +open-water cruises--not to "hikes" in the woods. + +The items, with the exception of the last two, seem to explain +themselves. During the summer months in the North Woods you will not +need a rifle. Partridges, spruce hens, ptarmigan, rabbits, ducks, and +geese are usually abundant enough to fill the provision list. For them, +of course, a shotgun is the thing; but since such a weapon weighs many +pounds, and its ammunition many more, I have come gradually to depend +entirely on a pistol. The instrument is single shot, carries a six-inch +barrel, is fitted with a special butt, and is built on the graceful +lines of a 38-calibre Smith and Wesson revolver. Its cartridge is the +22 long-rifle, a target size, that carries as accurately as you can +hold for upwards of a hundred yards. With it I have often killed a +half-dozen of partridges from the same tree. The ammunition is light. +Altogether it is a most satisfactory, convenient, and accurate weapon, +and quite adequate to all small game. In fact, an Indian named +Tawabinisay, after seeing it perform, once borrowed it to kill a moose. + +[Illustration: THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR +AGAIN THE FLAG OF HIS COUNTRY.] + +"I shootum in eye," said he. + +By way of cooking utensils, buy aluminium. It is expensive, but so +light and so easily cleaned that it is well worth all you may have to +pay. If you are alone you will not want to carry much hardware. I made +a twenty-day trip once with nothing but a tin cup and a frying-pan. +Dishes, pails, wash-basins, and other receptacles can always be made of +birch bark and cedar withes--by one who knows how. The ideal outfit for +two or three is a cup, fork, and spoon apiece, one tea-pail, two +kettle-pails, and a frying-pan. The latter can be used as a bread-oven. + +A few minor items, of practically no weight, suggest themselves--toilet +requisites, fly-dope, needle and thread, a cathartic, pain-killer, a +roll of surgeon's bandage, pipe and tobacco. But when the pack is made +up, and the duffel bag tied, you find that, while fitted for every +emergency but that of catastrophe, you are prepared to "go light." + + + + +III. + +THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE. + + +Sometime, no matter how long your journey, you will reach a spot whose +psychological effect is so exactly like a dozen others that you will +recognize at once its kinship with former experience. Mere physical +likeness does not count at all. It may possess a water-front of laths +and sawdust, or an outlook over broad, shimmering, heat-baked plains. +It may front the impassive fringe of a forest, or it may skirt the calm +stretch of a river. But whether of log or mud, stone or unpainted +board, its identity becomes at first sight indubitably evident. Were +you, by the wave of some beneficent wand, to be transported direct to +it from the heart of the city, you could not fail to recognize it. "The +jumping-off place!" you would cry ecstatically, and turn with unerring +instinct to the Aromatic Shop. + +For here is where begins the Long Trail. Whether it will lead you +through the forests, or up the hills, or over the plains, or by +invisible water paths; whether you will accomplish it on horseback, or +in canoe, or by the transportation of your own two legs; whether your +companions shall be white or red, or merely the voices of the +wilds--these things matter not a particle. In the symbol of this little +town you loose your hold on the world of made things, and shift for +yourself among the unchanging conditions of nature. + +Here the faint forest flavour, the subtle, invisible breath of freedom, +stirs faintly across men's conventions. The ordinary affairs of life +savour of this tang--a trace of wildness in the domesticated berry. In +the dress of the inhabitants is a dash of colour, a carelessness of +port; in the manner of their greeting is the clear, steady-eyed +taciturnity of the silent places; through the web of their gray talk of +ways and means and men's simpler beliefs runs a thread of colour. One +hears strange, suggestive words and phrases--arapajo, capote, arroyo, +the diamond hitch, cache, butte, coule, muskegs, portage, and a dozen +others coined into the tender of daily use. And occasionally, when the +expectation is least alert, one encounters suddenly the very symbol of +the wilderness itself--a dust-whitened cowboy, an Indian packer with +his straight, fillet-confined hair, a voyageur gay in red sash and +ornamented moccasins, one of the Company's canoemen, hollow-cheeked +from the river--no costumed show exhibit, but fitting naturally into +the scene, bringing something of the open space with him--so that in +your imagination the little town gradually takes on the colour of +mystery which an older community utterly lacks. + +But perhaps the strongest of the influences which unite to assure the +psychological kinships of the jumping-off places is that of the +Aromatic Shop. It is usually a board affair, with a broad high sidewalk +shaded by a wooden awning. You enter through a narrow door, and find +yourself facing two dusky aisles separated by a narrow division of +goods, and flanked by wooden counters. So far it is exactly like the +corner store of our rural districts. But in the dimness of these two +aisles lurks the spirit of the wilds. There in a row hang fifty pair of +smoke-tanned moccasins; in another an equal number of oil-tanned; +across the background you can make out snowshoes. The shelves are high +with blankets--three-point, four-point--thick and warm for the +out-of-doors. Should you care to examine, the storekeeper will hook +down from aloft capotes of different degrees of fineness. Fathoms of +black tobacco-rope lie coiled in tubs. Tump-lines welter in a tangle of +dimness. On a series of little shelves is the ammunition, fascinating +in the attraction of mere numbers--44 Winchester, 45 Colt, 40-82, +30-40, 44 S. & W.--they all connote something to the accustomed mind, +just as do the numbered street names of New York. + +An exploration is always bringing something new to light among the +commonplaces of ginghams and working shirts, and canned goods and +stationery, and the other thousands of civilized drearinesses to found +in every country store. From under the counter you drag out a mink skin +or so; from the dark corner an assortment of steel traps. In a loft a +birch-bark mokok, fifty pounds heavy with granulated maple sugar, +dispenses a faint perfume. + +For this is, above all, the Aromatic Shop. A hundred ghosts of odours +mingle to produce the spirit of it. The reek of the camp-fires is in +its buckskin, of the woods in its birch bark, of the muskegs in its +sweet grass, of the open spaces in its peltries, of the evening meal in +its coffees and bacons, of the portage trail in the leather of the +tump-lines. I am speaking now of the country of which we are to write. +The shops of the other jumping-off places are equally aromatic--whether +with the leather of saddles, the freshness of ash paddles, or the +pungency of marline; and once the smell of them is in your nostrils you +cannot but away. + +The Aromatic Shop is always kept by the wisest, the most accommodating, +the most charming shopkeeper in the world. He has all leisure to give +you, and enters into the innermost spirit of your buying. He is of +supernal sagacity in regard to supplies and outfits, and if he does not +know all about routes, at least he is acquainted with the very man who +can tell you everything you want to know. He leans both elbows on the +counter, you swing your feet, and together you go over the list, while +the Indian stands smoky and silent in the background. "Now, if I was +you," says he, "I'd take just a little more pork. You won't be eatin' +so much yourself, but these Injuns ain't got no bottom when it comes to +sow-belly. And I wouldn't buy all that coffee. You ain't goin' to want +much after the first edge is worn off. Tea's the boy." The Indian +shoots a few rapid words across the discussion. "He says you'll want +some iron shoes to fit on canoe poles for when you come back +up-stream," interprets your friend. "I guess that's right. I ain't got +none, but th' blacksmith'll fit you out all right. You'll find him just +below--never mind, don't you bother, I'll see to all that for you." + +The next morning he saunters into view at the river-bank. "Thought I'd +see you off," he replies to your expression of surprise at his early +rising. "Take care of yourself." And so the last hand-clasp of +civilization is extended to you from the little Aromatic Shop. + +Occasionally, however, though very rarely, you step to the Long Trail +from the streets of a raw modern town. The chance presence of some +local industry demanding a large population of workmen, combined with +first-class railroad transportation, may plant an electric-lighted, +saloon-lined, brick-hoteled city in the middle of the wilderness. +Lumber, mines--especially of the baser metals or commercial +minerals--fisheries, a terminus of water freightage, may one or all +call into existence a community a hundred years in advance of its +environment. Then you lose the savour of the jump-off. Nothing can +quite take the place of the instant plunge into the wilderness, for you +must travel three or four days from such a place before you sense the +forest in its vastness, even though deer may eat the cabbages at the +edge of town. Occasionally, however, by force of crude contrast to the +brick-heated atmosphere, the breath of the woods reaches your cheek, +and always you own a very tender feeling for the cause of it. + +Dick and myself were caught in such a place. It was an unfinished +little town, with brick-fronted stores, arc-lights swaying over +fathomless mud, big superintendent's and millowner's houses of bastard +architecture in a blatant superiority of hill location, a hotel whose +office chairs supported a variety of cheap drummers, and stores +screeching in an attempt at metropolitan smartness. We inspected the +standpipe and the docks, walked a careless mile of board walk, kicked a +dozen pugnacious dogs from our setter, Deuce, and found ourselves at +the end of our resources. As a crowd seemed to be gathering about the +wooden railway station, we joined it in sheer idleness. + +It seemed that an election had taken place the day before, that one +Smith had been chosen to the Assembly, and that, though this district +had gone anti-Smith, the candidate was expected to stop off an hour on +his way to a more westerly point. Consequently the town was on hand to +receive him. + +The crowd, we soon discovered, was bourgeois in the extreme. Young men +from the mill escorted young women from the shops. The young men wore +flaring collars three sizes too large; the young women white cotton +mitts three sizes too small. The older men spat, and talked through +their noses; the women drawled out a monotonous flow of speech +concerning the annoyances of domestic life. A gang of uncouth practical +jokers, exploding in horse-laughter, skylarked about, jostling rudely. +A village band, uniformed solely with cheap carriage-cloth caps, brayed +excruciatingly. The reception committee had decorated, with red and +white silesia streamers and rosettes, an ordinary side-bar buggy, to +which a long rope had been attached, that the great man might be +dragged by his fellow-citizens to the public square. + +Nobody seemed to be taking the affair too seriously. It was evidently +more than half a joke. Anti-Smith was more good-humouredly in evidence +than the winning party. Just this touch of buffoonery completed our +sense of the farce-comedy character of the situation. The town was +tawdry in its preparations--and knew it; but half sincere in its +enthusiasm--and knew it. If the crowd had been composed of Americans, +we should have anticipated an unhappy time for Smith; but good, loyal +Canadians, by the limitations of temperament, could get no further than +a spirit of manifest irreverence. + +In the shifting of the groups Dick and I became separated, but shortly +I made him out worming his way excitedly toward me, his sketch-book +open in his hand. + +"Come here," he whispered. "There's going to be fun. They're going to +open up on old Smith after all." + +I followed. The decorated side-bar buggy might be well meant; the +village band need not have been interpreted as an ironical compliment; +the rest of the celebration might indicate paucity of resource rather +than facetious intent; but surely the figure of fun before us could not +be otherwise construed than as a deliberate advertising in the face of +success of the town's real attitude toward the celebration. + +The man was short. He wore a felt hat, so big that it rested on his +ears. A gray wool shirt hung below his neck. A cutaway coat miles too +large depended below his knees and to the first joints of his fingers. +By way of official uniform his legs were incased in an ordinary rough +pair of miller's white trousers, on which broad strips of red flannel +had been roughly sewn. Everything was wrinkled in the folds of +too-bigness. As though to accentuate the note, the man stood very +erect, very military, and supported in one hand the staff of an English +flag. This figure of fun, this man made from the slop-chest, this +caricature of a scarecrow, had been put forth by heavy-handed +facetiousness to the post of greatest honour. He was Standard-Bearer to +the occasion! Surely subtle irony could go no further. + +A sudden movement caused the man to turn. One sleeve of the faded, +ridiculous old cutaway was empty. He turned again. From under the +ear-flanging hat looked unflinchingly the clear, steady blue eye of the +woodsman. And so we knew. This old soldier had come in from the Long +Trail to bear again the flag of his country. If his clothes were old +and ill-fitting, at least they were his best, and the largeness of the +empty sleeve belittled the too-largeness of the other. In all this +ribald, laughing, irreverent, commonplace, semi-vicious crowd he was +the one note of sincerity. To him this was a real occasion, and the +exalted reverence in his eye for the task he was so simply performing +was Smith's real triumph--if he could have known it. We understood now, +we felt the imminence of the Long Trail. For the first time the little +brick, tawdry town gripped our hearts with the well-known thrill of the +Jumping-Off Place. Suddenly the great, simple, unashamed wilderness +drew near us as with the rush of wings. + + + + +IV. + +ON MAKING CAMP. + +"Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight? Who hath + heard the birch log burning? +Who is quick to read the noises of the night? +Let him follow with the others, for the young men's feet are turning +To the camps of proved desire and known delight." + + +In the Ojibway language _wigwam_ means a good spot for camping, a +place cleared for a camp, a camp as an abstract proposition, and a camp +in the concrete as represented by a tent, a thatched shelter, or a +conical tepee. In like manner, the English word _camp_ lends +itself to a variety of concepts. I once slept in a four-poster bed over +a polished floor in an elaborate servant-haunted structure which, +mainly because it was built of logs and overlooked a lake, the owner +always spoke of as his camp. Again, I once slept on a bed of prairie +grass, before a fire of dried buffalo chips and mesquite, wrapped in a +single light blanket, while a good vigorous rain-storm made new cold +places on me and under me all night. In the morning the cowboy with +whom I was travelling remarked that this was "sure a lonesome +proposition as a camp." + +Between these two extremes is infinite variety, grading upwards through +the divers bivouacs of snow, plains, pines, or hills to the bark +shelter; past the dog-tent, the A-tent, the wall-tent, to the elaborate +permanent canvas cottage of the luxurious camper, the dug-out winter +retreat of the range cowboy, the trapper's cabin, the great log-built +lumber-jack communities, and the last refinements of sybaritic summer +homes in the Adirondacks. All these are camps. And when you talk of +making camp you must know whether that process is to mean only a search +for rattlesnakes and enough acrid-smoked fuel to boil tea, or a +winter's consultation with an expert architect; whether your camp is to +be made on the principle of Omar's one-night Sultan, or whether it is +intended to accommodate the full days of an entire summer. + +But to those who tread the Long Trail the making of camp resolves +itself into an algebraical formula. After a man has travelled all day +through the Northern wilderness he wants to rest, and anything that +stands between himself and his repose he must get rid of in as few +motions as is consistent with reasonable thoroughness. The end in view +is a hot meal and a comfortable dry place to sleep. The straighter he +can draw the line to those two points the happier he is. + +Early in his woods experience, Dick became possessed with the desire to +do everything for himself. As this was a laudable striving for +self-sufficiency, I called a halt at about three o'clock one afternoon +in order to give him plenty of time. + +Now Dick is a good, active, able-bodied boy, possessed of average +intelligence and rather more than average zeal. He even had theory of a +sort, for he had read various "Boy Campers, or the Trapper's Guide," +"How to Camp Out," "The Science of Woodcraft," and other able works. He +certainly had ideas enough and confidence enough. I sat down on a log. + +At the end of three hours' flusteration, heat, worry, and good hard +work, he had accomplished the following results: A tent, very saggy, +very askew, covered a four-sided area--it was not a rectangle--of very +bumpy ground. A hodge-podge bonfire, in the centre of which an +inaccessible coffee-pot toppled menacingly, alternately threatened to +ignite the entire surrounding forest or to go out altogether through +lack of fuel. Personal belongings strewed the ground near the fire, and +provisions cumbered the entrance to the tent. Dick was anxiously mixing +batter for the cakes, attempting to stir a pot of rice often enough to +prevent it from burning, and trying to rustle sufficient dry wood to +keep the fire going. This diversity of interests certainly made him sit +up and pay attention. At each instant he had to desert his flour-sack +to rescue the coffee-pot, or to shift the kettle, or to dab hastily at +the rice, or to stamp out the small brush, or to pile on more dry +twigs. His movements were not graceful. They raised a scurry of dry +bark, ashes, wood dust, twigs, leaves, and pine needles, a certain +proportion of which found their way into the coffee, the rice, and the +sticky batter, while the smaller articles of personal belonging, +hastily dumped from the duffel-bag, gradually disappeared from view in +the manner of Pompeii and ancient Vesuvius. Dick burned his fingers and +stumbled about and swore, and looked so comically-pathetically +red-faced through the smoke that I, seated on the log, at the same time +laughed and pitied. And in the end, when he needed a continuous steady +fire to fry his cakes, he suddenly discovered that dry twigs do not +make coals, and that his previous operations had used up all the fuel +within easy circle of the camp. + +So he had to drop everything for the purpose of rustling wood, +while the coffee chilled, the rice cooled, the bacon congealed, and all +the provisions, cooked and uncooked, gathered entomological specimens. +At the last, the poor bedeviled theorist made a hasty meal of scorched +food, brazenly postponed the washing of dishes until the morrow, and +coiled about his hummocky couch to dream the nightmares of complete +exhaustion. + +Poor Dick! I knew exactly how he felt, how the low afternoon sun +scorched, how the fire darted out at unexpected places, how the smoke +followed him around, no matter on which side of the fire he placed +himself, how the flies all took to biting when both hands were +occupied, and how they all miraculously disappeared when he had set +down the frying-pan and knife to fight them. I could sympathize, too, +with the lonely, forlorn, lost-dog feeling that clutched him after it +was all over. I could remember how big and forbidding and unfriendly +the forest had once looked to me in like circumstances, so that I had +felt suddenly thrust outside into empty spaces. Almost was I tempted to +intervene; but I liked Dick, and I wanted to do him good. This +experience was harrowing, but it prepared his mind for the seeds of +wisdom. By the following morning he had chastened his spirit, forgotten +the assurance breathed from the windy pages of the Boy Trapper Library, +and was ready to learn. + +Have you ever watched a competent portraitist at work? The infinite +pains a skilled man spends on the preliminaries before he takes one +step towards a likeness nearly always wears down the patience of the +sitter. He measures with his eye, he plumbs, he sketches tentatively, +he places in here a dab, there a blotch, he puts behind him apparently +unproductive hours--and then all at once he is ready to begin something +that will not have to be done over again. An amateur, however, is +carried away by his desire for results. He dashes in a hit-or-miss +early effect, which grows into an approximate likeness almost +immediately, but which will require infinite labour, alteration, and +anxiety to beat into finished shape. + +The case of the artist in making camps is exactly similar, and the +philosophical reasons for his failure are exactly the same. To the +superficial mind a camp is a shelter, a bright fire, and a smell of +cooking. So when a man is very tired he cuts across lots to those three +results. He pitches his tent, lights his fire, puts over his food--and +finds himself drowned in detail, like my friend Dick. + +The following is, in brief, what during the next six weeks I told that +youth, by precept, by homily, and by making the solution so obvious +that he could work it out for himself. + +When five or six o'clock draws near, begin to look about you for a good +level dry place, elevated some few feet above the surroundings. Drop +your pack or beach your canoe. Examine the location carefully. You +will want two trees about ten feet apart, from which to suspend your +tent, and a bit of flat ground underneath them. Of course the flat +ground need not be particularly unencumbered by brush or saplings, so +the combination ought not to be hard to discover. Now return to your +canoe. Do not unpack the tent. + +With the little axe clear the ground thoroughly. By bending a sapling +over strongly with the left hand, clipping sharply at the strained +fibres, and then bending it as strongly the other way to repeat the axe +stroke on the other side, you will find that treelets of even two or +three inches diameter can be felled by two blows. In a very few +moments you will have accomplished a hole in the forest, and your two +supporting trees will stand sentinel at either end of a most +respectable-looking clearing. Do not unpack the tent. + +Now, although the ground seems free of all but unimportant growths, go +over it thoroughly for little shrubs and leaves. They look soft and +yielding, but are often possessed of unexpectedly abrasive roots. +Besides, they mask the face of the ground. When you have finished +pulling them up by the roots, you will find that your supposedly level +plot is knobby with hummocks. Stand directly over each little mound; +swing the back of your axe vigorously against it, adze-wise, between +your legs. Nine times out of ten it will crumble, and the tenth time +means merely a root to cut or a stone to pry out. At length you are +possessed of a plot of clean, fresh earth, level and soft, free from +projections. But do not unpack your tent. + +Lay a young birch or maple an inch or so in diameter across a log. Two +clips will produce you a tent-peg. If you are inexperienced, and +cherish memories of striped lawn marquees, you will cut them about six +inches long. If you are wise and old and gray in woods experience, you +will multiply that length by four. Then your loops will not slip off, +and you will have a real grip on mother earth, than which nothing can +be more desirable in the event of a heavy rain and wind squall about +midnight. If your axe is as sharp as it ought to be, you can point +them more neatly by holding them suspended in front of you while you +snip at their ends with the axe, rather than by resting them against a +solid base. Pile them together at the edge of the clearing. Cut a +crotched sapling eight or ten feet long. Now unpack your tent. + +In a wooded country you will not take the time to fool with tent-poles. +A stout line run through the eyelets and along the apex will string it +successfully between your two trees. Draw the line as tight as +possible, but do not be too unhappy if, after your best efforts, it +still sags a little. That is what your long crotched stick is for. +Stake out your four corners. If you get them in a good rectangle, and +in such relation to the apex as to form two isosceles triangles of the +ends, your tent will stand smoothly. Therefore, be an artist and do it +right. Once the four corners are well placed, the rest follows +naturally. Occasionally in the North Country it will be found that the +soil is too thin over the rocks to grip the tent-pegs. In that case +drive them at a sharp angle as deep as they will go, and then lay a +large flat stone across the slant of them. Thus anchored, you will +ride out a gale. Finally, wedge your long sapling crotch under the +line--outside the tent, of course--to tighten it. Your shelter is up. +If you are a woodsman, ten or fifteen minutes has sufficed to +accomplish all this. + +There remains the question of a bed, and you'd better attend to it now, +while your mind is still occupied with the shelter problem. Fell a +good thrifty young balsam and set to work pulling off the fans. Those +you cannot strip off easily with your hands are too tough for your +purpose. Lay them carelessly crisscross against the blade of your axe +and up the handle. They will not drop off, and when you shoulder that +axe you will resemble a walking haystack, and will probably experience +a genuine emotion of surprise at the amount of balsam that can be thus +transported. In the tent lay smoothly one layer of fans, convex side +up, butts toward the foot. Now thatch the rest on top of this, +thrusting the butt ends underneath the layer already placed in such a +manner as to leave the fan ends curving up and down towards the foot of +your bed. Your second emotion of surprise will assail you as you +realize how much spring inheres in but two or three layers thus +arranged. When you have spread your rubber blanket, you will be +possessed of a bed as soft and a great deal more aromatic and luxurious +than any you would be able to buy in town. + +Your next care is to clear a living space in front of the tent. This +will take you about twenty seconds, for you need not be particular as +to stumps, hummocks, or small brush. All you want is room for cooking, +and suitable space for spreading out your provisions. But do not +unpack anything yet. + +Your fireplace you will build of two green logs laid side by side. The +fire is to be made between them. They should converge slightly, in +order that the utensils to be rested across them may be of various +sizes. If your vicinity yields flat stones, they build up even better +than the logs--unless they happen to be of granite. Granite explodes +most disconcertingly. Poles sharpened, driven upright into the ground, +and then pressed down to slant over the fireplace, will hold your +kettles a suitable height above the blaze. + +Fuel should be your next thought. A roll of birch bark first of all. +Then some of the small, dry, resinous branches that stick out from the +trunks of medium-sized pines, living or dead. Finally, the wood +itself. If you are merely cooking supper, and have no thought for a +warmth-fire or a friendship-fire, I should advise you to stick to the +dry pine branches, helped out, in the interest of coals for frying, by +a little dry maple or birch. If you need more of a blaze, you will +have to search out, fell, and split a standing dead tree. This is not +at all necessary. I have travelled many weeks in the woods without +using a more formidable implement than a one-pound hatchet. Pile your +fuel--a complete supply, all you are going to need--by the side of your +already improvised fireplace. But, as you value your peace of mind, do +not fool with matches. + +It will be a little difficult to turn your mind from the concept of +fire, to which all these preparations have compellingly led +it--especially as a fire is the one cheerful thing your weariness needs +the most at this time of day--but you must do so. Leave everything just +as it is, and unpack your provisions. + +First of all, rinse your utensils. Hang your tea-pail, with the proper +quantity of water, from one slanting pole, and your kettle from the +other. Salt the water in the latter receptacle. Peel your potatoes, +if you have any; open your little provision sacks; puncture your tin +cans, if you have any; slice your bacon; clean your fish; pluck your +birds; mix your dough or batter; spread your table tinware on your +tarpaulin or a sheet of birch bark; cut a kettle-lifter; see that +everything you are going to need is within direct reach of your hand as +you squat on your heels before the fireplace. Now light your fire. + +The civilized method is to build a fire and then to touch a match to +the completed structure. If well done and in a grate or steve, this +works beautifully. Only in the woods you have no grate. The only sure +way is as follows: Hold a piece of birch bark in your hand. Shelter +your match all you know how. When the bark has caught, lay it in your +fireplace, assist it with more bark, and gradually build up, twig by +twig, stick by stick, from the first pin-point of flame, all the fire +you are going to need. It will not be much. The little hot blaze +rising between the parallel logs directly against the aluminium of your +utensils will do the business in a very short order. In fifteen +minutes at most your meal is ready. And you have been able to attain +to hot food thus quickly because you were prepared. + +In case of very wet weather the affair is altered somewhat. If the +rain has just commenced, do not stop to clear out very thoroughly, but +get your tent up as quickly as possible, in order to preserve an area +of comparatively dry ground. But if the earth is already soaked, you +had best build a bonfire to dry out by, while you cook over a smaller +fire a little distance removed, leaving the tent until later. Or it +may be well not to pitch the tent at all, but to lay it across slanting +supports at an angle to reflect the heat against the ground. + +It is no joke to light a fire in the rain. An Indian can do it more +easily than a white man, but even an Indian has more trouble than the +story-books acknowledge. You will need a greater quantity of birch +bark, a bigger pile of resinous dead limbs from the pine trees, and +perhaps the heart of a dead pine stub or stump. Then, with infinite +patience, you may be able to tease the flame. Sometimes a small dead +birch contains in the waterproof envelope of its bark a species of +powdery, dry touchwood that takes the flame readily. Still, it is easy +enough to start a blaze--a very fine-looking, cheerful, healthy blaze; +the difficulty is to prevent its petering out the moment your back is +turned. + +But the depths of woe are sounded and the limit of patience reached +when you are forced to get breakfast in the dripping forest. After the +chill of early dawn you are always reluctant in the best of +circumstances to leave your blankets, to fumble with numbed fingers for +matches, to handle cold steel and slippery fish. But when every leaf, +twig, sapling, and tree contains a douche of cold water; when the +wetness oozes about your moccasins from the soggy earth with every step +you take; when you look about you and realize that somehow, before you +can get a mouthful to banish that before-breakfast ill-humour, you must +brave cold water in an attempt to find enough fuel to cook with, then +your philosophy and early religious training avail you little. The +first ninety-nine times you are forced to do this you will probably +squirm circumspectly through the bush in a vain attempt to avoid +shaking water down on yourself; you will resent each failure to do so, +and at the end your rage will personify the wilderness for the purpose +of one sweeping anathema. The hundredth time will bring you wisdom. You +will do the anathema--rueful rather than enraged--from the tent +opening. Then you will plunge boldly in and get wet. It is not +pleasant, but it has to be done, and you will save much temper, not to +speak of time. + +Dick and I earned our diplomas at this sort of work. It rained twelve +of the first fourteen days we were out. Towards the end of that two +weeks I doubt if even an Indian could have discovered a dry stick of +wood in the entire country. The land was of Laurentian rock formation, +running in parallel ridges of bare stone separated by hollows carpeted +with a thin layer of earth. The ridges were naturally ill-adapted to +camping, and the cup hollows speedily filled up with water until they +became most creditable little marshes. Often we hunted for an hour or +so before we could find any sort of a spot to pitch our tent. As for a +fire, it was a matter of chopping down dead trees large enough to have +remained dry inside, of armfuls of birch bark, and of the patient +drying out, by repeated ignition, of enough fuel to cook very simple +meals. Of course we could have kept a big fire going easily enough, +but we were travelling steadily and had not the time for that. In +these trying circumstances, Dick showed that, no matter how much of a +tenderfoot he might be, he was game enough under stress. + +But to return to our pleasant afternoon. While you are consuming the +supper you will hang over some water to heat for the dish-washing, and +the dish-washing you will attend to the moment you have finished +eating. Do not commit the fallacy of sitting down for a little rest. +Better finish the job completely while you are about it. You will +appreciate leisure so much more later. In lack of a wash-rag you will +find that a bunch of tall grass bent double makes an ideal swab. + +Now brush the flies from your tent, drop the mosquito-proof lining, and +enjoy yourself. The whole task, from first to last, has consumed but a +little over an hour. And you are through for the day. + +In the woods, as nowhere else, you will earn your leisure only by +forethought. Make no move until you know it follows the line of +greatest economy. To putter is to wallow in endless desolation. If you +cannot move directly and swiftly and certainly along the line of least +resistance in everything you do, take a guide with you; you are not of +the woods people. You will never enjoy doing for yourself, for your +days will be crammed with unending labour. + +It is but a little after seven. The long crimson shadows of the North +Country are lifting across the aisles of the forest. You sit on a log, +or lie on your back, and blow contented clouds straight up into the +air. Nothing can disturb you now. The wilderness is yours, for you have +taken from it the essentials of primitive civilization--shelter, +warmth, and food. An hour ago a rainstorm would have been a minor +catastrophe. Now you do not care. Blow high, blow low, you have made +for yourself an abiding-place, so that the signs of the sky are less +important to you than to the city dweller who wonders if he should take +an umbrella. From your doorstep you can look placidly out on the great +unknown. The noises of the forest draw close about you their circle of +mystery, but the circle cannot break upon you, for here you have +conjured the homely sounds of kettle and crackling flame to keep ward. +Thronging down through the twilight steal the jealous woodland shadows, +awful in the sublimity of the Silent Places, but at the sentry outposts +of your firelit trees they pause like wild animals, hesitating to +advance. The wilderness, untamed, dreadful at night, is all about; but +this one little spot you have reclaimed. Here is something before +unknown to the eerie spirits of the woods. As you sleepily knock the +ashes from the pipe, you look about on the familiar scene with +accustomed satisfaction. You are at home. + + + + +V. + +ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT. + +"Who hath lain alone to hear the wild goose cry?" + + +About once in so often you are due to lie awake at night. Why this is +so I have never been able to discover. It apparently comes from no +predisposing uneasiness of indigestion, no rashness in the matter of +too much tea or tobacco, no excitation of unusual incident or +stimulating conversation. In fact, you turn in with the expectation of +rather a good night's rest. Almost at once the little noises of the +forest grow larger, blend in the hollow bigness of the first drowse; +your thoughts drift idly back and forth between reality and dream; +when--_snap!_--you are broad awake! + +Perhaps the reservoir of your vital forces is full to the overflow of a +little waste; or perhaps, more subtly, the great Mother insists thus +that you enter the temple of her larger mysteries. + +For, unlike mere insomnia, lying awake at night in the woods is +pleasant. The eager, nervous straining for sleep gives way to a +delicious indifference. You do not care. Your mind is cradled in an +exquisite poppy-suspension of judgment and of thought. Impressions slip +vaguely into your consciousness and as vaguely out again. Sometimes +they stand stark and naked for your inspection; sometimes they lose +themselves in the midst of half-sleep. Always they lay soft velvet +fingers on the drowsy imagination, so that in their caressing you feel +the vaster spaces from which they have come. Peaceful-brooding your +faculties receive. Hearing, sight, smell--all are preternaturally keen +to whatever of sound and sight and woods perfume is abroad through the +night; and yet at the same time active appreciation dozes, so these +things lie on it sweet and cloying like fallen rose leaves. + +In such circumstance you will hear what the _voyageurs_ call the +voices of the rapids. Many people never hear them at all. They speak +very soft and low and distinct beneath the steady roar and dashing, +beneath even the lesser tinklings and gurglings whose quality +superimposes them over the louder sounds. They are like the tear-forms +swimming across the field of vision, which disappear so quickly when +you concentrate your sight to look at them, and which reappear so +magically when again your gaze turns vacant. In the stillness of your +hazy half-consciousness they speak; when you bend your attention to +listen, they are gone, and only the tumults and the tinklings remain. + +But in the moments of their audibility they are very distinct. Just as +often an odour will wake all a vanished memory, so these voices, by the +force of a large impressionism, suggest whole scenes. Far off are the +cling-clang-cling of chimes and the swell-and-fall murmur of a +multitude _en fete_, so that subtly you feel the gray old town, +with its walls, the crowded marketplace, the decent peasant crowd, the +booths, the mellow church building with its bells, the warm, dust-moted +sun. Or, in the pauses between the swish-dash-dashings of the waters, +sound faint and clear voices singing intermittently, calls, distant +notes of laughter, as though many canoes were working against the +current; only the flotilla never gets any nearer, nor the voices +louder. The _voyageurs_ call these mist people the Huntsmen, and +look frightened. To each is his vision, according to his experience. +The nations of the earth whisper to their exiled sons through the +voices of the rapids. Curiously enough, by all reports, they suggest +always peaceful scenes--a harvest field, a street fair, a Sunday +morning in a cathedral town, careless travellers--never the turmoils +and struggles. Perhaps this is the great Mother's compensation in a +harsh mode of life. + +Nothing is more fantastically unreal to tell about, nothing more +concretely real to experience, than this undernote of the quick water. +And when you do lie awake at night, it is always making its unobtrusive +appeal. Gradually its hypnotic spell works. The distant chimes ring +louder and nearer as you cross the borderland of sleep. And then +outside the tent some little woods noise snaps the thread. An owl +hoots, a whippoorwill cries, a twig cracks beneath the cautious prowl +of some night creature--at once the yellow sunlit French meadows puff +away--you are staring at the blurred image of the moon spraying through +the texture of your tent. + +The voices of the rapids have dropped into the background, as have the +dashing noises of the stream. Through the forest is a great silence, +but no stillness at all. The whippoorwill swings down and up the short +curve of his regular song; over and over an owl says his rapid +_whoo_, _whoo_, _whoo_. These, with the ceaseless dash of the rapids, +are the web on which the night traces her more delicate embroideries +of the unexpected. Distant crashes, single and impressive; +stealthy footsteps near at hand; the subdued scratching of claws; a +faint _sniff! sniff! sniff!_ of inquiry; the sudden clear tin-horn +_ko-ko-ko-oh_ of the little owl; the mournful, long-drawn-out cry +of the loon, instinct with the spirit of loneliness; the ethereal +call-note of the birds of passage high in the air; a _patter_, +_patter_, _patter_ among the dead leaves, immediately stilled; +and then at the last, from the thicket close at hand, the +beautiful silver purity of the white-throated sparrow--the nightingale +of the North--trembling with the ecstasy of beauty, as though a +shimmering moonbeam had turned to sound; and all the while the blurred +figure of the moon mounting to the ridge-line of your tent--these +things combine subtly, until at last the great Silence of which they +are a part overarches the night and draws you forth to contemplation. + +No beverage is more grateful than the cup of spring water you drink at +such a time; no moment more refreshing than that in which you look +about you at the darkened forest. You have cast from you with the warm +blanket the drowsiness of dreams. A coolness, physical and spiritual, +bathes you from head to foot. All your senses are keyed to the last +vibrations. You hear the littler night prowlers, you glimpse the +greater. A faint, searching woods perfume of dampness greets your +nostrils. And somehow, mysteriously, in a manner not to be understood, +the forces of the world seem in suspense, as though a touch might +crystallize infinite possibilities into infinite power and motion. But +the touch lacks. The forces hover on the edge of action, unheeding the +little noises. In all humbleness and awe, you are a dweller of the +Silent Places. + +At such a time you will meet with adventures. One night we put +fourteen inquisitive porcupines out of camp. Near M'Gregor's Bay I +discovered in the large grass park of my camp-site nine deer, cropping +the herbage like so many beautiful ghosts. A friend tells me of a fawn +that every night used to sleep outside his tent and within a foot of +his head, probably by way of protection against wolves. Its mother had +in all likelihood been killed. The instant my friend moved toward the +tent opening the little creature would disappear, and it was always +gone by earliest daylight. Nocturnal bears in search of pork are not +uncommon. But even though your interest meets nothing but the bats and +the woods shadows and the stars, that few moments of the sleeping world +forces is a psychical experience to be gained in no other way. You +cannot know the night by sitting up; she will sit up with you. Only by +coming into her presence from the borders of sleep can you meet her +face to face in her intimate mood. + +The night wind from the river, or from the open spaces of the wilds, +chills you after a time. You begin to think of your blankets. In a few +moments you roll yourself in their soft wool. Instantly it is morning. + +And, strange to say, you have not to pay by going through the day +unrefreshed. You may feel like turning in at eight instead of nine, and +you may fall asleep with unusual promptitude, but your journey will +begin clear-headedly, proceed springily, and end with much in reserve. +No languor, no dull headache, no exhaustion, follows your experience. +For this once your two hours of sleep have been as effective as nine. + + + + +VI. + +THE 'LUNGE. + +"Do you know the chosen water where the ouananiche is waiting?" + + +Dick and I travelled in a fifteen-foot wooden canoe, with grub, duffel, +tent, and Deuce, the black-and-white setter dog. As a consequence we +were pretty well down toward the water-line, for we had not realized +that a wooden canoe would carry so little weight for its length in +comparison with a birch-bark. A good heavy sea we could ride--with +proper management and a little baling; but sloppy waves kept us busy. + +Deuce did not like it at all. He was a dog old in the wisdom of +experience. It had taken him just twenty minutes to learn all about +canoes. After a single tentative trial he jumped lightly to the very +centre of his place, with the lithe caution of a cat. Then if the water +happened to be smooth, he would sit gravely on his haunches, or would +rest his chin on the gunwale to contemplate the passing landscape. But +in rough weather he crouched directly over the keel, his nose between +his paws, and tried not to dodge when the cold water dashed in on him. +Deuce was a true woodsman in that respect. Discomfort he always bore +with equanimity, and he must often have been very cold and very +cramped. + +For just over a week we had been travelling in open water, and the +elements had not been kind to us at all. We had crept up under +rock-cliff points; had weathered the rips of white water to shelter on +the other side; had struggled across open spaces where each wave was +singly a problem to fail in whose solution meant instant swamping; had +baled, and schemed, and figured, and carried, and sworn, and tried +again, and succeeded with about two cupfuls to spare, until we as well +as Deuce had grown a little tired of it. For the lust of travel was on +us. + +The lust of travel is a very real disease. It usually takes you when +you have made up your mind that there is no hurry. Its predisposing +cause is a chart or map, and its main symptom is the feverish delight +with which you check off the landmarks of your journey. A fair wind of +some force is absolutely fatal. With that at your back you cannot +stop. Good fishing, fine scenery, interesting bays, reputed game, even +camps where friends might be visited--all pass swiftly astern. Hardly +do you pause for lunch at noon. The mad joy of putting country behind +you eats all other interests. You recover only when you have come to +your journey's end a week too early, and must then search out new +voyages to fill in the time. + +All this morning we had been bucking a strong north wind. Fortunately, +the shelter of a string of islands had given us smooth water enough, +but the heavy gusts sometimes stopped us as effectively as though we +had butted solid land. Now about noon we came to the last island, and +looked out on a five-mile stretch of tumbling seas. We landed the canoe +and mounted a high rock. + +"Can't make it like this," said I. "I'll take the outfit over and land +it, and come back for you and the dog. Let's see that chart." + +We hid behind the rock and spread out the map. + +"Four miles," measured Dick. "It's going to be a terror." + +We looked at each other vaguely, suddenly tired. + +"We can't camp here--at this time of day," objected Dick, to our +unspoken thoughts. + +And then the map gave him an inspiration. "Here's a little river," +ruminated Dick, "that goes to a little lake, and then there's another +little river that flows from the lake and comes out about ten miles +above here." + +"It's a good thirty miles," I objected. + +"What of it?" asked Dick calmly. + +So the fever-lust of travel broke. We turned to the right behind the +last island, searched out the reed-grown opening to the stream, and +paddled serenely and philosophically against the current. Deuce sat up +and yawned with a mighty satisfaction. + +We had been bending our heads to the demon of wind; our ears had been +filled with his shoutings, our eyes blinded with tears, our breath +caught away from us, our muscles strung to the fiercest endeavour. +Suddenly we found ourselves between the ranks of tall forest trees, +bathed in a warm sunlight, gliding like a feather from one grassy bend +to another of the laziest little stream that ever hesitated as to which +way the grasses of its bed should float. As for the wind, it was lost +somewhere away up high, where we could hear it muttering to itself +about something. + +The woods leaned over the fringe of bushes cool and green and silent. +Occasionally through tiny openings we caught instant impressions of +straight column trunks and transparent shadows. Miniature grass marshes +jutted out from the bends of the little river. We idled along as with a +homely rustic companion through the aloofness of patrician multitudes. + +Every bend offered us charming surprises. Sometimes a muskrat swam +hastily in a pointed furrow of ripple; vanishing wings, barely sensed +in the flash, left us staring; stealthy withdrawals of creatures, whose +presence we realized only in the fact of those withdrawals, snared our +eager interest; porcupines rattled and rustled importantly and regally +from the water's edge to the woods; herons, ravens, an occasional duck, +croaked away at our approach; thrice we surprised eagles, once a +tassel-eared Canada lynx. Or, if all else lacked, we still experienced +the little thrill of pleased novelty over the disclosure of a group of +silvery birches on a knoll; a magnificent white pine towering over the +beech and maple forest; the unexpected aisle of a long, straight +stretch of the little river. + +Deuce approved thoroughly. He stretched himself and yawned and shook +off the water, and glanced at me open-mouthed with doggy good-nature, +and set himself to acquiring a conscientious olfactory knowledge of +both banks of the river. I do not doubt he knew a great deal more +about it than we did. Porcupines aroused his special enthusiasm. +Incidentally, two days later he returned to camp after an expedition of +his own, bristling as to the face with that animal's barbed weapons. +Thenceforward his interest waned. + +We ascended the charming little river two or three miles. At a sharp +bend to the east a huge sheet of rock sloped from a round grass knoll +sparsely planted with birches directly down into a pool. Two or three +tree trunks jammed directly opposite had formed a sort of half dam +under which the water lay dark. A tiny grass meadow forty feet in +diameter narrowed the stream to half its width. + +We landed. Dick seated himself on the shelving rock. I put my fish-rod +together. Deuce disappeared. + +Deuce always disappeared whenever we landed. With nose down, hind +quarters well tucked under him, ears flying, he quartered the forest at +high speed, investigating every nook and cranny of it for the radius of +a quarter of a mile. When he has quite satisfied himself that we were +safe for the moment, he would return to the fire, where he would lie, +six inches of pink tongue vibrating with breathlessness, beautiful in +the consciousness of virtue. Dick generally sat on a rock and thought. +I generally fished. + +After a time Deuce returned. I gave up flies, spoons, phantom minnows, +artificial frogs, and crayfish. As Dick continued to sit on the rock +and think, we both joined him. The sun was very warm and grateful, and +I am sure we both acquired an added respect for Dick's judgment. + +Just when it happened neither of us was afterwards able to decide. +Perhaps Deuce knew. But suddenly, as often a figure appears in a +cinematograph, the diminutive meadow thirty feet away contained two +deer. They stood knee-deep in the grass, wagging their little tails in +impatience of the flies. + +"Look a' there!" stammered Dick aloud. + +Deuce sat up on his haunches. + +I started for my camera. + +The deer did not seem to be in the slightest degree alarmed. They +pointed four big ears in our direction, ate a few leisurely mouthfuls +of grass, sauntered to the stream for a drink of water, wagged their +little tails some more, and quietly faded into the cool shadows of the +forest. + +[Illustration: AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES.] + +An hour later we ran out into reeds, and so to the lake. It was a +pretty lake, forest-girt. Across the distance we made out a moving +object which shortly resolved itself into a birch canoe. The canoe +proved to contain an Indian, an Indian boy of about ten years, a black +dog, and a bundle. When within a few rods of each other we ceased +paddling, and drifted by with the momentum. The Indian was a +fine-looking man of about forty, his hair bound with a red fillet, his +feet incased in silk-worked moccasins, but otherwise dressed in white +men's garments. He smoked a short pipe, and contemplated us gravely. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," we called in the usual double-barrelled North +Country salutation. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou," he replied. + +"Kee-gons?" we inquired as to the fishing in the lake. + +"Ah-hah," he assented. + +We drifted by each other without further speech. When the decent +distance of etiquette separated us we resumed our paddles. + +I produced a young cable terminated by a tremendous spoon and a solid +brass snell as thick as a telegraph wire. We had laid in this +formidable implement in hopes of a big muscallunge. It had been trailed +for days at a time. We had become used to its vibration, which actually +seemed to communicate itself to every fibre of the light canoe. Every +once in a while we would stop with a jerk that would nearly snap our +heads off. Then we would know we had hooked the American continent. We +had become used to that also. It generally happened when we attempted a +little burst of speed. So when the canoe brought up so violently that +all our tinware rolled on Deuce, Dick was merely disgusted. + +"There she goes again," he grumbled. "You've hooked Canada." + +Canada held quiescent for about three seconds. Then it started due +south. + +"Suffering serpents!" shrieked Dick. + +"Paddle, you sulphurated idiot!" yelled I. + +It was most interesting. All I had to do was to hang on and try to stay +in the boat. Dick paddled and fumed and splashed water and got more +excited. Canada dragged us bodily backward. + +Then Canada changed his mind and started in our direction. I was plenty +busy taking in slack, so I did not notice Dick. Dick was absolutely +demented. His mind automatically reacted in the direction of paddling. +He paddled, blindly, frantically. Canada came surging in, his mouth +open, his wicked eyes flaming, a tremendous indistinct body lashing +foam. Dick glanced once over his shoulder, and let out a frantic howl. + +"You've got the sea-serpent!" he shrieked. + +I turned to fumble for the pistol. We were headed directly for a log +stranded on shore, and about ten feet from it. + +"Dick!" I yelled in warning. + +He thrust his paddle out forward just in time. The stout maple bent and +cracked. The canoe hit with a bump that threw us forward. I returned to +the young cable. It came in limp and slack. + +We looked at each other sadly. + +"No use," sighed Dick at last. "They've never invented the words, and +we'd upset if we kicked the dog." + +I had the end of the line in my hands. + +"Look here!" I cried. That thick brass wire had been as cleanly bitten +through as though it had been cut with clippers. "He must have caught +sight of you," said I. + +Dick lifted up his voice in lamentation. "You had four feet of him out +of water," he wailed, "and there was a lot more." + +"If you had kept cool," said I severely, "we shouldn't have lost him. +You don't want to get rattled in an emergency; there's no sense in it." + +"What were you going to do with that?" asked Dick, pointing to where I +had laid the pistol. + +"I was going to shoot him in the head," I replied with dignity. "It's +the best way to land them." + +Dick laughed disagreeably. I looked down. At my side lay our largest +iron spoon. + +We skirted the left-hand side of the lake in silence. Far out from +shore the water was ruffled where the wind swept down, but with us it +was as still and calm as the forest trees that looked over into it. +After a time we turned short to the left through a very narrow passage +between two marshy shores, and so, after a sharp bend of but a few +hundred feet, came into the other river. + +This was a wide stream, smoothly hurrying, without rapids or tumult. +The forest had drawn to either side to let us pass. Here were the +wilder reaches after the intimacies of the little river. Across +stretches of marsh we could see an occasional great blue heron standing +mid-leg deep. Long strings of ducks struggled quacking from invisible +pools. The faint marsh odour saluted our nostrils from the point where +the lily-pads flashed broadly, ruffling in the wind. We dropped out the +smaller spoon and masterfully landed a five-pound pickerel. Even Deuce +brightened. He cared nothing for raw fish, but he knew their +possibilities. Towards evening we entered the hilly country, and so at +the last turned to the left into a sand cove where grew maples and +birches in beautiful park order under a hill. There we pitched camp, +and, as the flies lacked, built a friendship-fire about which to +forgather when the day was done. + +Dick still vocally regretted the muscallunge told him of my big bear. + +One day, late in the summer, I was engaged in packing some supplies +along an old fur trail north of Lake Superior. I had accomplished one +back-load, and with empty straps was returning to the cache for +another. The trail at one point emerged into and crossed an open park +some hundreds of feet in diameter, in which the grass grew to the +height of the knee. When I was about halfway across, a black bear arose +to his hind legs not ten feet from me, and remarked _Woof!_ in a +loud tone of voice. Now, if a man were to say _woof_ to you +unexpectedly, even in the formality of an Italian garden or the +accustomedness of a city street, you would be somewhat startled. So I +went to camp. There I told them about the bear. I tried to be +conservative in my description, because I did not wish to be accused of +exaggeration. My impression of the animal was that he and a spruce tree +that grew near enough for ready comparison were approximately of the +same stature. We returned to the grass park. After some difficulty we +found a clear footprint. It was a little larger than that made by a +good-sized coon. + +"So, you see," I admonished didactically, "that lunge probably was not +quite so large as you thought." + +"It may have been a Chinese bear," said Dick dreamily--"a Chinese lady +bear of high degree." + +I gave him up. + + + + +VII. + +ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING. + +"It is there that I am going, with an extra hand to bail her-- +Just one single long-shore loafer that I know. He can take his chance +of drowning while I sail and sail and sail her, For the Red Gods call +me out, and I must go." + + +The following morning the wind had died, but had been succeeded by a +heavy pall of fog. After we had felt our way beyond the mouth of the +river we were forced to paddle north-west by north, in blind reliance +on our compass. Sounds there were none. Involuntarily we lowered our +voices. The inadvertent click of the paddle against the gunwale seemed +to desecrate a foreordained stillness. + +Occasionally to the right hand or the left we made out faint +shadow-pictures of wooded islands that endured but a moment and then +deliberately faded into whiteness. They formed on the view exactly as +an image develops on a photographic plate. Sometimes a faint +_lisp-lisp-lisp_ of tiny waves against a shore nearer than it +seemed cautioned us anew not to break the silence. Otherwise we were +alone, intruders, suffered in the presence of a brooding nature only as +long as we refrained from disturbances. + +Then at noon the vapours began to eddy, to open momentarily in +revelation of vivid green glimpses, to stream down the rising wind. +Pale sunlight dashed fitfully across us like a shower. Somewhere in the +invisibility a duck quacked. Deuce awoke, looked about him, and +_yow-yow-yowed_ in doggish relief. Animals understand thoroughly +these subtleties of nature. + +In half an hour the sun was strong, the air clear and sparkling, and a +freshening wind was certifying our prognostications of a lively +afternoon. + +A light canoe will stand almost anything in the way of a sea, although +you may find it impossible sometimes to force it in the direction you +wish to go. A loaded canoe will weather a great deal more than you +might think. However, only experience in balance and in the nature of +waves will bring you safely across a stretch of whitecaps. + +With the sea dead ahead you must not go too fast; otherwise you will +dip water over the bow. You must trim the craft absolutely on an even +keel; otherwise the comb of the wave, too light to lift you, will slop +in over one gunwale or the other. You must be perpetually watching your +chance to gain a foot or so between the heavier seas. + +With the sea over one bow you must paddle on the leeward side. When the +canoe mounts a wave, you must allow the crest to throw the bow off a +trifle, but the moment it starts down the other slope you must twist +your paddle sharply to regain the direction of your course. The +careening tendency of this twist you must counteract by a corresponding +twist of your body in the other direction. Then the hollow will allow +you two or three strokes wherewith to assure a little progress. The +double twist at the very crest of the wave must be very delicately +performed, or you will ship water the whole length of your craft. + +With the sea abeam you must simply paddle straight ahead. The +adjustment is to be accomplished entirely by the poise of the body. You +must prevent the capsize of your canoe when clinging to the angle of a +wave by leaning to one side. The crucial moment, of course, is that +during which the peak of the wave slips under you. In case of a +breaking comber, thrust the flat of your paddle deep in the water to +prevent an upset, and lean well to leeward, thus presenting the side +and half the bottom of the canoe to the shock of water. Your recovery +must be instant, however. If you lean a second too long, over you go. +This sounds more difficult than it is. After a time you do it +instinctively, as a skater balances. + +With the sea over the quarter you have merely to take care that the +waves do not slue you around sidewise, and that the canoe does not dip +water on one side or the other under the stress of your twists with the +paddle. Dead astern is perhaps the most difficult of all, for the +reason that you must watch both gunwales at once, and must preserve an +absolutely even keel, in spite of the fact that it generally requires +your utmost strength to steer. In really heavy weather one man only +can do any work. The other must be content to remain passenger, and he +must be trained to absolute immobility. No matter how dangerous a +careen the canoe may take, no matter how much good cold water may pour +in over his legs, he must resist his tendency to shift his weight. The +entire issue depends on the delicacy of the steersman's adjustments, so +he must be given every chance. + +The main difficulty rests in the fact that such canoeing is a good deal +like air-ship travel--there is not much opportunity to learn by +experience. In a four-hour run across an open bay you will encounter +somewhat over a thousand waves, no two of which are exactly alike, and +any one of which can fill you up only too easily if it is not correctly +met. Your experience is called on to solve instantly and practically a +thousand problems. No breathing-space in which to recover is permitted +you between them. At the end of the four hours you awaken to the fact +that your eyes are strained from intense concentration, and that you +taste copper. + +Probably nothing, however, can more effectively wake you up to the last +fibre of your physical, intellectual, and nervous being. You are filled +with an exhilaration. Every muscle, strung tight, answers immediately +and accurately to the slightest hint. You quiver all over with +restrained energy. Your mind thrusts behind you the problem of the last +wave as soon as solved, and leaps with insistent eagerness to the next. +You attain that superordinary condition when your faculties react +instinctively, like a machine. It is a species of intoxication. After a +time you personify each wave; you grapple with it as with a personal +adversary; you exult as, beaten and broken, it hisses away to leeward. +"Go it, you son of a gun!" you shout. "Ah, you would, would you! think +you can, do you?" and in the roar and rush of wind and water you crouch +like a boxer on the defence, parrying the blows, but ready at the +slightest opening to gain a stroke of the paddle. + +In such circumstances you have not the leisure to consider distance. +You are too busily engaged in slaughtering waves to consider your rate +of progress. The fact that slowly you are pulling up on your objective +point does not occur to you until you are within a few hundred yards of +it. Then, unless you are careful, you are undone. + +Probably the most difficult thing of all to learn is that the waves to +be encountered in the last hundred yards of an open sweep are exactly +as dangerous as those you dodged so fearfully four miles from shore. +You are so nearly in that you unconsciously relax your efforts. Calmly, +almost contemptuously, a big roller rips along your gunwale. You are +wrecked--fortunately within easy swimming distance. But that doesn't +save your duffel. Remember this: be just as careful with the very last +wave as you were with the others. Get inside before you draw that deep +breath of relief. + +Strangely enough, in out-of-door sports, where it would seem that +convention would rest practically at the zero point, the bugbear of +good form, although mashed and disguised, rises up to confuse the +directed practicality. The average man is wedded to his theory. He has +seen a thing done in a certain way, and he not only always does it that +way himself, but he is positively unhappy at seeing any one else +employing a different method. From the swing at golf to the manner of +lighting a match in the wind, this truism applies. I remember once +hearing a long argument with an Eastern man on the question of the +English riding-seat in the Western country. + +"Your method is all very well," said the Westerner, "for where it came +from. In England they ride to hunt, so they need a light saddle and +very short stirrups set well forward. That helps them in jumping. But +it is most awkward. Out here you want your stirrups very long and +directly under you, so your legs hang loose, and you depend on your +balance and the grip of your thighs--not your knees. It is less tiring, +and better sense, and infinitely more graceful, for it more nearly +approximates the bareback seat. Instead of depending on stirrups, you +are part of the horse. You follow his every movement. And as for your +rising trot, I'd like to see you accomplish it safely on our mountain +trails, where the trot is the only gait practicable, unless you take +for ever to get anywhere." To all of which the Easterner found no +rebuttal except the, to him, entirely efficient plea that his own +method was good form. + +Now, of course, it is very pleasant to do things always accurately, +according to the rules of the game, and if you are out merely for +sport, perhaps it is as well to stick to them. But utility is another +matter. Personally, I do not care at all to kill trout unless by the +fly; but when we need meat and they do not need flies, I never hesitate +to offer them any kind of doodle-bug they may fancy. I have even at a +pinch clubbed them to death in a shallow, land-locked pool. Time will +come in your open-water canoe experience when you will pull into +shelter half full of water, when you will be glad of the fortuity of a +chance cross-wave to help you out, when sheer blind luck, or main +strength and awkwardness, will be the only reasons you can honestly +give for an arrival, and a battered and dishevelled arrival at that. Do +not, therefore, repine, or bewail your awkwardness, or indulge in undue +self-accusations of "tenderfoot." Method is nothing; the arrival is the +important thing. You are travelling, and if you can make time by nearly +swamping yourself, or by dragging your craft across a point, or by +taking any other base advantage of the game's formality, by all means +do so. Deuce used to solve the problem of comfort by drinking the +little pool of cold water in which he sometimes was forced to lie. In +the woods, when a thing is to be done, do not consider how you have +done it, or how you have seen it done, or how you think it ought to be +done, but how it _can_ be accomplished. Absolute fluidity of +expedient, perfect adaptability, is worth a dozen volumes of +theoretical knowledge. "If you can't talk," goes the Western +expression, "raise a yell; if you can't yell, make signs; if you can't +make signs, wave a bush." + +And do not be too ready to take advice as to what you can or cannot +accomplish, even from the woods people. Of course the woods Indians or +the _voyageurs_ know all about canoes, and you would do well to +listen to them. But the mere fact that your interlocutor lives in the +forest, while you normally inhabit the towns, does not necessarily give +him authority. A community used to horses looks with horror on the +instability of all water craft less solid than canal boats. Canoemen +stand in awe of the bronco. The fishermen of the Georgian Bay, +accustomed to venture out with their open sailboats in weather that +forces the big lake schooners to shelter, know absolutely nothing about +canoes. Dick and I made an eight-mile run from the Fox island to +Killarney in a trifling sea, to be cheered during our stay at the +latter place by doleful predictions of an early drowning. And this from +a seafaring community. It knew all about boats; it knew nothing about +canoes; and yet the unthinking might have been influenced by the advice +of these men simply because they had been brought up on the water. The +point is obvious. Do not attempt a thing unless you are sure of +yourself; but do not relinquish it merely because some one else is not +sure of you. + +The best way to learn is with a bathing-suit. Keep near shore, and try +everything. Don't attempt the real thing until your handling in a heavy +sea has become as instinctive as snap-shooting or the steps of dancing. +Remain on the hither side of caution when you start out. Act at first +as though every wavelet would surely swamp you. Extend the scope of +your operations very gradually, until you know just what you can do. +_Never_ get careless. Never take any _real_ chances. That's +all. + + + + +VIII. + +THE STRANDED STRANGERS. + + +As we progressed, the country grew more and more solemnly aloof. In the +Southland is a certain appearance of mobility, lent by the deciduous +trees, the warm sun, the intimate nooks in which grow the commoner +homely weeds and flowers, the abundance of bees and musical insects, +the childhood familiarity of the well-known birds, even the pleasantly +fickle aspects of the skies. But the North wraps itself in a mantle of +awe. Great hills rest not so much in the stillness of sleep as in the +calm of a mighty comprehension. The pines, rank after rank, file after +file, are always trooping somewhere, up the slope, to pause at the +crest before descending on the other side into the unknown. Bodies of +water exactly of the size, shape, and general appearance we are +accustomed to see dotted with pleasure craft and bordered with wharves, +summer cottages, pavilions, and hotels, accentuate by that very fact a +solitude that harbours only a pair of weirdly laughing loons. Like the +hills, these lakes are lying in a deep, still repose, but a repose that +somehow suggests the comprehending calm of those behind the veil. The +whole country seems to rest in a suspense of waiting. A shot breaks the +stillness for an instant, but its very memory is shadowy a moment after +the echoes die. Inevitably the traveller feels thrust in upon himself +by a neutrality more deadly than open hostility would be. Hostility at +least supposes recognition of his existence, a rousing of forces to +oppose him. This ignores. One can no longer wonder at the taciturnity +of the men who dwell here; nor does one fail to grasp the eminent +suitability to the country of its Indian name--the Silent Places. + +Even the birds, joyful, lively, commonplace little people that they +are, draw some of this aloofness to themselves. The North is full of +the homelier singers. A dozen species of warblers lisp music-box +phrases, two or three sparrows whistle a cheerful repertoire, the +nuthatches and chickadees toot away in blissful _bourgeoisie_. And +yet, somehow, that very circumstance thrusts the imaginative voyager +outside the companionship of their friendliness. In the face of the +great gods they move with accustomed familiarity. Somehow they possess +in their little experience that which explains the mystery, so that +they no longer stand in its awe. Their everyday lives are spent under +the shadow of the temple whither you dare not bend your footsteps. The +intimacy of occult things isolates also these wise little birds. + +The North speaks, however, only in the voices of three--the two +thrushes, and the white-throated sparrow. You must hear these each at +his proper time. + +The hermit thrush you will rarely see. But late some afternoon, when +the sun is lifting along the trunks of the hardwood forest, if you are +very lucky and very quiet, you will hear him far in the depth of the +blackest swamps. Musically expressed, his song is very much like that +of the wood thrush--three cadenced liquid notes, a quivering pause, +then three more notes of another phrase, and so on. But the fineness of +its quality makes of it an entirely different performance. If you +symbolize the hermit thrush by the flute, you must call the wood thrush +a chime of little tinkling bells. One is a rendition; the other the +essence of liquid music. An effect of gold-embroidered richness, of +depth going down to the very soul of things, a haunting suggestion of +having touched very near to the source of tears, a conviction that the +just interpretation of the song would be an equally just interpretation +of black woods, deep shadows, cloistered sunlight, brooding +hills--these are the subtle and elusive impressions you will receive in +the middle of the ancient forest. + +The olive-backed thrush you will enjoy after your day's work is quite +finished. You will see him through the tobacco haze, perched on a limb +against the evening sky. He utters a loud joyful _chirp_ pauses +for the attention he thus solicits, and then deliberately runs up five +mellow double notes, ending with a metallic "_ting_ chee chee +chee" that sounds as though it had been struck on a triangle. Then a +silence of exactly nine seconds and repeat. As regularly as clock-work +this performance goes on. Time him as often as you will, you can never +convict him of a second's variation. And he is so optimistic and +willing, and his notes are so golden with the yellow of sunshine! + +The white-throated sparrow sings nine distinct variations of the same +song. He may sing more, but that is all I have counted. He inhabits +woods, berry-vines, brules, and clearings. Ordinarily he is cheerful, +and occasionally aggravating. One man I knew he drove nearly crazy. To +that man he was always saying, "_And he never heard the man say drink +and the_----." Toward the last my friend used wildly to offer him a +thousand dollars if he would, if he only _would_, finish that +sentence. But occasionally, in just the proper circumstances, he +forgets his stump corners, his vines, his jolly sunlight, and his +delightful bugs to become the intimate voice of the wilds. It is night, +very still, Very dark. The subdued murmur of the forest ebbs and flows +with the voices of the furtive folk--an undertone fearful to break the +night calm. Suddenly across the dusk of silence flashes a single thread +of silver, vibrating, trembling with some unguessed ecstasy of emotion: +"_Ah! poor Canada Canada Canada Canada!_" it mourns passionately, +and falls silent. That is all. + +You will hear at various times other birds peculiarly of the North. +Loons alternately calling and uttering their maniac laughter; purple +finches or some of the pine sparrows warbling high and clear; the +winter wren, whose rapturous ravings never fail to strike the attention +of the dullest passer; all these are exclusively Northern voices, and +each expresses some phase or mood of the Silent Places. But none +symbolizes as do the three. And when first you hear one of them after +an absence, you are satisfied that things are right in the world, for +the North Country's spirit is as it was. + +Now ensued a spell of calm weather, with a film of haze over the sky. +The water lay like quicksilver, heavy and inert. Toward afternoon it +became opalescent. The very substance of the liquid itself seemed +impregnated with dyes ranging in shade from wine colour to the most +delicate lilac. Through a smoke veil the sun hung, a ball of red, while +beneath every island, every rock, every tree, every wild fowl floating +idly in a medium apparently too delicate for its support, lurked the +beautiful crimson shadows of the North. + +[Illustration: EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE +SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT SWAMPING.] + +Hour after hour, day after day, we slipped on. Point after point, +island after island, presented itself silently to our inspection and +dropped quietly astern. The beat of paddles fitted monotonously into +the almost portentous stillness. It seemed that we might be able to go +on thus for ever, lapped in the dream of some forgotten magic that had +stricken breathless the life of the world. And then, suddenly, three +weeks on our journey, we came to a town. + +It was not the typical fur town of the Far North, but it lay at the +threshold. A single street, worn smooth by the feet of men and dogs, +but innocent of hoofs, fronted the channel. A board walk, elevated +against the snows, bordered a row of whitewashed log and frame houses, +each with its garden of brilliant flowers. A dozen wharves of various +sizes, over whose edges peeped the double masts of Mackinaw boats, +spoke of a fishing community. Between the roofs one caught glimpses of +a low sparse woods and some thousand-foot hills beyond. We subsequently +added the charm of isolation in learning that the nearest telegraph +line was fifteen miles distant, while the railroad passed some fifty +miles away. + +Dick immediately went wild. It was his first glimpse of the mixed +peoples. A dozen loungers, handsome, careless, graceful with the +inimitable elegance of the half-breed's leisure, chatted, rolled +cigarettes, and surveyed with heavy-eyed indolence such of the town as +could be viewed from the shade in which they lay. Three girls, in whose +dark cheeks glowed a rich French comeliness, were comparing purchases +near the store. A group of rivermen, spike-booted, short-trousered, +reckless of air, with their little round hats over one ear, sat +chair-tilted outside the "hotel." Across the dividing fences of two of +the blazoned gardens a pair of old crones gossiped under their breaths. +Some Indians smoked silently at the edge of one of the docks. In the +distance of the street's end a French priest added the quaintness of +his cassock to the exotic atmosphere of the scene. At once a pack of +the fierce sledge-dogs left their foraging for the offal of the +fisheries, to bound challenging in the direction of poor Deuce. That +highbred animal fruitlessly attempted to combine dignity with a +discretionary lurking between our legs. We made demonstrations with +sticks, and sought out the hotel, for it was about time to eat. + +We had supper at a table with three Forest Rangers, two lumber-jacks, +and a cat-like handsome "breed" whose business did not appear. Then we +lit up and strolled about to see what we could see. + +On the text of a pair of brass knuckles hanging behind the hotel bar I +embroidered many experiences with the lumberjack. I told of a Wisconsin +town where an enforced wait of five hours enabled me to establish the +proportion of fourteen saloons out of a total of twenty frame +buildings. I descanted craftily on the character of the woodsman out of +the woods and in the right frame of mind for deviltry. I related how +Jack Boyd, irritated beyond endurance at the annoyances of a stranger, +finally with the flat of his hand boxed the man's head so mightily that +he whirled around twice and sat down. + +"Now," said Jack softly, "be more careful, my friend, or next time I'll +_hit_ you." Or of a little Irishman who shouted to his friends +about to pull a big man from pounding the life quite out of him, "Let +him alone! let him alone! I may be on top myself in a few minutes!" And +of Dave Walker, who fought to a standstill with his bare fists alone +five men who had sworn to kill him. And again of that doughty knight of +the peavie who, when attacked by an axe, waved aside interference with +the truly dauntless cry, "Leave him be, boys; there's an axe between +us!" + +I tried to sketch, too, the drive, wherein a dozen times in an hour +these men face death with a smile or a curse--the raging untamed river, +the fierce rush of the logs, the cool little human beings poising with +a certain contemptuous preciosity on the edge of destruction as they +herd their brutish multitudes. + +There was Jimmy, the river boss, who could not swim a stroke, and who +was incontinently swept over a dam and into the boiling back-set of the +eddy below. Three times, gasping, strangling, drowning, he was carried +in the wide swirl of the circle, sometimes under, sometimes on top. +Then his knee touched a sand-bar, and he dragged himself painfully +ashore. He coughed up a quantity of water, and gave vent to his +feelings over a miraculous escape. "Damn it all!" he wailed, "I lost my +peavie!" + +"On the Paint River drive one spring," said I, "a jam formed that +extended up river some three miles. The men were working at the breast +of it, some underneath, some on top. After a time the jam apparently +broke, pulled downstream a hundred feet or so, and plugged again. Then +it was seen that only a small section had moved, leaving the main body +still jammed, so that between the two sections lay a narrow stretch of +open water. Into this open water one of the men had fallen. Before he +could recover, the second or tail section of the jam started to pull. +Apparently nothing could prevent him from being crushed. A man called +Sam--I don't know his last name--ran down the tail of the first +section, across the loose logs bobbing in the open water, seized the +victim of the accident by the collar, desperately scaled the face of +the moving jam, and reached the top just as the two sections ground +together with the brutish noise of wrecking timbers. It was a +magnificent rescue. Any but these men of iron would have adjourned for +thanks and congratulations. + +"Still retaining his hold on the other man's collar, Sam twisted him +about and delivered a vigorous kick. '_There_, damn you!' said he. +That was all. They fell to work at once to keep the jam moving." + +I instanced, too, some of the feats of river-work these men could +perform. Of how Jack Boyd has been known to float twenty miles without +shifting his feet, on a log so small that he carried it to the water on +his shoulder; of how a dozen rivermen, one after the other, would often +go through the chute of a dam standing upright on single logs; of +O'Donnell, who could turn a somersault on a floating pine log; of the +birling matches, wherein two men on a single log try to throw each +other into the river by treading, squirrel fashion, in faster and +faster rotation; of how a riverman and spiked boots and a saw-log can +do more work than an ordinary man with a rowboat. + +I do not suppose Dick believed all this--although it was strictly and +literally true--but his imagination was impressed. He gazed with +respect on the group at the far end of the street, where fifteen or +twenty lumber-jacks were interested in some amusement concealed from +us. + +"What do you suppose they are doing?" murmured Dick, awestricken. + +"Wrestling, or boxing, or gambling, or jumping," said I. + +We approached. Gravely, silently, intensely interested, the +cock-hatted, spikeshod, dangerous men were playing--croquet! + +The sight was too much for our nerves. We went away. + +The permanent inhabitants of the place we discovered to be friendly to +a degree. + +The Indian strain was evident in various dilution through all. Dick's +enthusiasm grew steadily until his artistic instincts became +aggressive, and he flatly announced his intention of staying at least +four days for the purpose of making sketches. We talked the matter +over. Finally it was agreed. Deuce and I were to make a wide circle to +the north and west as far as the Hudson's Bay post of Cloche, while +Dick filled his notebook. That night we slept in beds for the first +time. + +That is to say, we slept until about three o'clock. Then we became +vaguely conscious, through a haze of drowse--as one becomes conscious +in the pause of a sleeping-car--of voices outside our doors. Some one +said something about its being hardly much use to go to bed. Another +hoped the sheets were not damp. A succession of lights twinkled across +the walls of our room, and were vaguely explained by the coughing of a +steamboat. We sank into oblivion until the calling-bell brought us to +our feet. + +I happened to finish my toilet a little before Dick, and so descended +to the sunlight until he might be ready. Roosting on a gray old boulder +ten feet outside the door were two figures that made me want to rub my +eyes. + +The older was a square, ruddy-faced man of sixty, with neatly trimmed, +snow-white whiskers. He had on a soft Alpine hat of pearl gray, a +modishly cut gray homespun suit, a tie in which glimmered an opal pin, +wore tan gloves, and had slung over one shoulder by a narrow black +strap a pair of field-glasses. + +The younger was a tall and angular young fellow, of an eager and +sophomoric youth. His hair was very light and very smoothly brushed, +his eyes blue and rather near-sighted, his complexion pink, with an +obviously recent and superficial sunburn, and his clothes, from the +white Panama to the broad-soled low shoes, of the latest cut and +material. Instinctively I sought his fraternity pin. He looked as +though he might say "Rah! Rah!" something or other. A camera completed +his outfit. + +Tourists! How in the world did they get here? And then I remembered the +twinkle of the lights and the coughing of the steamboat. But what in +time could they be doing here? Picturesque as the place was, it held +nothing to appeal to the Baedeker spirit. I surveyed the pair with some +interest. + +"I suppose there is pretty good fishing around here," ventured the +elder. + +He evidently took me for an inhabitant. Remembering my faded blue shirt +and my floppy old hat and the red handkerchief about my neck and the +moccasins on my feet, I did not blame him. + +"I suppose there are bass among the islands," I replied. + +We fell into conversation. I learned that he and his son were from New +York. + +He learned, by a final direct question which was most significant of +his not belonging to the country, who I was. By chance he knew my name. +He opened his heart. + +"We came down on the _City of Flint_," said he. "My son and I are +on a vacation. We have been as far as the Yellowstone, and thought we +would like to see some of this country. I was assured that on this date +I could make connection with the _North Star_ for the south. I +told the purser of the _Flint_ not to wake us up unless the +_North Star_ was here at the docks. He bundled us off here at +three in the morning. The _North Star_ was not here; it is an +outrage!" + +He uttered various threats. + +"I thought the _North Star_ was running away south around the +Perry Sound region," I suggested. + +"Yes, but she was to begin to-day, June 16, to make this connection." +He produced a railroad folder. "It's in this," he continued. + +"Did you go by that thing?" I marvelled. + +"Why, of course," said he. + +"I forgot you were an American," said I. "You're in Canada now." + +He looked his bewilderment, so I hunted up Dick. I detailed the +situation. "He doesn't know the race," I concluded. "Soon he will be +trying to get information out of the agent. Let's be on hand." + +We were on hand. The tourist, his face very red, his whiskers very +white and bristly, marched importantly to the agent's office. The +latter comprised also the post-office, the fish depot, and a general +store. The agent was for the moment dickering _in re_ two pounds +of sugar. This transaction took five minutes to the pound. Mr. Tourist +waited. Then he opened up. The agent heard him placidly, as one who +listens to a curious tale. + +"What I want to know is, where's that boat?" ended the tourist. + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"Aren't you the agent of this company?" + +"Sure," replied the agent. + +"Then why don't you know something about its business and plans and +intentions?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"Do you think it would be any good to wait for the _North Star_? +Do you suppose they can be coming? Do you suppose they've altered the +schedule?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"When is the next boat through here?" + +I listened for the answer in trepidation, for I saw that another +"Couldn't say" would cause the red-faced tourist to blow up. To my +relief, the agent merely inquired,-- + +"North or south?" + +"South, of course. I just came from the north. What in the name of +everlasting blazes should I want to go north again for?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. "The next boat south gets in next +week, Tuesday or Wednesday." + +"Next week!" shrieked the tourist. + +"When's the next boat north?" interposed the son. + +"To-morrow morning." + +"What time?" + +"Couldn't say; you'd have to watch for her." + +"That's our boat, dad," said the young man. + +"But we've just _come_ from there!" snorted his father; "it's +three hundred miles back. It'll put us behind two days. I've got to be +in New York Friday. I've got an engagement." He turned suddenly to the +agent. "Here, I've got to send a telegram." + +The agent blinked placidly. "You'll not send it from here. This ain't a +telegraph station." + +"Where's the nearest station?" + +"Fifteen mile." + +Without further parley the old man turned and walked, stiff and +military, from the place. Near the end of the broad walk he met the +usual doddering but amiable oldest inhabitant. + +"Fine day," chirped the patriarch in well-meant friendliness. "They +jest brought in a bear cub over to Antoine's. If you'd like to take a +look at him, I'll show you where it is." + +The tourist stopped short and glared fiercely. + +"Sir," said he, "damn your bear!" Then he strode on, leaving grandpa +staring after him. + +In the course of the morning we became quite well acquainted, and he +resigned. The son appeared to take somewhat the humorous view all +through the affair, which must have irritated the old gentleman. They +discussed it rather thoroughly, and finally decided to retrace their +steps for a fresh start over a better-known route. This settled, the +senior seemed to feel relieved of a weight. He even saw and relished +certain funny phases of the incident, though he never ceased to +foretell different kinds of trouble for the company, varying in range +from mere complaints to the most tremendous of damage suits. + +He was much interested, finally, in our methods of travel, and then, in +logical sequence, with what he could see about him. He watched +curiously my loading of the canoe, for I had a three-mile stretch of +open water, and the wind was abroad. Deuce's empirical boat wisdom +aroused his admiration. He and his son were both at the shore to see me +off. + +Deuce settled himself in the bottom. I lifted the stern from the shore +and gently set it afloat. In a moment I was ready to start. + +"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" suddenly cried the father. + +I swirled my paddle back. The old gentleman was hastily fumbling in his +pockets. After an instant he descended to the water's edge. + +"Here," said he, "you are a judge of fiction; take this." + +It was his steamboat and railway folder. + + + + +IX. + +ON FLIES. + + +All the rest of the day I paddled under the frowning cliffs of the hill +ranges. Bold, bare, scarred, seamed with fissures, their precipice +rocks gave the impression of ten thousand feet rather that only so many +hundreds. Late in the afternoon we landed against a formation of +basaltic blocks cut as squarely up and down as a dock, and dropping off +into as deep water. The waves _chug-chug-chugged_ sullenly against +them, and the fringe of a dark pine forest, drawn back from a breadth +of natural grass, lowered across the horizon like a thunder-cloud. + +Deuce and I made camp with the uneasy feeling of being under inimical +inspection. A cold wind ruffled lead-like waters. No comfort was in the +prospect, so we retired early. Then it appeared that the coarse grass +of the park had bred innumerable black flies, and that we had our work +cut out for us. + +The question of flies--using that, to a woodsman, eminently connotive +word in its wide embracement of mosquitoes, sandflies, deer-flies, +black flies, and midges--is one much mooted in the craft. On no +subject are more widely divergent ideas expressed. One writer claims +that black flies' bites are but the temporary inconvenience of a +pin-prick; another tells of boils lasting a week as the invariable +result of their attentions; a third sweeps aside the whole question as +unimportant to concentrate his anathemas on the musical mosquito; still +a fourth descants on the maddening midge, and is prepared to defend his +claims against the world. A like dogmatic partisanship obtains in the +question of defences. Each and every man possessed of a tongue +wherewith to speak or a pen wherewith to write, heralds the particular +merits of his own fly-dope, head-net, or mosquito-proof tent-lining. +Eager advocates of the advantages of pork fat, kerosene, pine tar, +pennyroyal, oil of cloves, castor oil, lollacapop, or a half hundred +other concoctions, will assure you, tears in eyes, that his is the only +true faith. So many men, so many minds, until the theorist is confused +into doing the most uncomfortable thing possible--that is, to learn by +experience. + +As for the truth, it is at once in all of them and in none of them. The +annoyance of after-effects from a sting depends entirely on the +individual's physical makeup. Some people are so poisoned by mosquito +bites that three or four on the forehead suffice to close entirely the +victim's eyes. On others they leave but a small red mark without +swelling. Black flies caused festering sores on one man I accompanied +to the woods. In my own case they leave only a tiny blood-spot the size +of a pin-head, which bothers me not a bit. Midges nearly drove crazy +the same companion of mine, so that finally he jumped into the river, +clothes and all, to get rid of them. Again, merely my own experience +would lead me to regard them as a tremendous nuisance, but one quite +bearable. Indians are less susceptible than whites; nevertheless I have +seen them badly swelled behind the ears from the bites of the big +hardwood mosquito. + +You can make up your mind to one thing: from the first warm weather +until August you must expect to cope with insect pests. The black fly +will keep you busy until late afternoon; the midges will swarm you +about sunset; and the mosquito will preserve the tradition after you +have turned in. As for the deer-fly, and others of his piratical breed, +he will bite like a dog at any time. + +To me the most annoying species is the mosquito. The black fly is +sometimes most industrious--I have seen trout fishermen come into camp +with the blood literally streaming from their faces--but his great +recommendation is that he holds still to be killed. No frantic slaps, +no waving of arms, no muffled curses. You just place your finger calmly +and firmly on the spot. You get him every time. In this is great, +heart-lifting joy. It may be unholy joy, perhaps even vengeful, but it +leaves the spirit ecstatic. The satisfaction of _murdering_ the +beast that has had the nerve to light on you just as you are reeling in +almost counterbalances the pain of a sting. The midge, again, or +punkie, or "no-see-'um," just as you please, swarms down upon you +suddenly and with commendable vigour, so that you feel as though +red-hot pepper were being sprinkled on your bare skin; and his +invisibility and intangibility are such that you can never tell whether +you have killed him or not; but he doesn't last long, and dope routs +him totally. Your mosquito, however, is such a deliberate brute. He has +in him some of that divine fire which causes a dog to turn around nine +times before lying down. + +Whether he is selecting or gloating I do not know, but I do maintain +that the price of your life's blood is often not too great to pay for +the cessation of that hum. + +"Eet is not hees bite," said Billy the half-breed to me once--"eet is +hees sing." + +I agree with Billy. One mosquito in a tent can keep you awake for +hours. + +As to protection, it is varied enough in all conscience, and always +theoretically perfect. A head-net falling well down over your chest, or +even tied under your arm-pits, is at once the simplest and most +fallacious of these theories. It will keep vast numbers of flies out, +to be sure. It will also keep the few adventurous discoverers in, where +you can neither kill nor eject. Likewise you are deprived of your pipe; +and the common homely comfort of spitting on your bait is totally +denied you. The landscape takes on the prismatic colours of refraction, +so that, while you can easily make out red, white, and blue Chinese +dragons and mythological monsters, you are unable to discover the more +welcome succulence, say, of a partridge on a limb. And the end of that +head-net is to be picked to holes by the brush, and finally to be +snatched from you to sapling height, whence your pains will rescue it +only in a useless condition. Probably then you will dance the war-dance +of exasperation on its dismembered remains. Still, there are times--in +case of straight-away river paddling, or open walking, or lengthened +waiting--when the net is a great comfort. And it is easily included in +the pack. + +Next in order come the various "dopes." And they are various. From the +stickiest, blackest pastes to the silkiest, suavest oils they range, +through the grades of essence, salve, and cream. Every man has his own +recipe--the infallible. As a general rule, it may be stated that the +thicker kinds last longer and are generally more thoroughly effective, +but the lighter are pleasanter to wear, though requiring more frequent +application. At a pinch, ordinary pork fat is good. The Indians often +make temporary use of the broad caribou leaf, crushing it between their +palms and rubbing the juices on the skin. I know by experience that +this is effective, but very transitory. It is, however, a good thing to +use when resting on the trail, for, by the grace of Providence, flies +are rarely bothersome as long as you are moving at a fair gait. + +This does not always hold good, however, any more than the best +fly-dope is always effective. I remember most vividly the first day of +a return journey from the shores of the Hudson Bay. The weather was +rather oppressively close and overcast. + +We had paddled a few miles up river from the fur trading-post, and then +had landed in order to lighten the canoe for the ascent against the +current. At that point the forest has already begun to dwindle towards +the Land of Little Sticks, so that often miles and miles of open +muskegs will intervene between groups of the stunted trees. Jim and I +found ourselves a little over waist deep in luxuriant and tangled +grasses that impeded and clogged our every footstep. Never shall I +forget that country--its sad and lonely isolation, its dull lead sky, +its silence, and the closeness of its stifling atmosphere--and never +shall I see it otherwise than as in a dense brown haze, a haze composed +of swarming millions of mosquitoes. There is not the slightest +exaggeration in the statement. At every step new multitudes rushed into +our faces to join the old. At times Jim's back was so covered with them +that they almost overlaid the colour of the cloth. And as near as we +could see, every square foot of the thousands of acres quartered its +hordes. + +We doped liberally, but without the slightest apparent effect. Probably +two million squeamish mosquitoes were driven away by the disgust of our +medicaments, but what good did that do us when eight million others +were not so particular? At the last we hung bandanas under our hats, +cut fans of leaves, and stumbled on through a most miserable day until +we could build a smudge at evening. + +For smoke is usually a specific. Not always, however: some midges seem +to delight in it. The Indians make a tiny blaze of birch bark and pine +twigs deep in a nest of grass and caribou leaves. When the flame is +well started, they twist the growing vegetation canopy-wise above it. + +In that manner they gain a few minutes of dense, acrid smoke, which is +enough for an Indian. A white man, however, needs something more +elaborate. + +The chief reason for your initial failure in making an effective smudge +will be that you will not get your fire well started before piling on +the damp smoke-material. It need not be a conflagration, but it should +be bright and glowing, so that the punk birch or maple wood you add +will not smother it entirely. After it is completed, you will not have +to sit coughing in the thick of fumigation, as do many, but only to +leeward and underneath. Your hat used as a fan will eddy the smoke +temporarily into desirable nooks and crevices. I have slept without +annoyance on the Great Plains, where the mosquitoes seem to go in +organized and predatory bands, merely by lying beneath a smudge that +passed at least five feet above me. You will find the frying-pan a +handy brazier for the accommodation of a movable smoke to be +transported to the interior of the tent. And it does not in the least +hurt the frying-pan. These be hints, briefly spoken, out of which at +times you may have to construct elaborate campaigns. + +But you come to grapples in the defence of comfort when night +approaches. If you can eat and sleep well, you can stand almost any +hardship. The night's rest is as carefully to be fore-assured as the +food that sustains you. No precaution is too elaborate to certify +unbroken repose. By dark you will discover the peak of your tent to be +liberally speckled with insects of all sorts. Especially is this true +of an evening that threatens rain. Your smudge-pan may drive away the +mosquitoes, but merely stupefies the other varieties. You are forced to +the manipulation of a balsam fan. + +In your use of this simple implement you will betray the extent of your +experience. Dick used at first to begin at the rear peak and brush as +rapidly as possible toward the opening. The flies, thoroughly aroused, +eddied about a few frantic moments, like leaves in an autumn wind, +finally to settle close to the sod in the crannies between the +tent-wall and the ground. Then Dick would lie flat on his belly in +order to brush with equal vigour at these new lurking-places. The flies +repeated the autumn-leaf effect, and returned to the rear peak. This +was amusing to me, and furnished the flies with healthful, appetizing +exercise, but was bad for Dick's soul. After a time he discovered the +only successful method is the gentle one. Then he began at the peak and +brushed forward slowly, very, very slowly, so that the limited +intellect of his visitors did not become confused. Thus when they +arrived at the opening they saw it and used it, instead of searching +frantically for corners in which to hide from apparently vengeful +destruction. Then he would close his tent-flap securely, and turn in at +once. So he was able to sleep until earliest daylight. At that time the +mosquitoes again found him out. + +Nine out of ten--perhaps ninety-nine out of a hundred--sleep in open +tents. For absolute and perfect comfort proceed as follows:--Have your +tent-maker sew you a tent of cheese-cloth[*] with the same dimensions +as your shelter, except that the walls should be loose and voluminous +at the bottom. It should have no openings. + +[Footnote *: Do not allow yourself to be talked into substituting +mosquito-bar or bobinet. Any mesh coarser than cheese-cloth will prove +pregnable to the most enterprising of the smaller species.] + +Suspend this affair inside your tent by means of cords or tapes. Drop +it about you. Spread it out. Lay rod-cases, duffel-bags, or rocks along +its lower edges to keep it spread. You will sleep beneath it like a +child in winter. No driving out of reluctant flies; no enforced early +rising; no danger of a single overlooked insect to make the midnight +miserable. The cheese-cloth weighs almost nothing, can be looped up out +of the way in the daytime, admits the air readily. Nothing could fill +the soul with more ecstatic satisfaction than to lie for a moment +before going to sleep listening to a noise outside like an able-bodied +sawmill that indicates the _ping-gosh_ are abroad. + +It would be unfair to leave the subject without a passing reference to +its effect on the imagination. We are all familiar with comic paper +mosquito stories, and some of them are very good. But until actual +experience takes you by the hand and leads you into the realm of pure +fancy, you will never know of what improvisation the human mind is +capable. + +The picture rises before my mind of the cabin of a twenty-eight-foot +cutter-sloop just before the dawn of a midsummer day. The sloop was +made for business, and the cabin harmonized exactly with the +sloop--painted pine, wooden bunks without mattresses, camp-blankets, +duffel-bags slung up because all the floor place had been requisitioned +for sleeping purposes. We were anchored a hundred feet off land from +Pilot Cove, on the uninhabited north shore. The mosquitoes had +adventured on the deep. We lay half asleep. + +"On the middle rafter," murmured the Football Man, "is one old fellow +giving signals." + +"A quartette is singing drinking-songs on my nose," muttered the Glee +Club Man. + +"We won't need to cook," I suggested somnolently. "We can run up and +down on deck with our mouths open and get enough for breakfast." + +The fourth member opened one eye. "Boys," he breathed, "we won't be +able to go on to-morrow unless we give up having any more biscuits." + +After a time some one murmured, "Why?" + +"We'll have to use all the lard on the mast. They're so mad because +they can't get at us that they're biting the mast. It's already swelled +up as big as a barrel. We'll never be able to get the mainsail up. Any +of you boys got any vaseline? Perhaps a little fly-dope--" + +But we snored vigorously in unison. The Indians say that when Kitch' +Manitou had created men he was dissatisfied, and so brought women into +being. At once love-making began, and then, as now, the couples sought +solitude for their exchanges of vows, their sighings to the moon, their +claspings of hands. Marriages ensued. The situation remained unchanged. +Life was one perpetual honeymoon. I suppose the novelty was fresh and +the sexes had not yet realized they would not part as abruptly as they +had been brought together. The villages were deserted, while the woods +and bushes were populous with wedded and unwedded lovers. Kitch' +Manitou looked on the proceedings with disapproval. All this was most +romantic and beautiful, no doubt, but in the meantime mi-daw-min, the +corn, mi-no-men, the rice, grew rank and uncultivated; while bis-iw, +the lynx, and swingwaage, the wolverine, and me-en-gan, the wolf, +committed unchecked depredations among the weaker forest creatures. The +business of life was being sadly neglected. So Kitch' Manitou took +counsel with himself, and created saw-gi-may, the mosquito, to whom he +gave as dwelling the woods and bushes. That took the romance out of the +situation. As my narrator grimly expressed it, "Him come back, go to +work." + +Certainly it should be most effective. Even the thick-skinned moose is +not exempt from discomfort. At certain seasons the canoe voyager in the +Far North will run upon a dozen in the course of a day's travel, +standing nose-deep in the river merely to escape the insect pests. + +However, this is to be remembered: after the first of August they +bother very little; before that time the campaign I have outlined is +effective; even in fly season the worst days are infrequent. In the +woods you must expect to pay a certain price in discomfort for a very +real and very deep pleasure. Wet, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, difficult +travel, insects, hard beds, aching muscles--all these at one time or +another will be your portion. If you are of the class that cannot have +a good time unless everything is right with it, stay out of the woods. +One thing at least will always be wrong. When you have gained the +faculty of ignoring the one disagreeable thing and concentrating your +powers on the compensations, then you will have become a true woodsman, +and to your desires the forest will always be calling. + + + + +X. + +CLOCHE. + + +Imagine a many-armed lake, like a starfish, nested among rugged +Laurentian hills, whose brows are bare and forbidding, but whose +concealed ravines harbour each its cool screen of forest growth. +Imagine a brawling stream escaping at one of the arms, to tumble, +intermittently visible among the trees, down a series of cascades and +rapids, to the broad, island-dotted calm of the big lake. Imagine a +meadow at the mouth of this stream, and on the meadow a single white +dot. Thus you will see Cloche, a trading-post of the Honourable the +Hudson's Bay Company, as Deuce and I saw it from the summit of the +hills. + +We had accomplished a very hard scramble, which started well enough in +a ravine so leafy and green and impenetrable that we might well have +imagined ourselves in a boundless forest. Deuce had scented sundry +partridges, which he had pointed with entire deference to the good form +of a sporting dog's conventions. As usual, to Deuce's never-failing +surprise and disgust, the birds had proved themselves most uncultivated +and rude persons by hopping promptly into trees instead of lying to +point and then flushing as a well-taught partridge should. I had +refused to pull pistol on them. Deuce's heart was broken. Then, +finally, we came to cliffs up which we had to scale, and boulders which +we had to climb, and fissures which we had to jump or cross on fallen +trees, and wide, bare sweeps of rock and blueberry bushes which we had +to cover, until at last we stood where we could look all ways at once. + +The starfish thrust his insinuating arms in among the distant hills to +the north. League after league, rising and falling and rising again +into ever bluer distance, forest-covered, mysterious, other ranges and +systems lifted, until at last, far out, nearly at the horizon-height of +my eye, flashed again the gleam of water. And so the starfish arms of +the little lake at my feet seemed to have plunged into this wilderness +tangle only to reappear at greater distance. Like swamp-fire, it lured +the imagination always on and on and on through the secret waterways of +the uninhabited North. It was as though I stood on the dividing ridge +between the old and the new. Through the southern haze, hull down, I +thought to make out the smoke of a Great Lake freighter; from the +shelter of a distant cove I was not surprised a moment later to see +emerge a tiny speck whose movements betrayed it as a birch canoe. The +great North was at this, the most southern of the Hudson's Bay posts, +striking a pin-point of contact with the world of men. + +Deuce and I angled down the mountain toward the stream. Our arrival +coincided with that of the canoe. It was of the Ojibway three-fathom +pattern, and contained a half-dozen packs, a sledge-dog, with whom +Deuce at once opened guarded negotiations, an old Indian, a squaw, and +a child of six or eight. We exchanged brief greetings. Then I sat on a +stump and watched the portage. + +These were evidently "Woods Indians," an entirely different article +from the "Post Indians." They wore their hair long, and bound by a +narrow strip or fillet; their faces were hard and deeply lined, with a +fine, bold, far-seeing look to the eyes which comes only from long +woods dwelling. They walked, even under heavy loads, with a sagging, +springy gait, at once sure-footed and swift. Instead of tump-lines the +man used his sash, and the woman a blanket knotted loosely together at +the ends. The details of their costumes were interesting in combination +of jeans and buckskin, broadcloth and blanket, stroud and a material +evidently made from the strong white sacking in which flour intended +for frontier consumption is always packed. After the first +double-barrelled "bo' jou', bo' jou'," they paid no further attention +to me. In a few moments the portage was completed. The woman thrust her +paddle against the stream's bottom and the canoe, and so embarked. The +man stepped smoothly to his place like a cat leaping from a chair. They +shot away with the current, leaving behind them a strange and +mysterious impression of silence. + +I followed down a narrow but well-beaten trail, and so at the end of a +half-mile came to the meadow and the post of Cloche. + +The building itself was accurately of the Hudson Bay type--a steep, +sloping roof greater in front than behind, a deep recessed veranda, +squared logs sheathed with whitewashed boards. About it was a little +garden, which, besides the usual flowers and vegetables, contained such +exotics as a deer confined to a pen and a bear chained to a stake. As I +approached, the door opened and the Trader came out. + +Now, often along the southern fringe your Hudson's Bay Trader will +prove to be a distinct disappointment. In fact, one of the historic old +posts is now kept by a pert little cockney Englishman, cringing or +impudent as the main chance seems to advise. When you have penetrated +further into the wilderness, however, where the hardships of winter and +summer travel, the loneliness of winter posts, the necessity of dealing +directly with savage men and savage nature, develops the quality of a +man or wrecks him early in the game, you will be certain of meeting +your type. But here, within fifty miles of the railroad! + +The man who now stepped into view, however, preserved in his appearance +all the old traditions. He was, briefly, a short black-and-white man +built very square. Immense power lurked in the broad, heavy shoulders, +the massive chest, the thick arms, the sturdy, column-like legs. As for +his face, it was almost entirely concealed behind a curly square black +beard that grew above his cheek-bones nearly to his eyes. Only a thick +hawk nose, an inscrutable pair of black eyes under phenomenally heavy +eyebrows, and a short black pipe showed plainly from the hirsute +tangle. He was lock, stock, and barrel of the Far North, one of the old +_regime_. I was rejoiced to see him there, but did not betray a +glimmer of interest. I knew my type too well for that. + +"How are you?" he said grudgingly. + +"Good-day," said I. + +We leaned against the fence and smoked, each contemplating carefully +the end of his pipe. I knew better than to say anything. The Trader was +looking me over, making up his mind about me. Speech on my part would +argue lightness of disposition, for it would seem to indicate that I +was not also making up my mind about him. + +In this pause there was not the least unfriendliness. Only, in the +woods you prefer to know first the business and character of a chance +acquaintance. Afterwards you may ingratiate to his good will. All of +which possesses a beautiful simplicity, for it proves that good or bad +opinion need not depend on how gracefully you can chatter assurances. +At the end of a long period the Trader inquired, "Which way you +headed?" + +"Out in a canoe for pleasure. Headed almost anywhere." + +Again we smoked. + +"Dog any good?" asked the Trader, removing his pipe and pointing to the +observant Deuce. + +"He'll hunt shade on a hot day," said I tentatively. "How's the fur in +this district?" + +We were off. He invited me in and showed me his bear. In ten minutes we +were seated chair-tilted on the veranda, and slowly, very cautiously, +in abbreviated syncopation, were feeling our way toward an intimacy. + +Now came the Indians I had seen at the lake to barter for some flour +and pork. I was glad of the chance to follow them all into the +trading-room. A low wooden counter backed by a grill divided the main +body of the room from the entrance. It was deliciously dim. All the +charm of the Aromatic Shop was in the place, and an additional flavour +of the wilds. Everything here was meant for the Indian trade: bolts of +bright-patterned ginghams, blankets of red or blue, articles of +clothing, boxes of beads for decoration, skeins of brilliant silk, lead +bars for bullet-making, stacks of long brass-bound "trade guns" in the +corner, small mirrors, red and parti-coloured worsted sashes with +tassels on the ends, steel traps of various sizes, and a dozen other +articles to be desired by the forest people. And here, unlike the +Aromatic Shop, were none of the products of the Far North. All that, I +knew, was to be found elsewhere, in another apartment, equally dim, but +delightful in the orderly disorder of a storeroom. + +Afterwards I made the excuse of a pair of moccasins to see this other +room. We climbed a steep, rough flight of stairs to emerge through a +sort of trap-door into a space directly under the roof. It was lit only +by a single little square at one end. Deep under the eaves I could make +out row after row of boxes and chests. From the rafters hung a dozen +pair of snow-shoes. In the centre of the floor, half overturned, lay an +open box from which tumbled dozens of pairs of moose-hide snow-shoe +moccasins. + +Shades of childhood, what a place! No one of us can fail to recall with +a thrill the delights of a rummage in the attic--the joy of pulling +from some half-forgotten trunk a wholly forgotten shabby garment, which +nevertheless has taken to itself from the stillness of undisturbed +years the faint aroma of romance; the rapture of discovering in the +dusk of a concealed nook some old spur or broken knife or rusty pistol +redolent of the open road. Such essentially commonplace affairs they +are, after all, in the light of our mature common sense, but such +unspeakable ecstasies to the romance-breathing years of fancy. Here +would no fancy be required. To rummage in these silent chests and boxes +would be to rummage, not in the fictions of imagination, but the facts +of the most real picturesque. In yonder square box are the smoke-tanned +shoes of silence; that velvet dimness would prove to be the fur of a +bear; this birch-bark package contains maple sugar savoured of the +wilds. Buckskin, both white and buff, bears' claws in strings, bundles +of medicinal herbs, sweet-grass baskets fragrant as an Eastern tale, +birch-bark boxes embroidered with stained quills of the porcupines, +bows of hickory and arrows of maple, queer half-boots of stiff sealskin +from the very shores of the Hudson Bay, belts of beadwork, yellow and +green, for the Corn Dance, even a costume or so of buckskin complete +for ceremonial--all these the fortunate child would find were he to +take the rainy-day privilege in this, the most wonderful attic in all +the world. And then, after he had stroked the soft fur, and smelled the +buckskin and sweet grasses, and tasted the crumbling maple sugar, and +dressed himself in the barbaric splendours of the North, he could +flatten his little nose against the dim square of light and look out +over the glistening yellow backs of a dozen birchbark canoes to the +distant, rain-blurred hills, beyond which lay the country whence all +these things had come. Do you wonder that in after years that child +hits the Long Trail? Do you still wonder at finding these strange, +taciturn, formidable, tender-hearted men dwelling lonely in the Silent +Places? + +The Trader yanked several of the boxes to the centre and prosaically +tumbled about their contents. He brought to light heavy moose-hide +moccasins with high linen tops for the snow; lighter buckskin +moccasins, again with the high tops, but this time of white tanned +doeskin; slipper-like deer-skin moccasins with rolled edges, for the +summer; oil-tanned shoepacs, with and without the flexible leather +sole; "cruisers" of varying degree of height--each and every sort of +footgear in use in the Far North, excepting and saving always the +beautiful soft doeskin slippers finished with white fawnskin and +ornamented with the Ojibway flower pattern for which I sought. Finally +he gave it up. + +"I had a few pair. They must have been sent out," said he. + +We rummaged a little further for luck's sake, then descended to the +outer air. I left him to fetch my canoe, but returned in the afternoon. +We became friends. That evening we sat in the little sitting-room and +talked far into the night. + +He was a true Hudson's Bay man, steadfastly loyal to the Company. I +mentioned the legend of _La Longue Traverse_; he stoutly asserted +he had never heard of it. I tried to buy a mink-skin or so to hang on +the wall as souvenir of my visit; he was genuinely distressed, but had +to refuse because the Company had not authorized him to sell, and he +had nothing of his own to give. I mentioned the River of the Moose, the +Land of Little Sticks; his deep eyes sparkled with excitement, and he +asked eagerly a multitude of details concerning late news from the +northern posts. + +And as the evening dwindled, after the manner of Traders everywhere, he +began to tell me the "ghost stories" of this station of Cloche. Every +post has gathered a mass of legendary lore in the slow years, but this +had been on the route of the _voyageurs_ from Montreal and Quebec +at the time when the lords of the North journeyed to the scenes of +their annual revels at Fort Williams. The Trader had much to say of the +magnificence and luxury of these men--their cooks, their silken tents, +their strange and costly foods, their rare wines, their hordes of +French and Indian canoemen and packers. Then Cloche was a halting-place +for the night. Its meadows had blossomed many times with the gay tents +and banners of a great company. He told me, as vividly as though he had +been an eye-witness, of how the canoes must have loomed up suddenly +from between the islands. By-and-by he seized the lamp and conducted me +outside, where hung ponderous ornamental steelyards, on which in the +old days the peltries were weighed. + +"It is not so now," said he. "We buy by count, and modern scales weigh +the provisions. And the beaver are all gone." + +We re-entered the house in silence. After a while he began briefly to +sketch his own career. Then, indeed, the flavour of the Far North +breathed its crisp, bracing ozone through the atmosphere of the room. + +He had started life at one of the posts of the Far North-West. At the +age of twelve he enlisted in the Company. Throughout forty years he had +served her. He had travelled to all the strange places of the North, +and claimed to have stood on the shores of that half-mythical lake of +Yamba Tooh. + +"It was snowing at the time," he said prosaically; "and I couldn't see +anything, except that I'd have to bear to the east to get away from +open water. Maybe she wasn't the lake. The Injins said she was, but I +was too almighty shy of grub to bother with lakes." + +Other names fell from him in the course of talk, some of which I had +heard and some not, but all of which rang sweet and clear with no +uncertain note of adventure. Especially haunts my memory an impression +of desolate burned trees standing stick-like in death on the shores of +Lost River. + +He told me he had been four years at Cloche, but expected shortly to be +transferred, as the fur was getting scarce, and another post one +hundred miles to the west could care for the dwindling trade. He hoped +to be sent into the North-West, but shrugged his shoulders as he said +so, as though that were in the hands of the gods. At the last he fished +out a concertina and played for me. Have you ever heard, after dark, in +the North, where the hills grow big at sunset, _a la Claire +Fontaine_ crooned to such an accompaniment, and by a man of +impassive bulk and countenance, but with glowing eyes? + +I said good-night, and stumbled, sight-dazed, through the cool dark to +my tent near the beach. The weird minor strains breathed after me as I +went. + +"A la claire fontaine +M'en allant promener, +J'ai trouve l'eau si belle +Que je m'y suis baigne, +Il y a longtemps que je t'aime +Jamais je ne t'oublierai." + +The next day, with the combers of a howling north-westerly gale +clutching at the stern of the canoe, I rode in a glory of spray and +copper-tasting excitement back to Dick and his half-breed settlement. + +But the incident had its sequel. The following season, as I was sitting +writing at my desk, a strange package was brought me. It was wrapped in +linen sewn strongly with waxed cord. Its contents lie before me now--a +pair of moccasins fashioned of the finest doeskin, tanned so +beautifully that the delicious smoke fragrance fills the room, and so +effectively that they could be washed with soap and water without +destroying their softness. The tongue-shaped piece over the instep is +of white fawnskin heavily ornamented in five colours of silk. Where it +joins the foot of the slipper it is worked over and over into a narrow +cord of red and blue silk. The edge about the ankle is turned over, +deeply scalloped, and bound at the top with a broad band of blue silk +stitched with pink. Two tiny blue bows at either side the ankle +ornament the front. Altogether a most magnificent foot-gear. No word +accompanied them, apparently, but after some search I drew a bit of +paper from the toe of one of them. It was inscribed simply--"Fort la +Cloche." + + + + +XI. + +THE HABITANTS. + + +During my absence Dick had made many friends. Wherein lies his secret I +do not know, but he has a peculiar power of ingratiation with people +whose lives are quite outside his experience or sympathies. In the +short space of four days he had earned joyous greetings from every one +in town. The children grinned at him cheerfully; the old women cackled +good-natured little teasing jests to him as he passed; the pretty, +dusky half-breed girls dropped their eyelashes fascinatingly across +their cheeks, tempering their coyness with a smile; the men painfully +demanded information as to artistic achievement which was evidently as +well meant as it was foreign to any real thirst for knowledge they +might possess; even the lumber-jacks addressed him as "Bub." And withal +Dick's methods of approach were radically wrong, for he blundered upon +new acquaintance with a beaming smile, which is ordinarily a sure +repellent to the cautious, taciturn men of the woods. Perhaps their +keenness penetrated to the fact that he was absolutely without guile, +and that his kindness was an essential part of himself. I should be +curious to know whether Billy Knapp of the Black Hills would surrender +his gun to Dick for inspection. + +"I want you to go out this afternoon to see some friends of mine," said +Dick. "They're on a farm about two miles back in the brush. They're +ancestors." + +"They're what?" I inquired. + +"Ancestors. You can go down to Grosse Point near Detroit, and find +people living in beautiful country places next the water, and after +dinner they'll show you an old silhouette or a daguerreotype or +something like that, and will say to you proudly, 'This is old Jules, +my ancestor, who was a pioneer in this country. The Place has been in +the family ever since his time.'" + +"Well?" + +"Well, this is a French family, and they are pioneers, and the family +has a place that slopes down to the water through white birch trees, +and it is of the kind very tenacious of its own land. In two hundred +years this will be a great resort; bound to be--beautiful, salubrious, +good sport, fine scenery, accessible--" + +"Railroad fifty miles away; boat every once in a while," said I +sarcastically. + +"Accessible in two hundred years, all right," insisted Dick serenely. +"Even Canada can build a quarter of a mile of railway a year. +Accessible," he went on; "good shipping-point for country now +undeveloped." + +"You ought to be a real estate agent," I advised. + +"Lived two hundred years too soon," disclaimed Dick. "What more +obvious? These are certainly ancestors." + +"Family may die out," I suggested. + +"It has a good start," said Dick sweetly. "There are eighty-seven in it +now." + +"What!" I gasped. + +"One great-grandfather, twelve grandparents, thirty-seven parents, and +thirty-seven children," tabulated Dick. + +"I should like to see the great-grandfather," said I; "he must be very +old and feeble." + +"He is eighty-five years old," said Dick, "and the last time I saw him +he was engaged with an axe in clearing trees off his farm." + +All of these astonishing statements I found to be absolutely true. + +We started out afoot soon after dinner, through a scattering growth of +popples that alternately drew the veil of coyness over the blue hills +and caught our breath with the delight of a momentary prospect. Deuce, +remembering autumn days, concluded partridges, and scurried away on the +expert diagonal, his hind legs tucked well under his flanks. The road +itself was a mere cutting through the miniature woods, winding to right +or left for the purpose of avoiding a log-end or a boulder, surmounting +little knolls with an idle disregard for the straight line, knobby with +big, round stones, and interestingly diversified by circular mud holes +a foot or so in diameter. After a mile and a half we came to the corner +of a snake fence. This, Dick informed me, marked the limits of the +"farm." + +We burst through the screen of popples definitely into the clear. A +two-storied house of squared logs crested a knoll in the middle +distance. Ten acres of grass marsh, perhaps twenty of ploughed land, +and then the ash-white-green of popples. We dodged the grass marsh and +gained the house. Dick was at once among friends. + +The mother had no English, so smiled expansively, her bony arms folded +across her stomach. Her oldest daughter, a frail-looking girl in the +twenties, but with a sad and spiritual beauty of the Madonna in her big +eyes and straight black hair, gave us a shy good-day. Three boys, just +alike in their slender, stolid Indian good looks, except that they +differed in size, nodded with the awkwardness of the male. Two babies +stared solemnly. A little girl with a beautiful, oval face, large +mischievous gray eyes behind long black lashes, a mischievously quirked +mouth to match the eyes, and black hair banged straight, both front and +behind, in almost mediaeval fashion, twirked a pair of brown bare legs +all about us. Another light-haired, curly little girl, surmounted by an +old yachting-cap, spread apart sturdy shoes in an attitude at once +critical and expectant. + +Dick rose to the occasion by sorting out from some concealed recess of +his garments a huge paper parcel of candy. + +With infinite tact, he presented this bag to Madame rather than the +children. Madame instituted judicious distribution and appropriate +reservation for the future. We entered the cabin. + +Never have I seen a place more exquisitely neat. The floor had not only +been washed clean; it had been scrubbed white. The walls of logs were +freshly whitewashed. The chairs were polished. The few ornaments were +new, and not at all dusty or dingy or tawdry. Several religious +pictures, a portrait of royalty, a lithographed advertisement of some +buggy, a photograph or so--and then just the fresh, wholesome +cleanliness of scrubbed pine. Madame made us welcome with smiles--a +faded, lean woman with a remnant of beauty peeping from her soft eyes, +but worn down to the first principles of pioneer bone and gristle by +toil, care, and the bearing of children. I spoke to her in French, +complimenting her on the appearance of the place. She was genuinely +pleased, saying in reply that one did one's possible, but that +children!--with an expressive pause. + +Next we called for volunteers to show us to the great-grandfather. Our +elfish little girls at once offered, and went dancing off down the +trail like autumn leaves in a wind. Whether it was the Indian in them, +or the effects of environment, or merely our own imaginations, we both +had the same thought--that in these strange, taciturn, friendly, +smiling, pirouetting little creatures was some eerie, wild strain akin +to the woods and birds and animals. As they danced on ahead of us, +turning to throw us a delicious smile or a half-veiled roguish glance +of nascent coquetry, we seemed to swing into an orbit of experience +foreign to our own. These bright-eyed woods people were in the last +analysis as inscrutable to us as the squirrels. + +We followed our swirling, airy guides down through a trail to another +clearing planted with potatoes. On the farther side of this they +stopped, hand in hand, at the woods' fringe, and awaited us in a +startlingly sudden repose. + +"V'la le gran'pere," said they in unison. + +At the words a huge gaunt man clad in shirt and jeans arose and +confronted us. Our first impression was of a vast framework stiffened +and shrunken into the peculiar petrifaction of age; our second, of a +Jove-like wealth of iron-gray beard and hair; our third, of eyes, wide, +clear, and tired with looking out on a century of the world's time. His +movements, as he laid one side his axe and passed a great, gnarled hand +across his forehead, were angular and slow. We knew instinctively the +quality of his work--a deliberate pause, a mighty blow, another pause, +a painful recovery--labour compounded of infinite slow patience, but +wonderfully effective in the week's result. It would go on without +haste, without pause, inevitable as the years slowly closing about the +toiler. His mental processes would be of the same fibre. The apparent +hesitation might seem to waste the precious hours remaining, but in the +end, when the engine started, it would move surely and unswervingly +along the appointed grooves. In his wealth of hair; in his wide eyes, +like the mysterious blanks of a marble statue; in his huge frame, +gnarled and wasted to the strange, impressive, powerful age-quality of +Phidias's old men, he seemed to us to deserve a wreath and a marble +seat with strange inscriptions and the graceful half-draperies of +another time and a group of old Greeks like himself with whom to +exchange slow sentences on the body politic. Indeed, the fact that his +seat was of fallen pine, and his draperies of butternut brown, and his +audience two half-breed children, an artist, and a writer, and his body +politic two hundred acres in the wilderness, did not filch from him the +impressiveness of his estate. He was a Patriarch. It did not need the +park of birch trees, the grass beneath them sloping down to the water, +the wooded knoll fairly insisting on a spacious mansion, to +substantiate Dick's fancy that he had discovered an ancestor. + +Neat piles of brush, equally neat piles of cord-wood, knee-high stumps +as cleanly cut as by a saw, attested the old man's efficiency. We +conversed. + +Yes, said he, the soil was good. It is laborious to clear away the +forest. Still, one arrives. M'sieu has but to look. In the memory of +his oldest grandson, even, all this was a forest. Le bon Dieu had +blessed him. His family was large. Yes, it was as M'sieu said, +eighty-seven--that is, counting himself. The soil was not wonderful. It +is indeed a large family and much labour, but somehow there was always +food for all. For his part he had a great pity for those whom God had +not blessed. It must be very lonesome without children. + +We spared a private thought that this old man was certainly in no +danger of loneliness. + +Yes, he went on, he was old--eighty-five. He was not as quick as he +used to be; he left that for the young ones. Still, he could do a day's +work. He was most proud to have made these gentlemen's acquaintance. He +wished us good-day. + +We left him seated on the pine log, his axe between his knees, his +great, gnarled brown hands hanging idly. After a time we heard the +_whack_ of his implement; then after another long time we heard it +_whack_ again. We knew that those two blows had gone straight and +true and forceful to the mark. So old a man had no energy to expend in +the indirections of haste. + +Our elfish guides led us back along the trail to the farmhouse. A girl +of thirteen had just arrived from school. In the summer the little ones +divided the educational advantages among themselves, turn and turn +about. + +The newcomer had been out into the world, and was dressed accordingly. +A neat dark-blue cloth dress, plainly made, a dull red and blue checked +apron; a broad, round hat, shoes and stockings, all in the best and +quietest taste--marked contrast to the usual garish Sunday best of the +Anglo-Saxon. She herself exemplified the most striking type of beauty +to be found in the mixed bloods. Her hair was thick and glossy and +black in the mode that throws deep purple shadows under the rolls and +coils. Her face was a regular oval, like the opening in a wishbone. Her +skin was dark, but rich and dusky with life and red blood that ebbed +and flowed with her shyness. Her lips were full, and of a dark cherry +red. Her eyes were deep, rather musing, and furnished with the most +gloriously tangling of eyelashes. Dick went into ecstasies, took +several photographs which did not turn out well, and made one sketch +which did. Perpetually did he bewail the absence of oils. The type is +not uncommon, but its beauty rarely remains perfect after the fifteenth +year. + +We made our ceremonious adieus to the Madame, and started back to town +under the guidance of one of the boys, who promised us a short cut. + +This youth proved to be filled with the old, wandering spirit that +lures so many of his race into the wilderness life. He confided to us +as we walked that he liked to tramp extended distances, and that the +days were really not made long enough for those who had to return home +at night. + +"I is been top of dose hills," he said. "Bime by I mak' heem go to dose +lak' beyon'." + +He told us that some day he hoped to go out with the fur traders. In +his vocabulary "I wish" occurred with such wistful frequency that +finally I inquired curiously what use he would make of the Fairy Gift. + +"If you could have just one wish come true, Pierre," I asked, "what +would you desire?" + +His answer came without a moment's hesitation. + +"I is lak' be one giant," said he. + +"Why?" I demanded. + +"So I can mak' heem de walk far," he replied simply. + +I was tempted to point out to him the fact that big men do not outlast +the little men, and that vast strength rarely endures, but then a +better feeling persuaded me to leave him his illusions. The power, even +in fancy, of striding on seven-league boots across the fascinations +spread out below his kindling vision from "dose hills" was too precious +a possession lightly to be taken away. + +Strangely enough, though his woodcraft naturally was not +inconsiderable, it did not hold his paramount interest. He knew +something about animals and their ways and their methods of capture, +but the chase did not appeal strongly to him, nor apparently did he +possess much skill along that line. He liked the actual physical +labour, the walking, the paddling, the tump-line, the camp-making, the +new country, the companionship of the wild life, the wilderness as a +whole rather than in any one of its single aspects as Fish Pond, Game +Preserve, Picture Gallery. In this he showed the true spirit of the +_voyageur_. I should confidently look to meet him in another ten +years--if threats of railroads spare the Far North so long--girdled +with the red sash, shod in silent moccasins, bending beneath the +portage load, trolling _Isabeau_ to the silent land somewhere +under the Arctic Circle. The French of the North have never been great +fighters nor great hunters, in the terms of the Anglo-Saxon +frontiersmen, but they have laughed in farther places. + + + + +XII. + +THE RIVER. + + +At a certain spot on the North Shore--I am not going to tell you +where--you board one of the two or three fishing-steamers that collect +from the different stations the big ice-boxes of Lake Superior +whitefish. After a certain number of hours--I am not going to tell you +how many--your craft will turn in toward a semicircle of bold, +beautiful hills, that seem at first to be many less miles distant than +the reality, and at the last to be many more miles remote than is the +fact. From the prow you will make out first a uniform velvet green; +then the differentiation of many shades; then the dull neutrals of +rocks and crags; finally the narrow white of a pebble beach against +which the waves utter continually a rattling undertone. The steamer +pushes boldly in. The cool green of the water underneath changes to +gray. Suddenly you make out the bottom, as through a thick green glass, +and the big suckers and catfish idling over its riffled sands, +inconceivably far down through the unbelievably clear liquid. So +absorbed are you in this marvellous clarity that a slight, grinding jar +alone brings you to yourself. The steamer's nose is actually touching +the white strip of pebbles! + +Now you can do one of a number of things. The forest slants down to +your feet in dwindling scrub, which half conceals an abandoned log +structure. This latter is the old Hudson's Bay post. Behind it is the +Fur Trail, and the Fur Trail will take you three miles to Burned Rock +Pool, where are spring water and mighty trout. But again, half a mile +to the left, is the mouth of the River. And the River meanders +charmingly through the woods of the flat country over numberless +riffles and rapids, beneath various steep gravel banks, until it sweeps +boldly under the cliff of the first high hill. There a rugged precipice +rises sheer and jagged and damp-dark to overhanging trees clinging to +the shoulder of the mountain. And precisely at that spot is a bend +where the water hits square, to divide right and left in whiteness, to +swirl into convolutions of foam, to lurk darkly for a moment on the +edge of tumult before racing away. And there you can stand hip-deep, +and just reach the eddy foam with a cast tied craftily of Royal +Coachman, Parmachenee Belle, and Montreal. + +From that point you are with the hills. They draw back to leave wide +forest, but always they return to the River--as you would return season +after season were I to tell you how--throwing across your +woods-progress a sheer cliff forty or fifty feet high, shouldering you +incontinently into the necessity of fording to the other side. More and +more jealous they become as you penetrate, until at the Big Falls they +close in entirely, warning you that here they take the wilderness to +themselves. At the Big Falls anglers make their last camp. About the +fire they may discuss idly various academic questions--as to whether +the great inaccessible pool below the Falls really contains the +legendary Biggest Trout; what direction the River takes above; whether +it really becomes nothing but a series of stagnant pools connected by +sluggish water-reaches; whether there are any trout above the Falls; +and so on. + +These questions, as I have said, are merely academic. Your true angler +is a philosopher. Enough is to him worth fifteen courses, and if the +finite mind of man could imagine anything to be desired as an addition +to his present possessions on the River, he at least knows nothing of +it. Already he commands ten miles of water--swift, clear water--running +over stone, through a freshet bed so many hundreds of feet wide that he +has forgotten what it means to guard his back cast. It is to be waded +in the riffles, so that he can cross from one shore to the other as the +mood suits him. One bank is apt to be precipitous, the other to stretch +away in a mile or so of the coolest, greenest, stillest primeval forest +to be imagined. Thus he can cut across the wide bends of the River, +should he so desire and should haste be necessary to make camp before +dark. And, last, but not least by any manner of means, there are trout. + +I mean real trout--big fellows, the kind the fishers of little streams +dream of but awake to call Morpheus a liar, just as they are too polite +to call you a liar when you are so indiscreet as to tell them a few +plain facts. I have one solemnly attested and witnessed record of +twenty-nine inches, caught in running water. I saw a friend land on one +cast three whose aggregate weight was four and one half pounds. I +witnessed, and partly shared, an exciting struggle in which three fish +on three rods were played in the same pool at the same time. They +weighed just fourteen pounds. One pool, a backset, was known as the +Idiot's Delight, because any one could catch fish there. I have lain on +my stomach at the Burned Rock Pool and seen the great fish lying so +close together as nearly to cover the bottom, rank after rank of them, +and the smallest not under a half pound. As to the largest--well, every +true fisherman knows him! + +So it came about for many years that the natural barrier interposed by +the Big Falls successfully turned the idle tide of anglers' +exploration. Beyond them lay an unknown country, but you had to climb +cruelly to see it, and you couldn't gain above what you already had in +any case. The nearest settlement was nearly sixty miles away, so even +added isolation had not its usual quickening effect on camper's effort. +The River is visited by few, anyway. An occasional adventurous steam +yacht pauses at the mouth, fishes a few little ones from the shallow +pools there, or a few big ones from the reefs, and pushes on. It never +dreams of sending an expedition to the interior. Our own people, and +two other parties, are all I know of who visit the River regularly. Our +camp-sites alone break the forest; our blazes alone continue the +initial short cut of the Fur Trail; our names alone distinguish the +various pools. We had always been satisfied to compromise with the +frowning Hills. In return for the delicious necks and points and forest +areas through which our clipped trails ran, we had tacitly respected +the mystery of the upper reaches. + +This year, however, a number of unusual conditions changed our spirit. +I have perhaps neglected to state that our trip up to now had been a +rather singularly damp one. Of the first fourteen days twelve had been +rainy. This was only a slightly exaggerated sample for the rest of the +time. As a consequence we found the River filled even to the limit of +its freshet banks. The broad borders of stone beach between the +stream's edge and the bushes had quite disappeared; the riffles had +become rapids, and the rapids roaring torrents; the bends boiled +angrily with a smashing eddy that sucked air into pirouetting cavities +inches in depth. Plainly, fly-fishing was out of the question. No +self-respecting trout would rise to the surface of such a moil, or +abandon for syllabubs of tinsel the magnificent solidities of +ground-bait such a freshet would bring down from the hills. Also the +River was unfordable. + +We made camp at the mouth and consulted together. Billy, the half-breed +who had joined us for the labour of a permanent camp, shook his head. + +"I t'ink one week, ten day," he vouchsafed. "P'rhaps she go down den. +We mus' wait." We did not want to wait; the idleness of a permanent +camp is the most deadly in the world. + +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been above the Big Falls?" + +The half-breed's eyes flashed. + +"Non," he replied simply. "Ba, I lak' mak' heem firs' rate." + +"All right, Billy; we'll do it." + +The next day it rained, and the River went up two inches. The morning +following was fair enough, but so cold you could see your breath. We +began to experiment. + +Now, this expedition had become a fishing vacation, so we had all the +comforts of home with us. When said comforts of home were laden into +the canoe, there remained forward and aft just about one square foot of +space for Billy and me, and not over two inches of freeboard for the +River. We could not stand up and pole; tracking with a tow-line was out +of the question, because there existed no banks on which to walk; the +current was too swift for paddling. So we knelt and poled. We knew it +before, but we had to be convinced by trial, that two inches of +freeboard will dip under the most gingerly effort. It did so. We +groaned, stepped out into ice-water up to our waists, and so began the +day's journey with fleeting reference to Dante's nethermost hell. + +Next the shore the water was most of the time a little above our knees, +but the swirl of a rushing current brought an apron of foam to our +hips. Billy took the bow and pulled; I took the stern and pushed. In +places our combined efforts could but just counterbalance the strength +of the current. Then Billy had to hang on until I could get my shoulder +against the stern for a mighty heave, the few inches gain of which he +would guard as jealously as possible, until I could get into position +for another shove. At other places we were in nearly to our armpits, +but close under the banks where we could help ourselves by seizing +bushes. + +Sometimes I lost my footing entirely and trailed out behind like a +streamer; sometimes Billy would be swept away, the canoe's bow would +swing down-stream, and I would have to dig my heels and hang on until +he had floundered upright. Fortunately for our provisions, this never +happened to both at the same time. The difficulties were still further +complicated by the fact that our feet speedily became so numb from the +cold that we could not feel the bottom, and so were much inclined to +aimless stumblings. By-and-by we got out and kicked trees to start the +circulation. In the meantime the sun had retired behind thick, leaden +clouds. + +At the First Bend we were forced to carry some fifty feet. There the +River rushed down in a smooth apron straight against the cliff, where +its force actually raised the mass of water a good three feet higher +than the level of the surrounding pool. I tied on a bait-hook, and two +cartridges for sinkers, and in fifteen minutes had caught three trout, +one of which weighed three pounds, and the others two pounds and a +pound and a half respectively. At this point Dick and Deuce, who had +been paralleling through the woods, joined us. We broiled the trout, +and boiled tea, and shivered as near the fire as we could. That +afternoon, by dint of labour and labour, and yet more labour, we +made Burned Rock, and there we camped for the night, utterly +beaten out by about as hard a day's travel as a man would want to +undertake. + +The following day was even worse, for as the natural bed of the River +narrowed, we found less and less footing and swifter and swifter water. +The journey to Burned Rock had been a matter of dogged hard work; this +was an affair of alertness, of taking advantage of every little eddy, +of breathless suspense during long seconds while the question of +supremacy between our strength and the stream's was being debated. And +the thermometer must have registered well towards freezing. Three times +we were forced to cross the River in order to get even precarious +footing. Those were the really doubtful moments. We had to get in +carefully, to sit craftily, and to paddle gingerly and firmly, without +attempting to counteract the downward sweep of the current. All our +energies and care were given to preventing those miserable curling +little waves from over-topping our precious two inches, and that +miserable little canoe from departing even by a hair's-breadth from the +exactly level keel. Where we were going did not matter. After an +interminable interval the tail of our eyes would catch the sway of +bushes near at hand. + +"Now," Billy would mutter abstractedly. + +With one accord we would arise from six inches of wet and step swiftly +into the River. The lightened canoe would strain back; we would brace +our legs. The traverse was accomplished. + +[Illustration: WATCHED THE LONG NORTH COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A +GRAY CLOUD FROM THE EAST.] + +Being thus under the other bank, I would hold the canoe while Billy, +astraddle the other end for the purpose of depressing the water to +within reach of his hand, would bail away the consequences of our +crossing. Then we would make up the quarter of a mile we had lost. + +We quit at the Organ Pool about three o'clock of the afternoon. Not +much was said that evening. + +The day following we tied into it again. This time we put Dick and +Deuce on an old Indian trail that promised a short cut, with +instructions to wait at the end of it. In the joyous anticipation of +another wet day we forgot they had never before followed an Indian +trail. Let us now turn aside to the adventures of Dick and Deuce. + +Be it premised here that Dick is a regular Indian of taciturnity when +it becomes a question of his own experience, so that for a long time we +knew of what follows but the single explanatory monosyllable which you +shall read in due time. But Dick has a beloved uncle. In moments of +expansion to this relative after his return he held forth as to the +happenings of that morning. + +Dick and the setter managed the Indian trail for about twenty rods. +They thought they managed it for perhaps twice that distance. Then it +became borne in on them that the bushes went back, the faint +knife-clippings, and the half weather-browned brush-cuttings that alone +constitute an Indian trail had taken another direction, and that they +had now their own way to make through the forest. Dick knew the +direction well enough, so he broke ahead confidently. After a +half-hour's walk he crossed a tiny streamlet. After another half-hour's +walk he came to another. It was flowing the wrong way. + +Dick did not understand this. He had never known of little streams +flowing away from rivers and towards eight-hundred-foot hills. This +might be a loop, of course. He resolved to follow it up-stream far +enough to settle the point. The following brought him in time to a +soggy little thicket with three areas of moss-covered mud and two +round, pellucid pools of water about a foot in diameter. As the little +stream had wound and twisted, Dick had by now lost entirely his sense +of direction. He fished out his compass and set it on a rock. The River +flows nearly north-east to the Big Falls, and Dick knew himself to be +somewhere east of the River. The compass appeared to be wrong. Dick was +a youth of sense, so he did not quarrel with the compass; he merely +became doubtful as to which was the north end of the needle--the white +or the black. After a few moments' puzzling he was quite at sea, and +could no more remember how he had been taught as to this than you can +clinch the spelling of a doubtful word after you have tried on paper a +dozen variations. But being a youth of sense he did not desert the +streamlet. + +After a short half-mile of stumbling the apparent wrong direction in +the brook's bed, he came to the River. The River was also flowing the +wrong way, and uphill. Dick sat down and covered his eyes with his +hands, as I had told him to do in like instance, and so managed to +swing the country around where it belonged. + +Now here was the River--and Dick resolved to desert it for no more +short cuts--but where was the canoe? + +This point remained unsettled in Dick's mind, or rather it was +alternately settled in two ways. Sometimes the boy concluded we must be +still below him, so he would sit on a rock to wait. Then, after a few +moments, inactivity would bring him panic. The canoe must have passed +this point long since, and every second he wasted stupidly sitting on +that stone separated him farther from his friends and from food. Then +he would tear madly through the forest. Deuce enjoyed this game, but +Dick did not. + +In time Dick found his farther progress along the banks cut off by a +hill. The hill ended abruptly at the water's edge in a sheer rock cliff +thirty feet high. This was in reality the end of the Indian trail short +cut--the point where Dick was to meet us--but he did not know it. He +happened for the moment to be obsessed by one of his canoe up-stream +panics, so he turned inland to a spot where the hill appeared +climbable, and started in to surmount the obstruction. + +This was comparatively easy at first. Then the shoulder of the cliff +intervened. Dick mounted still a little higher up the hill, then +higher, then still higher. Far down to his left, through the trees, +broiled the River. The slope of the hill to it had become steeper than +a roof, and at the edge of the eaves came a cliff drop of thirty feet. +Dick picked his way gingerly over curving moss-beds, assisting his +balance by a number of little cedar trees. Then something happened. + +Dick says the side of the hill slid out from under him. The fact of the +matter is, probably, the skin-moss over loose rounded stones gave way. +Dick sat down and began slowly to bump down the slant of the roof. He +never really lost his equilibrium, nor until the last ten feet did he +abandon the hope of checking his descent. Sometimes he did actually +succeed in stopping himself for a moment; but on his attempting to +follow up the advantage, the moss always slipped or the sapling let go +a tenuous hold and he continued on down. At last the River flashed out +below him. He saw the sheer drop. He saw the boiling eddies of the +Halfway Pool, capable of sucking down a saw-log. Then, with a final +rush of loose round stones, he shot the chutes feet first into space. + +In the meantime Billy and I repeated our experience of the two previous +days, with a few variations caused by the necessity of passing two +exceptionally ugly rapids whose banks left little footing. We did this +precariously, with a rope. The cold water was beginning to tell on our +vitality, so that twice we went ashore and made hot tea. Just below the +Halfway Pool we began to do a little figuring ahead, which is a bad +thing. The Halfway Pool meant much inevitable labour, with its two +swift rapids and its swirling, eddies, as sedulously to be avoided as +so many steel bear-traps. Then there were a dozen others, and the three +miles of riffles, and all the rest of it. At our present rate it would +take us a week to make the Falls. Below the Halfway Pool we looked for +Dick. He was not to be seen. This made us cross. At the Halfway Pool we +intended to unload for portage, and also to ferry over Dick and the +setter in the lightened canoe. The tardiness of Dick delayed the game. + +However, we drew ashore to the little clearing of the Halfway Camp, +made the year before, and wearily discharged our cargo. Suddenly, +upstream, and apparently up in the air, we heard distinctly the excited +yap of a dog. Billy and I looked at each other. Then we looked +upstream. + +Close under the perpendicular wall of rock, and fifty feet from the end +of it, waist deep in water that swirled angrily about him, stood Dick. + +I knew well enough what he was standing on--a little ledge of shale not +over five or six feet in length and two feet wide--for in lower water I +had often from its advantage cast a fly down below the big boulder. But +I knew it to be surrounded by water fifteen feet deep. It was +impossible to wade to the spot, impossible to swim to it. And why in +the name of all the woods gods would a man want to wade or swim to it +if he could? The affair, to our cold-benumbed intellects, was simply +incomprehensible. + +Billy and I spoke no word. We silently, perhaps a little fearfully, +launched the empty canoe. Then we went into a space of water whose +treading proved us no angels. From the slack water under the cliff we +took another look. It was indeed Dick. He carried a rod-case in one +hand. His fish-creel lay against his hip. His broad hat sat accurately +level on his head. His face was imperturbable. Above, Deuce agonized, +afraid to leap into the stream, but convinced that his duty required +him to do so. + +We steadied the canoe while Dick climbed in. You would have thought he +was embarking at the regularly appointed rendezvous. In silence we shot +the rapids, and collected Deuce from the end of the trail, whither he +followed us. In silence we worked our way across to where our duffel +lay scattered. In silence we disembarked. + +"In Heaven's name, Dick," I demanded at last, "how did you get +_there_?" + +"Fell," said he, succinctly. And that was all. + + + + +XIII. + +THE HILLS. + + +We explained carefully to Dick that he had lit on the only spot in the +Halfway Pool where the water was at once deep enough to break his fall +and not too deep to stand in. We also pointed out that he had escaped +being telescoped or drowned by the merest hair's-breadth. From this we +drew moral conclusions. It did us good, but undoubtedly Dick knew it +already. + +Now we gave our attention to the wetness of garments, for we were +chilled blue. A big fire and a clothes-rack of forked sticks and a +sapling, an open-air change, a lunch of hot tea and trout and cold +galette and beans, a pipe--and then the inevitable summing up. + +We had in two and a half days made the easier half of the distance to +the Falls. At this rate we would consume a week or more in reaching the +starting-point of our explorations. It was a question whether we could +stand a week of ice-water and the heavy labour combined. Ordinarily we +might be able to abandon the canoe and push on afoot, as we were +accustomed to do when trout-fishing, but that involved fording the +river three times--a feat manifestly impossible in present freshet +conditions. + +"I t'ink we quit heem," said Billy. + +But then I was seized with an inspiration. Judging by the configuration +of the hills, the River bent sharply above the Falls. Why would it not +be possible to cut loose entirely at this point, to strike across +through the forest, and so to come out on the upper reaches? Remained +only the probability of our being able, encumbered by a pack, to scale +the mountains. + +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been over in those hills?". + +"No," said he. + +"Do you know anything about the country? Are there any trails?" + +"Dat countree is belong Tawabinisay. He know heem. I don' know heem. I +t'ink he is have many hills, some lak'." + +"Do you think we can climb those hills with packs?" + +Billy cast a doubtful glance on Dick. Then his eye lit up. + +"Tawabinisay is tell me 'bout dat Lak' Kawagama. P'rhaps we fine heem." + +In so saying Billy decided the attempt. What angler on the River has +not discussed--again idly, again academically--that mysterious Lake +alive with the burnished copper trout, lying hidden and wonderful in +the high hills, clear as crystal, bottomed with gravel like a fountain, +shaped like a great crescent whose curves were haunted of forest trees +grim and awesome with the solemnity of the primeval? That its exact +location was known to Tawabinisay alone, that the trail to it was +purposely blinded and muddled with the crossing of many little ponds, +that the route was laborious--all those things, along with the minor +details so dear to winter fire-chats, were matters of notoriety. +Probably more expeditions to Kawagama have been planned--in +February--than would fill a volume with an account of anticipated +adventures. Only, none of them ever came off. We were accustomed to +gaze at the forbidden cliff ramparts of the hills, to think of the +Idiot's Delight, and the Halfway Pool, and the Organ Pool, and the +Burned Rock Pool, and the Rolling Stone Pool, and all the rest of them +even up to the Big Falls; and so we would quietly allow our February +plannings to lapse. One man Tawabinisay had honoured. But this man, +named Clement, a banker from Peoria, had proved unworthy. Tawabinisay +told how he caught trout, many, many trout, and piled them on the +shores of Kawagama to defile the air. Subsequently this same +"sportsman" buried another big catch on the beach of Superior. These +and other exploits finally earned him his exclusion from the delectable +land. I give his name because I have personally talked with his guides, +and heard their circumstantial accounts of his performances. Unless +three or four woodsmen are fearful liars, I do Mr. Clement no +injustice. + +Since then Tawabinisay had hidden himself behind his impenetrable grin. + +So you can easily see that the discovery of Kawagama would be a feat +worthy even high hills. + +That afternoon we rested and made our cache. A cache in the forest +country is simply a heavily constructed rustic platform on which +provisions and clothing are laid and wrapped completely about in sheets +of canoe bark tied firmly with strips of cedar bark, or withes made +from a bush whose appearance I know well, but whose name I cannot say. +In this receptacle we left all our canned goods, our extra clothing, +and our Dutch oven. We retained for transportation some pork, flour, +rice, baking-powder, oatmeal, sugar, and tea, cooking utensils, +blankets, the tent, fishing-tackle, and the little pistol. As we were +about to go into the high country where presumably both game and fish +might lack, we were forced to take a full supply for four--counting +Deuce as one--to last ten days. The packs counted up about one hundred +and fifteen pounds of grub, twenty pounds of blankets, ten of tent, say +eight or ten of hardware including the axe, about twenty of duffel. +This was further increased by the idiosyncrasy of Billy. He, like most +woodsmen, was wedded to a single utterly foolish article of personal +belonging, which he worshipped as a fetish, and without which he was +unhappy. In his case it was a huge winter overcoat that must have +weighed fifteen pounds. The total amounted to about one hundred and +ninety pounds. We gave Dick twenty, I took seventy-six, and Billy +shouldered the rest. + +The carrying we did with the universal tump-line. This is usually +described as a strap passed about a pack and across the forehead of the +bearer. The description is incorrect. It passes across the top of the +head. The weight should rest on the small of the back just above the +hips--not on the broad of the back as most beginners place it. Then the +chin should be dropped, the body slanted sharply forward, and you may +be able to stagger forty rods at your first attempt. + +Use soon accustoms you to carrying, however. The first time I ever did +any packing I had a hard time stumbling a few hundred feet over a hill +portage with just fifty pounds on my back. By the end of that same trip +I could carry a hundred pounds and a lot of miscellaneous traps, like +canoe-poles and guns, without serious inconvenience and over a long +portage. This quickly-gained power comes partly from a strengthening of +the muscles of the neck, but more from a mastery of balance. A pack can +twist you as suddenly and expertly on your back as the best of +wrestlers. It has a head lock on you, and you have to go or break your +neck. After a time you adjust your movements, just as after a time you +can travel on snow-shoes through heavy down timber without taking +conscious thought as to the placing of your feet. + +But at first packing is as near infernal punishment as merely mundane +conditions can compass. Sixteen brand-new muscles ache, at first dully, +then sharply, then intolerably, until it seems you cannot bear it +another second. You are unable to keep your feet. A stagger means an +effort at recovery, and an effort at recovery means that you trip when +you place your feet, and that means, if you are lucky enough not to be +thrown, an extra tweak for every one of the sixteen new muscles. At +first you rest every time you feel tired. Then you begin to feel very +tired every fifty feet. Then you have to do the best you can, and prove +the pluck that is in you. + +Mr. Tom Friant, an old woodsman of wide experience, has often told me +with relish of his first try at carrying. He had about sixty pounds, +and his companion double that amount. Mr. Friant stood it a few +centuries and then sat down. He couldn't have moved another step if a +gun had been at his ear. + +"What's the matter?" asked his companion. + +"Del," said Friant, "I'm all in. I can't navigate. Here's where I +quit." + +"Can't you carry her any farther?" + +"Not an inch." + +"Well, pile her on. I'll carry her for you." + +Friant looked at him a moment in silent amazement. + +"Do you mean to say that you are going to carry your pack and mine +too?" + +"That's what I mean to say. I'll do it if I have to." + +Friant drew a long breath. + +"Well," said he at last, "if a little sawed-off cuss like you can +wiggle under a hundred and eighty, I guess I can make it under sixty." + +"That's right," said Del imperturbably. "_If you think you can, you +can_." + +"And I did," ends Friant, with a chuckle. + +Therein lies the whole secret. The work is irksome, sometimes even +painful, but if you think you can do it, you can, for though great is +the protest of the human frame against what it considers abuse, greater +is the power of a man's grit. + +We carried the canoe above the larger eddies, where we embarked +ourselves and our packs for traverse, leaving Deuce under strict +command to await a second trip. Deuce disregarded the strict command. +From disobedience came great peril, for when he attempted to swim +across after us he was carried downstream, involved in a whirlpool, +sucked under, and nearly drowned. We could do nothing but watch. When, +finally, the River spued out a frightened and bedraggled dog, we drew a +breath of very genuine relief, for Deuce was dear to us through much +association. + +The canoe we turned bottom up and left in the bushes, and so we set off +through the forest. + +At the end of fifteen minutes we began to mount a gentle ascent. The +gentle ascent speedily became a sharp slope, the sharp slope an abrupt +hill, and the latter finally an almost sheer face of rock and thin +soil. We laid hold doggedly of little cedars; we dug our fingers into +little crevices, and felt for the same with our toes; we perspired in +streams and breathed in gasps; we held the strained muscles of our +necks rigid, for the twisting of a pack meant here a dangerous fall; we +flattened ourselves against the face of the mountain with always the +heavy, ceaseless pull of the tump-line attempting to tear us backward +from our holds. And so at last, when the muscles of our thighs refused +to strengthen our legs for the ascent of another foot, we would turn +our backs to the slant and sink gratefully into the only real luxury in +the world. + +For be it known that real luxury cannot be bought; it must be worked +for. I refer to luxury as the exquisite savour of a pleasant sensation. +The keenest sense-impressions are undoubtedly those of contrast. In +looking back over a variety of experience, I have no hesitation at all +in selecting as the moment in which I have experienced the liveliest +physical pleasure one hot afternoon in July. The thermometer might have +stood anywhere. We would have placed childlike trust in any of its +statements, even three figures great. Our way had led through unbroken +forest oppressed by low brush and an underfooting of brakes. There had +been hills. Our clothes were wringing wet, to the last stitch; even the +leather of the tump-line was saturated. The hot air we gulped down did +not seem to satisfy our craving for oxygen any more than lukewarm water +ever seems to cut a real thirst. The woods were literally like an oven +in their hot dryness. Finally we skirted a little hill, and at the base +of that hill a great tree had fallen, and through the aperture thus +made in the forest a tiny current of cool air flowed like a stream. It +was not a great current, nor a wide; if we moved three feet in any +direction, we were out of it. But we sat us down directly across its +flow. And never have dinners or wines or men or women, or talks of +books or scenery or adventure or sport, or the softest, daintiest +refinements of man's invention given me the half of luxury I drank in +from that little breeze. So the commonest things--a dash of cool water +on the wrists, a gulp of hot tea, a warm, dry blanket, a whiff of +tobacco, a ray of sunshine--are more really the luxuries than all the +comforts and sybaritisms we buy. Undoubtedly the latter would also rise +to the higher category if we were to work for their essence instead of +merely signing club cheques or paying party calls for them. + +Which means that when we three would rest our packs against the side of +that hill, and drop our head-straps below our chins, we were not at all +to be pitied, even though the forest growth denied us the encouragement +of knowing how much farther we had to go. + +Before us the trees dropped away rapidly, so that twenty feet out in a +straight line we were looking directly into their tops. There, quite on +an equality with their own airy estate, we could watch the fly-catchers +and warblers conducting their small affairs of the chase. It lent us +the illusion of imponderability; we felt that we too might be able to +rest securely on graceful gossamer twigs. And sometimes, through a +chance opening, we could see down over billows of waving leaves to a +single little spot of blue, like a turquoise sunk in folds of green +velvet, which meant that the River was dropping below us. This, in the +mercy of the Red Gods, was meant as encouragement. + +The time came, however, when the ramparts we scaled rose sheer and bare +in impregnability. Nothing could be done on the straight line, so we +turned sharp to the north. The way was difficult, for it lay over great +fragments of rock stricken from the cliff by winter, and further +rendered treacherous by the moss and wet by a thousand trickles of +water. At the end of one hour we found what might be called a ravine, +if you happened not to be particular, or a steep cleft in the precipice +if you were. Here we deserted the open air for piled-up brushy tangles, +many sharp-cornered rock fragments, and a choked streamlet. Finally the +whole outfit abruptly ceased. We climbed ten feet of crevices and stood +on the ridge. + +The forest trees shut us in our own little area, so that we were for +the moment unable to look abroad over the country. + +The descent, abrupt where we had mounted, stretched away gently toward +the north and west. And on that slope, protected as it was from the +severer storms that sweep up the open valleys in winter, stood the most +magnificent primeval forest it has ever been my fortune to behold. The +huge maple, beech, and birch trees lifted column-like straight up to a +lucent green canopy, always twinkling and shifting in the wind and the +sunlight. Below grew a thin screen of underbrush, through which we had +no difficulty at all in pushing, but which threw about us face-high a +tender green partition. The effect was that of a pew in an +old-fashioned church, so that, though we shared the upper stillnesses, +a certain delightful privacy of our own seemed assured us. This privacy +we knew to be assured also to many creatures besides ourselves. On the +other side of the screen of broad leaves we sensed the presence of +life. It did not intrude on us, nor were we permitted to intrude on it. +But it was there. We heard it rustling, pattering, scrambling, +whispering, scurrying with a rush of wings. More subtly we felt it, as +one knows of a presence in a darkened room. By the exercise of +imagination and experience we identified it in its manifestations--the +squirrel, the partridge, the weasel, the spruce hens, once or twice the +deer. We knew it saw us perfectly, although we could not see it, and +that gave us an impression of companionship; so the forest was not +lonely. + +Next to this double sense of isolation and company was the feeling of +transparent shadow. The forest was thick and cool. Only rarely did the +sun find an orifice in the roof through which to pour a splash of +liquid gold. All the rest was in shadow. But the shadow was that of the +bottom of the sea--cool, green, and, above all, transparent. We saw +into the depth of it, but dimly, as we would see into the green +recesses of a tropic ocean. It possessed the same liquid quality. +Finally the illusion overcame us completely. We bathed in the shadows +as though they were palpable, and from that came great refreshment. + +Under foot the soil was springy with the mould of numberless autumns. +The axe had never hurried slow old servant decay. Once in a while we +came across a prostrate trunk lying in the trough of destruction its +fall had occasioned. But the rest of the time we trod a carpet to the +making of which centuries of dead forest warriors had wrapped +themselves in mould and soft moss and gentle dissolution. Sometimes a +faint rounded shell of former fair proportion swelled above the level, +to crumble to punkwood at the lightest touch of our feet. Or, again, +the simulacrum of a tree trunk would bravely oppose our path, only to +melt away into nothing, like the opposing phantoms of Aeneas, when we +placed a knee against it for the surmounting. + +If the pine woods be characterized by cathedral solemnity, and the +cedars and tamaracks by certain horrifical gloom, and the popples by a +silvery sunshine, and the berry-clearings by grateful heat and the +homely manner of familiar birds, then the great hardwood must be known +as the dwelling-place of transparent shadows, of cool green lucency, +and the repository of immemorial cheerful forest tradition which the +traveller can hear of, but which he is never permitted actually to +know. + +[Illustration: IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF +THAT MORNING.] + +In this lovable mystery we journeyed all the rest of that morning. The +packs were heavy with the first day's weight, and we were tired from +our climb; but the deep physical joy of going on and ever on into +unknown valleys, down a long, gentle slope that must lead somewhere, +through things animate and things of an almost animate life, opening +silently before us to give us passage, and closing as silently behind +us after we had passed--these made us forget our aches and fatigues for +the moment. + +At noon we boiled tea near a little spring of clear, cold water. As yet +we had no opportunity of seeing farther than the closing in of many +trees. We were, as far as external appearances went, no more advanced +than our first resting-place after surmounting the ridge. This effect +is constant in the great forests. You are in a treadmill--though a +pleasant one withal. Your camp of to-day differs only in non-essentials +from that of yesterday, and your camp of to-morrow will probably be +almost exactly like to-day's. Only when you reach your objective point +do you come to a full realization that you have not been the Sisyphus +of the Red Gods. + +Deuce returning from exploration brought indubitable evidence of +porcupines. We picked the barbed little weapons from his face and nose +and tongue with much difficulty for ourselves and much pain for Deuce. +We offered consolation by voicing for his dumbness his undoubted +intention to avoid all future porcupines. Then we took up the afternoon +tramp. + +Now at last through the trees appeared the gleam of water. Tawabinisay +had said that Kawagama was the only lake in its district. We therefore +became quite excited at this sapphire promise. Our packs were thrown +aside, and like school-boys we raced down the declivity to the shore. + + + + +XIV. + +ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS. + + +We found ourselves peering through the thicket at a little reed and +grass grown body of water a few acres in extent. A short detour to the +right led us to an outlet--a brook of width and dash that convinced us +the little pond was only a stopping-place in the stream, and not a +headwater as we had at first imagined. Then a nearer approach led us +past pointed tree-stumps exquisitely chiselled with the marks of teeth; +so we knew we looked, not on a natural pond, but on the work of +beavers. + +I examined the dam more closely. It was a marvel of engineering skill +in the accuracy with which the big trees had been felled exactly along +the most effective lines, the efficiency of the filling in, and the +just estimate of the waste water to be allowed. We named the place +obviously Beaver Pond, resumed our packs, and pushed on. + +Now I must be permitted to celebrate by a little the pluck of Dick. He +was quite unused to the tump-line, comparatively inexperienced in +woods-walking, and weighed but one hundred and thirty-five pounds. Yet +not once in the course of that trip did he bewail his fate. Towards the +close of this first afternoon I dropped behind to see how he was making +it. The boy had his head down, his lips shut tight together, his legs +well straddled apart. As I watched he stumbled badly over the merest +twig. + +"Dick," said I, "are you tired?" + +"Yes," he confessed frankly. + +"Can you make it another half-hour?" + +"I guess so; I'll try." + +At the end of the half-hour we dropped our packs. Dick had manifested +no impatience--not once had he even asked how nearly time was up--but +now he breathed a deep sigh of relief. + +"I thought you were never going to stop," said he simply. + +From Dick those words meant a good deal. For woods-walking differs as +widely from ordinary walking as trap-shooting from field-shooting. A +good pedestrian may tire very quickly in the forest. No two successive +steps are of the same length; no two successive steps fall on the same +quality of footing; no two successive steps are on the same level. +Those three are the major elements of fatigue. Add further the facts +that your way is continually obstructed both by real difficulties--such +as trees, trunks, and rocks--and lesser annoyances, such as branches, +bushes, and even spider-webs. These things all combine against +endurance. The inexperienced does not know how to meet them with a +minimum of effort. The tenderfoot is in a constant state of muscular +and mental rigidity against a fall or a stumble or a cut across the +face from some one of the infinitely numerous woods scourges. This +rigidity speedily exhausts the vital force. + +So much for the philosophy of it. Its practical side might be +infinitely extended. Woodsmen are tough and enduring and in good +condition; but no more so than the average college athlete. Time and +again I have seen men of the latter class walked to a standstill. I +mean exactly that. They knew, and were justly proud, of their physical +condition, and they hated to acknowledge, even to themselves, that the +rest of us were more enduring. As a consequence they played on their +nerve, beyond their physical powers. When the collapse came it was +complete. I remember very well a crew of men turning out from a lumber +camp on the Sturgeon River to bring in on a litter a young fellow who +had given out while attempting to follow Bethel Bristol through a hard +day. Bristol said he dropped finally as though he had been struck on +the head. The woodsman had thereupon built him a little fire, made him +as comfortable as possible with both coats, and hiked for assistance. I +once went into the woods with a prominent college athlete. We walked +rather hard over a rough country until noon. Then the athlete lay on +his back for the rest of the day, while I finished alone the business +we had come on. + +Now, these instances do not imply that Bristol, and certainly not +myself, were any stronger physically, or possessed more nervous force, +than the men we had tired out. Either of them on a road could have +trailed us, step for step, and as long as we pleased. But we knew the +game. + +It comes at the last to be entirely a matter of experience. Any man can +walk in the woods all day at some gait. But his speed will depend on +his skill. It is exactly like making your way through heavy, dry sand. +As long as you restrain yourself to a certain leisurely plodding, you +get along without extraordinary effort, while even a slight increase of +speed drags fiercely at your feet. So it is with the woods. As long as +you walk slowly enough, so that you can pick your footing and lift +aside easily the branches that menace your face, you will expend little +nervous energy. But the slightest pressing, the slightest inclination +to go beyond what may be called your physical foresight, lands you +immediately in difficulties. You stumble, you break through the brush, +you shut your eyes to avoid sharp switchings. The reservoir of your +energy is open full cock. In about an hour you feel very, very tired. + +This principle holds rigidly true of every one, from the softest +tenderfoot to the expertest forest-runner. For each there exists a +normal rate of travel, beyond which are penalties. Only, the +forest-runner, by long use, has raised the exponent of his powers. +Perhaps as a working hypothesis the following might be recommended: +_One good step is worth six stumbling steps; go only fast enough to +assure that good one._ + +You will learn, besides, a number of things practically which memory +cannot summon to order for instance here. "Brush slanted across your +path is easier lifted over your head and dropped behind you than pushed +aside," will do as an example. + +A good woods-walker progresses without apparent hurry. I have followed +the disappearing back of Tawabinisay when, as my companion elegantly +expressed it, "if you stopped to spit you got lost." Tawabinisay +wandered through the forest, his hands in his pockets, humming a little +Indian hymn. And we were breaking madly along behind him with the +crashing of many timbers. + +Of your discoveries probably one of the most impressive will be that in +the bright lexicon of woodscraft the word "mile" has been entirely left +out. To count by miles is a useless and ornamental elegance of +civilization. Some of us once worked hard all one day only to camp +three miles downstream from our resting-place of the night before. And +the following day we ran nearly sixty with the current. The space of +measured country known as a mile may hold you five minutes or five +hours from your destination. The Indian counts by time, and after a +little you follow his example. "Four miles to Kettle Portage" means +nothing. "Two hours to Kettle Portage" does. Only when an Indian tells +you two hours you would do well to count it as four. + +Well, our trip practically amounted to seven days to nowhere; or +perhaps seven days to everywhere would be more accurate. It was all in +the high hills until the last day and a half, and generally in the +hardwood forests. Twice we intersected and followed for short distances +Indian trails, neither of which apparently had been travelled since the +original party that had made them. They led across country for greater +or lesser distances in the direction we wished to travel, and then +turned aside. Three times we blundered on little meadows of +moose-grass. Invariably they were tramped muddy like a cattle-yard +where the great animals had stood as lately as the night before. +Caribou were not uncommon. There were a few deer, but not many, for the +most of the deer country lies to the south of this our district. +Partridge, as we had anticipated, lacked in such high country. + +In the course of the five days and a half we were in the hills we +discovered six lakes of various sizes. The smallest was a mere pond; +the largest would measure some three or four miles in diameter. We came +upon that very late one afternoon. A brook of some size crossed our +way, so, as was our habit, we promptly turned upstream to discover its +source. In the high country the head-waters are never more than a few +miles distant; and at the same time the magnitude of this indicated a +lake rather than a spring as the supply. The lake might be Kawagama. + +Our packs had grown to be very heavy, for they had already the weight +of nine hours piled on top. And the stream was exceedingly difficult to +follow. It flowed in one of those aggravating little ravines whose +banks are too high and steep and uneven for good footing, and whose +beds are choked with a too abundant growth. In addition, there had +fallen many trees over which one had to climb. We kept at it for +perhaps an hour. The brook continued of the same size, and the country +of the same character. Dick for the first time suggested that it might +be well to camp. + +"We've got good water here," he argued, quite justly, "and we can push +on to-morrow just as well as to-night." + +We balanced our packs against a prostrate tree-trunk. Billy contributed +his indirect share to the argument. + +"I lak' to have the job mak' heem this countree all over," he sighed. +"I mak' heem more level." + +"All right," I agreed; "you fellows sit here and rest a minute, and +I'll take a whirl a little ways ahead." + +I slipped my tump-line and started on light. After carrying a heavy +pack so long, I seemed to tread on air. The thicket, before so +formidable, amounted to nothing at all. Perhaps the consciousness that +the day's work was in reality over lent a little factitious energy to +my tired legs. At any rate, the projected two hundred feet of my +investigations stretched to a good quarter-mile. At the end of that +space I debouched on a widening of the ravine. The hardwood ran off +into cedars. I pushed through the stiff rods and yielding fans of the +latter, and all at once found myself leaning out over the waters of the +lake. + +It was almost an exact oval, and lay in a cup of hills. Three wooded +islands, swimming like ducks in the placid evening waters, added a +touch of diversity. A huge white rock balanced the composition to the +left, and a single white sea-gull, like a snowflake against pines, +brooded on its top. + +I looked abroad to where the perfect reflection of the hills confused +the shore line. I looked down through five feet of crystal water to +where pebbles shimmered in refraction. I noted the low rocks jutting +from the wood's shelter whereon one might stand to cast a fly. Then I +turned and yelled and yelled and yelled again at the forest. + +Billy came through the brush, crashing in his haste. He looked long and +comprehendingly. Without further speech, we turned back to where Dick +was guarding the packs. + +That youth we found profoundly indifferent. + +"Kawagama," we cried, "a quarter-mile ahead." + +He turned on us a lack-lustre eye. + +"You going to camp here?" he inquired dully. + +"Course not! We'll go on and camp at the lake." + +"All right," he replied. + +We resumed our packs, a little stiffly and reluctantly, for we had +tasted of woods-travel without them. At the lake we rested. + +"Going to camp here?" inquired Dick. + +We looked about, but noted that the ground under the cedars was +hummocky, and that the hardwood grew on a slope. Besides, we wanted to +camp as near the shore as possible. Probably a trifle further along +there would be a point of high land and delightful little +paper-birches. + +"No," we answered cheerfully, "this isn't much good. Suppose we push +along a ways and find something better." + +"All right," Dick replied. + +We walked perhaps a half-mile more to the westward before we discovered +what we wanted, stopping from time to time to discuss the merits of +this or that place. Billy and I were feeling pretty good. After such a +week Kawagama was a tonic. Finally we agreed. + +"This'll do," said we. + +"Thank God!" said Dick unexpectedly, and dropped his pack to the ground +with a thud, and sat on it. + +I looked at him closely. Then I undid my own pack. "Billy," said I, +"start in on grub. Never mind the tent just now." + +"A' right," grinned Billy. He had been making his own observations. + +"Dick," said I, "let's go down and sit on the rock over the water. We +might fish a little." + +"All right," Dick replied. + +He stumbled dully after me to the shore. + +"Dick," I continued, "you're a kid, and you have high principles, and +your mother wouldn't like it, but I'm going to prescribe for you, and +I'm going to insist on your following the prescription. This flask does +not contain fly-dope--that's in the other flask--it contains whisky. I +have had it in my pack since we started, and it has not been opened. I +don't believe in whisky in the woods; not because I am temperance, but +because a man can't travel on it. But here is where you break your +heaven-born principles. Drink." + +Dick hesitated, then he drank. By the time grub was ready his vitality +had come to normal, and so he was able to digest his food and get some +good out of it; otherwise he could not have done so. Thus he furnished +an admirable example of the only real use for whisky in woods-travel. +Also it was the nearest Dick ever came to being completely played out. + +That evening was delightful. We sat on the rock and watched the long +North Country twilight steal up like a gray cloud from the east. Two +loons called to each other, now in the shrill maniac laughter, now with +the long, mournful cry. It needed just that one touch to finish the +picture. We were looking, had we but known it, on a lake no white man +had ever visited before. Clement alone had seen Kawagama, so in our +ignorance we attained much the same mental attitude. For I may as well +let you into the secret; this was not the fabled lake after all. We +found that out later from Tawabinisay. But it was beautiful enough, and +wild enough, and strange enough in its splendid wilderness isolation to +fill the heart of the explorer with a great content. + +Having thus, as we thought, attained the primary object of our +explorations, we determined on trying now for the second--that is, the +investigation of the upper reaches of the River. Trout we had not +accomplished at this lake, but the existence of fish of some sort was +attested by the presence of the two loons and the gull, so we laid our +non-success to fisherman's luck. After two false starts we managed to +strike into a good country near enough our direction. The travel was +much the same as before. The second day, however, we came to a +surveyor's base-line cut through the woods. Then we followed that as a +matter of convenience. The base-line, cut the fall before, was the only +evidence of man we saw in the high country. It meant nothing in itself, +but was intended as a starting-point for the township surveys, whenever +the country should become civilized enough to warrant them. That +condition of affairs might not occur for years to come. Therefore the +line was cut out clear for a width of twenty feet. + +We continued along it as along a trail until we discovered our last +lake--a body of water possessing many radiating arms. This was the +nearest we came to the real Kawagama. If we had skirted the lake, +mounted the ridge, followed a creek-bed, mounted another ridge, and +descended a slope, we should have made our discovery. Later we did just +that, under the guidance of Tawabinisay himself. Floating in the birch +canoe we carried with us we looked back at the very spot on which we +stood this morning. + +But we turned sharp to the left, and so missed our chance. However, we +were in a happy frame of mind, for we imagined we had really made the +desired discovery. + +Nothing of moment happened until we reached the valley of the River. +Then we found we were treed. We had been travelling all the time among +hills and valleys, to be sure, but on a high elevation. Even the bottom +lands, in which lay the lakes, were several hundred feet above +Superior. Now we emerged from the forest to find ourselves on bold +mountains at least seven or eight hundred feet above the main valley. +And in the main valley we could make out the River. + +It was rather dizzy work. Three or four times we ventured over the +rounded crest of the hill, only to return after forty or fifty feet +because the slope had become too abrupt. This grew to be monotonous and +aggravating. It looked as though we might have to parallel the River's +course, like scouts watching an army, on the top of the hill. Finally a +little ravine gave us hope. We scrambled down it; ended in a very steep +slant, and finished at a sheer tangle of cedar-roots. The latter we +attempted. Billy went on ahead. I let the packs down to him by means of +a tump-line. He balanced them on roof; until I had climbed below him. +And so on. It was exactly like letting a bucket down a well. If one of +the packs had slipped off the cedar-roots, it would have dropped like a +plummet to the valley, and landed on Heaven knows what. The same might +be said of ourselves. We did this because we were angry all through. + +Then we came to the end of the cedar-roots. Right and left offered +nothing; below was a sheer, bare drop. Absolutely nothing remained but +to climb back, heavy packs and all, to the top of the mountain. False +hopes had wasted a good half day and innumerable foot-pounds. Billy and +I saw red. We bowed our heads and snaked those packs to the top of the +mountain at a gait that ordinarily would have tired us out in fifty +feet. Dick did not attempt to keep up. When we reached the top we sat +down to wait for him. After a while he appeared, climbing leisurely. He +gazed on us from behind the mask of his Indian imperturbability. Then +he grinned. That did us good, for we all three laughed aloud, and +buckled down to business in a better frame of mind. + +That day we discovered a most beautiful waterfall. A stream about +twenty feet in width, and with a good volume of water, dropped some +three hundred feet or more into the River. It was across the valley +from us, so we had a good view of its beauties. Our estimates of its +height were carefully made on the basis of some standing pine that grew +near its foot. + +And then we entered a steep little ravine, and descended it with +misgivings to a canon, and walked easily down the canon to a slope that +took us by barely sensible gradations to a wooded plain. At six o'clock +we stood on the banks of the River, and the hills were behind us. + +Of our down-stream travel there is little really to be said. We +established a number of facts--that the River dashes most scenically +from rapid to rapid, so that the stagnant pool theory is henceforth +untenable; that the hills get higher and wilder the farther you +penetrate to the interior, and their cliffs and rock-precipices bolder +and more naked; that there are trout in the upper reaches, but not so +large as in the lower pools; and, above all, that travel is not a joy +for ever. + +For we could not ford the River above the Falls--it is too deep and +swift. As a consequence, we had often to climb, often to break through +the narrowest thicket strips, and once to feel our way cautiously along +a sunken ledge under a sheer rock cliff. That was Billy's idea. We came +to the sheer rock cliff after a pretty hard scramble, and we were most +loth to do the necessary climbing. Billy suggested that we might be +able to wade. As the pool below the cliff was black water and of +indeterminate depth, we scouted the idea. Billy, however, poked around +with a stick, and, as I have said, discovered a little ledge about a +foot and a half wide and about two feet and a half below the surface. +This was spectacular, but we did it. A slip meant a swim and the loss +of the pack. We did not happen to slip. Shortly after, we came to the +Big Falls, and so after further painful experiment descended joyfully +into known country. + +The freshet had gone down, the weather had warmed, the sun shone, we +caught trout for lunch below the Big Falls; everything was lovely. By +three o'clock, after thrice wading the stream, we regained our +canoe--now at least forty feet from the water. We paddled across. Deuce +followed easily, where a week before he had been sucked down and nearly +drowned. We opened the cache and changed our very travel-stained +garments. We cooked ourselves a luxurious meal. We built a +friendship-fire. And at last we stretched our tired bodies full length +on balsam a foot thick, and gazed drowsily at the canvas-blurred moon +before sinking to a dreamless sleep. + + + + +XV. + +ON WOODS INDIANS. + + +Far in the North dwell a people practically unknown to any but the +fur-trader and the explorer. Our information as to Mokis, Sioux, +Cheyennes Nez Perces, and indirectly many others, through the pages of +Cooper, Parkman, and allied writers, is varied enough, so that our +ideas of Indians are pretty well established. If we are romantic, we +hark back to the past and invent fairy-tales with ourselves anent the +Noble Red Man who has Passed Away. If we are severely practical, we +take notice of filth, vice, plug-hats, tin cans, and laziness. In fact, +we might divide all Indian concepts into two classes, following these +mental and imaginative bents. Then we should have quite simply and +satisfactorily the Cooper Indian and the Comic Paper Indian. It must be +confessed that the latter is often approximated by reality--and +everybody knows it. That the former is by no means a myth--at least in +many qualities--the average reader might be pardoned for doubting. + +Some time ago I desired to increase my knowledge of the Woods Indians +by whatever others had accomplished. Accordingly I wrote to the +Ethnological Department at Washington asking what had been done in +regard to the Ojibways and Wood Crees north of Lake Superior. The +answer was "nothing." + +And "nothing" is more nearly a comprehensive answer than at first you +might believe. Visitors at Mackinac, Traverse, Sault Ste. Marie, and +other northern resorts are besought at certain times of the year by +silent calico-dressed squaws to purchase basket and bark work. If the +tourist happens to follow these women for more wholesale examination of +their wares, he will be led to a double-ended Mackinaw-built +sailing-craft with red-dyed sails, half pulled out on the beach. In the +stern sit two or three bucks wearing shirts, jean trousers, and broad +black hats. Some of the oldest men may sport a patched pair of +moccasins or so, but most are conventional enough in clumsy shoes. +After a longer or shorter stay they hoist their red sails and drift +away toward some mysterious destination on the north shore. If the +buyer is curious enough and persistent enough, he may elicit the fact +that they are Ojibways. + +Now, if this same tourist happens to possess a mildly venturesome +disposition, a sailing-craft, and a chart of the region, he will sooner +or later blunder across the dwelling-place of his silent vendors. At +the foot of some rarely-frequented bay he will come on a diminutive +village of small whitewashed log houses. It will differ from other +villages in that the houses are arranged with no reference whatever to +one another, but in the haphazard fashion of an encampment. Its +inhabitants are his summer friends. If he is of an insinuating address, +he may get a glimpse of their daily life. Then he will go away firmly +convinced that he knows quite a lot about the North Woods Indian. + +And so he does. But this North Woods Indian is the Reservation Indian. +And in the North a Reservation Indian is as different from a Woods +Indian as a negro is from a Chinese. + +Suppose, on the other hand, your tourist is unfortunate enough to get +left at some North Woods railway station where he has descended from +the transcontinental to stretch his legs, and suppose him to have +happened on a fur-town like Missinaibie at the precise time when the +trappers are in from the wilds. Near the borders of the village he will +come upon a little encampment of conical tepees. At his approach the +women and children will disappear into inner darkness. A dozen +wolf-like dogs will rush out barking. Grave-faced men will respond +silently to his salutation. + +These men, he will be interested to observe, wear still the deer or +moose skin moccasin--the lightest and easiest foot-gear for the woods; +bind their long hair with a narrow fillet, and their waists with a red +or striped worsted sash; keep warm under the blanket thickness of a +Hudson Bay capote; and deck their clothes with a variety of barbaric +ornament. He will see about camp weapons whose acquaintance he has made +only in museums, peltries of whose identification he is by no means +sure, and as matters of daily use--snow-shoes, bark canoes, bows and +arrows--what to him have been articles of ornament or curiosity. +To-morrow these people will be gone for another year, carrying with +them the results of the week's barter. Neither he nor his kind will see +them again, unless they too journey far into the Silent Places. But he +has caught a glimpse of the stolid mask of the Woods Indian, concerning +whom officially "nothing" is known. + +In many respects the Woods Indian is the legitimate descendant of the +Cooper Indian. His life is led entirely in the forests; his subsistence +is assured by hunting, fishing, and trapping; his dwelling is the +wigwam, and his habitation the wide reaches of the wilderness lying +between Lake Superior and the Hudson Bay; his relation to humanity +confined to intercourse with his own people and acquaintance with the +men who barter for his peltries. So his dependence is not on the world +the white man has brought, but on himself and his natural environment. +Civilization has merely ornamented his ancient manner. It has given him +the convenience of cloth, of firearms, of steel traps, of iron kettles, +of matches; it has accustomed him to the luxuries of white +sugar--though he had always his own maple product--tea, flour, and +white man's tobacco. That is about all. He knows nothing of whisky. The +towns are never visited by him, and the Hudson's Bay Company will sell +him no liquor. His concern with you is not great, for he has little to +gain from you. + +This people, then, depending on natural resources for subsistence, has +retained to a great extent the qualities of the early aborigines. + +To begin with, it is distinctly nomadic. The great rolls of birch bark +to cover the pointed tepees are easily transported in the bottoms of +canoes, and the poles are quickly cut and put in place. As a +consequence, the Ojibway family is always on the move. It searches out +new trapping-grounds, new fisheries, it pays visits, it seems even to +enjoy travel for the sake of exploration. In winter a tepee of double +wall is built, whose hollow is stuffed with moss to keep out the cold; +but even that approximation of permanence cannot stand against the +slightest convenience. When an Indian kills, often he does not +transport his game to camp, but moves his camp to the vicinity of the +carcass. There are of these woods dwellers no villages, no permanent +clearings. The vicinity of a Hudson's Bay post is sometimes occupied +for a month or so during the summer, but that is all. + +An obvious corollary of this is that tribal life does not consistently +obtain. Throughout the summer months, when game and fur are at their +poorest, the bands assemble, probably at the times of barter with the +traders. Then for the short period of the idling season they drift +together up and down the North Country streams, or camp for big +pow-wows and conjuring near some pleasant conflux of rivers. But when +the first frosts nip the leaves, the families separate to their +allotted trapping districts, there to spend the winter in pursuit of +the real business of life. + +The tribe is thus split into many groups, ranging in numbers from +the solitary trapper, eager to win enough fur to buy him a wife, to a +compact little group of three or four families closely related in +blood. The most striking consequence is that, unlike other Indian +bodies politic, there are no regularly constituted and acknowledged +chiefs. Certain individuals gain a remarkable reputation and an equally +remarkable respect for wisdom, or hunting skill, or power of woodcraft, +or travel. These men are the so-called "old men" often mentioned in +Indian manifestoes, though age has nothing to do with the deference +accorded them. Tawabinisay is not more than thirty-five years old; +Peter, our Hudson Bay Indian, is hardly more than a boy. Yet both are +obeyed implicitly by whomever they happen to be with; both lead the way +by river or trail; and both, where question arises, are sought in +advice by men old enough to be their fathers. Perhaps this is as good a +democracy as another. + +The life so briefly hinted at in the foregoing lines inevitably +develops and fosters an expertness of woodcraft almost beyond belief. +The Ojibway knows his environment. The forest is to him so familiar in +each and every one of its numerous and subtle aspects that the +slightest departure from the normal strikes his attention at once. A +patch of brown shadow where green shadow should fall, a shimmering of +leaves where should be merely a gentle waving, a cross-light where the +usual forest growth should adumbrate, a flash of wings at a time of day +when feathered creatures ordinarily rest quiet--these, and hundreds of +others which you and I should never even guess at, force themselves as +glaringly on an Indian's notice as a brass band in a city street. A +white man _looks_ for game; an Indian sees it because it differs +from the forest. + +That is, of course, a matter of long experience and lifetime habit. +Were it a question merely of this, the white man might also in time +attain the same skill. But the Indian is a better animal. His senses +are appreciably sharper than our own. + +In journeying down the Kapuskasing River, our Indians--who had come +from the woods to guide us--always saw game long before we did. They +would never point it out to us. The bow of the canoe would swing +silently in its direction, there to rest motionless until we indicated +we had seen something. + +"Where is it, Peter?" I would whisper. + +But Peter always remained contemptuously silent. + +One evening we paddled directly into the eye of the setting sun +across a shallow little lake filled with hardly sunken boulders. There +was no current, and no breath of wind to stir the water into betraying +riffles. But invariably those Indians twisted the canoe into a new +course ten feet before we reached one of the obstructions, whose +existence our dazzled vision could not attest until they were actually +below us. They _saw_ those rocks, through the shimmer of the +surface glare. + +Another time I discovered a small black animal lying flat on a point of +shale. Its head was concealed behind a boulder, and it was so far away +that I was inclined to congratulate myself on having differentiated it +from the shadow. + +"What is it, Peter?" I asked. + +Peter hardly glanced at it. + +"Ninny-moosh" (dog), he replied. + +Now we were a hundred miles south of the Hudson's Bay post, and two +weeks north of any other settlement. Saving a horse, a dog would be +about the last thing to occur to one in guessing at the identity of any +strange animal. This looked like a little black blotch, without form. +Yet Peter knew it. It was a dog, lost from some Indian hunting-party, +and mightily glad to see us. + +The sense of smell, too, is developed to an extent positively uncanny +to us who have needed it so little. Your Woods Indian is always +sniffing, always testing the impressions of other senses by his +olfactories. Instances numerous and varied might be cited, but probably +one will do as well as a dozen. It once became desirable to kill a +caribou in country where the animals are not at all abundant. +Tawabinisay volunteered to take Jim within shot of one. Jim describes +their hunt as the most wonderful bit of stalking he had ever seen. The +Indian followed the animal's tracks as easily as you or I could have +followed them over snow. He did this rapidly and certainly. Every once +in a while he would get down on all fours to sniff inquiringly at the +crushed herbage. Always on rising to his feet he would give the result +of his investigations. "Ah-teek [caribou] one hour." + +And later, "Ah-teek half hour." + +Or again, "Ah-teek quarter hour." + +And finally, "Ah-teek over nex' hill." + +And it was so. + +In like manner, but most remarkable to us because the test of direct +comparison with our own sense was permitted us, was their acuteness of +hearing. Often while "jumping" a roaring rapids in two canoes, my +companion and I have heard our men talking to each other in quite an +ordinary tone of voice. That is to say, I could hear my Indian, and Jim +could hear his; but personally we were forced to shout loudly to carry +across the noise of the stream. The distant approach of animals they +announce accurately. + +"Wawashkeshi" (deer), says Peter. + +And sure enough, after an interval, we too could distinguish the +footfalls on the dry leaves. + +As both cause and consequence of these physical endowments--which place +them nearly on a parity with the game itself--they are most expert +hunters. Every sportsman knows the importance--and also the +difficulty--of discovering game before it discovers him. The Indian has +here an immense advantage. And after game is discovered, he is +furthermore most expert in approaching it with all the refined art of +the still hunter. + +Mr. Caspar Whitney describes in exasperation his experience with the +Indians of the Far North-West. He complains that when they blunder on +game they drop everything and enter into almost hopeless chase, two +legs against four. Occasionally the quarry becomes enough bewildered so +that the wild shooting will bring it down. He quite justly argues that +the merest pretence at caution in approach would result in much greater +success. + +The Woods Indian is no such fool. He is a mighty poor shot--and he +knows it. Personally I believe he shuts both eyes before pulling +trigger. He is armed with a long flint or percussion lock musket, whose +gas-pipe barrel is bound to the wood that runs its entire length by +means of brass bands, and whose effective range must be about ten +yards. This archaic implement is known as a "trade gun" and has the +single merit of never getting out of order. Furthermore ammunition is +precious. In consequence, the wilderness hunter is not going to be +merely pretty sure; he intends to be absolutely certain. If he cannot +approach near enough to blow a hole in his prey, he does not fire. + +I have seen Peter drop into marsh-grass so thin that apparently we +could discern the surface of the ground through it, and disappear so +completely that our most earnest attention could not distinguish even a +rustling of the herbage. After an interval his gun would go off from +some distant point, exactly where some ducks had been feeding serenely +oblivious to fate. Neither of us white men would have considered for a +moment the possibility of getting any of them. Once I felt rather proud +of myself for killing six ruffed grouse out of some trees with the +pistol, until Peter drifted in carrying three he had bagged with a +stick. + +Another interesting phase of this almost perfect correspondence to +environment is the readiness with which an Indian will meet an +emergency. We are accustomed to rely first of all on the skilled labour +of some one we can hire; second, if we undertake the job ourselves, on +the tools made for us by skilled labour; and third, on the shops to +supply us with the materials we may need. Not once in a lifetime are we +thrown entirely on our own resources. Then we improvise bunglingly a +makeshift. + +The Woods Indian possesses his knife and his light axe. Nails, planes, +glue, chisels, vices, cord, rope, and all the rest of it he has to do +without. But he never improvises makeshifts. No matter what the +exigency or how complicated the demand, his experience answers with +accuracy. + +Utensils and tools he knows exactly where to find. His job is neat and +workmanlike, whether it is a bark receptacle--water-tight or not--a +pair of snow-shoes, the repairing of a badly-smashed canoe, the +construction of a shelter, or the fashioning of a paddle. About noon +one day Tawabinisay broke his axe-helve square off. This to us would +have been a serious affair. Probably we should, left to ourselves, have +stuck in some sort of a rough straight sapling handle which would have +answered well enough until we could have bought another. By the time we +had cooked dinner that Indian had fashioned another helve. We compared +it with the store article. It was as well shaped, as smooth, as nicely +balanced. In fact, as we laid the new and the old side by side, we +could not have selected, from any evidence of the workmanship, which +had been made by machine and which by hand. Tawabinisay then burned out +the wood from the axe, retempered the steel, set the new helve, and +wedged it neatly with ironwood wedges. The whole affair, including the +cutting of the timber, consumed perhaps half an hour. + +To travel with a Woods Indian is a constant source of delight on this +account. So many little things that the white man does without, because +he will not bother with their transportation, the Indian makes for +himself. And so quickly and easily! I have seen a thoroughly +waterproof, commodious, and comfortable bark shelter made in about the +time it would take one to pitch a tent. I have seen a raft built of +cedar logs and cedar bark ropes in an hour. I have seen a badly-stove +canoe made as good as new in fifteen minutes. The Indian rarely needs +to hunt for the materials he requires. He knows exactly where they +grow, and he turns as directly to them as a clerk would turn to his +shelves. No problem of the living of physical life is too obscure to +have escaped his varied experience. You may travel with Indians for +years, and learn something new and delightful as to how to take care of +yourself every summer. + +The qualities I have mentioned come primarily from the fact that the +Woods Indian is a hunter. I have now to instance two whose development +can be traced to the other fact--that he is a nomad. I refer to his +skill with the bark canoe and his ability to carry. + +I was once introduced to a man at a little way station of the Canadian +Pacific Railway in the following words:-- + +"Shake hands with Munson; he's as good a canoeman as an Indian." + +A little later one of the bystanders remarked to me:-- + +"That fellow you was just talking with is as good a canoeman as an +Injun." + +Still later, at an entirely different place, a member of the bar +informed me, in the course of discussion:-- + +"The only man I know of who can do it is named Munson. He is as good a +canoeman as an Indian." + +At the time this unanimity of praise puzzled me a little. I thought I +had seen some pretty good canoe work, and even cherished a mild conceit +that occasionally I could keep right side up myself. I knew Munson to +be a great woods-traveller, with many striking qualities, and why this +of canoemanship should be so insistently chosen above the others was +beyond my comprehension. Subsequently a companion and I journeyed to +Hudson Bay with two birch canoes and two Indians. Since that trip I +have had a vast respect for Munson. + +Undoubtedly among the half-breed and white guides of Lower Canada, +Maine, and the Adirondacks are many skilful men. But they know their +waters; they follow a beaten track. The Woods Indian--well, let me tell +you something of what he does. + +We went down the Kapuskasing River to the Mattagami, and then down that +to the Moose. These rivers are at first but a hundred feet or so wide, +but rapidly swell with the influx of numberless smaller streams. Two +days' journey brings you to a watercourse nearly half a mile in +breadth; two weeks finds you on a surface approximately a mile and a +half across. All this water descends from the Height of Land to the sea +level. It does so through a rock country. The result is a series of +roaring, dashing boulder rapids and waterfalls that would make your +hair stand on end merely to contemplate from the banks. + +The regular route to Moose Factory is by the Missinaibie. Our way was +new and strange. No trails; no knowledge of the country. When we came +to a stretch of white water, the Indians would rise to their feet for a +single instant's searching examination of the stretch of tumbled water +before them. In that moment they picked the passage they were to follow +as well as a white man could have done so in half an hour's study. Then +without hesitation they shot their little craft at the green water. + +From that time we merely tried to sit still, each in his canoe. Each +Indian did it all with his single paddle. He seemed to possess absolute +control over his craft. + +Even in the rush of water which seemed to hurry us on at almost +railroad speed, he could stop for an instant, work directly sideways, +shoot forward at a slant, swing either his bow or his stern. An error +in judgment or in the instantaneous acting upon it meant a hit; and a +hit in these savage North Country Rivers meant destruction. How my man +kept in his mind the passage he had planned during his momentary +inspection was always to me a miracle. How he got so unruly a beast as +the birch canoe to follow it in that tearing volume of water was always +another. Big boulders he dodged, eddies he took advantage of, slants of +current he utilized. A fractional second of hesitation could not be +permitted him. But always the clutching of white hands from the rip at +the eddy finally conveyed to my spray-drenched faculties that the rapid +was safely astern. And this, mind you, in strange waters. + +Occasionally we would carry our outfit through the woods, while the +Indians would shoot some especially bad water in the light canoe. As a +spectacle nothing could be finer. The flash of the yellow bark, the +movement of the broken waters, the gleam of the paddle, the tense +alertness of the men's figures, their carven, passive faces, with the +contrast of the flashing eyes and the distended nostrils, then the leap +into space over some half-cataract, the smash of spray, the exultant +yells of the canoemen! For your Indian enjoys the game thoroughly. And +it requires very bad water indeed to make him take to the brush. + +This is, of course, the spectacular. But also in the ordinary gray +business of canoe travel the Woods Indian shows his superiority. He is +tireless, and composed as to wrist and shoulder of a number of +whale-bone springs. From early dawn to dewy eve, and then a few +gratuitous hours into the night, he will dig energetic holes in the +water with his long, narrow blade. And every stroke counts. The water +boils out in a splotch of white air-bubbles, the little suction holes +pirouette like dancing-girls, the fabric of the craft itself trembles +under the power of the stroke. Jim and I used, in the lake stretches, +to amuse ourselves--and probably the Indians--by paddling in furious +rivalry one against the other. Then Peter would make up his mind he +would like to speak to Jacob. His canoe would shoot up alongside as +though the Old Man of the Lake had laid his hand across its stern. +Would I could catch that trick of easy, tireless speed! I know it lies +somewhat in keeping both elbows always straight and stiff, in a lurch +forward of the shoulders at the end of the stroke. But that, and more! +Perhaps one needs a copper skin and beady black eyes with surface +lights. + +Nor need you hope to pole a canoe upstream as do these people. +Tawabinisay uses two short poles, one in either hand, kneels amidships, +and snakes that little old canoe of his upstream so fast that you would +swear the rapids an easy matter--until you tried them yourself. We were +once trailed up a river by an old Woods Indian and his interesting +family. The outfit consisted of canoe Number One--_item_, one old +Injin, one boy of eight years, one dog; canoe Number Two--_item_, +one old Injin squaw, one girl of eighteen or twenty, one dog; canoe +Number Three--_item_, two little girls of ten and twelve, one +dog. We tried desperately for three days to get away from this party. +It did not seem to work hard at all. We did. Even the two little girls +appeared to dip the contemplative paddle from time to time. Water +boiled back of our own blades. We started early and quit late, and +about as we congratulated ourselves over our evening fire that we had +distanced our followers at last, those three canoes would steal +silently and calmly about the lower bend to draw ashore below us. In +ten minutes the old Indian was delivering an oration to us, squatted in +resignation. + +The Red Gods alone know what he talked about. He had no English, and +our Ojibway was of the strictly utilitarian. But for an hour he would +hold forth. We called him Talk-in-the-Face, the Great Indian Chief. +Then he would drop a mild hint for saymon, which means tobacco, and +depart. By ten o'clock the next morning he and his people would +overtake us in spite of our earlier start. Usually we were in the act +of dragging our canoe through an especially vicious rapid by means of a +tow-line. Their three canoes, even to the children's, would ascend +easily by means of poles. Tow-lines appeared to be unsportsmanlike--like +angle-worms. Then the entire nine--including the dogs--would roost on +rocks and watch critically our methods. + +The incident had one value, however: it showed us just why these people +possess the marvellous canoe skill I have attempted to sketch. The +little boy in the leading canoe was not over eight or nine years of +age, but he had his little paddle and his little canoe-pole, and, what +is more, he already used them intelligently and well. As for the little +girls--well, they did easily feats I never hope to emulate, and that +without removing the cowl-like coverings from their heads and +shoulders. + +The same early habitude probably accounts for their ability to carry +weights long distances. The Woods Indian is not a mighty man +physically. Most of them are straight and well built, but of only +medium height, and not wonderfully muscled. Peter was most beautiful, +but in the fashion of the flying Mercury, with long smooth panther +muscles. He looked like Uncas, especially when his keen hawk-face was +fixed in distant attention. But I think I could have wrestled Peter +down. Yet time and again I have seen that Indian carry two hundred +pounds for some miles through a rough country absolutely without +trails. And once I was witness of a feat of Tawabinisay, when that wily +savage portaged a pack of fifty pounds and a two-man canoe through a +hill country for four hours and ten minutes without a rest. Tawabinisay +is even smaller than Peter. + +So much for the qualities developed by the woods life. Let us now +examine what may be described as the inherent characteristics of the +people. + + + + +XVI. + +ON WOODS INDIANS (_continued_). + + +It must be understood, of course, that I offer you only the best of my +subject. A people counts for what it does well. Also I instance men of +standing in the loose Indian body politic. A traveller can easily +discover the reverse of the medal. These have their shirks, their +do-nothings, their men of small account, just as do other races. I have +no thought of glorifying the noble red man, nor of claiming for him a +freedom from human imperfection--even where his natural quality and +training count the most--greater than enlightenment has been able to +reach. + +In my experience the honesty of the Woods Indian is of a very high +order. The sense of _mine_ and _thine_ is strongly forced by +the exigencies of the North Woods life. A man is always on the move; he +is always exploring the unknown countries. Manifestly it is impossible +for him to transport the entire sum of his worldly effects. The +implements of winter are a burden in summer. Also the return journey +from distant shores must be provided for by food-stations, to be relied +on. The solution of these needs is the cache. + +And the cache is not a literal term at all. It _conceals_ nothing. +Rather does it hold aloft in long-legged prominence, for the inspection +of all who pass, what the owner has seen fit to leave behind. A heavy +platform high enough from the ground to frustrate the investigations of +animals is all that is required. Visual concealment is unnecessary, +because in the North Country a cache is sacred. On it may depend the +life of a man. He who leaves provisions must find them on his return, +for he may reach them starving, and the length of his out-journey may +depend on his certainty of relief at this point on his in-journey. So +men passing touch not his hoard, for some day they may be in the same +fix, and a precedent is a bad thing. + +[Illustration: NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE +PEOPLE.] + +Thus in parts of the wildest countries of northern Canada I have +unexpectedly come upon a birch canoe in capsized suspension between two +trees; or a whole bunch of snow-shoes depending fruit-like beneath the +fans of a spruce; or a tangle of steel traps thrust into the crevice of +a tree-root; or a supply of pork and flour, swathed like an Egyptian +mummy, occupying stately a high bier. These things we have passed by +reverently, as symbols of a people's trust in its kind. + +The same sort of honesty holds in regard to smaller things. I have +never hesitated to leave in my camp firearms, fishing-rods, utensils +valuable from a woods point of view, even a watch or money. Not only +have I never lost anything in that manner, but once an Indian lad +followed me some miles after the morning's start to restore to me a +half-dozen trout flies I had accidentally left behind. + +It might be readily inferred that this quality carries over into the +subtleties, as indeed is the case. Mr. MacDonald of Brunswick House +once discussed with me the system of credits carried on by the Hudson's +Bay Company with the trappers. Each family is advanced goods to the +value of two hundred dollars, with the understanding that the debt is +to be paid from the season's catch. + +"I should think you would lose a good deal," I ventured. "Nothing could +be easier than for an Indian to take his two hundred dollars' worth and +disappear in the woods. You'd never be able to find him." + +Mr. MacDonald's reply struck me, for the man had twenty years' trading +experience. + +"I have never," said he, "in a long woods life known but one Indian +liar." + +This my own limited woods-wandering has proved to be true to a +sometimes almost ridiculous extent. The most trivial statement of fact +can be relied on, provided it is given outside of trade or enmity or +absolute indifference. The Indian loves to fool the tenderfoot. But a +sober, measured statement you can conclude is accurate. And if an +Indian promises a thing, he will accomplish it. He expects you to do +the same. Watch your lightest words carefully and you would retain the +respect of your red associates. + +On our way to the Hudson Bay we rashly asked Peter, towards the last, +when we should reach Moose Factory. He deliberated. + +"T'ursday," said he. + +Things went wrong; Thursday supplied a head wind. We had absolutely no +interest in reaching Moose Factory next day; the next week would have +done as well. But Peter, deaf to expostulation, entreaty, and command, +kept us travelling from six in the morning until after twelve at night. +We couldn't get him to stop. Finally he drew the canoes ashore. + +"Moose-amik quarter hour," said he. + +He had kept his word. + +The Ojibway possesses a great pride which the unthinking can ruffle +quite unconsciously in many ways. Consequently the Woods Indian is +variously described as a good guide or a bad one. The difference lies +in whether you suggest or command. + +"Peter, you've got to make Chicawgun to-night. Get a move on you!" will +bring you sullen service, and probably breed kicks on the grub supply, +which is the immediate precursor of mutiny. + +"Peter, it's a long way to Chicawgun. Do you think we make him +to-night?" on the other hand, will earn you at least a serious +consideration of the question. And if Peter says you can, you will. + +For the proper man the Ojibway takes a great pride in his woodcraft, +the neatness of his camps, the savoury quality of his cookery, the +expedition of his travel, the size of his packs, the patience of his +endurance. On the other hand, he can be as sullen, inefficient, stupid, +and vindictive as any man of any race on earth. I suppose the faculty +of getting along with men is largely inherent. Certainly it is blended +of many subtleties. To be friendly, to retain respect, to praise, to +preserve authority, to direct and yet to leave detail, to exact what is +due, and yet to deserve it--these be the qualities of a leader, and +cannot be taught. + +In general the Woods Indian is sober. He cannot get whisky regularly, +to be sure, but I have often seen the better class of Ojibways refuse a +drink, saying that they did not care for it. He starves well, and keeps +going on nothing long after hope is vanished. He is patient--yea, very +patient--under toil, and so accomplishes great journeys, overcomes +great difficulties, and does great deeds by means of this handmaiden of +genius. According to his own standards is he clean. To be sure his +baths are not numerous, nor his laundry-days many, but he never cooks +until he has washed his hands and arms to the very shoulders. Other +details would but corroborate the impression of this instance--that his +ideas differ from ours, as is his right, but that he lives up to his +ideas. Also is he hospitable, expecting nothing in return. After your +canoe is afloat and your paddle in the river, two or three of his +youngsters will splash in after you to toss silver fish to your +necessities. And so always he will wait until this last moment of +departure, in order that you will not feel called on to give him +something in return. Which is true tact and kindliness, and worthy of +high praise. + +Perhaps I have not strongly enough insisted that the Indian nations +differ as widely from one another as do unallied races. We found this +to be true even in the comparatively brief journey from Chapleau to +Moose. After pushing through a trackless wilderness without having laid +eyes on a human being, excepting the single instance of three French +_voyageurs_ going Heaven knows where, we were anticipating +pleasurably our encounter with the traders at the Factory, and +naturally supposed that Peter and Jacob would be equally pleased at the +chance of visiting with their own kind. Not at all. When we reached +Moose our Ojibways wrapped themselves in a mantle of dignity, and +stalked scornful amidst obsequious clans. For the Ojibway is great +among Indians, verily much greater than the Moose River Crees. Had it +been a question of Rupert's River Crees with their fierce blood-laws, +their conjuring-lodges, and their pagan customs, the affair might have +been different. + +For, mark you, the Moose River Cree is little among hunters, and he +conducts the chase miscellaneously over his district without thought to +the preservation of the beaver, and he works in the hay marshes during +the summer, and is short, squab, and dirty, and generally +_ka-win-ni-shi-shin_. The old sacred tribal laws, which are better +than a religion because they are practically adapted to northern life, +have among them been allowed to lapse. Travellers they are none, nor do +their trappers get far from the Company's pork-barrels. So they inbreed +ignobly for lack of outside favour, and are dying from the face of the +land through dire diseases, just as their reputations have already died +from men's respect. + +The great unwritten law of the forest is that, save as provision during +legitimate travel, one may not hunt in his neighbour's district. Each +trapper has assigned him, or gets by inheritance or purchase, certain +territorial power. In his land he alone may trap. He knows the +beaver-dams, how many animals each harbours, how large a catch each +will stand without diminution of the supply. So the fur is made to +last. In the southern district this division is tacitly agreed upon. It +is not etiquette to poach. What would happen to a poacher no one knows, +simply because the necessity for finding out has not arisen. +Tawabinisay controls from Batchawanung to Agawa. There old Waboos takes +charge. And so on. But in the Far North the control is more often +disputed, and there the blood-law still holds. An illegal trapper baits +his snares with his life. If discovered, he is summarily shot. So is +the game preserved. + +The Woods Indian never kills waste-fully. The mere presence of game +does not breed in him a lust to slaughter something. Moderation you +learn of him first of all. Later, provided you are with him long enough +and your mind is open to mystic influence, you will feel the strong +impress of his idea--that the animals of the forest are not lower than +man, but only different. Man is an animal living the life of the +forest; the beasts are also a body politic speaking a different +language and with different view-points. Amik, the beaver, has certain +ideas as to the conduct of life, certain habits of body, and certain +bias of thought. His scheme of things is totally at variance with that +held by Me-en-gan, the wolf, but even to us whites the two are on a +parity. Man has still another system. One is no better than another. +They are merely different. And just as Me-en-gan preys on Amik, so does +Man kill for his own uses. + +Thence are curious customs. A Rupert River Cree will not kill a bear +unless he, the hunter, is in gala attire, and then not until he has +made a short speech in which he assures his victim that the affair is +not one of personal enmity, but of expedience, and that anyway he, the +bear, will be better off in the Hereafter. And then the skull is +cleaned and set on a pole near running water, there to remain during +twelve moons. Also at the tail-root of a newly-deceased beaver is tied +a thong braided of red wool and deerskin. And many other curious +habitudes which would be of slight interest here. Likewise do they +conjure up by means of racket and fasting the familiar spirits of +distant friends or enemies, and on these spirits fasten a blessing or a +curse. + +From this it may be deduced that missionary work has not been as +thorough as might be hoped. That is true. The Woods Indian loves to +sing, and possesses quaint melodies, or rather intonations, of his own. +But especially does he delight in the long-drawn wail of some of our +old-fashioned hymns. The church oftenest reaches him through them. I +know nothing stranger than the sight of a little half-lit church filled +with Indians swaying unctuously to and fro in the rhythm of a cadence +old Watts would have recognized with difficulty. The religious feeling +of the performance is not remarkable, but perhaps it does as a +starting-point. + +Exactly how valuable the average missionary work is I have been puzzled +to decide. Perhaps the church needs more intelligence in the men it +sends out. The evangelist is usually filled with narrow, preconceived +notions as to the proper physical life. He squeezes his savage into log +houses, boiled shirts, and boots. When he has succeeded in getting his +tuberculosis crop well started, he offers as compensation a doctrinal +religion admirably adapted to us, who have within reach of +century-trained perceptions a thousand of the subtler associations a +savage can know nothing about. If there is enough glitter and tin +steeple and high-sounding office and gilt good-behaviour card to it, +the red man's pagan heart is tickled in its vanity, and he dies in the +odour of sanctity--and of a filth his out-of-door life has never taught +him how to avoid. The Indian is like a raccoon: in his proper +surroundings he is clean morally and physically because he knows how to +be so; but in a cage he is filthy because he does not know how to be +otherwise. + +I must not be understood as condemning missionary work; only the stupid +missionary work one most often sees in the North. Surely Christianity +should be adaptable enough in its little things to fit any people with +its great. It seems hard for some men to believe that it is not +essential for a real Christian to wear a plug-hat. One God, love, +kindness, charity, honesty, right living, may thrive as well in the +wigwam as in a foursquare house--provided you let them wear moccasins +and a _capote_ wherewith to keep themselves warm and vital. + +Tawabinisay must have had his religious training at the hands of a good +man. He had lost none of his aboriginal virtue and skill, as may be +gathered from what I have before said of him, and had gained in +addition certain of the gentle qualities. I have never been able to +gauge exactly the extent of his religious _understanding_, for +Tawabinisay is a silent individual, and possesses very little English; +but I do know that his religious _feeling_ was deep and reverent. +He never swore in English; he did not drink; he never travelled or +hunted or fished on Sunday when he could possibly help it. These +virtues he wore modestly and unassumingly as an accustomed garment. Yet +he was the most gloriously natural man I have ever met. + +The main reliance of his formalism when he was off in the woods seemed +to be a little tattered volume, which he perused diligently all Sunday, +and wrapped carefully in a strip of oiled paper during the rest of the +week. One day I had a chance to look at this book while its owner was +away after spring water. Every alternate page was in the phonetic +Indian symbols, of which more hereafter. The rest was in French, and +evidently a translation. Although the volume was of Roman Catholic +origin, creed was conspicuously subordinated to the needs of the class +it aimed to reach. A confession of faith, quite simple, in one God, a +Saviour, a Mother of Heaven; a number of Biblical extracts rich in +imagery and applicability to the experience of a woods-dweller; a dozen +simple prayers of the kind the natural man would oftenest find occasion +to express--a prayer for sickness, for bounty, for fair weather, for +ease of travel, for the smiling face of Providence; and then some +hymns. To me the selection seemed most judicious. It answered the needs +of Tawabinisay's habitual experiences, and so the red man was a good +and consistent convert. Irresistibly I was led to contemplate the idea +of any one trying to get Tawabinisay to live in a house, to cut +cordwood with an axe, to roost on a hard bench under a tin steeple, to +wear stiff shoes, and to quit forest roaming. + +The written language mentioned above you will see often in the +Northland. Whenever an Indian band camps, it blazes a tree and leaves, +as record for those who may follow, a message written in the phonetic +character. I do not understand exactly the philosophy of it, but I +gather that each sound has a symbol of its own, like shorthand, and +that therefore even totally different languages--such as Ojibway, the +Wood Cree, or the Hudson Bay Eskimos--may all be written in the same +character. It was invented nearly a hundred years ago by a priest. So +simple is it, and so needed a method of intercommunication, that its +use is now practically universal. Even the youngsters understand it, +for they are early instructed in its mysteries during the long winter +evenings. On the preceding page is a message I copied from a spruce +tree two hundred miles from anywhere on the Mattagami River. + +[Illustration] + +Besides this are numberless formal symbols in constant use. Forerunners +on a trail stick a twig in the ground whose point indicates exactly the +position of the sun. Those who follow are able to estimate, by noting +how far beyond the spot the twig points to the sun has travelled, how +long a period of time has elapsed. A stick pointed in any given +direction tells the route, of course. Another planted upright across +the first shows by its position how long a journey is contemplated. A +little sack suspended at the end of the pointer conveys information as +to the state of the larder, lean or fat according as the little sack +contains more or less gravel or sand. A shred of rabbit-skin means +starvation. And so on in variety useless in any but an ethnological +work. + +[Illustration 1: A short journey.] + +[Illustration 2: A medium journey.] + +[Illustration 3: A long journey.] + +The Ojibways' tongue is soft, and full of decided lisping and sustained +hissing sounds. It is spoken with somewhat of a sing-song drawl. We +always had a fancy that somehow it was of forest growth, and that its +syllables were intended in the scheme of things to blend with the woods +noises, just as the feathers of the mother partridge blend with the +woods colours. In general it is polysyllabic. That applies especially +to concepts borrowed of the white men. On the other hand, the Ojibways +describe in monosyllables many ideas we could express only in phrase. +They have a single word for the notion, Place-where-an-animal-slept- +last-night. Our "lair," "form," etc., do not mean exactly that. Its +genius, moreover, inclines to a flexible verb-form, by which adjectives +and substantives are often absorbed into the verb itself, so that one +beautiful singing word will convey a whole paragraph of information. My +little knowledge of it is so entirely empirical that it can possess small +value. + +In concluding these desultory remarks, I want to tell you of a very +curious survival among the Ojibways and Ottawas of the Georgian Bay. It +seems that some hundreds of years ago these ordinarily peaceful folk +descended on the Iroquois in what is now New York, and massacred a +village or so. Then, like small boys who have thrown only too +accurately at the delivery wagon, they scuttled back home again. + +Since that time they have lived in deadly fear of retribution. The +Iroquois have long since disappeared from the face of the earth, but +even to-day the Georgian Bay Indians are subject to periodical spasms +of terror. Some wild-eyed and imaginative youth sees at sunset a canoe +far down the horizon. Immediately the villages are abandoned in haste, +and the entire community moves up to the head-waters of streams, there +to lurk until convinced that all danger is past. It does no good to +tell these benighted savages that they are safe from vengeance, at +least in this world. The dreaded name of Iroquois is potent, even +across the centuries. + + + + +XVII. + +THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH. + + +We settled down peacefully on the River, and the weather, after so much +enmity, was kind to us. Likewise did the flies disappear from the woods +utterly. + +Each morning we arose as the Red Gods willed; generally early, when the +sun was just gilding the peaks to the westward; but not too early, +before the white veil had left the River. Billy, with woodsman's +contempt for economy, hewed great logs and burned them nobly in the +cooking of trout, oatmeal, pancakes, and the like. We had constructed +ourselves tables and benches between green trees, and there we ate. And +great was the eating beyond the official capacity of the human stomach. +There offered little things to do, delicious little things just on the +hither side of idleness. A rod wrapping needed more waxed silk; a +favourite fly required attention to prevent dissolution; the pistol was +to be cleaned; a flag-pole seemed desirable; a trifle more of balsam +could do no harm; clothes might stand drying, blankets airing. We +accomplished these things leisurely, pausing for the telling of +stories, for the puffing of pipes, for the sheer joy of contemplations. +Deerskin slipper moccasins and flapping trousers attested our +deshabille. And then somehow it was noon, and Billy again at the Dutch +oven and the broiler. + +Trout we ate, and always more trout. Big fellows broiled with strips of +bacon craftily sewn in and out of the pink flesh; medium fellows cut +into steaks; little fellows fried crisp in corn-meal; big, medium, and +little fellows mingled in component of the famous North Country +_bouillon_, whose other ingredients are partridges, and tomatoes, +and potatoes, and onions, and salt pork, and flour in combination +delicious beyond belief. Nor ever did we tire of them, three times a +day, printed statement to the contrary notwithstanding. And besides +were many crafty dishes over whose construction the major portion of +morning idleness was spent. + +Now at two o'clock we groaned temporary little groans; and crawled +shrinking into our river clothes, which we dared not hang too near the +fire for fear of the disintegrating scorch, and drew on soggy hobnailed +shoes with holes cut in the bottom and plunged with howls of disgust +into the upper riffles. Then the cautious leg-straddled passage of the +swift current, during which we forgot for ever--which eternity alone +circles the bliss of an afternoon on the River--the chill of the water, +and so came to the trail. + +Now, at the Idiot's Delight Dick and I parted company. By three o'clock +I came again to the River, far up, halfway to the Big Falls. Deuce +watched me gravely. With the first click of the reel he retired to the +brush away from the back cast, there to remain until the pool was +fished and we could continue our journey. + +In the swift leaping water, at the smooth back of the eddy, in the +white foam, under the dark cliff shadow, here, there, everywhere the +bright flies drop softly like strange snowflakes. The game is as +interesting as pistol-shooting. To hit the mark, that is enough. And +then a swirl of water and a broad lazy tail wake you to the fact that +other matters are yours. Verily the fish of the North Country are +mighty beyond all others. + +Over the River rests the sheen of light; over the hills rests the sheen +of romance. The land is enchanted. Birds dip and sway, advance and +retreat; leaves toss their hands in greeting, or bend and whisper one +to the other; splashes of sun fall heavy as metal through the yielding +screens of branches; little breezes wander hesitatingly here and there +to sink like spent kites on the nearest bar of sun-warmed shingle; the +stream shouts and gurgles, murmurs, hushes, lies still and secret as +though to warn you to discretion, breaks away with a shriek of hilarity +when your discretion has been assured. There is in you a great leisure, +as though the day would never end. There is in you a great keenness. +One part of you is vibrantly alive. Your wrist muscles contract almost +automatically at the swirl of a rise, and the hum of life along the +gossamer of your line gains its communication with every nerve in your +body. The question of gear and method you attack clear-minded. What +fly? Montreal, Parmachenee Belle, Royal Coachman, Silver Doctor, +Professor, Brown Hackle, Cow-dung--these grand lures for the North +Country trout receive each its due test and attention. And on the tail +snell what fisherman has not the Gamble--the unusual, obscure, +multinamed fly which may, in the occultism of his taste, attract the +Big Fellows? Besides, there remains always the handling. Does your +trout to-day fancy the skittering of his food, or the withdrawal in +three jerks, or the inch-deep sinking of the fly? Does he want it +across current or up current; will he rise with a snap, or is he going +to come slowly, or is he going to play? These be problems interesting, +insistent to be solved, with the ready test within the reach of your +skill. + +But that alertness is only one side of your mood. No matter how +difficult the selection, how strenuous the fight, there is in you a +large feeling that might almost be described as Buddhistic. Time has +nothing to do with your problems. The world has quietly run down, and +has been embalmed with all its sweetness of light and colour and sound +in a warm Lethe bath of sun. This afternoon is going to last for ever. +You note and enjoy and savour the little pleasures unhurried by the +thought that anything else, whether of pleasure or duty, is to follow. + +And so for long delicious eons. The River flows on, ever on; the hills +watch, watch always; the birds sing, the sun shines grateful across +your shoulders; the big trout and the little rise in predestined order, +and make their predestined fight, and go their predestined way either +to liberty or the creel; the pools and the rapids and the riffles slip +by upstream as though they had been withdrawn rather than as though you +had advanced. + +Then suddenly the day has dropped its wings. The earth moves forward +with a jar. Things are to be accomplished; things are being +accomplished. The River is hurrying down to the Lake; the birds have +business of their own to attend to, an it please you; the hills are +waiting for something that has not yet happened, but they are ready. +Startled, you look up. The afternoon has finished. Your last step has +taken you over the edge of the shadow cast by the setting sun across +the range of hills. + +For the first time you look about you to see where you are. It has not +mattered before. Now you know that shortly it will be dark. Still +remain below you four pools. A great haste seizes you. + +"If I take my rod apart and strike through the woods," you argue, "I +can make the Narrows, and I am sure there is a big trout there." + +Why the Narrows should be any more likely to contain a big trout than +any of the other three pools you would not be able to explain. In half +an hour it will be dark. You hurry. In the forest it is already +twilight, but by now you know the forest well. Preoccupied, feverish +with your great idea, you hasten on. The birds, silent all in the +brooding of night, rise ghostly to right and left. Shadows steal away +like hostile spies among the treetrunks. The silver of last daylight +gleams ahead of you through the brush. You know it for the Narrows, +whither the instinct of your eagerness has led you as accurately as a +compass through the forest. + +Fervently, as though this were of world's affairs the most important, +you congratulate yourself on being in time. Your rod seems to join +itself. In a moment the cast drops like a breath on the molten silver. +Nothing. Another try a trifle lower down. Nothing. A little wandering +breeze spoils your fourth attempt, carrying the leader far to the left. +Curses, deep and fervent. The daylight is fading, draining away. A +fifth cast falls forty feet out. Slowly you drag the flies across the +current, reluctant to recover until the latest possible moment. And so, +when your rod is foolishly upright, your line slack, and your flies +motionless, there rolls slowly up and over the trout of trouts. You see +a broad side, the whirl of a fantail that looks to you to be at least +six inches across; and the current slides on, silver-like, smooth, +indifferent to the wild leap of your heart. + +[Illustration: THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THEY BATHE.] + +Like a crazy man you shorten your line. Six seconds later your flies +fall skilfully just upstream from where last you saw that wonderful +tail. + +But six seconds may be a long, long period of time. You have feared and +hoped and speculated and realized; feared that the leviathan has +pricked himself, and so will not rise again; hoped that his appearance +merely indicated curiosity which he will desire further to satisfy; +speculated on whether your skill can drop the fly exactly on that spot, +as it must be dropped; and realized that, whatever be the truth as to +all those fears and hopes and speculations, this is irrevocably your +last chance. + +For an instant you allow the flies to drift downstream, to be floated +here and there by idle little eddies, to be sucked down and spat out of +tiny suction-holes. Then cautiously you draw them across the surface of +the waters. _Thump--thump--thump_--your heart slows up with +disappointment. Then mysteriously, like the stirring of the waters by +some invisible hand, the molten silver is broken in its smoothness. The +Royal Coachman quietly disappears. With all the brakes shrieking on +your desire to shut your eyes and heave a mighty heave, you depress +your butt and strike. + +Then in the twilight the battle. No leisure is here, only quivering, +intense, agonized anxiety. The affair transcends the moment. Purposes +and necessities of untold ages have concentrated, so that somehow back +of your consciousness rest hosts of disembodied hopes, tendencies, +evolutionary progressions, all breathless lest you prove unequal to the +struggle for which they have been so long preparing. + +Responsibility--vast, vague, formless--is yours. Only the fact that you +are wholly occupied with the exigence of the moment prevents your +understanding of what it is, but it hovers dark and depressing behind +your possible failure. You must win. This is no fish; it is opportunity +itself, and once gone it will never return. The mysticism of lower dusk +in the forest, of upper afterglow on the hills, of the chill of evening +waters and winds, of the glint of strange phantoms under the darkness +of cliffs, of the whisperings and shoutings of Things you are too busy +to identify out in the gray of North Country awe--all these menace you +with indeterminate dread. Knee-deep, waist-deep, swift water, slack +water, downstream, upstream, with red eyes straining into the dimness, +with every muscle taut and every nerve quivering, you follow the +ripping of your line. You have consecrated yourself to the uttermost. +The minutes stalk by you gigantic. You are a stable pin-point in +whirling phantasms. And you are very little, very small, very +inadequate among these Titans of circumstance. + +Thrice he breaks water, a white and ghostly apparition from the deep. +Your heart stops with your reel, and only resumes its office when again +the line sings safely. The darkness falls, and with it, like the +mysterious strength of Sir Gareth's opponent, falls the power of your +adversary. His rushes shorten. The blown world of your uncertainty +shrinks to the normal. From the haze of your consciousness, as through +a fog, loom the old familiar forest, and the hills, and the River. +Slowly you creep from that strange enchanted land. The sullen trout +yields. In all gentleness you float him within reach of your net. +Quietly, breathlessly you walk ashore, and over the beach, and yet an +unnecessary hundred feet from the water lest he retain still a flop. +Then you lay him upon the stones and lift up your heart in rejoicing. + +How you get to camp you never clearly know. Exultation lifts your feet. +Wings, wings, O ye Red Gods, wings to carry the body whither the spirit +hath already soared, and stooped, and circled back in impatience to see +why still the body lingers! Ordinarily you can cross the riffles above +the Halfway Pool only with caution and prayer and a stout staff +craftily employed. This night you can--and do--splash across hand-free, +as recklessly as you would wade a little brook. There is no stumble in +you, for you have done a great deed, and the Red Gods are smiling. + +Through the trees glows a light, and in the centre of that light are +leaping flames, and in the circle of that light stand, rough-hewn in +orange, the tent and the table and the waiting figures of your +companions. You stop short, and swallow hard, and saunter into camp as +one indifferent. + +Carelessly you toss aside your creel--into the darkest corner, as +though it were unimportant--nonchalantly you lean your rod against the +slant of your tent, wearily you seat yourself and begin to draw off +your drenched garments. Billy bends toward the fire. Dick gets you your +dry clothes. Nobody says anything, for everybody is hungry. No one asks +you any questions, for on the River you get in almost any time of +night. + +Finally, as you are hanging your wet things near the fire, you inquire +casually over your shoulder,-- + +"Dick, have any luck?" + +Dick tells you. You listen with apparent interest. He has caught a +three-pounder. He describes the spot and the method and the struggle. +He is very much pleased. You pity him. + +The three of you eat supper, lots of supper. Billy arises first, +filling his pipe. He hangs water over the fire for the dish-washing. +You and Dick sit hunched on a log, blissfully happy in the moments of +digestion, ruminative, watching the blaze. The tobacco smoke eddies and +sucks upward to join the wood smoke. Billy moves here and there in the +fulfilment of his simple tasks, casting his shadow wavering and +gigantic against the fire-lit trees. By-and-by he has finished. He +gathers up the straps of Dick's creel, and turns to the shadow for your +own. He is going to clean the fish. It is the moment you have watched +for. You shroud yourself in profound indifference. + +"_Sacre!_" shrieks Billy. + +You do not even turn your head. + +"Jumping giraffes! why, it's a whale!" cries Dick. + +You roll a _blase_ eye in their direction, as though such puerile +enthusiasm wearies you. + +"Yes, it's quite a little fish," you concede. + +They swarm down upon you, demanding particulars. These you accord +laconically, a word at a time, in answer to direct question, between +puffs of smoke. + +"At the Narrows. Royal Coachman. Just before I came in. Pretty fair +fight. Just at the edge of the eddy." And so on. But your soul glories. + +The tape-line is brought out. Twenty-nine inches it records. Holy +smoke, what a fish! Your air implies that you will probably catch three +more just like him on the morrow. Dick and Billy make tracings of him +on the birch bark. You retain your lofty calm: but inside you are +little quivers of rapture. And when you awake, late in the night, you +are conscious, first of all, that you are happy, happy, happy, all +through; and only when the drowse drains away do you remember why. + + + + +XVIII. + +MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT. + + +We had been joined on the River by friends. "Doug," who never fished +more than forty rods from camp, and was always inventing water-gauges, +patent indicators, and other things, and who wore in his soft slouch +hat so many brilliant trout flies that he irresistibly reminded you of +flower-decked Ophelia; "Dinnis," who was large and good-natured, and +bubbling and popular; Johnny, whose wide eyes looked for the first time +on the woods-life, and whose awe-struck soul concealed itself behind +assumptions; "Jim," six feet tall and three feet broad, with whom the +season before I had penetrated to Hudson Bay; and finally, "Doc," tall, +granite, experienced, the best fisherman that ever hit the river. With +these were Indians. Buckshot, a little Indian with a good knowledge of +English; Johnnie Challan, a half-breed Indian, ugly, furtive, an +efficient man about camp; and Tawabinisay himself. This was an honour +due to the presence of Doc. Tawabinisay approved of Doc. That was all +there was to say about it. + +After a few days, inevitably the question of Kawagama came up. Billy, +Johnnie Challan, and Buckshot squatted in a semi-circle, and drew +diagrams in the soft dirt with a stick. Tawabinisay sat on a log and +overlooked the proceedings. Finally he spoke. + +"Tawabinisay" (they always gave him his full title; we called him +Tawab) "tell me lake you find he no Kawagama," translated Buckshot. "He +called Black Beaver Lake." + +"Ask him if he'll take us to Kawagama," I requested. + +Tawabinisay looked very doubtful. + +"Come on, Tawab," urged Doc, nodding at him vigorously. "Don't be a +clam. We won't take anybody else up there." + +The Indian probably did not comprehend the words, but he liked Doc. + +"A'-right," he pronounced laboriously. + +Buckshot explained to us his plans. + +"Tawabinisay tell me," said he, "he don' been to Kawagama seven year. +To-morrow he go blaze trail. Nex' day we go." + +"How would it be if one or two of us went with him to-morrow to see how +he does it?" asked Jim. + +Buckshot looked at us strangely. + +"_I_ don't want to follow him," he replied, with a significant +simplicity. "He run like a deer." + +"Buckshot," said I, pursuing the inevitable linguistics, "what does +Kawagama mean?" + +Buckshot thought for quite two minutes. Then he drew a semicircle. + +"W'at you call dat?" he asked. + +"Crescent, like moon? half-circle? horseshoe? bow?" we proposed. + +Buckshot shook his head at each suggestion. He made a wriggling mark, +then a wide sweep, then a loop. + +"All dose," said he, "w'at you call him?" + +"Curve!" we cried. + +"Ah hah," assented Buckshot, satisfied. + +"Buckshot," we went on, "what does Tawabinisay mean?" + +"Man-who-travels-by-moonlight," he replied promptly. + +The following morning Tawabinisay departed, carrying a lunch and a +hand-axe. At four o'clock he was back, sitting on a log and smoking a +pipe. In the meantime we had made up our party. + +Tawabinisay himself had decided that the two half-breeds must stay at +home. He wished to share his secret only with his own tribesmen. The +fiat grieved Billy, for behold he had already put in much time on this +very search, and naturally desired to be in at the finish. Dick, too, +wanted to go, but him we decided too young and light for a fast march. +Dinnis had to leave the River in a day or so; Johnnie was a little +doubtful as to the tramp, although he concealed his doubt--at least to +his own satisfaction--under a variety of excuses. Jim and Doc would go, +of course. There remained Doug. + +We found that individual erecting a rack of many projecting arms--like +a Greek warrior's trophy--at the precise spot where the first rays of +the morning sun would strike it. On the projecting arms he purposed +hanging his wet clothes. + +"Doug," said we, "do you want to go to Kawagama to-morrow?" + +Doug turned on us a sardonic eye. He made no direct answer, but told +the following story:-- + +"Once upon a time Judge Carter was riding through a rural district in +Virginia. He stopped at a negro's cabin to get his direction. + +"'Uncle,' said he, 'can you direct me to Colonel Thompson's?' + +"'Yes, sah,' replied the negro; 'yo' goes down this yah road 'bout two +mile till yo' comes to an ol' ailm tree, and then yo' tu'us sha'p to +th' right down a lane fo' 'bout a qua'ter of a mile. Thah you sees a +big white house. Yo' wants to go through th' ya'd, to a paf that takes +you a spell to a gate. Yo' follows that road to th' lef till yo' comes +to three roads goin' up a hill; and, jedge, _it don' mattah which one +of them thah roads yo' take, yo' gets lost surer 'n hell anyway!_'" + +Then Doug turned placidly back to the construction of his trophy. + +We interpreted this as an answer, and made up an outfit for five. + +The following morning at six o'clock we were under way. Johnnie Challan +ferried us across the river in two instalments. We waved our hands and +plunged through the brush screen. + +Thenceforth it was walk half an hour, rest five minutes, with almost +the regularity of clockwork. We timed the Indians secretly, and found +they varied by hardly a minute from absolute fidelity to this schedule. +We had at first, of course, to gain the higher level of the hills, but +Tawabinisay had the day before picked out a route that mounted as +easily as the country would allow, and through a hardwood forest free +of underbrush. Briefly indicated, our way led first through the big +trees and up the hills, then behind a great cliff knob into a creek +valley, through a quarter-mile of bottom-land thicket, then by an open +strip to the first little lake. This we ferried by means of the bark +canoe carried on the shoulders of Tawabinisay. + +In the course of the morning we thus passed four lakes. Throughout the +entire distance to Kawagama were the fresh axe-blazes the Indian had +made the day before. These were neither so frequent nor as plainly cut +as a white man's trail, but each represented a pause long enough for +the clip of an axe. In addition the trail had been made passable for a +canoe. That meant the cutting out of overhanging branches wherever they +might catch the bow of the craft. In the thicket a little road had been +cleared, and the brush had been piled on either side. To an +unaccustomed eye it seemed the work of two days at least. Yet +Tawabinisay had picked out his route, cleared and marked it thus, +skirted the shores of the lakes we were able to traverse in the canoe, +and had returned to the River in less time than we consumed in merely +reaching the Lake itself! Truly, as Buckshot said, he must have "run +like a deer." + +Tawabinisay has a delightful grin which he displays when pleased or +good-humoured or puzzled or interested or comprehending, just as a dog +sneezes and wrinkles up his nose in like case. He is essentially +kind-hearted. If he likes you and approves of you, he tries to teach +you, to help you, to show you things. But he never offers to do any +part of your work, and on the march he never looks back to see if you +are keeping up. You can shout at him until you are black in the face, +but never will he pause until rest-time. Then he squats on his heels, +lights his pipe, and grins. + +Buckshot adored him. This opportunity of travelling with him was an +epoch. He drank in eagerly the brief remarks of his "old man," and +detailed them to us with solemnity, prefaced always by his "Tawabinisay +tell me." Buckshot is of the better class of Indian himself, but +occasionally he is puzzled by the woods-noises. Tawabinisay never. As +we cooked lunch, we heard the sound of steady footsteps in the +forest--_pat_; then a pause; then _pat_; just like a deer +browsing. To make sure I inquired of Buckshot. + +"What is it?" + +Buckshot listened a moment. + +"Deer," said he decisively; then, not because he doubted his own +judgment, but from habitual deference, he turned to where Tawabinisay +was frying things. + +"Qwaw?" he inquired. + +Tawabinisay never even looked up. + +"Adji-domo" (squirrel), said he. + +We looked at each other incredulously. It sounded like a deer. It did +not sound in the least like a squirrel. An experienced Indian had +pronounced it a deer. Nevertheless it was a squirrel. + +We approached Kawagama by way of a gradual slope clothed with a +beautiful beech and maple forest whose trees were the tallest of those +species I have ever seen. Ten minutes brought us to the shore. There +was no abrupt bursting in on Kawagama through screens of leaves; we +entered leisurely to her presence by way of an ante-chamber whose +spaciousness permitted no vulgar surprises. After a time we launched +our canoe from a natural dock afforded by a cedar root, and so stood +ready to cross to our permanent camp. But first we drew our knives and +erased from a giant birch the half-grown-over name of the banker +Clement. + +There seems to me little use in telling you that Kawagama is about four +miles long by a mile wide, is shaped like a crescent, and lies in a +valley surrounded by high hills; nor that its water is so transparent +that the bottom is visible until it fades into the sheer blackness of +depth; nor that it is alive with trout; nor that its silence is the +silence of a vast solitude, so that always, even at daybreak or at high +midday, it seems to be late afternoon. That would convey little to you. +I will inform you quite simply that Kawagama is a very beautiful +specimen of the wilderness lake; that it is as the Lord made it; and +that we had a good time. + +Did you ever fish with the fly from a birch-bark canoe on absolutely +still water? You do not seem to move. But far below you, gliding, +silent, ghostlike, the bottom slips beneath. Like a weather-vane in an +imperceptible current of air, your bow turns to right or left in +apparent obedience to the mere will of your companion. And the flies +drop softly like down. Then the silence becomes sacred. You whisper-- +although there is no reason for your whispering; you move cautiously, +lest your reel scrape the gunwale. An inadvertent click of the paddle +is a profanation. The only creatures in all God's world possessing the +right to utter aloud a single syllable are the loon, far away, and the +winter wren, near at hand. Even the trout fight grimly, without noise, +their white bodies flashing far down in the dimness. + +Hour after hour we stole here and there like conspirators. Where showed +the circles of a fish's rise, thither crept we to drop a fly on their +centre as in the bull's-eye of a target. The trout seemed to linger +near their latest capture, so often we would catch one exactly where we +had seen him break water some little time before. In this was the charm +of the still hunt. Shoal water, deep water, it seemed all the same to +our fortunes. The lake was full of fish, and beautiful fish they were, +with deep, glowing bronze bellies, and all of from a pound to a pound +and a half in weight. The lake had not been fished. Probably somewhere +in those black depths over one of the bubbling spring-holes that must +feed so cold and clear a body of water, are big fellows lying, and +probably the crafty minnow or spoon might lure them out. But we were +satisfied with our game. + +At other times we paddled here and there in exploration of coves, +inlets, and a tiny little brook that flowed westward from a reed marsh +to join another river running parallel to our own. + +The Indians had erected a huge lean-to of birch bark, from the ribs of +which hung clothes and the little bags of food. The cooking-fire was +made in front of it between two giant birch trees. At evening the light +and heat reflected strongly beneath the shelter, leaving the forest in +impenetrable darkness. To the very edge of mystery crowded the strange +woods noises, the eerie influences of the night, like wolves afraid of +the blaze. We felt them hovering, vague, huge, dreadful, just outside +the circle of safety our fire had traced about us. The cheerful flames +were dancing familiars who cherished for us the home feeling in the +middle of a wilderness. + +Two days we lingered, then took the back track. A little after noon we +arrived at the camp, empty save for Johnnie Challan. Towards dark the +fishermen straggled in. Time had been paid them in familiar coinage. +They had demanded only accustomed toll of the days, but we had returned +laden with strange and glittering memories. + + + + +XIX. + +APOLOGIA. + + +The time at last arrived for departure. + +Deep laden were the canoes; heavy laden were we. The Indians shot away +down the current. We followed for the last time the dim blazed trail, +forded for the last time the shallows of the river. At the Burned Rock +Pool we caught our lunch fish from the ranks of leviathans. Then the +trodden way of the Fur Trail, worn into a groove so deep and a surface +so smooth that vegetation has left it as bare as ever, though the Post +has been abandoned these many years. At last the scrub spruce, and the +sandy soil, and the blue, restless waters of the Great Lake. With the +appearance of the fish-tug early the following day the summer ended. + +How often have I ruminated in the long marches the problem of the +Forest! Subtle she is, and mysterious, and gifted with a charm that +lures. Vast she is, and dreadful, so that man bows before her fiercer +moods, a little thing. Gentle she is, and kindly, so that she denies +nothing, whether of the material or spiritual, to those of her chosen +who will seek. August she is, and yet of a homely, sprightly +gentleness. Variable she is in her many moods. Night, day, sun, cloud, +rain, snow, wind, lend to her their best of warmth and cold, of comfort +and awe, of peace and of many shoutings, and she accepts them, but yet +remains greater and more enduring than they. In her is all the +sweetness of little things. Murmurs of water and of breeze, faint +odours, wandering streams of tepid air, stray bird-songs in fragment as +when a door is opened and closed, the softness of moss, the coolness of +shade, the glimpse of occult affairs in the woods life, accompany her +as Titania her court. How to express these things; how to fix on paper +in a record, as one would describe the Capitol at Washington, what the +Forest is--that is what I have asked myself often, and that is what I +have never yet found out. + +This is the wisdom reflection has taught. One cannot imprison the ocean +in a vial of sea-water; one cannot imprison the Forest inside the +covers of a book. + +There remains the second best. I have thought that perhaps if I were to +attempt a series of detached impressions, without relation, without +sequence; if I were to suggest a little here the beauty of a moon-beam, +there the humour of a rainstorm, at the last you might, by dint of +imagination and sympathy, get some slight feeling of what the great +woods are. It is the method of the painter. Perhaps it may suffice. + +For this reason let no old camper look upon this volume as a treatise +on woodcraft. Woodcraft there is in it, just as there is woodcraft in +the Forest itself, but much of the simplest and most obvious does not +appear. The painter would not depict every twig, as would the +naturalist. + +Equally it cannot be considered a book of travel nor of description. +The story is not consecutive; the adventures not exciting; the +landscape not denned. Perhaps it may be permitted to call it a book of +suggestion. Often on the street we have had opened to us by the merest +sketches of incident limitless vistas of memory. A momentary pose of +the head of a passer-by, a chance word, the breath of a faint +perfume--these bring back to us the entirety of forgotten scenes. Some +of these essays may perform a like office for you. I cannot hope to +give you the Forest. But perhaps a word or a sentence, an incident, an +impression, may quicken your imagination, so that through no conscious +direction of my own the wonder of the Forest may fill you, as the mere +sight of a conch-shell will sometimes till you with the wonder of the +sea. + + + + +SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT. + + +In reply to inquiries as to necessary outfit for camping and +woods-travelling, the author furnishes the following lists:-- + +1. _Provisions per man, one week._ + +7 lbs. flour; 5 lbs. pork; 1-5 lb. tea; 2 lbs. beans; 1 1-2 lbs. sugar; +1 1-2 lbs. rice; 1 1-2 lbs. prunes and raisins; 1-1-2 lb. lard; 1 lb. +oatmeal; baking-powder; matches; soap; pepper; salt; 1-3 lb. +tobacco--(weight, a little over 20 lbs.). This will last much longer if +you get game and fish. + +2. _Pack one, or absolute necessities for hard trip._ + +_Wear_ hat; suit woollen underwear; shirt; trousers; socks; silk +handkerchief; cotton handkerchief; moccasins. + +_Carry_ sweater (3 lbs.); extra drawers (1 1-2 lbs.); 2 extra +pairs socks; gloves (buckskin); towel; 2 extra pairs moccasins; +surgeon's plaster; laxative; pistol and cartridges; fishing-tackle; +blanket (7 1-2 lbs.); rubber blanket (1 lb.); tent (8 lbs.); small axe +(2 1-2 lbs.); knife; mosquito-dope; compass; match-box; tooth-brush; +comb; small whetstone--(weight, about 25 lbs.); 2 tin or aluminium +pails; 1 frying-pan; 1 cup; 1 knife, fork, and spoon--(weight, 4 lbs. +if of aluminium). + +Whole pack under 50 lbs. In case of two or more people, each pack would +be lighter, as tent, tinware, etc., would do for both. + +3. _Pack two--for luxuries and easy trips--extra to pack one._ + +More fishing-tackle; camera; 1 more pair socks; 1 more suit +underclothes; extra sweater; wading-shoes of canvas; large axe; +mosquito net; mending materials; kettle; candles; more cooking-utensils; +extra shirt; whisky. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest, by Stewart Edward White + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + +This file should be named 7tfrs10.txt or 7tfrs10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7tfrs11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7tfrs10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Forest + +Author: Stewart Edward White + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9376] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 26, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Illustration: THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE +MOMENT] + +THE FOREST + +BY + +STEWART EDWARD WHITE + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE CALLING +II. THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT +III. THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE +IV. ON MAKING CAMP +V. ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT +VI. THE 'LUNGE +VII. ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING +VIII. THE STRANDED STRANGERS +IX. ON FLIES +X. CLOCHE +XI. THE HABITANTS +XII. THE RIVER +XIII. THE HILLS +XIV. ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS +XV. ON WOODS INDIANS +XVI. ON WOODS INDIANS _(continued)_ +XVII. THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH +XVIII. MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT +XIX. APOLOGIA + +SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THE INDIANS WOULD RISE TO THEIR FEET FOR A SINGLE MOMENT + +THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR AGAIN THE FLAG +OF HIS COUNTRY + +AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES + +EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT +SWAMPING + +WATCHED THE LONG NORTH-COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A GRAY CLOUD FROM +THE EAST + +IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF THAT MORNING + +NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE PEOPLE + +THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THE BATTLE + + + + + +THE FOREST + + + + + +I. + +THE CALLING. + +"The Red Gods make their medicine again." + + +Some time in February, when the snow and sleet have shut out from the +wearied mind even the memory of spring, the man of the woods generally +receives his first inspiration. He may catch it from some companion's +chance remark, a glance at the map, a vague recollection of a dim past +conversation, or it may flash on him from the mere pronouncement of a +name. The first faint thrill of discovery leaves him cool, but +gradually, with the increasing enthusiasm of cogitation, the idea gains +body, until finally it has grown to plan fit for discussion. + +Of these many quickening potencies of inspiration, the mere name of a +place seems to strike deepest at the heart of romance. Colour, mystery, +the vastnesses of unexplored space are there, symbolized compactly for +the aliment of imagination. It lures the fancy as a fly lures the +trout. Mattágami, Peace River, Kánanaw, the House of the Touchwood +Hills, Rupert's House, the Land of Little Sticks, Flying Post, +Conjuror's House--how the syllables roll from the tongue, what pictures +rise in instant response to their suggestion! The journey of a thousand +miles seems not too great a price to pay for the sight of a place +called the Hills of Silence, for acquaintance with the people who dwell +there, perhaps for a glimpse of the saga-spirit that so named its +environment. On the other hand, one would feel but little desire to +visit Muggin's Corners, even though at their crossing one were assured +of the deepest flavour of the Far North. + +The first response to the red god's summons is almost invariably the +production of a fly-book and the complete rearrangement of all its +contents. The next is a resumption of practice with the little pistol. +The third, and last, is pencil and paper, and lists of grub and duffel, +and estimates of routes and expenses, and correspondence with men who +spell queerly, bear down heavily with blunt pencils, and agree to be at +Black Beaver Portage on a certain date. Now, though the February snow +and sleet still shut him in, the spring has draw very near. He can +feel the warmth of her breath rustling through his reviving memories. + +There are said to be sixty-eight roads to heaven, of which but one is +the true way, although here and there a by-path offers experimental +variety to the restless and bold. The true way for the man in the woods +to attain the elusive best of his wilderness experience is to go as +light as possible, and the by-paths of departure from that principle +lead only to the slightly increased carrying possibilities of +open-water canoe trips, and permanent camps. + +But these prove to be not very independent side paths, never diverging +so far from the main road that one may dare hope to conceal from a +vigilant eye that he is _not_ going light. + +To go light is to play the game fairly. The man in the woods matches +himself against the forces of nature. In the towns he is warmed and fed +and clothed so spontaneously and easily that after a time he perforce +begins to doubt himself, to wonder whether his powers are not atrophied +from disuse. And so, with his naked soul, he fronts the wilderness. It +is a test, a measuring of strength, a proving of his essential pluck +and resourcefulness and manhood, an assurance of man's highest potency, +the ability to endure and to take care of himself. In just so far as he +substitutes the ready-made of civilization for the wit-made of the +forest, the pneumatic bed for the balsam boughs, in just so far is he +relying on other men and other men's labour to take care of him. To +exactly that extent is the test invalidated. He has not proved a +courteous antagonist, for he has not stripped to the contest. + +To go light is to play the game sensibly. For even when it is not so +earnest, nor the stake so high, a certain common-sense should take the +place on a lower plane of the fair-play sense on the higher. A great +many people find enjoyment in merely playing with nature. Through +vacation they relax their minds, exercise mildly their bodies, and +freshen the colours of their outlook on life. Such people like to live +comfortably, work little, and enjoy existence lazily. Instead of +modifying themselves to fit the life of the wilderness, they modify +their city methods to fit open-air conditions. They do not need to +strip to the contest, for contest there is none, and Indian packers are +cheap at a dollar a day. But even so the problem of the greatest +comfort--defining comfort as an accurate balance of effort expended to +results obtained--can be solved only by the one formula. And that +formula is, again, _go light_, for a superabundance of paraphernalia +proves always more of a care than a satisfaction. When the woods offer +you a thing ready made, it is the merest foolishness to transport that +same thing a hundred miles for the sake of the manufacturer's trademark. + +I once met an outfit in the North Woods, plodding diligently across +portage, laden like the camels of the desert. Three Indians swarmed +back and forth a half-dozen trips apiece. An Indian can carry over two +hundred pounds. That evening a half-breed and I visited their camp and +examined their outfit, always with growing wonder. They had tent-poles +and about fifty pounds of hardwood tent pegs--in a wooded country where +such things can be had for a clip of the axe. They had a system of +ringed iron bars which could be so fitted together as to form a low +open grill on which trout could be broiled--weight twenty pounds, and +split wood necessary for its efficiency. They had air mattresses and +camp-chairs and oil lanterns. They had corpulent duffel bags apiece +that would stand alone, and enough changes of clothes to last out +dry-skinned a week's rain. And the leader of the party wore the +wrinkled brow of tribulation. For he had to keep track of everything +and see that package number twenty-eight was not left, and that package +number sixteen did not get wet; that the pneumatic bed did not get +punctured, and that the canned goods did. Beside which, the caravan was +moving at the majestic rate of about five miles a day. + +Now tent-pegs can always be cut, and trout broiled beautifully by a +dozen other ways, and candle lanterns fold up, and balsam can be laid +in such a manner as to be as springy as a pneumatic mattress, and +camp-chairs, if desired, can be quickly constructed with an axe, and +clothes can always be washed or dried as long as fire burns and water +runs, and any one of fifty other items of laborious burden could have +been ingeniously and quickly substituted by any one of the Indians. It +was not that we concealed a bucolic scorn of effete but solid comfort; +only it did seem ridiculous that a man should cumber himself with a +fifth wheel on a smoothly macadamized road. + +The next morning Billy and I went cheerfully on our way. We were +carrying an axe, a gun, blankets, an extra pair of drawers and socks +apiece, a little grub, and an eight-pound shelter tent. We had been out +a week, and we were having a good time. + + + + +II. + +THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT. + +"Now the Four-Way lodge is opened--now the smokes of Council rise-- +Pleasant smokes ere yet 'twixt trail and trail they choose." + + +You can no more be told how to go light than you can be told how to hit +a ball with a bat. It is something that must be lived through, and all +advice on the subject has just about the value of an answer to a +bashful young man who begged from one of our woman's periodicals help +in overcoming the diffidence felt on entering a crowded room. The reply +read: "Cultivate an easy, graceful manner." In like case I might +hypothecate, "To go light, discard all but the really necessary +articles." + +The sticking-point, were you to press me close, would be the definition +of the word "necessary," for the terms of such definition would have to +be those solely and simply of a man's experience. Comforts, even most +desirable comforts, are not necessities. A dozen times a day trifling +emergencies will seem precisely to call for some little handy +contrivance that would be just the thing, were it in the pack rather +than at home. A disgorger does the business better than a pocket-knife; +a pair of oilskin trousers turns the wet better than does kersey; a +camp-stove will burn merrily in a rain lively enough to drown an open +fire. Yet neither disgorger, nor oilskins, nor camp-stove can be +considered in the light of necessities, for the simple reason that the +conditions of their use occur too infrequently to compensate for the +pains of their carriage. Or, to put it the other way, a few moments' +work with a knife, wet knees occasionally, or an infrequent soggy meal +are not too great a price to pay for unburdened shoulders. + +Nor on the other hand must you conclude that because a thing is a mere +luxury in town, it is nothing but that in the woods. Most woodsmen own +some little ridiculous item of outfit without which they could not be +happy. And when a man cannot be happy lacking a thing, that thing +becomes a necessity. I knew one who never stirred without borated +talcum powder; another who must have his mouth-organ; a third who was +miserable without a small bottle of salad dressing; I confess to a pair +of light buckskin gloves. Each man must decide for himself--remembering +always the endurance limit of human shoulders. + +A necessity is that which, _by your own experience_, you have +found you cannot do without. As a bit of practical advice, however, the +following system of elimination may be recommended. When you return +from a trip, turn your duffel bag upside down on the floor. Of the +contents make three piles--three piles conscientiously selected in the +light of what has happened rather than what ought to have happened, or +what might have happened. It is difficult to do this. Preconceived +notions, habits of civilization, theory for future, imagination, all +stand in the eye of your honesty. Pile number one should comprise those +articles you have used every day; pile number two, those you have used +occasionally; pile number three, those you have not used at all. If you +are resolute and singleminded, you will at once discard the latter two. + +Throughout the following winter you will be attacked by misgivings. To +be sure, you wore the mosquito hat but once or twice, and the fourth +pair of socks not at all; but then the mosquitoes might be thicker next +time, and a series of rainy days and cold nights might make it +desirable to have a dry pair of socks to put on at night. The past has +been _x_, but the future might be _y_. One by one the discarded creep +back into the list. And by the opening of next season you have made +toward perfection by only the little space of a mackintosh coat and a +ten-gauge gun. + +But in the years to come you learn better and better the simple woods +lesson of substitution or doing without. You find that discomfort is as +soon forgotten as pain; that almost anything can be endured if it is +but for the time being; that absolute physical comfort is worth but a +very small price in avoirdupois. Your pack shrinks. + +In fact, it really never ceases shrinking. Only last summer taught me +the uselessness of an extra pair of trousers. It rains in the woods; +streams are to be waded; the wetness of leaves is greater than the +wetness of many rivers. Logically, naturally, inevitably, such +conditions point to change of garments when camp is made. We always +change our clothes when we get wet in the city. So for years I carried +those extra nether garments--and continued in the natural exposure to +sun and wind and camp-fire to dry off before change time, or to hang +the damp clothes from the ridge-pole for resumption in the morning. And +then one day the web of that particular convention broke. We change wet +trousers in the town; we do not in the woods. The extras were relegated +to pile number three, and my pack, already apparently down to a +minimum, lost a few pounds more. + +You will want a hat, a _good_ hat to turn rain, with a medium +brim. If you are wise, you will get it too small for your head, and rip +out the lining. The felt will cling tenaciously to your hair, so that +you will find the snatches of the brush and the wind generally +unavailing. + +By way of undergarments wear woollen. Buy winter weights even for +midsummer. In travelling with a pack a man is going to sweat in +streams, no matter what he puts on or takes off, and the thick garment +will be found no more oppressive than the thin. And then in the cool of +the woods or of the evening he avoids a chill. And he can plunge into +the coldest water with impunity, sure that ten minutes of the air will +dry him fairly well. Until you have shivered in clammy cotton, you +cannot realize the importance of this point. Ten minutes of cotton +underwear in cold water will chill. On the other hand, suitably clothed +in wool, I have waded the ice water of north country streams when the +thermometer was so low I could see my breath in the air, without other +discomfort than a cold ring around my legs to mark the surface of the +water, and a slight numbness in my feet when I emerged. Therefore, even +in hot weather, wear heavy wool. It is the most comfortable. +Undoubtedly you will come to believe this only by experience. + +Do not carry a coat. This is another preconception of civilization, +exceedingly difficult to get rid of. You will never wear it while +packing. In a rain you will find that it wets through so promptly as to +be of little use; or, if waterproof, the inside condensation will more +than equal the rain-water. In camp you will discard it because it will +impede the swing of your arms. The end of that coat will be a brief +half-hour after supper, and a makeshift roll to serve as a pillow +during the night. And for these a sweater is better in every way. + +In fact, if you feel you must possess another outside garment, let it +be an extra sweater. You can sleep in it, use it when your day garment +is soaked, or even tie things in it as in a bag. It is not necessary, +however. + +One good shirt is enough. When you wash it, substitute the sweater +until it dries. In fact, by keeping the sweater always in your +waterproof bag, you possess a dry garment to change into. Two +handkerchiefs are enough. One should be of silk, for neck, head, or--in +case of cramps or intense cold--the _stomach_; the other of +coloured cotton for the pocket. Both can be quickly washed, and dried +_en route_. Three pairs of heavy wool socks will be enough--one +for wear, one for night, and one for extra. A second pair of drawers +supplements the sweater when a temporary day change is desirable. Heavy +kersey "driver's" trousers are the best. They are cheap, dry very +quickly, and are not easily "picked out" by the brush. + +The best blanket is that made by the Hudson's Bay Company for its +servants--a "three-point" for summer is heavy enough. The next best is +our own gray army blanket. One of rubber should fold about it, and a +pair of narrow buckle straps is handy to keep the bundle right and +tight and waterproof. As for a tent, buy the smallest shelter you can +get along with, have it made of balloon silk well waterproofed, and +supplement it with a duplicate tent of light cheesecloth to suspend +inside as a fly-proof defence. A seven-by-seven three-man A-tent, which +would weigh between twenty and thirty pounds if made of duck, means +only about eight pounds constructed of this material. And it is +waterproof. I own one which I have used for three seasons. It has been +employed as tarpaulin, fly, even blanket on a pinch; it has been packed +through the roughest country; I have even pressed it into service as a +sort of canoe lining; but it is still as good as ever. Such a tent +sometimes condenses a little moisture in a cold rain, but it never +"sprays" as does a duck shelter; it never leaks simply because you have +accidentally touched its under-surface; and, best of all, it weighs no +more after a rain than before it. This latter item is perhaps its best +recommendation. The confronting with equanimity of a wet day's journey +in the shower-bath brush of our northern forests requires a degree of +philosophy which a gratuitous ten pounds of soaked-up water sometimes +most effectually breaks down. I know of but one place where such a tent +can be bought. The address will be gladly sent to any one practically +interested. + +As for the actual implements of the trade, they are not many, although +of course the sporting goods stores are full of all sorts of "handy +contrivances." A small axe--one of the pocket size will do, if you get +the right shape and balance, although a light regulation axe is better; +a thin-bladed sheath-knife of the best steel; a pocket-knife; a +compass; a waterproof match-safe; fishing-tackle; firearms; and cooking +utensils comprise the list. All others belong to permanent camps, or +open-water cruises--not to "hikes" in the woods. + +The items, with the exception of the last two, seem to explain +themselves. During the summer months in the North Woods you will not +need a rifle. Partridges, spruce hens, ptarmigan, rabbits, ducks, and +geese are usually abundant enough to fill the provision list. For them, +of course, a shotgun is the thing; but since such a weapon weighs many +pounds, and its ammunition many more, I have come gradually to depend +entirely on a pistol. The instrument is single shot, carries a six-inch +barrel, is fitted with a special butt, and is built on the graceful +lines of a 38-calibre Smith and Wesson revolver. Its cartridge is the +22 long-rifle, a target size, that carries as accurately as you can +hold for upwards of a hundred yards. With it I have often killed a +half-dozen of partridges from the same tree. The ammunition is light. +Altogether it is a most satisfactory, convenient, and accurate weapon, +and quite adequate to all small game. In fact, an Indian named +Tawabinisáy, after seeing it perform, once borrowed it to kill a moose. + +[Illustration: THIS OLD SOLDIER HAD COME IN FROM THE LONG TRAIL TO BEAR +AGAIN THE FLAG OF HIS COUNTRY.] + +"I shootum in eye," said he. + +By way of cooking utensils, buy aluminium. It is expensive, but so +light and so easily cleaned that it is well worth all you may have to +pay. If you are alone you will not want to carry much hardware. I made +a twenty-day trip once with nothing but a tin cup and a frying-pan. +Dishes, pails, wash-basins, and other receptacles can always be made of +birch bark and cedar withes--by one who knows how. The ideal outfit for +two or three is a cup, fork, and spoon apiece, one tea-pail, two +kettle-pails, and a frying-pan. The latter can be used as a bread-oven. + +A few minor items, of practically no weight, suggest themselves--toilet +requisites, fly-dope, needle and thread, a cathartic, pain-killer, a +roll of surgeon's bandage, pipe and tobacco. But when the pack is made +up, and the duffel bag tied, you find that, while fitted for every +emergency but that of catastrophe, you are prepared to "go light." + + + + +III. + +THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE. + + +Sometime, no matter how long your journey, you will reach a spot whose +psychological effect is so exactly like a dozen others that you will +recognize at once its kinship with former experience. Mere physical +likeness does not count at all. It may possess a water-front of laths +and sawdust, or an outlook over broad, shimmering, heat-baked plains. +It may front the impassive fringe of a forest, or it may skirt the calm +stretch of a river. But whether of log or mud, stone or unpainted +board, its identity becomes at first sight indubitably evident. Were +you, by the wave of some beneficent wand, to be transported direct to +it from the heart of the city, you could not fail to recognize it. "The +jumping-off place!" you would cry ecstatically, and turn with unerring +instinct to the Aromatic Shop. + +For here is where begins the Long Trail. Whether it will lead you +through the forests, or up the hills, or over the plains, or by +invisible water paths; whether you will accomplish it on horseback, or +in canoe, or by the transportation of your own two legs; whether your +companions shall be white or red, or merely the voices of the +wilds--these things matter not a particle. In the symbol of this little +town you loose your hold on the world of made things, and shift for +yourself among the unchanging conditions of nature. + +Here the faint forest flavour, the subtle, invisible breath of freedom, +stirs faintly across men's conventions. The ordinary affairs of life +savour of this tang--a trace of wildness in the domesticated berry. In +the dress of the inhabitants is a dash of colour, a carelessness of +port; in the manner of their greeting is the clear, steady-eyed +taciturnity of the silent places; through the web of their gray talk of +ways and means and men's simpler beliefs runs a thread of colour. One +hears strange, suggestive words and phrases--arapajo, capote, arroyo, +the diamond hitch, cache, butte, coulé, muskegs, portage, and a dozen +others coined into the tender of daily use. And occasionally, when the +expectation is least alert, one encounters suddenly the very symbol of +the wilderness itself--a dust-whitened cowboy, an Indian packer with +his straight, fillet-confined hair, a voyageur gay in red sash and +ornamented moccasins, one of the Company's canoemen, hollow-cheeked +from the river--no costumed show exhibit, but fitting naturally into +the scene, bringing something of the open space with him--so that in +your imagination the little town gradually takes on the colour of +mystery which an older community utterly lacks. + +But perhaps the strongest of the influences which unite to assure the +psychological kinships of the jumping-off places is that of the +Aromatic Shop. It is usually a board affair, with a broad high sidewalk +shaded by a wooden awning. You enter through a narrow door, and find +yourself facing two dusky aisles separated by a narrow division of +goods, and flanked by wooden counters. So far it is exactly like the +corner store of our rural districts. But in the dimness of these two +aisles lurks the spirit of the wilds. There in a row hang fifty pair of +smoke-tanned moccasins; in another an equal number of oil-tanned; +across the background you can make out snowshoes. The shelves are high +with blankets--three-point, four-point--thick and warm for the +out-of-doors. Should you care to examine, the storekeeper will hook +down from aloft capotes of different degrees of fineness. Fathoms of +black tobacco-rope lie coiled in tubs. Tump-lines welter in a tangle of +dimness. On a series of little shelves is the ammunition, fascinating +in the attraction of mere numbers--44 Winchester, 45 Colt, 40-82, +30-40, 44 S. & W.--they all connote something to the accustomed mind, +just as do the numbered street names of New York. + +An exploration is always bringing something new to light among the +commonplaces of ginghams and working shirts, and canned goods and +stationery, and the other thousands of civilized drearinesses to found +in every country store. From under the counter you drag out a mink skin +or so; from the dark corner an assortment of steel traps. In a loft a +birch-bark mokok, fifty pounds heavy with granulated maple sugar, +dispenses a faint perfume. + +For this is, above all, the Aromatic Shop. A hundred ghosts of odours +mingle to produce the spirit of it. The reek of the camp-fires is in +its buckskin, of the woods in its birch bark, of the muskegs in its +sweet grass, of the open spaces in its peltries, of the evening meal in +its coffees and bacons, of the portage trail in the leather of the +tump-lines. I am speaking now of the country of which we are to write. +The shops of the other jumping-off places are equally aromatic--whether +with the leather of saddles, the freshness of ash paddles, or the +pungency of marline; and once the smell of them is in your nostrils you +cannot but away. + +The Aromatic Shop is always kept by the wisest, the most accommodating, +the most charming shopkeeper in the world. He has all leisure to give +you, and enters into the innermost spirit of your buying. He is of +supernal sagacity in regard to supplies and outfits, and if he does not +know all about routes, at least he is acquainted with the very man who +can tell you everything you want to know. He leans both elbows on the +counter, you swing your feet, and together you go over the list, while +the Indian stands smoky and silent in the background. "Now, if I was +you," says he, "I'd take just a little more pork. You won't be eatin' +so much yourself, but these Injuns ain't got no bottom when it comes to +sow-belly. And I wouldn't buy all that coffee. You ain't goin' to want +much after the first edge is worn off. Tea's the boy." The Indian +shoots a few rapid words across the discussion. "He says you'll want +some iron shoes to fit on canoe poles for when you come back +up-stream," interprets your friend. "I guess that's right. I ain't got +none, but th' blacksmith'll fit you out all right. You'll find him just +below--never mind, don't you bother, I'll see to all that for you." + +The next morning he saunters into view at the river-bank. "Thought I'd +see you off," he replies to your expression of surprise at his early +rising. "Take care of yourself." And so the last hand-clasp of +civilization is extended to you from the little Aromatic Shop. + +Occasionally, however, though very rarely, you step to the Long Trail +from the streets of a raw modern town. The chance presence of some +local industry demanding a large population of workmen, combined with +first-class railroad transportation, may plant an electric-lighted, +saloon-lined, brick-hoteled city in the middle of the wilderness. +Lumber, mines--especially of the baser metals or commercial +minerals--fisheries, a terminus of water freightage, may one or all +call into existence a community a hundred years in advance of its +environment. Then you lose the savour of the jump-off. Nothing can +quite take the place of the instant plunge into the wilderness, for you +must travel three or four days from such a place before you sense the +forest in its vastness, even though deer may eat the cabbages at the +edge of town. Occasionally, however, by force of crude contrast to the +brick-heated atmosphere, the breath of the woods reaches your cheek, +and always you own a very tender feeling for the cause of it. + +Dick and myself were caught in such a place. It was an unfinished +little town, with brick-fronted stores, arc-lights swaying over +fathomless mud, big superintendent's and millowner's houses of bastard +architecture in a blatant superiority of hill location, a hotel whose +office chairs supported a variety of cheap drummers, and stores +screeching in an attempt at metropolitan smartness. We inspected the +standpipe and the docks, walked a careless mile of board walk, kicked a +dozen pugnacious dogs from our setter, Deuce, and found ourselves at +the end of our resources. As a crowd seemed to be gathering about the +wooden railway station, we joined it in sheer idleness. + +It seemed that an election had taken place the day before, that one +Smith had been chosen to the Assembly, and that, though this district +had gone anti-Smith, the candidate was expected to stop off an hour on +his way to a more westerly point. Consequently the town was on hand to +receive him. + +The crowd, we soon discovered, was bourgeois in the extreme. Young men +from the mill escorted young women from the shops. The young men wore +flaring collars three sizes too large; the young women white cotton +mitts three sizes too small. The older men spat, and talked through +their noses; the women drawled out a monotonous flow of speech +concerning the annoyances of domestic life. A gang of uncouth practical +jokers, exploding in horse-laughter, skylarked about, jostling rudely. +A village band, uniformed solely with cheap carriage-cloth caps, brayed +excruciatingly. The reception committee had decorated, with red and +white silesia streamers and rosettes, an ordinary side-bar buggy, to +which a long rope had been attached, that the great man might be +dragged by his fellow-citizens to the public square. + +Nobody seemed to be taking the affair too seriously. It was evidently +more than half a joke. Anti-Smith was more good-humouredly in evidence +than the winning party. Just this touch of buffoonery completed our +sense of the farce-comedy character of the situation. The town was +tawdry in its preparations--and knew it; but half sincere in its +enthusiasm--and knew it. If the crowd had been composed of Americans, +we should have anticipated an unhappy time for Smith; but good, loyal +Canadians, by the limitations of temperament, could get no further than +a spirit of manifest irreverence. + +In the shifting of the groups Dick and I became separated, but shortly +I made him out worming his way excitedly toward me, his sketch-book +open in his hand. + +"Come here," he whispered. "There's going to be fun. They're going to +open up on old Smith after all." + +I followed. The decorated side-bar buggy might be well meant; the +village band need not have been interpreted as an ironical compliment; +the rest of the celebration might indicate paucity of resource rather +than facetious intent; but surely the figure of fun before us could not +be otherwise construed than as a deliberate advertising in the face of +success of the town's real attitude toward the celebration. + +The man was short. He wore a felt hat, so big that it rested on his +ears. A gray wool shirt hung below his neck. A cutaway coat miles too +large depended below his knees and to the first joints of his fingers. +By way of official uniform his legs were incased in an ordinary rough +pair of miller's white trousers, on which broad strips of red flannel +had been roughly sewn. Everything was wrinkled in the folds of +too-bigness. As though to accentuate the note, the man stood very +erect, very military, and supported in one hand the staff of an English +flag. This figure of fun, this man made from the slop-chest, this +caricature of a scarecrow, had been put forth by heavy-handed +facetiousness to the post of greatest honour. He was Standard-Bearer to +the occasion! Surely subtle irony could go no further. + +A sudden movement caused the man to turn. One sleeve of the faded, +ridiculous old cutaway was empty. He turned again. From under the +ear-flanging hat looked unflinchingly the clear, steady blue eye of the +woodsman. And so we knew. This old soldier had come in from the Long +Trail to bear again the flag of his country. If his clothes were old +and ill-fitting, at least they were his best, and the largeness of the +empty sleeve belittled the too-largeness of the other. In all this +ribald, laughing, irreverent, commonplace, semi-vicious crowd he was +the one note of sincerity. To him this was a real occasion, and the +exalted reverence in his eye for the task he was so simply performing +was Smith's real triumph--if he could have known it. We understood now, +we felt the imminence of the Long Trail. For the first time the little +brick, tawdry town gripped our hearts with the well-known thrill of the +Jumping-Off Place. Suddenly the great, simple, unashamed wilderness +drew near us as with the rush of wings. + + + + +IV. + +ON MAKING CAMP. + +"Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight? Who hath + heard the birch log burning? +Who is quick to read the noises of the night? +Let him follow with the others, for the young men's feet are turning +To the camps of proved desire and known delight." + + +In the Ojibway language _wigwam_ means a good spot for camping, a +place cleared for a camp, a camp as an abstract proposition, and a camp +in the concrete as represented by a tent, a thatched shelter, or a +conical tepee. In like manner, the English word _camp_ lends +itself to a variety of concepts. I once slept in a four-poster bed over +a polished floor in an elaborate servant-haunted structure which, +mainly because it was built of logs and overlooked a lake, the owner +always spoke of as his camp. Again, I once slept on a bed of prairie +grass, before a fire of dried buffalo chips and mesquite, wrapped in a +single light blanket, while a good vigorous rain-storm made new cold +places on me and under me all night. In the morning the cowboy with +whom I was travelling remarked that this was "sure a lonesome +proposition as a camp." + +Between these two extremes is infinite variety, grading upwards through +the divers bivouacs of snow, plains, pines, or hills to the bark +shelter; past the dog-tent, the A-tent, the wall-tent, to the elaborate +permanent canvas cottage of the luxurious camper, the dug-out winter +retreat of the range cowboy, the trapper's cabin, the great log-built +lumber-jack communities, and the last refinements of sybaritic summer +homes in the Adirondacks. All these are camps. And when you talk of +making camp you must know whether that process is to mean only a search +for rattlesnakes and enough acrid-smoked fuel to boil tea, or a +winter's consultation with an expert architect; whether your camp is to +be made on the principle of Omar's one-night Sultan, or whether it is +intended to accommodate the full days of an entire summer. + +But to those who tread the Long Trail the making of camp resolves +itself into an algebraical formula. After a man has travelled all day +through the Northern wilderness he wants to rest, and anything that +stands between himself and his repose he must get rid of in as few +motions as is consistent with reasonable thoroughness. The end in view +is a hot meal and a comfortable dry place to sleep. The straighter he +can draw the line to those two points the happier he is. + +Early in his woods experience, Dick became possessed with the desire to +do everything for himself. As this was a laudable striving for +self-sufficiency, I called a halt at about three o'clock one afternoon +in order to give him plenty of time. + +Now Dick is a good, active, able-bodied boy, possessed of average +intelligence and rather more than average zeal. He even had theory of a +sort, for he had read various "Boy Campers, or the Trapper's Guide," +"How to Camp Out," "The Science of Woodcraft," and other able works. He +certainly had ideas enough and confidence enough. I sat down on a log. + +At the end of three hours' flusteration, heat, worry, and good hard +work, he had accomplished the following results: A tent, very saggy, +very askew, covered a four-sided area--it was not a rectangle--of very +bumpy ground. A hodge-podge bonfire, in the centre of which an +inaccessible coffee-pot toppled menacingly, alternately threatened to +ignite the entire surrounding forest or to go out altogether through +lack of fuel. Personal belongings strewed the ground near the fire, and +provisions cumbered the entrance to the tent. Dick was anxiously mixing +batter for the cakes, attempting to stir a pot of rice often enough to +prevent it from burning, and trying to rustle sufficient dry wood to +keep the fire going. This diversity of interests certainly made him sit +up and pay attention. At each instant he had to desert his flour-sack +to rescue the coffee-pot, or to shift the kettle, or to dab hastily at +the rice, or to stamp out the small brush, or to pile on more dry +twigs. His movements were not graceful. They raised a scurry of dry +bark, ashes, wood dust, twigs, leaves, and pine needles, a certain +proportion of which found their way into the coffee, the rice, and the +sticky batter, while the smaller articles of personal belonging, +hastily dumped from the duffel-bag, gradually disappeared from view in +the manner of Pompeii and ancient Vesuvius. Dick burned his fingers and +stumbled about and swore, and looked so comically-pathetically +red-faced through the smoke that I, seated on the log, at the same time +laughed and pitied. And in the end, when he needed a continuous steady +fire to fry his cakes, he suddenly discovered that dry twigs do not +make coals, and that his previous operations had used up all the fuel +within easy circle of the camp. + +So he had to drop everything for the purpose of rustling wood, +while the coffee chilled, the rice cooled, the bacon congealed, and all +the provisions, cooked and uncooked, gathered entomological specimens. +At the last, the poor bedeviled theorist made a hasty meal of scorched +food, brazenly postponed the washing of dishes until the morrow, and +coiled about his hummocky couch to dream the nightmares of complete +exhaustion. + +Poor Dick! I knew exactly how he felt, how the low afternoon sun +scorched, how the fire darted out at unexpected places, how the smoke +followed him around, no matter on which side of the fire he placed +himself, how the flies all took to biting when both hands were +occupied, and how they all miraculously disappeared when he had set +down the frying-pan and knife to fight them. I could sympathize, too, +with the lonely, forlorn, lost-dog feeling that clutched him after it +was all over. I could remember how big and forbidding and unfriendly +the forest had once looked to me in like circumstances, so that I had +felt suddenly thrust outside into empty spaces. Almost was I tempted to +intervene; but I liked Dick, and I wanted to do him good. This +experience was harrowing, but it prepared his mind for the seeds of +wisdom. By the following morning he had chastened his spirit, forgotten +the assurance breathed from the windy pages of the Boy Trapper Library, +and was ready to learn. + +Have you ever watched a competent portraitist at work? The infinite +pains a skilled man spends on the preliminaries before he takes one +step towards a likeness nearly always wears down the patience of the +sitter. He measures with his eye, he plumbs, he sketches tentatively, +he places in here a dab, there a blotch, he puts behind him apparently +unproductive hours--and then all at once he is ready to begin something +that will not have to be done over again. An amateur, however, is +carried away by his desire for results. He dashes in a hit-or-miss +early effect, which grows into an approximate likeness almost +immediately, but which will require infinite labour, alteration, and +anxiety to beat into finished shape. + +The case of the artist in making camps is exactly similar, and the +philosophical reasons for his failure are exactly the same. To the +superficial mind a camp is a shelter, a bright fire, and a smell of +cooking. So when a man is very tired he cuts across lots to those three +results. He pitches his tent, lights his fire, puts over his food--and +finds himself drowned in detail, like my friend Dick. + +The following is, in brief, what during the next six weeks I told that +youth, by precept, by homily, and by making the solution so obvious +that he could work it out for himself. + +When five or six o'clock draws near, begin to look about you for a good +level dry place, elevated some few feet above the surroundings. Drop +your pack or beach your canoe. Examine the location carefully. You +will want two trees about ten feet apart, from which to suspend your +tent, and a bit of flat ground underneath them. Of course the flat +ground need not be particularly unencumbered by brush or saplings, so +the combination ought not to be hard to discover. Now return to your +canoe. Do not unpack the tent. + +With the little axe clear the ground thoroughly. By bending a sapling +over strongly with the left hand, clipping sharply at the strained +fibres, and then bending it as strongly the other way to repeat the axe +stroke on the other side, you will find that treelets of even two or +three inches diameter can be felled by two blows. In a very few +moments you will have accomplished a hole in the forest, and your two +supporting trees will stand sentinel at either end of a most +respectable-looking clearing. Do not unpack the tent. + +Now, although the ground seems free of all but unimportant growths, go +over it thoroughly for little shrubs and leaves. They look soft and +yielding, but are often possessed of unexpectedly abrasive roots. +Besides, they mask the face of the ground. When you have finished +pulling them up by the roots, you will find that your supposedly level +plot is knobby with hummocks. Stand directly over each little mound; +swing the back of your axe vigorously against it, adze-wise, between +your legs. Nine times out of ten it will crumble, and the tenth time +means merely a root to cut or a stone to pry out. At length you are +possessed of a plot of clean, fresh earth, level and soft, free from +projections. But do not unpack your tent. + +Lay a young birch or maple an inch or so in diameter across a log. Two +clips will produce you a tent-peg. If you are inexperienced, and +cherish memories of striped lawn marquees, you will cut them about six +inches long. If you are wise and old and gray in woods experience, you +will multiply that length by four. Then your loops will not slip off, +and you will have a real grip on mother earth, than which nothing can +be more desirable in the event of a heavy rain and wind squall about +midnight. If your axe is as sharp as it ought to be, you can point +them more neatly by holding them suspended in front of you while you +snip at their ends with the axe, rather than by resting them against a +solid base. Pile them together at the edge of the clearing. Cut a +crotched sapling eight or ten feet long. Now unpack your tent. + +In a wooded country you will not take the time to fool with tent-poles. +A stout line run through the eyelets and along the apex will string it +successfully between your two trees. Draw the line as tight as +possible, but do not be too unhappy if, after your best efforts, it +still sags a little. That is what your long crotched stick is for. +Stake out your four corners. If you get them in a good rectangle, and +in such relation to the apex as to form two isosceles triangles of the +ends, your tent will stand smoothly. Therefore, be an artist and do it +right. Once the four corners are well placed, the rest follows +naturally. Occasionally in the North Country it will be found that the +soil is too thin over the rocks to grip the tent-pegs. In that case +drive them at a sharp angle as deep as they will go, and then lay a +large flat stone across the slant of them. Thus anchored, you will +ride out a gale. Finally, wedge your long sapling crotch under the +line--outside the tent, of course--to tighten it. Your shelter is up. +If you are a woodsman, ten or fifteen minutes has sufficed to +accomplish all this. + +There remains the question of a bed, and you'd better attend to it now, +while your mind is still occupied with the shelter problem. Fell a +good thrifty young balsam and set to work pulling off the fans. Those +you cannot strip off easily with your hands are too tough for your +purpose. Lay them carelessly crisscross against the blade of your axe +and up the handle. They will not drop off, and when you shoulder that +axe you will resemble a walking haystack, and will probably experience +a genuine emotion of surprise at the amount of balsam that can be thus +transported. In the tent lay smoothly one layer of fans, convex side +up, butts toward the foot. Now thatch the rest on top of this, +thrusting the butt ends underneath the layer already placed in such a +manner as to leave the fan ends curving up and down towards the foot of +your bed. Your second emotion of surprise will assail you as you +realize how much spring inheres in but two or three layers thus +arranged. When you have spread your rubber blanket, you will be +possessed of a bed as soft and a great deal more aromatic and luxurious +than any you would be able to buy in town. + +Your next care is to clear a living space in front of the tent. This +will take you about twenty seconds, for you need not be particular as +to stumps, hummocks, or small brush. All you want is room for cooking, +and suitable space for spreading out your provisions. But do not +unpack anything yet. + +Your fireplace you will build of two green logs laid side by side. The +fire is to be made between them. They should converge slightly, in +order that the utensils to be rested across them may be of various +sizes. If your vicinity yields flat stones, they build up even better +than the logs--unless they happen to be of granite. Granite explodes +most disconcertingly. Poles sharpened, driven upright into the ground, +and then pressed down to slant over the fireplace, will hold your +kettles a suitable height above the blaze. + +Fuel should be your next thought. A roll of birch bark first of all. +Then some of the small, dry, resinous branches that stick out from the +trunks of medium-sized pines, living or dead. Finally, the wood +itself. If you are merely cooking supper, and have no thought for a +warmth-fire or a friendship-fire, I should advise you to stick to the +dry pine branches, helped out, in the interest of coals for frying, by +a little dry maple or birch. If you need more of a blaze, you will +have to search out, fell, and split a standing dead tree. This is not +at all necessary. I have travelled many weeks in the woods without +using a more formidable implement than a one-pound hatchet. Pile your +fuel--a complete supply, all you are going to need--by the side of your +already improvised fireplace. But, as you value your peace of mind, do +not fool with matches. + +It will be a little difficult to turn your mind from the concept of +fire, to which all these preparations have compellingly led +it--especially as a fire is the one cheerful thing your weariness needs +the most at this time of day--but you must do so. Leave everything just +as it is, and unpack your provisions. + +First of all, rinse your utensils. Hang your tea-pail, with the proper +quantity of water, from one slanting pole, and your kettle from the +other. Salt the water in the latter receptacle. Peel your potatoes, +if you have any; open your little provision sacks; puncture your tin +cans, if you have any; slice your bacon; clean your fish; pluck your +birds; mix your dough or batter; spread your table tinware on your +tarpaulin or a sheet of birch bark; cut a kettle-lifter; see that +everything you are going to need is within direct reach of your hand as +you squat on your heels before the fireplace. Now light your fire. + +The civilized method is to build a fire and then to touch a match to +the completed structure. If well done and in a grate or steve, this +works beautifully. Only in the woods you have no grate. The only sure +way is as follows: Hold a piece of birch bark in your hand. Shelter +your match all you know how. When the bark has caught, lay it in your +fireplace, assist it with more bark, and gradually build up, twig by +twig, stick by stick, from the first pin-point of flame, all the fire +you are going to need. It will not be much. The little hot blaze +rising between the parallel logs directly against the aluminium of your +utensils will do the business in a very short order. In fifteen +minutes at most your meal is ready. And you have been able to attain +to hot food thus quickly because you were prepared. + +In case of very wet weather the affair is altered somewhat. If the +rain has just commenced, do not stop to clear out very thoroughly, but +get your tent up as quickly as possible, in order to preserve an area +of comparatively dry ground. But if the earth is already soaked, you +had best build a bonfire to dry out by, while you cook over a smaller +fire a little distance removed, leaving the tent until later. Or it +may be well not to pitch the tent at all, but to lay it across slanting +supports at an angle to reflect the heat against the ground. + +It is no joke to light a fire in the rain. An Indian can do it more +easily than a white man, but even an Indian has more trouble than the +story-books acknowledge. You will need a greater quantity of birch +bark, a bigger pile of resinous dead limbs from the pine trees, and +perhaps the heart of a dead pine stub or stump. Then, with infinite +patience, you may be able to tease the flame. Sometimes a small dead +birch contains in the waterproof envelope of its bark a species of +powdery, dry touchwood that takes the flame readily. Still, it is easy +enough to start a blaze--a very fine-looking, cheerful, healthy blaze; +the difficulty is to prevent its petering out the moment your back is +turned. + +But the depths of woe are sounded and the limit of patience reached +when you are forced to get breakfast in the dripping forest. After the +chill of early dawn you are always reluctant in the best of +circumstances to leave your blankets, to fumble with numbed fingers for +matches, to handle cold steel and slippery fish. But when every leaf, +twig, sapling, and tree contains a douche of cold water; when the +wetness oozes about your moccasins from the soggy earth with every step +you take; when you look about you and realize that somehow, before you +can get a mouthful to banish that before-breakfast ill-humour, you must +brave cold water in an attempt to find enough fuel to cook with, then +your philosophy and early religious training avail you little. The +first ninety-nine times you are forced to do this you will probably +squirm circumspectly through the bush in a vain attempt to avoid +shaking water down on yourself; you will resent each failure to do so, +and at the end your rage will personify the wilderness for the purpose +of one sweeping anathema. The hundredth time will bring you wisdom. You +will do the anathema--rueful rather than enraged--from the tent +opening. Then you will plunge boldly in and get wet. It is not +pleasant, but it has to be done, and you will save much temper, not to +speak of time. + +Dick and I earned our diplomas at this sort of work. It rained twelve +of the first fourteen days we were out. Towards the end of that two +weeks I doubt if even an Indian could have discovered a dry stick of +wood in the entire country. The land was of Laurentian rock formation, +running in parallel ridges of bare stone separated by hollows carpeted +with a thin layer of earth. The ridges were naturally ill-adapted to +camping, and the cup hollows speedily filled up with water until they +became most creditable little marshes. Often we hunted for an hour or +so before we could find any sort of a spot to pitch our tent. As for a +fire, it was a matter of chopping down dead trees large enough to have +remained dry inside, of armfuls of birch bark, and of the patient +drying out, by repeated ignition, of enough fuel to cook very simple +meals. Of course we could have kept a big fire going easily enough, +but we were travelling steadily and had not the time for that. In +these trying circumstances, Dick showed that, no matter how much of a +tenderfoot he might be, he was game enough under stress. + +But to return to our pleasant afternoon. While you are consuming the +supper you will hang over some water to heat for the dish-washing, and +the dish-washing you will attend to the moment you have finished +eating. Do not commit the fallacy of sitting down for a little rest. +Better finish the job completely while you are about it. You will +appreciate leisure so much more later. In lack of a wash-rag you will +find that a bunch of tall grass bent double makes an ideal swab. + +Now brush the flies from your tent, drop the mosquito-proof lining, and +enjoy yourself. The whole task, from first to last, has consumed but a +little over an hour. And you are through for the day. + +In the woods, as nowhere else, you will earn your leisure only by +forethought. Make no move until you know it follows the line of +greatest economy. To putter is to wallow in endless desolation. If you +cannot move directly and swiftly and certainly along the line of least +resistance in everything you do, take a guide with you; you are not of +the woods people. You will never enjoy doing for yourself, for your +days will be crammed with unending labour. + +It is but a little after seven. The long crimson shadows of the North +Country are lifting across the aisles of the forest. You sit on a log, +or lie on your back, and blow contented clouds straight up into the +air. Nothing can disturb you now. The wilderness is yours, for you have +taken from it the essentials of primitive civilization--shelter, +warmth, and food. An hour ago a rainstorm would have been a minor +catastrophe. Now you do not care. Blow high, blow low, you have made +for yourself an abiding-place, so that the signs of the sky are less +important to you than to the city dweller who wonders if he should take +an umbrella. From your doorstep you can look placidly out on the great +unknown. The noises of the forest draw close about you their circle of +mystery, but the circle cannot break upon you, for here you have +conjured the homely sounds of kettle and crackling flame to keep ward. +Thronging down through the twilight steal the jealous woodland shadows, +awful in the sublimity of the Silent Places, but at the sentry outposts +of your firelit trees they pause like wild animals, hesitating to +advance. The wilderness, untamed, dreadful at night, is all about; but +this one little spot you have reclaimed. Here is something before +unknown to the eerie spirits of the woods. As you sleepily knock the +ashes from the pipe, you look about on the familiar scene with +accustomed satisfaction. You are at home. + + + + +V. + +ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT. + +"Who hath lain alone to hear the wild goose cry?" + + +About once in so often you are due to lie awake at night. Why this is +so I have never been able to discover. It apparently comes from no +predisposing uneasiness of indigestion, no rashness in the matter of +too much tea or tobacco, no excitation of unusual incident or +stimulating conversation. In fact, you turn in with the expectation of +rather a good night's rest. Almost at once the little noises of the +forest grow larger, blend in the hollow bigness of the first drowse; +your thoughts drift idly back and forth between reality and dream; +when--_snap!_--you are broad awake! + +Perhaps the reservoir of your vital forces is full to the overflow of a +little waste; or perhaps, more subtly, the great Mother insists thus +that you enter the temple of her larger mysteries. + +For, unlike mere insomnia, lying awake at night in the woods is +pleasant. The eager, nervous straining for sleep gives way to a +delicious indifference. You do not care. Your mind is cradled in an +exquisite poppy-suspension of judgment and of thought. Impressions slip +vaguely into your consciousness and as vaguely out again. Sometimes +they stand stark and naked for your inspection; sometimes they lose +themselves in the midst of half-sleep. Always they lay soft velvet +fingers on the drowsy imagination, so that in their caressing you feel +the vaster spaces from which they have come. Peaceful-brooding your +faculties receive. Hearing, sight, smell--all are preternaturally keen +to whatever of sound and sight and woods perfume is abroad through the +night; and yet at the same time active appreciation dozes, so these +things lie on it sweet and cloying like fallen rose leaves. + +In such circumstance you will hear what the _voyageurs_ call the +voices of the rapids. Many people never hear them at all. They speak +very soft and low and distinct beneath the steady roar and dashing, +beneath even the lesser tinklings and gurglings whose quality +superimposes them over the louder sounds. They are like the tear-forms +swimming across the field of vision, which disappear so quickly when +you concentrate your sight to look at them, and which reappear so +magically when again your gaze turns vacant. In the stillness of your +hazy half-consciousness they speak; when you bend your attention to +listen, they are gone, and only the tumults and the tinklings remain. + +But in the moments of their audibility they are very distinct. Just as +often an odour will wake all a vanished memory, so these voices, by the +force of a large impressionism, suggest whole scenes. Far off are the +cling-clang-cling of chimes and the swell-and-fall murmur of a +multitude _en fête_, so that subtly you feel the gray old town, +with its walls, the crowded marketplace, the decent peasant crowd, the +booths, the mellow church building with its bells, the warm, dust-moted +sun. Or, in the pauses between the swish-dash-dashings of the waters, +sound faint and clear voices singing intermittently, calls, distant +notes of laughter, as though many canoes were working against the +current; only the flotilla never gets any nearer, nor the voices +louder. The _voyageurs_ call these mist people the Huntsmen, and +look frightened. To each is his vision, according to his experience. +The nations of the earth whisper to their exiled sons through the +voices of the rapids. Curiously enough, by all reports, they suggest +always peaceful scenes--a harvest field, a street fair, a Sunday +morning in a cathedral town, careless travellers--never the turmoils +and struggles. Perhaps this is the great Mother's compensation in a +harsh mode of life. + +Nothing is more fantastically unreal to tell about, nothing more +concretely real to experience, than this undernote of the quick water. +And when you do lie awake at night, it is always making its unobtrusive +appeal. Gradually its hypnotic spell works. The distant chimes ring +louder and nearer as you cross the borderland of sleep. And then +outside the tent some little woods noise snaps the thread. An owl +hoots, a whippoorwill cries, a twig cracks beneath the cautious prowl +of some night creature--at once the yellow sunlit French meadows puff +away--you are staring at the blurred image of the moon spraying through +the texture of your tent. + +The voices of the rapids have dropped into the background, as have the +dashing noises of the stream. Through the forest is a great silence, +but no stillness at all. The whippoorwill swings down and up the short +curve of his regular song; over and over an owl says his rapid +_whoo_, _whoo_, _whoo_. These, with the ceaseless dash of the rapids, +are the web on which the night traces her more delicate embroideries +of the unexpected. Distant crashes, single and impressive; +stealthy footsteps near at hand; the subdued scratching of claws; a +faint _sniff! sniff! sniff!_ of inquiry; the sudden clear tin-horn +_ko-ko-ko-óh_ of the little owl; the mournful, long-drawn-out cry +of the loon, instinct with the spirit of loneliness; the ethereal +call-note of the birds of passage high in the air; a _patter_, +_patter_, _patter_ among the dead leaves, immediately stilled; +and then at the last, from the thicket close at hand, the +beautiful silver purity of the white-throated sparrow--the nightingale +of the North--trembling with the ecstasy of beauty, as though a +shimmering moonbeam had turned to sound; and all the while the blurred +figure of the moon mounting to the ridge-line of your tent--these +things combine subtly, until at last the great Silence of which they +are a part overarches the night and draws you forth to contemplation. + +No beverage is more grateful than the cup of spring water you drink at +such a time; no moment more refreshing than that in which you look +about you at the darkened forest. You have cast from you with the warm +blanket the drowsiness of dreams. A coolness, physical and spiritual, +bathes you from head to foot. All your senses are keyed to the last +vibrations. You hear the littler night prowlers, you glimpse the +greater. A faint, searching woods perfume of dampness greets your +nostrils. And somehow, mysteriously, in a manner not to be understood, +the forces of the world seem in suspense, as though a touch might +crystallize infinite possibilities into infinite power and motion. But +the touch lacks. The forces hover on the edge of action, unheeding the +little noises. In all humbleness and awe, you are a dweller of the +Silent Places. + +At such a time you will meet with adventures. One night we put +fourteen inquisitive porcupines out of camp. Near M'Gregor's Bay I +discovered in the large grass park of my camp-site nine deer, cropping +the herbage like so many beautiful ghosts. A friend tells me of a fawn +that every night used to sleep outside his tent and within a foot of +his head, probably by way of protection against wolves. Its mother had +in all likelihood been killed. The instant my friend moved toward the +tent opening the little creature would disappear, and it was always +gone by earliest daylight. Nocturnal bears in search of pork are not +uncommon. But even though your interest meets nothing but the bats and +the woods shadows and the stars, that few moments of the sleeping world +forces is a psychical experience to be gained in no other way. You +cannot know the night by sitting up; she will sit up with you. Only by +coming into her presence from the borders of sleep can you meet her +face to face in her intimate mood. + +The night wind from the river, or from the open spaces of the wilds, +chills you after a time. You begin to think of your blankets. In a few +moments you roll yourself in their soft wool. Instantly it is morning. + +And, strange to say, you have not to pay by going through the day +unrefreshed. You may feel like turning in at eight instead of nine, and +you may fall asleep with unusual promptitude, but your journey will +begin clear-headedly, proceed springily, and end with much in reserve. +No languor, no dull headache, no exhaustion, follows your experience. +For this once your two hours of sleep have been as effective as nine. + + + + +VI. + +THE 'LUNGE. + +"Do you know the chosen water where the ouananiche is waiting?" + + +Dick and I travelled in a fifteen-foot wooden canoe, with grub, duffel, +tent, and Deuce, the black-and-white setter dog. As a consequence we +were pretty well down toward the water-line, for we had not realized +that a wooden canoe would carry so little weight for its length in +comparison with a birch-bark. A good heavy sea we could ride--with +proper management and a little baling; but sloppy waves kept us busy. + +Deuce did not like it at all. He was a dog old in the wisdom of +experience. It had taken him just twenty minutes to learn all about +canoes. After a single tentative trial he jumped lightly to the very +centre of his place, with the lithe caution of a cat. Then if the water +happened to be smooth, he would sit gravely on his haunches, or would +rest his chin on the gunwale to contemplate the passing landscape. But +in rough weather he crouched directly over the keel, his nose between +his paws, and tried not to dodge when the cold water dashed in on him. +Deuce was a true woodsman in that respect. Discomfort he always bore +with equanimity, and he must often have been very cold and very +cramped. + +For just over a week we had been travelling in open water, and the +elements had not been kind to us at all. We had crept up under +rock-cliff points; had weathered the rips of white water to shelter on +the other side; had struggled across open spaces where each wave was +singly a problem to fail in whose solution meant instant swamping; had +baled, and schemed, and figured, and carried, and sworn, and tried +again, and succeeded with about two cupfuls to spare, until we as well +as Deuce had grown a little tired of it. For the lust of travel was on +us. + +The lust of travel is a very real disease. It usually takes you when +you have made up your mind that there is no hurry. Its predisposing +cause is a chart or map, and its main symptom is the feverish delight +with which you check off the landmarks of your journey. A fair wind of +some force is absolutely fatal. With that at your back you cannot +stop. Good fishing, fine scenery, interesting bays, reputed game, even +camps where friends might be visited--all pass swiftly astern. Hardly +do you pause for lunch at noon. The mad joy of putting country behind +you eats all other interests. You recover only when you have come to +your journey's end a week too early, and must then search out new +voyages to fill in the time. + +All this morning we had been bucking a strong north wind. Fortunately, +the shelter of a string of islands had given us smooth water enough, +but the heavy gusts sometimes stopped us as effectively as though we +had butted solid land. Now about noon we came to the last island, and +looked out on a five-mile stretch of tumbling seas. We landed the canoe +and mounted a high rock. + +"Can't make it like this," said I. "I'll take the outfit over and land +it, and come back for you and the dog. Let's see that chart." + +We hid behind the rock and spread out the map. + +"Four miles," measured Dick. "It's going to be a terror." + +We looked at each other vaguely, suddenly tired. + +"We can't camp here--at this time of day," objected Dick, to our +unspoken thoughts. + +And then the map gave him an inspiration. "Here's a little river," +ruminated Dick, "that goes to a little lake, and then there's another +little river that flows from the lake and comes out about ten miles +above here." + +"It's a good thirty miles," I objected. + +"What of it?" asked Dick calmly. + +So the fever-lust of travel broke. We turned to the right behind the +last island, searched out the reed-grown opening to the stream, and +paddled serenely and philosophically against the current. Deuce sat up +and yawned with a mighty satisfaction. + +We had been bending our heads to the demon of wind; our ears had been +filled with his shoutings, our eyes blinded with tears, our breath +caught away from us, our muscles strung to the fiercest endeavour. +Suddenly we found ourselves between the ranks of tall forest trees, +bathed in a warm sunlight, gliding like a feather from one grassy bend +to another of the laziest little stream that ever hesitated as to which +way the grasses of its bed should float. As for the wind, it was lost +somewhere away up high, where we could hear it muttering to itself +about something. + +The woods leaned over the fringe of bushes cool and green and silent. +Occasionally through tiny openings we caught instant impressions of +straight column trunks and transparent shadows. Miniature grass marshes +jutted out from the bends of the little river. We idled along as with a +homely rustic companion through the aloofness of patrician multitudes. + +Every bend offered us charming surprises. Sometimes a muskrat swam +hastily in a pointed furrow of ripple; vanishing wings, barely sensed +in the flash, left us staring; stealthy withdrawals of creatures, whose +presence we realized only in the fact of those withdrawals, snared our +eager interest; porcupines rattled and rustled importantly and regally +from the water's edge to the woods; herons, ravens, an occasional duck, +croaked away at our approach; thrice we surprised eagles, once a +tassel-eared Canada lynx. Or, if all else lacked, we still experienced +the little thrill of pleased novelty over the disclosure of a group of +silvery birches on a knoll; a magnificent white pine towering over the +beech and maple forest; the unexpected aisle of a long, straight +stretch of the little river. + +Deuce approved thoroughly. He stretched himself and yawned and shook +off the water, and glanced at me open-mouthed with doggy good-nature, +and set himself to acquiring a conscientious olfactory knowledge of +both banks of the river. I do not doubt he knew a great deal more +about it than we did. Porcupines aroused his special enthusiasm. +Incidentally, two days later he returned to camp after an expedition of +his own, bristling as to the face with that animal's barbed weapons. +Thenceforward his interest waned. + +We ascended the charming little river two or three miles. At a sharp +bend to the east a huge sheet of rock sloped from a round grass knoll +sparsely planted with birches directly down into a pool. Two or three +tree trunks jammed directly opposite had formed a sort of half dam +under which the water lay dark. A tiny grass meadow forty feet in +diameter narrowed the stream to half its width. + +We landed. Dick seated himself on the shelving rock. I put my fish-rod +together. Deuce disappeared. + +Deuce always disappeared whenever we landed. With nose down, hind +quarters well tucked under him, ears flying, he quartered the forest at +high speed, investigating every nook and cranny of it for the radius of +a quarter of a mile. When he has quite satisfied himself that we were +safe for the moment, he would return to the fire, where he would lie, +six inches of pink tongue vibrating with breathlessness, beautiful in +the consciousness of virtue. Dick generally sat on a rock and thought. +I generally fished. + +After a time Deuce returned. I gave up flies, spoons, phantom minnows, +artificial frogs, and crayfish. As Dick continued to sit on the rock +and think, we both joined him. The sun was very warm and grateful, and +I am sure we both acquired an added respect for Dick's judgment. + +Just when it happened neither of us was afterwards able to decide. +Perhaps Deuce knew. But suddenly, as often a figure appears in a +cinematograph, the diminutive meadow thirty feet away contained two +deer. They stood knee-deep in the grass, wagging their little tails in +impatience of the flies. + +"Look a' there!" stammered Dick aloud. + +Deuce sat up on his haunches. + +I started for my camera. + +The deer did not seem to be in the slightest degree alarmed. They +pointed four big ears in our direction, ate a few leisurely mouthfuls +of grass, sauntered to the stream for a drink of water, wagged their +little tails some more, and quietly faded into the cool shadows of the +forest. + +[Illustration: AT SUCH A TIME YOU WILL MEET WITH ADVENTURES.] + +An hour later we ran out into reeds, and so to the lake. It was a +pretty lake, forest-girt. Across the distance we made out a moving +object which shortly resolved itself into a birch canoe. The canoe +proved to contain an Indian, an Indian boy of about ten years, a black +dog, and a bundle. When within a few rods of each other we ceased +paddling, and drifted by with the momentum. The Indian was a +fine-looking man of about forty, his hair bound with a red fillet, his +feet incased in silk-worked moccasins, but otherwise dressed in white +men's garments. He smoked a short pipe, and contemplated us gravely. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," we called in the usual double-barrelled North +Country salutation. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou," he replied. + +"Kée-gons?" we inquired as to the fishing in the lake. + +"Áh-hah," he assented. + +We drifted by each other without further speech. When the decent +distance of etiquette separated us we resumed our paddles. + +I produced a young cable terminated by a tremendous spoon and a solid +brass snell as thick as a telegraph wire. We had laid in this +formidable implement in hopes of a big muscallunge. It had been trailed +for days at a time. We had become used to its vibration, which actually +seemed to communicate itself to every fibre of the light canoe. Every +once in a while we would stop with a jerk that would nearly snap our +heads off. Then we would know we had hooked the American continent. We +had become used to that also. It generally happened when we attempted a +little burst of speed. So when the canoe brought up so violently that +all our tinware rolled on Deuce, Dick was merely disgusted. + +"There she goes again," he grumbled. "You've hooked Canada." + +Canada held quiescent for about three seconds. Then it started due +south. + +"Suffering serpents!" shrieked Dick. + +"Paddle, you sulphurated idiot!" yelled I. + +It was most interesting. All I had to do was to hang on and try to stay +in the boat. Dick paddled and fumed and splashed water and got more +excited. Canada dragged us bodily backward. + +Then Canada changed his mind and started in our direction. I was plenty +busy taking in slack, so I did not notice Dick. Dick was absolutely +demented. His mind automatically reacted in the direction of paddling. +He paddled, blindly, frantically. Canada came surging in, his mouth +open, his wicked eyes flaming, a tremendous indistinct body lashing +foam. Dick glanced once over his shoulder, and let out a frantic howl. + +"You've got the sea-serpent!" he shrieked. + +I turned to fumble for the pistol. We were headed directly for a log +stranded on shore, and about ten feet from it. + +"Dick!" I yelled in warning. + +He thrust his paddle out forward just in time. The stout maple bent and +cracked. The canoe hit with a bump that threw us forward. I returned to +the young cable. It came in limp and slack. + +We looked at each other sadly. + +"No use," sighed Dick at last. "They've never invented the words, and +we'd upset if we kicked the dog." + +I had the end of the line in my hands. + +"Look here!" I cried. That thick brass wire had been as cleanly bitten +through as though it had been cut with clippers. "He must have caught +sight of you," said I. + +Dick lifted up his voice in lamentation. "You had four feet of him out +of water," he wailed, "and there was a lot more." + +"If you had kept cool," said I severely, "we shouldn't have lost him. +You don't want to get rattled in an emergency; there's no sense in it." + +"What were you going to do with that?" asked Dick, pointing to where I +had laid the pistol. + +"I was going to shoot him in the head," I replied with dignity. "It's +the best way to land them." + +Dick laughed disagreeably. I looked down. At my side lay our largest +iron spoon. + +We skirted the left-hand side of the lake in silence. Far out from +shore the water was ruffled where the wind swept down, but with us it +was as still and calm as the forest trees that looked over into it. +After a time we turned short to the left through a very narrow passage +between two marshy shores, and so, after a sharp bend of but a few +hundred feet, came into the other river. + +This was a wide stream, smoothly hurrying, without rapids or tumult. +The forest had drawn to either side to let us pass. Here were the +wilder reaches after the intimacies of the little river. Across +stretches of marsh we could see an occasional great blue heron standing +mid-leg deep. Long strings of ducks struggled quacking from invisible +pools. The faint marsh odour saluted our nostrils from the point where +the lily-pads flashed broadly, ruffling in the wind. We dropped out the +smaller spoon and masterfully landed a five-pound pickerel. Even Deuce +brightened. He cared nothing for raw fish, but he knew their +possibilities. Towards evening we entered the hilly country, and so at +the last turned to the left into a sand cove where grew maples and +birches in beautiful park order under a hill. There we pitched camp, +and, as the flies lacked, built a friendship-fire about which to +forgather when the day was done. + +Dick still vocally regretted the muscallunge told him of my big bear. + +One day, late in the summer, I was engaged in packing some supplies +along an old fur trail north of Lake Superior. I had accomplished one +back-load, and with empty straps was returning to the cache for +another. The trail at one point emerged into and crossed an open park +some hundreds of feet in diameter, in which the grass grew to the +height of the knee. When I was about halfway across, a black bear arose +to his hind legs not ten feet from me, and remarked _Woof!_ in a +loud tone of voice. Now, if a man were to say _woof_ to you +unexpectedly, even in the formality of an Italian garden or the +accustomedness of a city street, you would be somewhat startled. So I +went to camp. There I told them about the bear. I tried to be +conservative in my description, because I did not wish to be accused of +exaggeration. My impression of the animal was that he and a spruce tree +that grew near enough for ready comparison were approximately of the +same stature. We returned to the grass park. After some difficulty we +found a clear footprint. It was a little larger than that made by a +good-sized coon. + +"So, you see," I admonished didactically, "that lunge probably was not +quite so large as you thought." + +"It may have been a Chinese bear," said Dick dreamily--"a Chinese lady +bear of high degree." + +I gave him up. + + + + +VII. + +ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING. + +"It is there that I am going, with an extra hand to bail her-- +Just one single long-shore loafer that I know. He can take his chance +of drowning while I sail and sail and sail her, For the Red Gods call +me out, and I must go." + + +The following morning the wind had died, but had been succeeded by a +heavy pall of fog. After we had felt our way beyond the mouth of the +river we were forced to paddle north-west by north, in blind reliance +on our compass. Sounds there were none. Involuntarily we lowered our +voices. The inadvertent click of the paddle against the gunwale seemed +to desecrate a foreordained stillness. + +Occasionally to the right hand or the left we made out faint +shadow-pictures of wooded islands that endured but a moment and then +deliberately faded into whiteness. They formed on the view exactly as +an image develops on a photographic plate. Sometimes a faint +_lisp-lisp-lisp_ of tiny waves against a shore nearer than it +seemed cautioned us anew not to break the silence. Otherwise we were +alone, intruders, suffered in the presence of a brooding nature only as +long as we refrained from disturbances. + +Then at noon the vapours began to eddy, to open momentarily in +revelation of vivid green glimpses, to stream down the rising wind. +Pale sunlight dashed fitfully across us like a shower. Somewhere in the +invisibility a duck quacked. Deuce awoke, looked about him, and +_yow-yow-yowed_ in doggish relief. Animals understand thoroughly +these subtleties of nature. + +In half an hour the sun was strong, the air clear and sparkling, and a +freshening wind was certifying our prognostications of a lively +afternoon. + +A light canoe will stand almost anything in the way of a sea, although +you may find it impossible sometimes to force it in the direction you +wish to go. A loaded canoe will weather a great deal more than you +might think. However, only experience in balance and in the nature of +waves will bring you safely across a stretch of whitecaps. + +With the sea dead ahead you must not go too fast; otherwise you will +dip water over the bow. You must trim the craft absolutely on an even +keel; otherwise the comb of the wave, too light to lift you, will slop +in over one gunwale or the other. You must be perpetually watching your +chance to gain a foot or so between the heavier seas. + +With the sea over one bow you must paddle on the leeward side. When the +canoe mounts a wave, you must allow the crest to throw the bow off a +trifle, but the moment it starts down the other slope you must twist +your paddle sharply to regain the direction of your course. The +careening tendency of this twist you must counteract by a corresponding +twist of your body in the other direction. Then the hollow will allow +you two or three strokes wherewith to assure a little progress. The +double twist at the very crest of the wave must be very delicately +performed, or you will ship water the whole length of your craft. + +With the sea abeam you must simply paddle straight ahead. The +adjustment is to be accomplished entirely by the poise of the body. You +must prevent the capsize of your canoe when clinging to the angle of a +wave by leaning to one side. The crucial moment, of course, is that +during which the peak of the wave slips under you. In case of a +breaking comber, thrust the flat of your paddle deep in the water to +prevent an upset, and lean well to leeward, thus presenting the side +and half the bottom of the canoe to the shock of water. Your recovery +must be instant, however. If you lean a second too long, over you go. +This sounds more difficult than it is. After a time you do it +instinctively, as a skater balances. + +With the sea over the quarter you have merely to take care that the +waves do not slue you around sidewise, and that the canoe does not dip +water on one side or the other under the stress of your twists with the +paddle. Dead astern is perhaps the most difficult of all, for the +reason that you must watch both gunwales at once, and must preserve an +absolutely even keel, in spite of the fact that it generally requires +your utmost strength to steer. In really heavy weather one man only +can do any work. The other must be content to remain passenger, and he +must be trained to absolute immobility. No matter how dangerous a +careen the canoe may take, no matter how much good cold water may pour +in over his legs, he must resist his tendency to shift his weight. The +entire issue depends on the delicacy of the steersman's adjustments, so +he must be given every chance. + +The main difficulty rests in the fact that such canoeing is a good deal +like air-ship travel--there is not much opportunity to learn by +experience. In a four-hour run across an open bay you will encounter +somewhat over a thousand waves, no two of which are exactly alike, and +any one of which can fill you up only too easily if it is not correctly +met. Your experience is called on to solve instantly and practically a +thousand problems. No breathing-space in which to recover is permitted +you between them. At the end of the four hours you awaken to the fact +that your eyes are strained from intense concentration, and that you +taste copper. + +Probably nothing, however, can more effectively wake you up to the last +fibre of your physical, intellectual, and nervous being. You are filled +with an exhilaration. Every muscle, strung tight, answers immediately +and accurately to the slightest hint. You quiver all over with +restrained energy. Your mind thrusts behind you the problem of the last +wave as soon as solved, and leaps with insistent eagerness to the next. +You attain that superordinary condition when your faculties react +instinctively, like a machine. It is a species of intoxication. After a +time you personify each wave; you grapple with it as with a personal +adversary; you exult as, beaten and broken, it hisses away to leeward. +"Go it, you son of a gun!" you shout. "Ah, you would, would you! think +you can, do you?" and in the roar and rush of wind and water you crouch +like a boxer on the defence, parrying the blows, but ready at the +slightest opening to gain a stroke of the paddle. + +In such circumstances you have not the leisure to consider distance. +You are too busily engaged in slaughtering waves to consider your rate +of progress. The fact that slowly you are pulling up on your objective +point does not occur to you until you are within a few hundred yards of +it. Then, unless you are careful, you are undone. + +Probably the most difficult thing of all to learn is that the waves to +be encountered in the last hundred yards of an open sweep are exactly +as dangerous as those you dodged so fearfully four miles from shore. +You are so nearly in that you unconsciously relax your efforts. Calmly, +almost contemptuously, a big roller rips along your gunwale. You are +wrecked--fortunately within easy swimming distance. But that doesn't +save your duffel. Remember this: be just as careful with the very last +wave as you were with the others. Get inside before you draw that deep +breath of relief. + +Strangely enough, in out-of-door sports, where it would seem that +convention would rest practically at the zero point, the bugbear of +good form, although mashed and disguised, rises up to confuse the +directed practicality. The average man is wedded to his theory. He has +seen a thing done in a certain way, and he not only always does it that +way himself, but he is positively unhappy at seeing any one else +employing a different method. From the swing at golf to the manner of +lighting a match in the wind, this truism applies. I remember once +hearing a long argument with an Eastern man on the question of the +English riding-seat in the Western country. + +"Your method is all very well," said the Westerner, "for where it came +from. In England they ride to hunt, so they need a light saddle and +very short stirrups set well forward. That helps them in jumping. But +it is most awkward. Out here you want your stirrups very long and +directly under you, so your legs hang loose, and you depend on your +balance and the grip of your thighs--not your knees. It is less tiring, +and better sense, and infinitely more graceful, for it more nearly +approximates the bareback seat. Instead of depending on stirrups, you +are part of the horse. You follow his every movement. And as for your +rising trot, I'd like to see you accomplish it safely on our mountain +trails, where the trot is the only gait practicable, unless you take +for ever to get anywhere." To all of which the Easterner found no +rebuttal except the, to him, entirely efficient plea that his own +method was good form. + +Now, of course, it is very pleasant to do things always accurately, +according to the rules of the game, and if you are out merely for +sport, perhaps it is as well to stick to them. But utility is another +matter. Personally, I do not care at all to kill trout unless by the +fly; but when we need meat and they do not need flies, I never hesitate +to offer them any kind of doodle-bug they may fancy. I have even at a +pinch clubbed them to death in a shallow, land-locked pool. Time will +come in your open-water canoe experience when you will pull into +shelter half full of water, when you will be glad of the fortuity of a +chance cross-wave to help you out, when sheer blind luck, or main +strength and awkwardness, will be the only reasons you can honestly +give for an arrival, and a battered and dishevelled arrival at that. Do +not, therefore, repine, or bewail your awkwardness, or indulge in undue +self-accusations of "tenderfoot." Method is nothing; the arrival is the +important thing. You are travelling, and if you can make time by nearly +swamping yourself, or by dragging your craft across a point, or by +taking any other base advantage of the game's formality, by all means +do so. Deuce used to solve the problem of comfort by drinking the +little pool of cold water in which he sometimes was forced to lie. In +the woods, when a thing is to be done, do not consider how you have +done it, or how you have seen it done, or how you think it ought to be +done, but how it _can_ be accomplished. Absolute fluidity of +expedient, perfect adaptability, is worth a dozen volumes of +theoretical knowledge. "If you can't talk," goes the Western +expression, "raise a yell; if you can't yell, make signs; if you can't +make signs, wave a bush." + +And do not be too ready to take advice as to what you can or cannot +accomplish, even from the woods people. Of course the woods Indians or +the _voyageurs_ know all about canoes, and you would do well to +listen to them. But the mere fact that your interlocutor lives in the +forest, while you normally inhabit the towns, does not necessarily give +him authority. A community used to horses looks with horror on the +instability of all water craft less solid than canal boats. Canoemen +stand in awe of the bronco. The fishermen of the Georgian Bay, +accustomed to venture out with their open sailboats in weather that +forces the big lake schooners to shelter, know absolutely nothing about +canoes. Dick and I made an eight-mile run from the Fox island to +Killarney in a trifling sea, to be cheered during our stay at the +latter place by doleful predictions of an early drowning. And this from +a seafaring community. It knew all about boats; it knew nothing about +canoes; and yet the unthinking might have been influenced by the advice +of these men simply because they had been brought up on the water. The +point is obvious. Do not attempt a thing unless you are sure of +yourself; but do not relinquish it merely because some one else is not +sure of you. + +The best way to learn is with a bathing-suit. Keep near shore, and try +everything. Don't attempt the real thing until your handling in a heavy +sea has become as instinctive as snap-shooting or the steps of dancing. +Remain on the hither side of caution when you start out. Act at first +as though every wavelet would surely swamp you. Extend the scope of +your operations very gradually, until you know just what you can do. +_Never_ get careless. Never take any _real_ chances. That's +all. + + + + +VIII. + +THE STRANDED STRANGERS. + + +As we progressed, the country grew more and more solemnly aloof. In the +Southland is a certain appearance of mobility, lent by the deciduous +trees, the warm sun, the intimate nooks in which grow the commoner +homely weeds and flowers, the abundance of bees and musical insects, +the childhood familiarity of the well-known birds, even the pleasantly +fickle aspects of the skies. But the North wraps itself in a mantle of +awe. Great hills rest not so much in the stillness of sleep as in the +calm of a mighty comprehension. The pines, rank after rank, file after +file, are always trooping somewhere, up the slope, to pause at the +crest before descending on the other side into the unknown. Bodies of +water exactly of the size, shape, and general appearance we are +accustomed to see dotted with pleasure craft and bordered with wharves, +summer cottages, pavilions, and hotels, accentuate by that very fact a +solitude that harbours only a pair of weirdly laughing loons. Like the +hills, these lakes are lying in a deep, still repose, but a repose that +somehow suggests the comprehending calm of those behind the veil. The +whole country seems to rest in a suspense of waiting. A shot breaks the +stillness for an instant, but its very memory is shadowy a moment after +the echoes die. Inevitably the traveller feels thrust in upon himself +by a neutrality more deadly than open hostility would be. Hostility at +least supposes recognition of his existence, a rousing of forces to +oppose him. This ignores. One can no longer wonder at the taciturnity +of the men who dwell here; nor does one fail to grasp the eminent +suitability to the country of its Indian name--the Silent Places. + +Even the birds, joyful, lively, commonplace little people that they +are, draw some of this aloofness to themselves. The North is full of +the homelier singers. A dozen species of warblers lisp music-box +phrases, two or three sparrows whistle a cheerful repertoire, the +nuthatches and chickadees toot away in blissful _bourgeoisie_. And +yet, somehow, that very circumstance thrusts the imaginative voyager +outside the companionship of their friendliness. In the face of the +great gods they move with accustomed familiarity. Somehow they possess +in their little experience that which explains the mystery, so that +they no longer stand in its awe. Their everyday lives are spent under +the shadow of the temple whither you dare not bend your footsteps. The +intimacy of occult things isolates also these wise little birds. + +The North speaks, however, only in the voices of three--the two +thrushes, and the white-throated sparrow. You must hear these each at +his proper time. + +The hermit thrush you will rarely see. But late some afternoon, when +the sun is lifting along the trunks of the hardwood forest, if you are +very lucky and very quiet, you will hear him far in the depth of the +blackest swamps. Musically expressed, his song is very much like that +of the wood thrush--three cadenced liquid notes, a quivering pause, +then three more notes of another phrase, and so on. But the fineness of +its quality makes of it an entirely different performance. If you +symbolize the hermit thrush by the flute, you must call the wood thrush +a chime of little tinkling bells. One is a rendition; the other the +essence of liquid music. An effect of gold-embroidered richness, of +depth going down to the very soul of things, a haunting suggestion of +having touched very near to the source of tears, a conviction that the +just interpretation of the song would be an equally just interpretation +of black woods, deep shadows, cloistered sunlight, brooding +hills--these are the subtle and elusive impressions you will receive in +the middle of the ancient forest. + +The olive-backed thrush you will enjoy after your day's work is quite +finished. You will see him through the tobacco haze, perched on a limb +against the evening sky. He utters a loud joyful _chirp_ pauses +for the attention he thus solicits, and then deliberately runs up five +mellow double notes, ending with a metallic "_ting_ chee chee +chee" that sounds as though it had been struck on a triangle. Then a +silence of exactly nine seconds and repeat. As regularly as clock-work +this performance goes on. Time him as often as you will, you can never +convict him of a second's variation. And he is so optimistic and +willing, and his notes are so golden with the yellow of sunshine! + +The white-throated sparrow sings nine distinct variations of the same +song. He may sing more, but that is all I have counted. He inhabits +woods, berry-vines, brulés, and clearings. Ordinarily he is cheerful, +and occasionally aggravating. One man I knew he drove nearly crazy. To +that man he was always saying, "_And he never heard the man say drink +and the_----." Toward the last my friend used wildly to offer him a +thousand dollars if he would, if he only _would_, finish that +sentence. But occasionally, in just the proper circumstances, he +forgets his stump corners, his vines, his jolly sunlight, and his +delightful bugs to become the intimate voice of the wilds. It is night, +very still, Very dark. The subdued murmur of the forest ebbs and flows +with the voices of the furtive folk--an undertone fearful to break the +night calm. Suddenly across the dusk of silence flashes a single thread +of silver, vibrating, trembling with some unguessed ecstasy of emotion: +"_Ah! poor Canada Canada Canada Canada!_" it mourns passionately, +and falls silent. That is all. + +You will hear at various times other birds peculiarly of the North. +Loons alternately calling and uttering their maniac laughter; purple +finches or some of the pine sparrows warbling high and clear; the +winter wren, whose rapturous ravings never fail to strike the attention +of the dullest passer; all these are exclusively Northern voices, and +each expresses some phase or mood of the Silent Places. But none +symbolizes as do the three. And when first you hear one of them after +an absence, you are satisfied that things are right in the world, for +the North Country's spirit is as it was. + +Now ensued a spell of calm weather, with a film of haze over the sky. +The water lay like quicksilver, heavy and inert. Toward afternoon it +became opalescent. The very substance of the liquid itself seemed +impregnated with dyes ranging in shade from wine colour to the most +delicate lilac. Through a smoke veil the sun hung, a ball of red, while +beneath every island, every rock, every tree, every wild fowl floating +idly in a medium apparently too delicate for its support, lurked the +beautiful crimson shadows of the North. + +[Illustration: EACH WAVE WAS SINGLY A PROBLEM, TO FAIL IN WHOSE +SOLUTION MEANT INSTANT SWAMPING.] + +Hour after hour, day after day, we slipped on. Point after point, +island after island, presented itself silently to our inspection and +dropped quietly astern. The beat of paddles fitted monotonously into +the almost portentous stillness. It seemed that we might be able to go +on thus for ever, lapped in the dream of some forgotten magic that had +stricken breathless the life of the world. And then, suddenly, three +weeks on our journey, we came to a town. + +It was not the typical fur town of the Far North, but it lay at the +threshold. A single street, worn smooth by the feet of men and dogs, +but innocent of hoofs, fronted the channel. A board walk, elevated +against the snows, bordered a row of whitewashed log and frame houses, +each with its garden of brilliant flowers. A dozen wharves of various +sizes, over whose edges peeped the double masts of Mackinaw boats, +spoke of a fishing community. Between the roofs one caught glimpses of +a low sparse woods and some thousand-foot hills beyond. We subsequently +added the charm of isolation in learning that the nearest telegraph +line was fifteen miles distant, while the railroad passed some fifty +miles away. + +Dick immediately went wild. It was his first glimpse of the mixed +peoples. A dozen loungers, handsome, careless, graceful with the +inimitable elegance of the half-breed's leisure, chatted, rolled +cigarettes, and surveyed with heavy-eyed indolence such of the town as +could be viewed from the shade in which they lay. Three girls, in whose +dark cheeks glowed a rich French comeliness, were comparing purchases +near the store. A group of rivermen, spike-booted, short-trousered, +reckless of air, with their little round hats over one ear, sat +chair-tilted outside the "hotel." Across the dividing fences of two of +the blazoned gardens a pair of old crones gossiped under their breaths. +Some Indians smoked silently at the edge of one of the docks. In the +distance of the street's end a French priest added the quaintness of +his cassock to the exotic atmosphere of the scene. At once a pack of +the fierce sledge-dogs left their foraging for the offal of the +fisheries, to bound challenging in the direction of poor Deuce. That +highbred animal fruitlessly attempted to combine dignity with a +discretionary lurking between our legs. We made demonstrations with +sticks, and sought out the hotel, for it was about time to eat. + +We had supper at a table with three Forest Rangers, two lumber-jacks, +and a cat-like handsome "breed" whose business did not appear. Then we +lit up and strolled about to see what we could see. + +On the text of a pair of brass knuckles hanging behind the hotel bar I +embroidered many experiences with the lumberjack. I told of a Wisconsin +town where an enforced wait of five hours enabled me to establish the +proportion of fourteen saloons out of a total of twenty frame +buildings. I descanted craftily on the character of the woodsman out of +the woods and in the right frame of mind for deviltry. I related how +Jack Boyd, irritated beyond endurance at the annoyances of a stranger, +finally with the flat of his hand boxed the man's head so mightily that +he whirled around twice and sat down. + +"Now," said Jack softly, "be more careful, my friend, or next time I'll +_hit_ you." Or of a little Irishman who shouted to his friends +about to pull a big man from pounding the life quite out of him, "Let +him alone! let him alone! I may be on top myself in a few minutes!" And +of Dave Walker, who fought to a standstill with his bare fists alone +five men who had sworn to kill him. And again of that doughty knight of +the peavie who, when attacked by an axe, waved aside interference with +the truly dauntless cry, "Leave him be, boys; there's an axe between +us!" + +I tried to sketch, too, the drive, wherein a dozen times in an hour +these men face death with a smile or a curse--the raging untamed river, +the fierce rush of the logs, the cool little human beings poising with +a certain contemptuous preciosity on the edge of destruction as they +herd their brutish multitudes. + +There was Jimmy, the river boss, who could not swim a stroke, and who +was incontinently swept over a dam and into the boiling back-set of the +eddy below. Three times, gasping, strangling, drowning, he was carried +in the wide swirl of the circle, sometimes under, sometimes on top. +Then his knee touched a sand-bar, and he dragged himself painfully +ashore. He coughed up a quantity of water, and gave vent to his +feelings over a miraculous escape. "Damn it all!" he wailed, "I lost my +peavie!" + +"On the Paint River drive one spring," said I, "a jam formed that +extended up river some three miles. The men were working at the breast +of it, some underneath, some on top. After a time the jam apparently +broke, pulled downstream a hundred feet or so, and plugged again. Then +it was seen that only a small section had moved, leaving the main body +still jammed, so that between the two sections lay a narrow stretch of +open water. Into this open water one of the men had fallen. Before he +could recover, the second or tail section of the jam started to pull. +Apparently nothing could prevent him from being crushed. A man called +Sam--I don't know his last name--ran down the tail of the first +section, across the loose logs bobbing in the open water, seized the +victim of the accident by the collar, desperately scaled the face of +the moving jam, and reached the top just as the two sections ground +together with the brutish noise of wrecking timbers. It was a +magnificent rescue. Any but these men of iron would have adjourned for +thanks and congratulations. + +"Still retaining his hold on the other man's collar, Sam twisted him +about and delivered a vigorous kick. '_There_, damn you!' said he. +That was all. They fell to work at once to keep the jam moving." + +I instanced, too, some of the feats of river-work these men could +perform. Of how Jack Boyd has been known to float twenty miles without +shifting his feet, on a log so small that he carried it to the water on +his shoulder; of how a dozen rivermen, one after the other, would often +go through the chute of a dam standing upright on single logs; of +O'Donnell, who could turn a somersault on a floating pine log; of the +birling matches, wherein two men on a single log try to throw each +other into the river by treading, squirrel fashion, in faster and +faster rotation; of how a riverman and spiked boots and a saw-log can +do more work than an ordinary man with a rowboat. + +I do not suppose Dick believed all this--although it was strictly and +literally true--but his imagination was impressed. He gazed with +respect on the group at the far end of the street, where fifteen or +twenty lumber-jacks were interested in some amusement concealed from +us. + +"What do you suppose they are doing?" murmured Dick, awestricken. + +"Wrestling, or boxing, or gambling, or jumping," said I. + +We approached. Gravely, silently, intensely interested, the +cock-hatted, spikeshod, dangerous men were playing--croquet! + +The sight was too much for our nerves. We went away. + +The permanent inhabitants of the place we discovered to be friendly to +a degree. + +The Indian strain was evident in various dilution through all. Dick's +enthusiasm grew steadily until his artistic instincts became +aggressive, and he flatly announced his intention of staying at least +four days for the purpose of making sketches. We talked the matter +over. Finally it was agreed. Deuce and I were to make a wide circle to +the north and west as far as the Hudson's Bay post of Cloche, while +Dick filled his notebook. That night we slept in beds for the first +time. + +That is to say, we slept until about three o'clock. Then we became +vaguely conscious, through a haze of drowse--as one becomes conscious +in the pause of a sleeping-car--of voices outside our doors. Some one +said something about its being hardly much use to go to bed. Another +hoped the sheets were not damp. A succession of lights twinkled across +the walls of our room, and were vaguely explained by the coughing of a +steamboat. We sank into oblivion until the calling-bell brought us to +our feet. + +I happened to finish my toilet a little before Dick, and so descended +to the sunlight until he might be ready. Roosting on a gray old boulder +ten feet outside the door were two figures that made me want to rub my +eyes. + +The older was a square, ruddy-faced man of sixty, with neatly trimmed, +snow-white whiskers. He had on a soft Alpine hat of pearl gray, a +modishly cut gray homespun suit, a tie in which glimmered an opal pin, +wore tan gloves, and had slung over one shoulder by a narrow black +strap a pair of field-glasses. + +The younger was a tall and angular young fellow, of an eager and +sophomoric youth. His hair was very light and very smoothly brushed, +his eyes blue and rather near-sighted, his complexion pink, with an +obviously recent and superficial sunburn, and his clothes, from the +white Panama to the broad-soled low shoes, of the latest cut and +material. Instinctively I sought his fraternity pin. He looked as +though he might say "Rah! Rah!" something or other. A camera completed +his outfit. + +Tourists! How in the world did they get here? And then I remembered the +twinkle of the lights and the coughing of the steamboat. But what in +time could they be doing here? Picturesque as the place was, it held +nothing to appeal to the Baedeker spirit. I surveyed the pair with some +interest. + +"I suppose there is pretty good fishing around here," ventured the +elder. + +He evidently took me for an inhabitant. Remembering my faded blue shirt +and my floppy old hat and the red handkerchief about my neck and the +moccasins on my feet, I did not blame him. + +"I suppose there are bass among the islands," I replied. + +We fell into conversation. I learned that he and his son were from New +York. + +He learned, by a final direct question which was most significant of +his not belonging to the country, who I was. By chance he knew my name. +He opened his heart. + +"We came down on the _City of Flint_," said he. "My son and I are +on a vacation. We have been as far as the Yellowstone, and thought we +would like to see some of this country. I was assured that on this date +I could make connection with the _North Star_ for the south. I +told the purser of the _Flint_ not to wake us up unless the +_North Star_ was here at the docks. He bundled us off here at +three in the morning. The _North Star_ was not here; it is an +outrage!" + +He uttered various threats. + +"I thought the _North Star_ was running away south around the +Perry Sound region," I suggested. + +"Yes, but she was to begin to-day, June 16, to make this connection." +He produced a railroad folder. "It's in this," he continued. + +"Did you go by that thing?" I marvelled. + +"Why, of course," said he. + +"I forgot you were an American," said I. "You're in Canada now." + +He looked his bewilderment, so I hunted up Dick. I detailed the +situation. "He doesn't know the race," I concluded. "Soon he will be +trying to get information out of the agent. Let's be on hand." + +We were on hand. The tourist, his face very red, his whiskers very +white and bristly, marched importantly to the agent's office. The +latter comprised also the post-office, the fish depot, and a general +store. The agent was for the moment dickering _in re_ two pounds +of sugar. This transaction took five minutes to the pound. Mr. Tourist +waited. Then he opened up. The agent heard him placidly, as one who +listens to a curious tale. + +"What I want to know is, where's that boat?" ended the tourist. + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"Aren't you the agent of this company?" + +"Sure," replied the agent. + +"Then why don't you know something about its business and plans and +intentions?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"Do you think it would be any good to wait for the _North Star_? +Do you suppose they can be coming? Do you suppose they've altered the +schedule?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. + +"When is the next boat through here?" + +I listened for the answer in trepidation, for I saw that another +"Couldn't say" would cause the red-faced tourist to blow up. To my +relief, the agent merely inquired,-- + +"North or south?" + +"South, of course. I just came from the north. What in the name of +everlasting blazes should I want to go north again for?" + +"Couldn't say," replied the agent. "The next boat south gets in next +week, Tuesday or Wednesday." + +"Next week!" shrieked the tourist. + +"When's the next boat north?" interposed the son. + +"To-morrow morning." + +"What time?" + +"Couldn't say; you'd have to watch for her." + +"That's our boat, dad," said the young man. + +"But we've just _come_ from there!" snorted his father; "it's +three hundred miles back. It'll put us behind two days. I've got to be +in New York Friday. I've got an engagement." He turned suddenly to the +agent. "Here, I've got to send a telegram." + +The agent blinked placidly. "You'll not send it from here. This ain't a +telegraph station." + +"Where's the nearest station?" + +"Fifteen mile." + +Without further parley the old man turned and walked, stiff and +military, from the place. Near the end of the broad walk he met the +usual doddering but amiable oldest inhabitant. + +"Fine day," chirped the patriarch in well-meant friendliness. "They +jest brought in a bear cub over to Antoine's. If you'd like to take a +look at him, I'll show you where it is." + +The tourist stopped short and glared fiercely. + +"Sir," said he, "damn your bear!" Then he strode on, leaving grandpa +staring after him. + +In the course of the morning we became quite well acquainted, and he +resigned. The son appeared to take somewhat the humorous view all +through the affair, which must have irritated the old gentleman. They +discussed it rather thoroughly, and finally decided to retrace their +steps for a fresh start over a better-known route. This settled, the +senior seemed to feel relieved of a weight. He even saw and relished +certain funny phases of the incident, though he never ceased to +foretell different kinds of trouble for the company, varying in range +from mere complaints to the most tremendous of damage suits. + +He was much interested, finally, in our methods of travel, and then, in +logical sequence, with what he could see about him. He watched +curiously my loading of the canoe, for I had a three-mile stretch of +open water, and the wind was abroad. Deuce's empirical boat wisdom +aroused his admiration. He and his son were both at the shore to see me +off. + +Deuce settled himself in the bottom. I lifted the stern from the shore +and gently set it afloat. In a moment I was ready to start. + +"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" suddenly cried the father. + +I swirled my paddle back. The old gentleman was hastily fumbling in his +pockets. After an instant he descended to the water's edge. + +"Here," said he, "you are a judge of fiction; take this." + +It was his steamboat and railway folder. + + + + +IX. + +ON FLIES. + + +All the rest of the day I paddled under the frowning cliffs of the hill +ranges. Bold, bare, scarred, seamed with fissures, their precipice +rocks gave the impression of ten thousand feet rather that only so many +hundreds. Late in the afternoon we landed against a formation of +basaltic blocks cut as squarely up and down as a dock, and dropping off +into as deep water. The waves _chug-chug-chugged_ sullenly against +them, and the fringe of a dark pine forest, drawn back from a breadth +of natural grass, lowered across the horizon like a thunder-cloud. + +Deuce and I made camp with the uneasy feeling of being under inimical +inspection. A cold wind ruffled lead-like waters. No comfort was in the +prospect, so we retired early. Then it appeared that the coarse grass +of the park had bred innumerable black flies, and that we had our work +cut out for us. + +The question of flies--using that, to a woodsman, eminently connotive +word in its wide embracement of mosquitoes, sandflies, deer-flies, +black flies, and midges--is one much mooted in the craft. On no +subject are more widely divergent ideas expressed. One writer claims +that black flies' bites are but the temporary inconvenience of a +pin-prick; another tells of boils lasting a week as the invariable +result of their attentions; a third sweeps aside the whole question as +unimportant to concentrate his anathemas on the musical mosquito; still +a fourth descants on the maddening midge, and is prepared to defend his +claims against the world. A like dogmatic partisanship obtains in the +question of defences. Each and every man possessed of a tongue +wherewith to speak or a pen wherewith to write, heralds the particular +merits of his own fly-dope, head-net, or mosquito-proof tent-lining. +Eager advocates of the advantages of pork fat, kerosene, pine tar, +pennyroyal, oil of cloves, castor oil, lollacapop, or a half hundred +other concoctions, will assure you, tears in eyes, that his is the only +true faith. So many men, so many minds, until the theorist is confused +into doing the most uncomfortable thing possible--that is, to learn by +experience. + +As for the truth, it is at once in all of them and in none of them. The +annoyance of after-effects from a sting depends entirely on the +individual's physical makeup. Some people are so poisoned by mosquito +bites that three or four on the forehead suffice to close entirely the +victim's eyes. On others they leave but a small red mark without +swelling. Black flies caused festering sores on one man I accompanied +to the woods. In my own case they leave only a tiny blood-spot the size +of a pin-head, which bothers me not a bit. Midges nearly drove crazy +the same companion of mine, so that finally he jumped into the river, +clothes and all, to get rid of them. Again, merely my own experience +would lead me to regard them as a tremendous nuisance, but one quite +bearable. Indians are less susceptible than whites; nevertheless I have +seen them badly swelled behind the ears from the bites of the big +hardwood mosquito. + +You can make up your mind to one thing: from the first warm weather +until August you must expect to cope with insect pests. The black fly +will keep you busy until late afternoon; the midges will swarm you +about sunset; and the mosquito will preserve the tradition after you +have turned in. As for the deer-fly, and others of his piratical breed, +he will bite like a dog at any time. + +To me the most annoying species is the mosquito. The black fly is +sometimes most industrious--I have seen trout fishermen come into camp +with the blood literally streaming from their faces--but his great +recommendation is that he holds still to be killed. No frantic slaps, +no waving of arms, no muffled curses. You just place your finger calmly +and firmly on the spot. You get him every time. In this is great, +heart-lifting joy. It may be unholy joy, perhaps even vengeful, but it +leaves the spirit ecstatic. The satisfaction of _murdering_ the +beast that has had the nerve to light on you just as you are reeling in +almost counterbalances the pain of a sting. The midge, again, or +punkie, or "no-see-'um," just as you please, swarms down upon you +suddenly and with commendable vigour, so that you feel as though +red-hot pepper were being sprinkled on your bare skin; and his +invisibility and intangibility are such that you can never tell whether +you have killed him or not; but he doesn't last long, and dope routs +him totally. Your mosquito, however, is such a deliberate brute. He has +in him some of that divine fire which causes a dog to turn around nine +times before lying down. + +Whether he is selecting or gloating I do not know, but I do maintain +that the price of your life's blood is often not too great to pay for +the cessation of that hum. + +"Eet is not hees bite," said Billy the half-breed to me once--"eet is +hees sing." + +I agree with Billy. One mosquito in a tent can keep you awake for +hours. + +As to protection, it is varied enough in all conscience, and always +theoretically perfect. A head-net falling well down over your chest, or +even tied under your arm-pits, is at once the simplest and most +fallacious of these theories. It will keep vast numbers of flies out, +to be sure. It will also keep the few adventurous discoverers in, where +you can neither kill nor eject. Likewise you are deprived of your pipe; +and the common homely comfort of spitting on your bait is totally +denied you. The landscape takes on the prismatic colours of refraction, +so that, while you can easily make out red, white, and blue Chinese +dragons and mythological monsters, you are unable to discover the more +welcome succulence, say, of a partridge on a limb. And the end of that +head-net is to be picked to holes by the brush, and finally to be +snatched from you to sapling height, whence your pains will rescue it +only in a useless condition. Probably then you will dance the war-dance +of exasperation on its dismembered remains. Still, there are times--in +case of straight-away river paddling, or open walking, or lengthened +waiting--when the net is a great comfort. And it is easily included in +the pack. + +Next in order come the various "dopes." And they are various. From the +stickiest, blackest pastes to the silkiest, suavest oils they range, +through the grades of essence, salve, and cream. Every man has his own +recipe--the infallible. As a general rule, it may be stated that the +thicker kinds last longer and are generally more thoroughly effective, +but the lighter are pleasanter to wear, though requiring more frequent +application. At a pinch, ordinary pork fat is good. The Indians often +make temporary use of the broad caribou leaf, crushing it between their +palms and rubbing the juices on the skin. I know by experience that +this is effective, but very transitory. It is, however, a good thing to +use when resting on the trail, for, by the grace of Providence, flies +are rarely bothersome as long as you are moving at a fair gait. + +This does not always hold good, however, any more than the best +fly-dope is always effective. I remember most vividly the first day of +a return journey from the shores of the Hudson Bay. The weather was +rather oppressively close and overcast. + +We had paddled a few miles up river from the fur trading-post, and then +had landed in order to lighten the canoe for the ascent against the +current. At that point the forest has already begun to dwindle towards +the Land of Little Sticks, so that often miles and miles of open +muskegs will intervene between groups of the stunted trees. Jim and I +found ourselves a little over waist deep in luxuriant and tangled +grasses that impeded and clogged our every footstep. Never shall I +forget that country--its sad and lonely isolation, its dull lead sky, +its silence, and the closeness of its stifling atmosphere--and never +shall I see it otherwise than as in a dense brown haze, a haze composed +of swarming millions of mosquitoes. There is not the slightest +exaggeration in the statement. At every step new multitudes rushed into +our faces to join the old. At times Jim's back was so covered with them +that they almost overlaid the colour of the cloth. And as near as we +could see, every square foot of the thousands of acres quartered its +hordes. + +We doped liberally, but without the slightest apparent effect. Probably +two million squeamish mosquitoes were driven away by the disgust of our +medicaments, but what good did that do us when eight million others +were not so particular? At the last we hung bandanas under our hats, +cut fans of leaves, and stumbled on through a most miserable day until +we could build a smudge at evening. + +For smoke is usually a specific. Not always, however: some midges seem +to delight in it. The Indians make a tiny blaze of birch bark and pine +twigs deep in a nest of grass and caribou leaves. When the flame is +well started, they twist the growing vegetation canopy-wise above it. + +In that manner they gain a few minutes of dense, acrid smoke, which is +enough for an Indian. A white man, however, needs something more +elaborate. + +The chief reason for your initial failure in making an effective smudge +will be that you will not get your fire well started before piling on +the damp smoke-material. It need not be a conflagration, but it should +be bright and glowing, so that the punk birch or maple wood you add +will not smother it entirely. After it is completed, you will not have +to sit coughing in the thick of fumigation, as do many, but only to +leeward and underneath. Your hat used as a fan will eddy the smoke +temporarily into desirable nooks and crevices. I have slept without +annoyance on the Great Plains, where the mosquitoes seem to go in +organized and predatory bands, merely by lying beneath a smudge that +passed at least five feet above me. You will find the frying-pan a +handy brazier for the accommodation of a movable smoke to be +transported to the interior of the tent. And it does not in the least +hurt the frying-pan. These be hints, briefly spoken, out of which at +times you may have to construct elaborate campaigns. + +But you come to grapples in the defence of comfort when night +approaches. If you can eat and sleep well, you can stand almost any +hardship. The night's rest is as carefully to be fore-assured as the +food that sustains you. No precaution is too elaborate to certify +unbroken repose. By dark you will discover the peak of your tent to be +liberally speckled with insects of all sorts. Especially is this true +of an evening that threatens rain. Your smudge-pan may drive away the +mosquitoes, but merely stupefies the other varieties. You are forced to +the manipulation of a balsam fan. + +In your use of this simple implement you will betray the extent of your +experience. Dick used at first to begin at the rear peak and brush as +rapidly as possible toward the opening. The flies, thoroughly aroused, +eddied about a few frantic moments, like leaves in an autumn wind, +finally to settle close to the sod in the crannies between the +tent-wall and the ground. Then Dick would lie flat on his belly in +order to brush with equal vigour at these new lurking-places. The flies +repeated the autumn-leaf effect, and returned to the rear peak. This +was amusing to me, and furnished the flies with healthful, appetizing +exercise, but was bad for Dick's soul. After a time he discovered the +only successful method is the gentle one. Then he began at the peak and +brushed forward slowly, very, very slowly, so that the limited +intellect of his visitors did not become confused. Thus when they +arrived at the opening they saw it and used it, instead of searching +frantically for corners in which to hide from apparently vengeful +destruction. Then he would close his tent-flap securely, and turn in at +once. So he was able to sleep until earliest daylight. At that time the +mosquitoes again found him out. + +Nine out of ten--perhaps ninety-nine out of a hundred--sleep in open +tents. For absolute and perfect comfort proceed as follows:--Have your +tent-maker sew you a tent of cheese-cloth[*] with the same dimensions +as your shelter, except that the walls should be loose and voluminous +at the bottom. It should have no openings. + +[Footnote *: Do not allow yourself to be talked into substituting +mosquito-bar or bobinet. Any mesh coarser than cheese-cloth will prove +pregnable to the most enterprising of the smaller species.] + +Suspend this affair inside your tent by means of cords or tapes. Drop +it about you. Spread it out. Lay rod-cases, duffel-bags, or rocks along +its lower edges to keep it spread. You will sleep beneath it like a +child in winter. No driving out of reluctant flies; no enforced early +rising; no danger of a single overlooked insect to make the midnight +miserable. The cheese-cloth weighs almost nothing, can be looped up out +of the way in the daytime, admits the air readily. Nothing could fill +the soul with more ecstatic satisfaction than to lie for a moment +before going to sleep listening to a noise outside like an able-bodied +sawmill that indicates the _ping-gosh_ are abroad. + +It would be unfair to leave the subject without a passing reference to +its effect on the imagination. We are all familiar with comic paper +mosquito stories, and some of them are very good. But until actual +experience takes you by the hand and leads you into the realm of pure +fancy, you will never know of what improvisation the human mind is +capable. + +The picture rises before my mind of the cabin of a twenty-eight-foot +cutter-sloop just before the dawn of a midsummer day. The sloop was +made for business, and the cabin harmonized exactly with the +sloop--painted pine, wooden bunks without mattresses, camp-blankets, +duffel-bags slung up because all the floor place had been requisitioned +for sleeping purposes. We were anchored a hundred feet off land from +Pilot Cove, on the uninhabited north shore. The mosquitoes had +adventured on the deep. We lay half asleep. + +"On the middle rafter," murmured the Football Man, "is one old fellow +giving signals." + +"A quartette is singing drinking-songs on my nose," muttered the Glee +Club Man. + +"We won't need to cook," I suggested somnolently. "We can run up and +down on deck with our mouths open and get enough for breakfast." + +The fourth member opened one eye. "Boys," he breathed, "we won't be +able to go on to-morrow unless we give up having any more biscuits." + +After a time some one murmured, "Why?" + +"We'll have to use all the lard on the mast. They're so mad because +they can't get at us that they're biting the mast. It's already swelled +up as big as a barrel. We'll never be able to get the mainsail up. Any +of you boys got any vaseline? Perhaps a little fly-dope--" + +But we snored vigorously in unison. The Indians say that when Kitch' +Manitou had created men he was dissatisfied, and so brought women into +being. At once love-making began, and then, as now, the couples sought +solitude for their exchanges of vows, their sighings to the moon, their +claspings of hands. Marriages ensued. The situation remained unchanged. +Life was one perpetual honeymoon. I suppose the novelty was fresh and +the sexes had not yet realized they would not part as abruptly as they +had been brought together. The villages were deserted, while the woods +and bushes were populous with wedded and unwedded lovers. Kitch' +Manitou looked on the proceedings with disapproval. All this was most +romantic and beautiful, no doubt, but in the meantime mi-dáw-min, the +corn, mi-nó-men, the rice, grew rank and uncultivated; while bis-íw, +the lynx, and swingwáage, the wolverine, and me-én-gan, the wolf, +committed unchecked depredations among the weaker forest creatures. The +business of life was being sadly neglected. So Kitch' Manitou took +counsel with himself, and created sáw-gi-may, the mosquito, to whom he +gave as dwelling the woods and bushes. That took the romance out of the +situation. As my narrator grimly expressed it, "Him come back, go to +work." + +Certainly it should be most effective. Even the thick-skinned moose is +not exempt from discomfort. At certain seasons the canoe voyager in the +Far North will run upon a dozen in the course of a day's travel, +standing nose-deep in the river merely to escape the insect pests. + +However, this is to be remembered: after the first of August they +bother very little; before that time the campaign I have outlined is +effective; even in fly season the worst days are infrequent. In the +woods you must expect to pay a certain price in discomfort for a very +real and very deep pleasure. Wet, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, difficult +travel, insects, hard beds, aching muscles--all these at one time or +another will be your portion. If you are of the class that cannot have +a good time unless everything is right with it, stay out of the woods. +One thing at least will always be wrong. When you have gained the +faculty of ignoring the one disagreeable thing and concentrating your +powers on the compensations, then you will have become a true woodsman, +and to your desires the forest will always be calling. + + + + +X. + +CLOCHE. + + +Imagine a many-armed lake, like a starfish, nested among rugged +Laurentian hills, whose brows are bare and forbidding, but whose +concealed ravines harbour each its cool screen of forest growth. +Imagine a brawling stream escaping at one of the arms, to tumble, +intermittently visible among the trees, down a series of cascades and +rapids, to the broad, island-dotted calm of the big lake. Imagine a +meadow at the mouth of this stream, and on the meadow a single white +dot. Thus you will see Cloche, a trading-post of the Honourable the +Hudson's Bay Company, as Deuce and I saw it from the summit of the +hills. + +We had accomplished a very hard scramble, which started well enough in +a ravine so leafy and green and impenetrable that we might well have +imagined ourselves in a boundless forest. Deuce had scented sundry +partridges, which he had pointed with entire deference to the good form +of a sporting dog's conventions. As usual, to Deuce's never-failing +surprise and disgust, the birds had proved themselves most uncultivated +and rude persons by hopping promptly into trees instead of lying to +point and then flushing as a well-taught partridge should. I had +refused to pull pistol on them. Deuce's heart was broken. Then, +finally, we came to cliffs up which we had to scale, and boulders which +we had to climb, and fissures which we had to jump or cross on fallen +trees, and wide, bare sweeps of rock and blueberry bushes which we had +to cover, until at last we stood where we could look all ways at once. + +The starfish thrust his insinuating arms in among the distant hills to +the north. League after league, rising and falling and rising again +into ever bluer distance, forest-covered, mysterious, other ranges and +systems lifted, until at last, far out, nearly at the horizon-height of +my eye, flashed again the gleam of water. And so the starfish arms of +the little lake at my feet seemed to have plunged into this wilderness +tangle only to reappear at greater distance. Like swamp-fire, it lured +the imagination always on and on and on through the secret waterways of +the uninhabited North. It was as though I stood on the dividing ridge +between the old and the new. Through the southern haze, hull down, I +thought to make out the smoke of a Great Lake freighter; from the +shelter of a distant cove I was not surprised a moment later to see +emerge a tiny speck whose movements betrayed it as a birch canoe. The +great North was at this, the most southern of the Hudson's Bay posts, +striking a pin-point of contact with the world of men. + +Deuce and I angled down the mountain toward the stream. Our arrival +coincided with that of the canoe. It was of the Ojibway three-fathom +pattern, and contained a half-dozen packs, a sledge-dog, with whom +Deuce at once opened guarded negotiations, an old Indian, a squaw, and +a child of six or eight. We exchanged brief greetings. Then I sat on a +stump and watched the portage. + +These were evidently "Woods Indians," an entirely different article +from the "Post Indians." They wore their hair long, and bound by a +narrow strip or fillet; their faces were hard and deeply lined, with a +fine, bold, far-seeing look to the eyes which comes only from long +woods dwelling. They walked, even under heavy loads, with a sagging, +springy gait, at once sure-footed and swift. Instead of tump-lines the +man used his sash, and the woman a blanket knotted loosely together at +the ends. The details of their costumes were interesting in combination +of jeans and buckskin, broadcloth and blanket, stroud and a material +evidently made from the strong white sacking in which flour intended +for frontier consumption is always packed. After the first +double-barrelled "bo' jou', bo' jou'," they paid no further attention +to me. In a few moments the portage was completed. The woman thrust her +paddle against the stream's bottom and the canoe, and so embarked. The +man stepped smoothly to his place like a cat leaping from a chair. They +shot away with the current, leaving behind them a strange and +mysterious impression of silence. + +I followed down a narrow but well-beaten trail, and so at the end of a +half-mile came to the meadow and the post of Cloche. + +The building itself was accurately of the Hudson Bay type--a steep, +sloping roof greater in front than behind, a deep recessed veranda, +squared logs sheathed with whitewashed boards. About it was a little +garden, which, besides the usual flowers and vegetables, contained such +exotics as a deer confined to a pen and a bear chained to a stake. As I +approached, the door opened and the Trader came out. + +Now, often along the southern fringe your Hudson's Bay Trader will +prove to be a distinct disappointment. In fact, one of the historic old +posts is now kept by a pert little cockney Englishman, cringing or +impudent as the main chance seems to advise. When you have penetrated +further into the wilderness, however, where the hardships of winter and +summer travel, the loneliness of winter posts, the necessity of dealing +directly with savage men and savage nature, develops the quality of a +man or wrecks him early in the game, you will be certain of meeting +your type. But here, within fifty miles of the railroad! + +The man who now stepped into view, however, preserved in his appearance +all the old traditions. He was, briefly, a short black-and-white man +built very square. Immense power lurked in the broad, heavy shoulders, +the massive chest, the thick arms, the sturdy, column-like legs. As for +his face, it was almost entirely concealed behind a curly square black +beard that grew above his cheek-bones nearly to his eyes. Only a thick +hawk nose, an inscrutable pair of black eyes under phenomenally heavy +eyebrows, and a short black pipe showed plainly from the hirsute +tangle. He was lock, stock, and barrel of the Far North, one of the old +_régime_. I was rejoiced to see him there, but did not betray a +glimmer of interest. I knew my type too well for that. + +"How are you?" he said grudgingly. + +"Good-day," said I. + +We leaned against the fence and smoked, each contemplating carefully +the end of his pipe. I knew better than to say anything. The Trader was +looking me over, making up his mind about me. Speech on my part would +argue lightness of disposition, for it would seem to indicate that I +was not also making up my mind about him. + +In this pause there was not the least unfriendliness. Only, in the +woods you prefer to know first the business and character of a chance +acquaintance. Afterwards you may ingratiate to his good will. All of +which possesses a beautiful simplicity, for it proves that good or bad +opinion need not depend on how gracefully you can chatter assurances. +At the end of a long period the Trader inquired, "Which way you +headed?" + +"Out in a canoe for pleasure. Headed almost anywhere." + +Again we smoked. + +"Dog any good?" asked the Trader, removing his pipe and pointing to the +observant Deuce. + +"He'll hunt shade on a hot day," said I tentatively. "How's the fur in +this district?" + +We were off. He invited me in and showed me his bear. In ten minutes we +were seated chair-tilted on the veranda, and slowly, very cautiously, +in abbreviated syncopation, were feeling our way toward an intimacy. + +Now came the Indians I had seen at the lake to barter for some flour +and pork. I was glad of the chance to follow them all into the +trading-room. A low wooden counter backed by a grill divided the main +body of the room from the entrance. It was deliciously dim. All the +charm of the Aromatic Shop was in the place, and an additional flavour +of the wilds. Everything here was meant for the Indian trade: bolts of +bright-patterned ginghams, blankets of red or blue, articles of +clothing, boxes of beads for decoration, skeins of brilliant silk, lead +bars for bullet-making, stacks of long brass-bound "trade guns" in the +corner, small mirrors, red and parti-coloured worsted sashes with +tassels on the ends, steel traps of various sizes, and a dozen other +articles to be desired by the forest people. And here, unlike the +Aromatic Shop, were none of the products of the Far North. All that, I +knew, was to be found elsewhere, in another apartment, equally dim, but +delightful in the orderly disorder of a storeroom. + +Afterwards I made the excuse of a pair of moccasins to see this other +room. We climbed a steep, rough flight of stairs to emerge through a +sort of trap-door into a space directly under the roof. It was lit only +by a single little square at one end. Deep under the eaves I could make +out row after row of boxes and chests. From the rafters hung a dozen +pair of snow-shoes. In the centre of the floor, half overturned, lay an +open box from which tumbled dozens of pairs of moose-hide snow-shoe +moccasins. + +Shades of childhood, what a place! No one of us can fail to recall with +a thrill the delights of a rummage in the attic--the joy of pulling +from some half-forgotten trunk a wholly forgotten shabby garment, which +nevertheless has taken to itself from the stillness of undisturbed +years the faint aroma of romance; the rapture of discovering in the +dusk of a concealed nook some old spur or broken knife or rusty pistol +redolent of the open road. Such essentially commonplace affairs they +are, after all, in the light of our mature common sense, but such +unspeakable ecstasies to the romance-breathing years of fancy. Here +would no fancy be required. To rummage in these silent chests and boxes +would be to rummage, not in the fictions of imagination, but the facts +of the most real picturesque. In yonder square box are the smoke-tanned +shoes of silence; that velvet dimness would prove to be the fur of a +bear; this birch-bark package contains maple sugar savoured of the +wilds. Buckskin, both white and buff, bears' claws in strings, bundles +of medicinal herbs, sweet-grass baskets fragrant as an Eastern tale, +birch-bark boxes embroidered with stained quills of the porcupines, +bows of hickory and arrows of maple, queer half-boots of stiff sealskin +from the very shores of the Hudson Bay, belts of beadwork, yellow and +green, for the Corn Dance, even a costume or so of buckskin complete +for ceremonial--all these the fortunate child would find were he to +take the rainy-day privilege in this, the most wonderful attic in all +the world. And then, after he had stroked the soft fur, and smelled the +buckskin and sweet grasses, and tasted the crumbling maple sugar, and +dressed himself in the barbaric splendours of the North, he could +flatten his little nose against the dim square of light and look out +over the glistening yellow backs of a dozen birchbark canoes to the +distant, rain-blurred hills, beyond which lay the country whence all +these things had come. Do you wonder that in after years that child +hits the Long Trail? Do you still wonder at finding these strange, +taciturn, formidable, tender-hearted men dwelling lonely in the Silent +Places? + +The Trader yanked several of the boxes to the centre and prosaically +tumbled about their contents. He brought to light heavy moose-hide +moccasins with high linen tops for the snow; lighter buckskin +moccasins, again with the high tops, but this time of white tanned +doeskin; slipper-like deer-skin moccasins with rolled edges, for the +summer; oil-tanned shoepacs, with and without the flexible leather +sole; "cruisers" of varying degree of height--each and every sort of +footgear in use in the Far North, excepting and saving always the +beautiful soft doeskin slippers finished with white fawnskin and +ornamented with the Ojibway flower pattern for which I sought. Finally +he gave it up. + +"I had a few pair. They must have been sent out," said he. + +We rummaged a little further for luck's sake, then descended to the +outer air. I left him to fetch my canoe, but returned in the afternoon. +We became friends. That evening we sat in the little sitting-room and +talked far into the night. + +He was a true Hudson's Bay man, steadfastly loyal to the Company. I +mentioned the legend of _La Longue Traverse_; he stoutly asserted +he had never heard of it. I tried to buy a mink-skin or so to hang on +the wall as souvenir of my visit; he was genuinely distressed, but had +to refuse because the Company had not authorized him to sell, and he +had nothing of his own to give. I mentioned the River of the Moose, the +Land of Little Sticks; his deep eyes sparkled with excitement, and he +asked eagerly a multitude of details concerning late news from the +northern posts. + +And as the evening dwindled, after the manner of Traders everywhere, he +began to tell me the "ghost stories" of this station of Cloche. Every +post has gathered a mass of legendary lore in the slow years, but this +had been on the route of the _voyageurs_ from Montreal and Quebec +at the time when the lords of the North journeyed to the scenes of +their annual revels at Fort Williams. The Trader had much to say of the +magnificence and luxury of these men--their cooks, their silken tents, +their strange and costly foods, their rare wines, their hordes of +French and Indian canoemen and packers. Then Cloche was a halting-place +for the night. Its meadows had blossomed many times with the gay tents +and banners of a great company. He told me, as vividly as though he had +been an eye-witness, of how the canoes must have loomed up suddenly +from between the islands. By-and-by he seized the lamp and conducted me +outside, where hung ponderous ornamental steelyards, on which in the +old days the peltries were weighed. + +"It is not so now," said he. "We buy by count, and modern scales weigh +the provisions. And the beaver are all gone." + +We re-entered the house in silence. After a while he began briefly to +sketch his own career. Then, indeed, the flavour of the Far North +breathed its crisp, bracing ozone through the atmosphere of the room. + +He had started life at one of the posts of the Far North-West. At the +age of twelve he enlisted in the Company. Throughout forty years he had +served her. He had travelled to all the strange places of the North, +and claimed to have stood on the shores of that half-mythical lake of +Yamba Tooh. + +"It was snowing at the time," he said prosaically; "and I couldn't see +anything, except that I'd have to bear to the east to get away from +open water. Maybe she wasn't the lake. The Injins said she was, but I +was too almighty shy of grub to bother with lakes." + +Other names fell from him in the course of talk, some of which I had +heard and some not, but all of which rang sweet and clear with no +uncertain note of adventure. Especially haunts my memory an impression +of desolate burned trees standing stick-like in death on the shores of +Lost River. + +He told me he had been four years at Cloche, but expected shortly to be +transferred, as the fur was getting scarce, and another post one +hundred miles to the west could care for the dwindling trade. He hoped +to be sent into the North-West, but shrugged his shoulders as he said +so, as though that were in the hands of the gods. At the last he fished +out a concertina and played for me. Have you ever heard, after dark, in +the North, where the hills grow big at sunset, _à la Claire +Fontaine_ crooned to such an accompaniment, and by a man of +impassive bulk and countenance, but with glowing eyes? + +I said good-night, and stumbled, sight-dazed, through the cool dark to +my tent near the beach. The weird minor strains breathed after me as I +went. + +"A la claire fontaine +M'en allant promener, +J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle +Que je m'y suis baigné, +Il y a longtemps que je t'aime +Jamais je ne t'oublierai." + +The next day, with the combers of a howling north-westerly gale +clutching at the stern of the canoe, I rode in a glory of spray and +copper-tasting excitement back to Dick and his half-breed settlement. + +But the incident had its sequel. The following season, as I was sitting +writing at my desk, a strange package was brought me. It was wrapped in +linen sewn strongly with waxed cord. Its contents lie before me now--a +pair of moccasins fashioned of the finest doeskin, tanned so +beautifully that the delicious smoke fragrance fills the room, and so +effectively that they could be washed with soap and water without +destroying their softness. The tongue-shaped piece over the instep is +of white fawnskin heavily ornamented in five colours of silk. Where it +joins the foot of the slipper it is worked over and over into a narrow +cord of red and blue silk. The edge about the ankle is turned over, +deeply scalloped, and bound at the top with a broad band of blue silk +stitched with pink. Two tiny blue bows at either side the ankle +ornament the front. Altogether a most magnificent foot-gear. No word +accompanied them, apparently, but after some search I drew a bit of +paper from the toe of one of them. It was inscribed simply--"Fort la +Cloche." + + + + +XI. + +THE HABITANTS. + + +During my absence Dick had made many friends. Wherein lies his secret I +do not know, but he has a peculiar power of ingratiation with people +whose lives are quite outside his experience or sympathies. In the +short space of four days he had earned joyous greetings from every one +in town. The children grinned at him cheerfully; the old women cackled +good-natured little teasing jests to him as he passed; the pretty, +dusky half-breed girls dropped their eyelashes fascinatingly across +their cheeks, tempering their coyness with a smile; the men painfully +demanded information as to artistic achievement which was evidently as +well meant as it was foreign to any real thirst for knowledge they +might possess; even the lumber-jacks addressed him as "Bub." And withal +Dick's methods of approach were radically wrong, for he blundered upon +new acquaintance with a beaming smile, which is ordinarily a sure +repellent to the cautious, taciturn men of the woods. Perhaps their +keenness penetrated to the fact that he was absolutely without guile, +and that his kindness was an essential part of himself. I should be +curious to know whether Billy Knapp of the Black Hills would surrender +his gun to Dick for inspection. + +"I want you to go out this afternoon to see some friends of mine," said +Dick. "They're on a farm about two miles back in the brush. They're +ancestors." + +"They're what?" I inquired. + +"Ancestors. You can go down to Grosse Point near Detroit, and find +people living in beautiful country places next the water, and after +dinner they'll show you an old silhouette or a daguerreotype or +something like that, and will say to you proudly, 'This is old Jules, +my ancestor, who was a pioneer in this country. The Place has been in +the family ever since his time.'" + +"Well?" + +"Well, this is a French family, and they are pioneers, and the family +has a place that slopes down to the water through white birch trees, +and it is of the kind very tenacious of its own land. In two hundred +years this will be a great resort; bound to be--beautiful, salubrious, +good sport, fine scenery, accessible--" + +"Railroad fifty miles away; boat every once in a while," said I +sarcastically. + +"Accessible in two hundred years, all right," insisted Dick serenely. +"Even Canada can build a quarter of a mile of railway a year. +Accessible," he went on; "good shipping-point for country now +undeveloped." + +"You ought to be a real estate agent," I advised. + +"Lived two hundred years too soon," disclaimed Dick. "What more +obvious? These are certainly ancestors." + +"Family may die out," I suggested. + +"It has a good start," said Dick sweetly. "There are eighty-seven in it +now." + +"What!" I gasped. + +"One great-grandfather, twelve grandparents, thirty-seven parents, and +thirty-seven children," tabulated Dick. + +"I should like to see the great-grandfather," said I; "he must be very +old and feeble." + +"He is eighty-five years old," said Dick, "and the last time I saw him +he was engaged with an axe in clearing trees off his farm." + +All of these astonishing statements I found to be absolutely true. + +We started out afoot soon after dinner, through a scattering growth of +popples that alternately drew the veil of coyness over the blue hills +and caught our breath with the delight of a momentary prospect. Deuce, +remembering autumn days, concluded partridges, and scurried away on the +expert diagonal, his hind legs tucked well under his flanks. The road +itself was a mere cutting through the miniature woods, winding to right +or left for the purpose of avoiding a log-end or a boulder, surmounting +little knolls with an idle disregard for the straight line, knobby with +big, round stones, and interestingly diversified by circular mud holes +a foot or so in diameter. After a mile and a half we came to the corner +of a snake fence. This, Dick informed me, marked the limits of the +"farm." + +We burst through the screen of popples definitely into the clear. A +two-storied house of squared logs crested a knoll in the middle +distance. Ten acres of grass marsh, perhaps twenty of ploughed land, +and then the ash-white-green of popples. We dodged the grass marsh and +gained the house. Dick was at once among friends. + +The mother had no English, so smiled expansively, her bony arms folded +across her stomach. Her oldest daughter, a frail-looking girl in the +twenties, but with a sad and spiritual beauty of the Madonna in her big +eyes and straight black hair, gave us a shy good-day. Three boys, just +alike in their slender, stolid Indian good looks, except that they +differed in size, nodded with the awkwardness of the male. Two babies +stared solemnly. A little girl with a beautiful, oval face, large +mischievous gray eyes behind long black lashes, a mischievously quirked +mouth to match the eyes, and black hair banged straight, both front and +behind, in almost mediaeval fashion, twirked a pair of brown bare legs +all about us. Another light-haired, curly little girl, surmounted by an +old yachting-cap, spread apart sturdy shoes in an attitude at once +critical and expectant. + +Dick rose to the occasion by sorting out from some concealed recess of +his garments a huge paper parcel of candy. + +With infinite tact, he presented this bag to Madame rather than the +children. Madame instituted judicious distribution and appropriate +reservation for the future. We entered the cabin. + +Never have I seen a place more exquisitely neat. The floor had not only +been washed clean; it had been scrubbed white. The walls of logs were +freshly whitewashed. The chairs were polished. The few ornaments were +new, and not at all dusty or dingy or tawdry. Several religious +pictures, a portrait of royalty, a lithographed advertisement of some +buggy, a photograph or so--and then just the fresh, wholesome +cleanliness of scrubbed pine. Madame made us welcome with smiles--a +faded, lean woman with a remnant of beauty peeping from her soft eyes, +but worn down to the first principles of pioneer bone and gristle by +toil, care, and the bearing of children. I spoke to her in French, +complimenting her on the appearance of the place. She was genuinely +pleased, saying in reply that one did one's possible, but that +children!--with an expressive pause. + +Next we called for volunteers to show us to the great-grandfather. Our +elfish little girls at once offered, and went dancing off down the +trail like autumn leaves in a wind. Whether it was the Indian in them, +or the effects of environment, or merely our own imaginations, we both +had the same thought--that in these strange, taciturn, friendly, +smiling, pirouetting little creatures was some eerie, wild strain akin +to the woods and birds and animals. As they danced on ahead of us, +turning to throw us a delicious smile or a half-veiled roguish glance +of nascent coquetry, we seemed to swing into an orbit of experience +foreign to our own. These bright-eyed woods people were in the last +analysis as inscrutable to us as the squirrels. + +We followed our swirling, airy guides down through a trail to another +clearing planted with potatoes. On the farther side of this they +stopped, hand in hand, at the woods' fringe, and awaited us in a +startlingly sudden repose. + +"V'la le gran'père," said they in unison. + +At the words a huge gaunt man clad in shirt and jeans arose and +confronted us. Our first impression was of a vast framework stiffened +and shrunken into the peculiar petrifaction of age; our second, of a +Jove-like wealth of iron-gray beard and hair; our third, of eyes, wide, +clear, and tired with looking out on a century of the world's time. His +movements, as he laid one side his axe and passed a great, gnarled hand +across his forehead, were angular and slow. We knew instinctively the +quality of his work--a deliberate pause, a mighty blow, another pause, +a painful recovery--labour compounded of infinite slow patience, but +wonderfully effective in the week's result. It would go on without +haste, without pause, inevitable as the years slowly closing about the +toiler. His mental processes would be of the same fibre. The apparent +hesitation might seem to waste the precious hours remaining, but in the +end, when the engine started, it would move surely and unswervingly +along the appointed grooves. In his wealth of hair; in his wide eyes, +like the mysterious blanks of a marble statue; in his huge frame, +gnarled and wasted to the strange, impressive, powerful age-quality of +Phidias's old men, he seemed to us to deserve a wreath and a marble +seat with strange inscriptions and the graceful half-draperies of +another time and a group of old Greeks like himself with whom to +exchange slow sentences on the body politic. Indeed, the fact that his +seat was of fallen pine, and his draperies of butternut brown, and his +audience two half-breed children, an artist, and a writer, and his body +politic two hundred acres in the wilderness, did not filch from him the +impressiveness of his estate. He was a Patriarch. It did not need the +park of birch trees, the grass beneath them sloping down to the water, +the wooded knoll fairly insisting on a spacious mansion, to +substantiate Dick's fancy that he had discovered an ancestor. + +Neat piles of brush, equally neat piles of cord-wood, knee-high stumps +as cleanly cut as by a saw, attested the old man's efficiency. We +conversed. + +Yes, said he, the soil was good. It is laborious to clear away the +forest. Still, one arrives. M'sieu has but to look. In the memory of +his oldest grandson, even, all this was a forest. Le bon Dieu had +blessed him. His family was large. Yes, it was as M'sieu said, +eighty-seven--that is, counting himself. The soil was not wonderful. It +is indeed a large family and much labour, but somehow there was always +food for all. For his part he had a great pity for those whom God had +not blessed. It must be very lonesome without children. + +We spared a private thought that this old man was certainly in no +danger of loneliness. + +Yes, he went on, he was old--eighty-five. He was not as quick as he +used to be; he left that for the young ones. Still, he could do a day's +work. He was most proud to have made these gentlemen's acquaintance. He +wished us good-day. + +We left him seated on the pine log, his axe between his knees, his +great, gnarled brown hands hanging idly. After a time we heard the +_whack_ of his implement; then after another long time we heard it +_whack_ again. We knew that those two blows had gone straight and +true and forceful to the mark. So old a man had no energy to expend in +the indirections of haste. + +Our elfish guides led us back along the trail to the farmhouse. A girl +of thirteen had just arrived from school. In the summer the little ones +divided the educational advantages among themselves, turn and turn +about. + +The newcomer had been out into the world, and was dressed accordingly. +A neat dark-blue cloth dress, plainly made, a dull red and blue checked +apron; a broad, round hat, shoes and stockings, all in the best and +quietest taste--marked contrast to the usual garish Sunday best of the +Anglo-Saxon. She herself exemplified the most striking type of beauty +to be found in the mixed bloods. Her hair was thick and glossy and +black in the mode that throws deep purple shadows under the rolls and +coils. Her face was a regular oval, like the opening in a wishbone. Her +skin was dark, but rich and dusky with life and red blood that ebbed +and flowed with her shyness. Her lips were full, and of a dark cherry +red. Her eyes were deep, rather musing, and furnished with the most +gloriously tangling of eyelashes. Dick went into ecstasies, took +several photographs which did not turn out well, and made one sketch +which did. Perpetually did he bewail the absence of oils. The type is +not uncommon, but its beauty rarely remains perfect after the fifteenth +year. + +We made our ceremonious adieus to the Madame, and started back to town +under the guidance of one of the boys, who promised us a short cut. + +This youth proved to be filled with the old, wandering spirit that +lures so many of his race into the wilderness life. He confided to us +as we walked that he liked to tramp extended distances, and that the +days were really not made long enough for those who had to return home +at night. + +"I is been top of dose hills," he said. "Bime by I mak' heem go to dose +lak' beyon'." + +He told us that some day he hoped to go out with the fur traders. In +his vocabulary "I wish" occurred with such wistful frequency that +finally I inquired curiously what use he would make of the Fairy Gift. + +"If you could have just one wish come true, Pierre," I asked, "what +would you desire?" + +His answer came without a moment's hesitation. + +"I is lak' be one giant," said he. + +"Why?" I demanded. + +"So I can mak' heem de walk far," he replied simply. + +I was tempted to point out to him the fact that big men do not outlast +the little men, and that vast strength rarely endures, but then a +better feeling persuaded me to leave him his illusions. The power, even +in fancy, of striding on seven-league boots across the fascinations +spread out below his kindling vision from "dose hills" was too precious +a possession lightly to be taken away. + +Strangely enough, though his woodcraft naturally was not +inconsiderable, it did not hold his paramount interest. He knew +something about animals and their ways and their methods of capture, +but the chase did not appeal strongly to him, nor apparently did he +possess much skill along that line. He liked the actual physical +labour, the walking, the paddling, the tump-line, the camp-making, the +new country, the companionship of the wild life, the wilderness as a +whole rather than in any one of its single aspects as Fish Pond, Game +Preserve, Picture Gallery. In this he showed the true spirit of the +_voyageur_. I should confidently look to meet him in another ten +years--if threats of railroads spare the Far North so long--girdled +with the red sash, shod in silent moccasins, bending beneath the +portage load, trolling _Isabeau_ to the silent land somewhere +under the Arctic Circle. The French of the North have never been great +fighters nor great hunters, in the terms of the Anglo-Saxon +frontiersmen, but they have laughed in farther places. + + + + +XII. + +THE RIVER. + + +At a certain spot on the North Shore--I am not going to tell you +where--you board one of the two or three fishing-steamers that collect +from the different stations the big ice-boxes of Lake Superior +whitefish. After a certain number of hours--I am not going to tell you +how many--your craft will turn in toward a semicircle of bold, +beautiful hills, that seem at first to be many less miles distant than +the reality, and at the last to be many more miles remote than is the +fact. From the prow you will make out first a uniform velvet green; +then the differentiation of many shades; then the dull neutrals of +rocks and crags; finally the narrow white of a pebble beach against +which the waves utter continually a rattling undertone. The steamer +pushes boldly in. The cool green of the water underneath changes to +gray. Suddenly you make out the bottom, as through a thick green glass, +and the big suckers and catfish idling over its riffled sands, +inconceivably far down through the unbelievably clear liquid. So +absorbed are you in this marvellous clarity that a slight, grinding jar +alone brings you to yourself. The steamer's nose is actually touching +the white strip of pebbles! + +Now you can do one of a number of things. The forest slants down to +your feet in dwindling scrub, which half conceals an abandoned log +structure. This latter is the old Hudson's Bay post. Behind it is the +Fur Trail, and the Fur Trail will take you three miles to Burned Rock +Pool, where are spring water and mighty trout. But again, half a mile +to the left, is the mouth of the River. And the River meanders +charmingly through the woods of the flat country over numberless +riffles and rapids, beneath various steep gravel banks, until it sweeps +boldly under the cliff of the first high hill. There a rugged precipice +rises sheer and jagged and damp-dark to overhanging trees clinging to +the shoulder of the mountain. And precisely at that spot is a bend +where the water hits square, to divide right and left in whiteness, to +swirl into convolutions of foam, to lurk darkly for a moment on the +edge of tumult before racing away. And there you can stand hip-deep, +and just reach the eddy foam with a cast tied craftily of Royal +Coachman, Parmachenee Belle, and Montreal. + +From that point you are with the hills. They draw back to leave wide +forest, but always they return to the River--as you would return season +after season were I to tell you how--throwing across your +woods-progress a sheer cliff forty or fifty feet high, shouldering you +incontinently into the necessity of fording to the other side. More and +more jealous they become as you penetrate, until at the Big Falls they +close in entirely, warning you that here they take the wilderness to +themselves. At the Big Falls anglers make their last camp. About the +fire they may discuss idly various academic questions--as to whether +the great inaccessible pool below the Falls really contains the +legendary Biggest Trout; what direction the River takes above; whether +it really becomes nothing but a series of stagnant pools connected by +sluggish water-reaches; whether there are any trout above the Falls; +and so on. + +These questions, as I have said, are merely academic. Your true angler +is a philosopher. Enough is to him worth fifteen courses, and if the +finite mind of man could imagine anything to be desired as an addition +to his present possessions on the River, he at least knows nothing of +it. Already he commands ten miles of water--swift, clear water--running +over stone, through a freshet bed so many hundreds of feet wide that he +has forgotten what it means to guard his back cast. It is to be waded +in the riffles, so that he can cross from one shore to the other as the +mood suits him. One bank is apt to be precipitous, the other to stretch +away in a mile or so of the coolest, greenest, stillest primeval forest +to be imagined. Thus he can cut across the wide bends of the River, +should he so desire and should haste be necessary to make camp before +dark. And, last, but not least by any manner of means, there are trout. + +I mean real trout--big fellows, the kind the fishers of little streams +dream of but awake to call Morpheus a liar, just as they are too polite +to call you a liar when you are so indiscreet as to tell them a few +plain facts. I have one solemnly attested and witnessed record of +twenty-nine inches, caught in running water. I saw a friend land on one +cast three whose aggregate weight was four and one half pounds. I +witnessed, and partly shared, an exciting struggle in which three fish +on three rods were played in the same pool at the same time. They +weighed just fourteen pounds. One pool, a backset, was known as the +Idiot's Delight, because any one could catch fish there. I have lain on +my stomach at the Burned Rock Pool and seen the great fish lying so +close together as nearly to cover the bottom, rank after rank of them, +and the smallest not under a half pound. As to the largest--well, every +true fisherman knows him! + +So it came about for many years that the natural barrier interposed by +the Big Falls successfully turned the idle tide of anglers' +exploration. Beyond them lay an unknown country, but you had to climb +cruelly to see it, and you couldn't gain above what you already had in +any case. The nearest settlement was nearly sixty miles away, so even +added isolation had not its usual quickening effect on camper's effort. +The River is visited by few, anyway. An occasional adventurous steam +yacht pauses at the mouth, fishes a few little ones from the shallow +pools there, or a few big ones from the reefs, and pushes on. It never +dreams of sending an expedition to the interior. Our own people, and +two other parties, are all I know of who visit the River regularly. Our +camp-sites alone break the forest; our blazes alone continue the +initial short cut of the Fur Trail; our names alone distinguish the +various pools. We had always been satisfied to compromise with the +frowning Hills. In return for the delicious necks and points and forest +areas through which our clipped trails ran, we had tacitly respected +the mystery of the upper reaches. + +This year, however, a number of unusual conditions changed our spirit. +I have perhaps neglected to state that our trip up to now had been a +rather singularly damp one. Of the first fourteen days twelve had been +rainy. This was only a slightly exaggerated sample for the rest of the +time. As a consequence we found the River filled even to the limit of +its freshet banks. The broad borders of stone beach between the +stream's edge and the bushes had quite disappeared; the riffles had +become rapids, and the rapids roaring torrents; the bends boiled +angrily with a smashing eddy that sucked air into pirouetting cavities +inches in depth. Plainly, fly-fishing was out of the question. No +self-respecting trout would rise to the surface of such a moil, or +abandon for syllabubs of tinsel the magnificent solidities of +ground-bait such a freshet would bring down from the hills. Also the +River was unfordable. + +We made camp at the mouth and consulted together. Billy, the half-breed +who had joined us for the labour of a permanent camp, shook his head. + +"I t'ink one week, ten day," he vouchsafed. "P'rhaps she go down den. +We mus' wait." We did not want to wait; the idleness of a permanent +camp is the most deadly in the world. + +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been above the Big Falls?" + +The half-breed's eyes flashed. + +"Non," he replied simply. "Bâ, I lak' mak' heem firs' rate." + +"All right, Billy; we'll do it." + +The next day it rained, and the River went up two inches. The morning +following was fair enough, but so cold you could see your breath. We +began to experiment. + +Now, this expedition had become a fishing vacation, so we had all the +comforts of home with us. When said comforts of home were laden into +the canoe, there remained forward and aft just about one square foot of +space for Billy and me, and not over two inches of freeboard for the +River. We could not stand up and pole; tracking with a tow-line was out +of the question, because there existed no banks on which to walk; the +current was too swift for paddling. So we knelt and poled. We knew it +before, but we had to be convinced by trial, that two inches of +freeboard will dip under the most gingerly effort. It did so. We +groaned, stepped out into ice-water up to our waists, and so began the +day's journey with fleeting reference to Dante's nethermost hell. + +Next the shore the water was most of the time a little above our knees, +but the swirl of a rushing current brought an apron of foam to our +hips. Billy took the bow and pulled; I took the stern and pushed. In +places our combined efforts could but just counterbalance the strength +of the current. Then Billy had to hang on until I could get my shoulder +against the stern for a mighty heave, the few inches gain of which he +would guard as jealously as possible, until I could get into position +for another shove. At other places we were in nearly to our armpits, +but close under the banks where we could help ourselves by seizing +bushes. + +Sometimes I lost my footing entirely and trailed out behind like a +streamer; sometimes Billy would be swept away, the canoe's bow would +swing down-stream, and I would have to dig my heels and hang on until +he had floundered upright. Fortunately for our provisions, this never +happened to both at the same time. The difficulties were still further +complicated by the fact that our feet speedily became so numb from the +cold that we could not feel the bottom, and so were much inclined to +aimless stumblings. By-and-by we got out and kicked trees to start the +circulation. In the meantime the sun had retired behind thick, leaden +clouds. + +At the First Bend we were forced to carry some fifty feet. There the +River rushed down in a smooth apron straight against the cliff, where +its force actually raised the mass of water a good three feet higher +than the level of the surrounding pool. I tied on a bait-hook, and two +cartridges for sinkers, and in fifteen minutes had caught three trout, +one of which weighed three pounds, and the others two pounds and a +pound and a half respectively. At this point Dick and Deuce, who had +been paralleling through the woods, joined us. We broiled the trout, +and boiled tea, and shivered as near the fire as we could. That +afternoon, by dint of labour and labour, and yet more labour, we +made Burned Rock, and there we camped for the night, utterly +beaten out by about as hard a day's travel as a man would want to +undertake. + +The following day was even worse, for as the natural bed of the River +narrowed, we found less and less footing and swifter and swifter water. +The journey to Burned Rock had been a matter of dogged hard work; this +was an affair of alertness, of taking advantage of every little eddy, +of breathless suspense during long seconds while the question of +supremacy between our strength and the stream's was being debated. And +the thermometer must have registered well towards freezing. Three times +we were forced to cross the River in order to get even precarious +footing. Those were the really doubtful moments. We had to get in +carefully, to sit craftily, and to paddle gingerly and firmly, without +attempting to counteract the downward sweep of the current. All our +energies and care were given to preventing those miserable curling +little waves from over-topping our precious two inches, and that +miserable little canoe from departing even by a hair's-breadth from the +exactly level keel. Where we were going did not matter. After an +interminable interval the tail of our eyes would catch the sway of +bushes near at hand. + +"Now," Billy would mutter abstractedly. + +With one accord we would arise from six inches of wet and step swiftly +into the River. The lightened canoe would strain back; we would brace +our legs. The traverse was accomplished. + +[Illustration: WATCHED THE LONG NORTH COUNTRY TWILIGHT STEAL UP LIKE A +GRAY CLOUD FROM THE EAST.] + +Being thus under the other bank, I would hold the canoe while Billy, +astraddle the other end for the purpose of depressing the water to +within reach of his hand, would bail away the consequences of our +crossing. Then we would make up the quarter of a mile we had lost. + +We quit at the Organ Pool about three o'clock of the afternoon. Not +much was said that evening. + +The day following we tied into it again. This time we put Dick and +Deuce on an old Indian trail that promised a short cut, with +instructions to wait at the end of it. In the joyous anticipation of +another wet day we forgot they had never before followed an Indian +trail. Let us now turn aside to the adventures of Dick and Deuce. + +Be it premised here that Dick is a regular Indian of taciturnity when +it becomes a question of his own experience, so that for a long time we +knew of what follows but the single explanatory monosyllable which you +shall read in due time. But Dick has a beloved uncle. In moments of +expansion to this relative after his return he held forth as to the +happenings of that morning. + +Dick and the setter managed the Indian trail for about twenty rods. +They thought they managed it for perhaps twice that distance. Then it +became borne in on them that the bushes went back, the faint +knife-clippings, and the half weather-browned brush-cuttings that alone +constitute an Indian trail had taken another direction, and that they +had now their own way to make through the forest. Dick knew the +direction well enough, so he broke ahead confidently. After a +half-hour's walk he crossed a tiny streamlet. After another half-hour's +walk he came to another. It was flowing the wrong way. + +Dick did not understand this. He had never known of little streams +flowing away from rivers and towards eight-hundred-foot hills. This +might be a loop, of course. He resolved to follow it up-stream far +enough to settle the point. The following brought him in time to a +soggy little thicket with three areas of moss-covered mud and two +round, pellucid pools of water about a foot in diameter. As the little +stream had wound and twisted, Dick had by now lost entirely his sense +of direction. He fished out his compass and set it on a rock. The River +flows nearly north-east to the Big Falls, and Dick knew himself to be +somewhere east of the River. The compass appeared to be wrong. Dick was +a youth of sense, so he did not quarrel with the compass; he merely +became doubtful as to which was the north end of the needle--the white +or the black. After a few moments' puzzling he was quite at sea, and +could no more remember how he had been taught as to this than you can +clinch the spelling of a doubtful word after you have tried on paper a +dozen variations. But being a youth of sense he did not desert the +streamlet. + +After a short half-mile of stumbling the apparent wrong direction in +the brook's bed, he came to the River. The River was also flowing the +wrong way, and uphill. Dick sat down and covered his eyes with his +hands, as I had told him to do in like instance, and so managed to +swing the country around where it belonged. + +Now here was the River--and Dick resolved to desert it for no more +short cuts--but where was the canoe? + +This point remained unsettled in Dick's mind, or rather it was +alternately settled in two ways. Sometimes the boy concluded we must be +still below him, so he would sit on a rock to wait. Then, after a few +moments, inactivity would bring him panic. The canoe must have passed +this point long since, and every second he wasted stupidly sitting on +that stone separated him farther from his friends and from food. Then +he would tear madly through the forest. Deuce enjoyed this game, but +Dick did not. + +In time Dick found his farther progress along the banks cut off by a +hill. The hill ended abruptly at the water's edge in a sheer rock cliff +thirty feet high. This was in reality the end of the Indian trail short +cut--the point where Dick was to meet us--but he did not know it. He +happened for the moment to be obsessed by one of his canoe up-stream +panics, so he turned inland to a spot where the hill appeared +climbable, and started in to surmount the obstruction. + +This was comparatively easy at first. Then the shoulder of the cliff +intervened. Dick mounted still a little higher up the hill, then +higher, then still higher. Far down to his left, through the trees, +broiled the River. The slope of the hill to it had become steeper than +a roof, and at the edge of the eaves came a cliff drop of thirty feet. +Dick picked his way gingerly over curving moss-beds, assisting his +balance by a number of little cedar trees. Then something happened. + +Dick says the side of the hill slid out from under him. The fact of the +matter is, probably, the skin-moss over loose rounded stones gave way. +Dick sat down and began slowly to bump down the slant of the roof. He +never really lost his equilibrium, nor until the last ten feet did he +abandon the hope of checking his descent. Sometimes he did actually +succeed in stopping himself for a moment; but on his attempting to +follow up the advantage, the moss always slipped or the sapling let go +a tenuous hold and he continued on down. At last the River flashed out +below him. He saw the sheer drop. He saw the boiling eddies of the +Halfway Pool, capable of sucking down a saw-log. Then, with a final +rush of loose round stones, he shot the chutes feet first into space. + +In the meantime Billy and I repeated our experience of the two previous +days, with a few variations caused by the necessity of passing two +exceptionally ugly rapids whose banks left little footing. We did this +precariously, with a rope. The cold water was beginning to tell on our +vitality, so that twice we went ashore and made hot tea. Just below the +Halfway Pool we began to do a little figuring ahead, which is a bad +thing. The Halfway Pool meant much inevitable labour, with its two +swift rapids and its swirling, eddies, as sedulously to be avoided as +so many steel bear-traps. Then there were a dozen others, and the three +miles of riffles, and all the rest of it. At our present rate it would +take us a week to make the Falls. Below the Halfway Pool we looked for +Dick. He was not to be seen. This made us cross. At the Halfway Pool we +intended to unload for portage, and also to ferry over Dick and the +setter in the lightened canoe. The tardiness of Dick delayed the game. + +However, we drew ashore to the little clearing of the Halfway Camp, +made the year before, and wearily discharged our cargo. Suddenly, +upstream, and apparently up in the air, we heard distinctly the excited +yap of a dog. Billy and I looked at each other. Then we looked +upstream. + +Close under the perpendicular wall of rock, and fifty feet from the end +of it, waist deep in water that swirled angrily about him, stood Dick. + +I knew well enough what he was standing on--a little ledge of shale not +over five or six feet in length and two feet wide--for in lower water I +had often from its advantage cast a fly down below the big boulder. But +I knew it to be surrounded by water fifteen feet deep. It was +impossible to wade to the spot, impossible to swim to it. And why in +the name of all the woods gods would a man want to wade or swim to it +if he could? The affair, to our cold-benumbed intellects, was simply +incomprehensible. + +Billy and I spoke no word. We silently, perhaps a little fearfully, +launched the empty canoe. Then we went into a space of water whose +treading proved us no angels. From the slack water under the cliff we +took another look. It was indeed Dick. He carried a rod-case in one +hand. His fish-creel lay against his hip. His broad hat sat accurately +level on his head. His face was imperturbable. Above, Deuce agonized, +afraid to leap into the stream, but convinced that his duty required +him to do so. + +We steadied the canoe while Dick climbed in. You would have thought he +was embarking at the regularly appointed rendezvous. In silence we shot +the rapids, and collected Deuce from the end of the trail, whither he +followed us. In silence we worked our way across to where our duffel +lay scattered. In silence we disembarked. + +"In Heaven's name, Dick," I demanded at last, "how did you get +_there_?" + +"Fell," said he, succinctly. And that was all. + + + + +XIII. + +THE HILLS. + + +We explained carefully to Dick that he had lit on the only spot in the +Halfway Pool where the water was at once deep enough to break his fall +and not too deep to stand in. We also pointed out that he had escaped +being telescoped or drowned by the merest hair's-breadth. From this we +drew moral conclusions. It did us good, but undoubtedly Dick knew it +already. + +Now we gave our attention to the wetness of garments, for we were +chilled blue. A big fire and a clothes-rack of forked sticks and a +sapling, an open-air change, a lunch of hot tea and trout and cold +galette and beans, a pipe--and then the inevitable summing up. + +We had in two and a half days made the easier half of the distance to +the Falls. At this rate we would consume a week or more in reaching the +starting-point of our explorations. It was a question whether we could +stand a week of ice-water and the heavy labour combined. Ordinarily we +might be able to abandon the canoe and push on afoot, as we were +accustomed to do when trout-fishing, but that involved fording the +river three times--a feat manifestly impossible in present freshet +conditions. + +"I t'ink we quit heem," said Billy. + +But then I was seized with an inspiration. Judging by the configuration +of the hills, the River bent sharply above the Falls. Why would it not +be possible to cut loose entirely at this point, to strike across +through the forest, and so to come out on the upper reaches? Remained +only the probability of our being able, encumbered by a pack, to scale +the mountains. + +"Billy," said I, "have you ever been over in those hills?". + +"No," said he. + +"Do you know anything about the country? Are there any trails?" + +"Dat countree is belong Tawabinisáy. He know heem. I don' know heem. I +t'ink he is have many hills, some lak'." + +"Do you think we can climb those hills with packs?" + +Billy cast a doubtful glance on Dick. Then his eye lit up. + +"Tawabinisáy is tell me 'bout dat Lak' Kawágama. P'rhaps we fine heem." + +In so saying Billy decided the attempt. What angler on the River has +not discussed--again idly, again academically--that mysterious Lake +alive with the burnished copper trout, lying hidden and wonderful in +the high hills, clear as crystal, bottomed with gravel like a fountain, +shaped like a great crescent whose curves were haunted of forest trees +grim and awesome with the solemnity of the primeval? That its exact +location was known to Tawabinisáy alone, that the trail to it was +purposely blinded and muddled with the crossing of many little ponds, +that the route was laborious--all those things, along with the minor +details so dear to winter fire-chats, were matters of notoriety. +Probably more expeditions to Kawágama have been planned--in +February--than would fill a volume with an account of anticipated +adventures. Only, none of them ever came off. We were accustomed to +gaze at the forbidden cliff ramparts of the hills, to think of the +Idiot's Delight, and the Halfway Pool, and the Organ Pool, and the +Burned Rock Pool, and the Rolling Stone Pool, and all the rest of them +even up to the Big Falls; and so we would quietly allow our February +plannings to lapse. One man Tawabinisáy had honoured. But this man, +named Clement, a banker from Peoria, had proved unworthy. Tawabinisáy +told how he caught trout, many, many trout, and piled them on the +shores of Kawágama to defile the air. Subsequently this same +"sportsman" buried another big catch on the beach of Superior. These +and other exploits finally earned him his exclusion from the delectable +land. I give his name because I have personally talked with his guides, +and heard their circumstantial accounts of his performances. Unless +three or four woodsmen are fearful liars, I do Mr. Clement no +injustice. + +Since then Tawabinisáy had hidden himself behind his impenetrable grin. + +So you can easily see that the discovery of Kawágama would be a feat +worthy even high hills. + +That afternoon we rested and made our cache. A cache in the forest +country is simply a heavily constructed rustic platform on which +provisions and clothing are laid and wrapped completely about in sheets +of canoe bark tied firmly with strips of cedar bark, or withes made +from a bush whose appearance I know well, but whose name I cannot say. +In this receptacle we left all our canned goods, our extra clothing, +and our Dutch oven. We retained for transportation some pork, flour, +rice, baking-powder, oatmeal, sugar, and tea, cooking utensils, +blankets, the tent, fishing-tackle, and the little pistol. As we were +about to go into the high country where presumably both game and fish +might lack, we were forced to take a full supply for four--counting +Deuce as one--to last ten days. The packs counted up about one hundred +and fifteen pounds of grub, twenty pounds of blankets, ten of tent, say +eight or ten of hardware including the axe, about twenty of duffel. +This was further increased by the idiosyncrasy of Billy. He, like most +woodsmen, was wedded to a single utterly foolish article of personal +belonging, which he worshipped as a fetish, and without which he was +unhappy. In his case it was a huge winter overcoat that must have +weighed fifteen pounds. The total amounted to about one hundred and +ninety pounds. We gave Dick twenty, I took seventy-six, and Billy +shouldered the rest. + +The carrying we did with the universal tump-line. This is usually +described as a strap passed about a pack and across the forehead of the +bearer. The description is incorrect. It passes across the top of the +head. The weight should rest on the small of the back just above the +hips--not on the broad of the back as most beginners place it. Then the +chin should be dropped, the body slanted sharply forward, and you may +be able to stagger forty rods at your first attempt. + +Use soon accustoms you to carrying, however. The first time I ever did +any packing I had a hard time stumbling a few hundred feet over a hill +portage with just fifty pounds on my back. By the end of that same trip +I could carry a hundred pounds and a lot of miscellaneous traps, like +canoe-poles and guns, without serious inconvenience and over a long +portage. This quickly-gained power comes partly from a strengthening of +the muscles of the neck, but more from a mastery of balance. A pack can +twist you as suddenly and expertly on your back as the best of +wrestlers. It has a head lock on you, and you have to go or break your +neck. After a time you adjust your movements, just as after a time you +can travel on snow-shoes through heavy down timber without taking +conscious thought as to the placing of your feet. + +But at first packing is as near infernal punishment as merely mundane +conditions can compass. Sixteen brand-new muscles ache, at first dully, +then sharply, then intolerably, until it seems you cannot bear it +another second. You are unable to keep your feet. A stagger means an +effort at recovery, and an effort at recovery means that you trip when +you place your feet, and that means, if you are lucky enough not to be +thrown, an extra tweak for every one of the sixteen new muscles. At +first you rest every time you feel tired. Then you begin to feel very +tired every fifty feet. Then you have to do the best you can, and prove +the pluck that is in you. + +Mr. Tom Friant, an old woodsman of wide experience, has often told me +with relish of his first try at carrying. He had about sixty pounds, +and his companion double that amount. Mr. Friant stood it a few +centuries and then sat down. He couldn't have moved another step if a +gun had been at his ear. + +"What's the matter?" asked his companion. + +"Del," said Friant, "I'm all in. I can't navigate. Here's where I +quit." + +"Can't you carry her any farther?" + +"Not an inch." + +"Well, pile her on. I'll carry her for you." + +Friant looked at him a moment in silent amazement. + +"Do you mean to say that you are going to carry your pack and mine +too?" + +"That's what I mean to say. I'll do it if I have to." + +Friant drew a long breath. + +"Well," said he at last, "if a little sawed-off cuss like you can +wiggle under a hundred and eighty, I guess I can make it under sixty." + +"That's right," said Del imperturbably. "_If you think you can, you +can_." + +"And I did," ends Friant, with a chuckle. + +Therein lies the whole secret. The work is irksome, sometimes even +painful, but if you think you can do it, you can, for though great is +the protest of the human frame against what it considers abuse, greater +is the power of a man's grit. + +We carried the canoe above the larger eddies, where we embarked +ourselves and our packs for traverse, leaving Deuce under strict +command to await a second trip. Deuce disregarded the strict command. +From disobedience came great peril, for when he attempted to swim +across after us he was carried downstream, involved in a whirlpool, +sucked under, and nearly drowned. We could do nothing but watch. When, +finally, the River spued out a frightened and bedraggled dog, we drew a +breath of very genuine relief, for Deuce was dear to us through much +association. + +The canoe we turned bottom up and left in the bushes, and so we set off +through the forest. + +At the end of fifteen minutes we began to mount a gentle ascent. The +gentle ascent speedily became a sharp slope, the sharp slope an abrupt +hill, and the latter finally an almost sheer face of rock and thin +soil. We laid hold doggedly of little cedars; we dug our fingers into +little crevices, and felt for the same with our toes; we perspired in +streams and breathed in gasps; we held the strained muscles of our +necks rigid, for the twisting of a pack meant here a dangerous fall; we +flattened ourselves against the face of the mountain with always the +heavy, ceaseless pull of the tump-line attempting to tear us backward +from our holds. And so at last, when the muscles of our thighs refused +to strengthen our legs for the ascent of another foot, we would turn +our backs to the slant and sink gratefully into the only real luxury in +the world. + +For be it known that real luxury cannot be bought; it must be worked +for. I refer to luxury as the exquisite savour of a pleasant sensation. +The keenest sense-impressions are undoubtedly those of contrast. In +looking back over a variety of experience, I have no hesitation at all +in selecting as the moment in which I have experienced the liveliest +physical pleasure one hot afternoon in July. The thermometer might have +stood anywhere. We would have placed childlike trust in any of its +statements, even three figures great. Our way had led through unbroken +forest oppressed by low brush and an underfooting of brakes. There had +been hills. Our clothes were wringing wet, to the last stitch; even the +leather of the tump-line was saturated. The hot air we gulped down did +not seem to satisfy our craving for oxygen any more than lukewarm water +ever seems to cut a real thirst. The woods were literally like an oven +in their hot dryness. Finally we skirted a little hill, and at the base +of that hill a great tree had fallen, and through the aperture thus +made in the forest a tiny current of cool air flowed like a stream. It +was not a great current, nor a wide; if we moved three feet in any +direction, we were out of it. But we sat us down directly across its +flow. And never have dinners or wines or men or women, or talks of +books or scenery or adventure or sport, or the softest, daintiest +refinements of man's invention given me the half of luxury I drank in +from that little breeze. So the commonest things--a dash of cool water +on the wrists, a gulp of hot tea, a warm, dry blanket, a whiff of +tobacco, a ray of sunshine--are more really the luxuries than all the +comforts and sybaritisms we buy. Undoubtedly the latter would also rise +to the higher category if we were to work for their essence instead of +merely signing club cheques or paying party calls for them. + +Which means that when we three would rest our packs against the side of +that hill, and drop our head-straps below our chins, we were not at all +to be pitied, even though the forest growth denied us the encouragement +of knowing how much farther we had to go. + +Before us the trees dropped away rapidly, so that twenty feet out in a +straight line we were looking directly into their tops. There, quite on +an equality with their own airy estate, we could watch the fly-catchers +and warblers conducting their small affairs of the chase. It lent us +the illusion of imponderability; we felt that we too might be able to +rest securely on graceful gossamer twigs. And sometimes, through a +chance opening, we could see down over billows of waving leaves to a +single little spot of blue, like a turquoise sunk in folds of green +velvet, which meant that the River was dropping below us. This, in the +mercy of the Red Gods, was meant as encouragement. + +The time came, however, when the ramparts we scaled rose sheer and bare +in impregnability. Nothing could be done on the straight line, so we +turned sharp to the north. The way was difficult, for it lay over great +fragments of rock stricken from the cliff by winter, and further +rendered treacherous by the moss and wet by a thousand trickles of +water. At the end of one hour we found what might be called a ravine, +if you happened not to be particular, or a steep cleft in the precipice +if you were. Here we deserted the open air for piled-up brushy tangles, +many sharp-cornered rock fragments, and a choked streamlet. Finally the +whole outfit abruptly ceased. We climbed ten feet of crevices and stood +on the ridge. + +The forest trees shut us in our own little area, so that we were for +the moment unable to look abroad over the country. + +The descent, abrupt where we had mounted, stretched away gently toward +the north and west. And on that slope, protected as it was from the +severer storms that sweep up the open valleys in winter, stood the most +magnificent primeval forest it has ever been my fortune to behold. The +huge maple, beech, and birch trees lifted column-like straight up to a +lucent green canopy, always twinkling and shifting in the wind and the +sunlight. Below grew a thin screen of underbrush, through which we had +no difficulty at all in pushing, but which threw about us face-high a +tender green partition. The effect was that of a pew in an +old-fashioned church, so that, though we shared the upper stillnesses, +a certain delightful privacy of our own seemed assured us. This privacy +we knew to be assured also to many creatures besides ourselves. On the +other side of the screen of broad leaves we sensed the presence of +life. It did not intrude on us, nor were we permitted to intrude on it. +But it was there. We heard it rustling, pattering, scrambling, +whispering, scurrying with a rush of wings. More subtly we felt it, as +one knows of a presence in a darkened room. By the exercise of +imagination and experience we identified it in its manifestations--the +squirrel, the partridge, the weasel, the spruce hens, once or twice the +deer. We knew it saw us perfectly, although we could not see it, and +that gave us an impression of companionship; so the forest was not +lonely. + +Next to this double sense of isolation and company was the feeling of +transparent shadow. The forest was thick and cool. Only rarely did the +sun find an orifice in the roof through which to pour a splash of +liquid gold. All the rest was in shadow. But the shadow was that of the +bottom of the sea--cool, green, and, above all, transparent. We saw +into the depth of it, but dimly, as we would see into the green +recesses of a tropic ocean. It possessed the same liquid quality. +Finally the illusion overcame us completely. We bathed in the shadows +as though they were palpable, and from that came great refreshment. + +Under foot the soil was springy with the mould of numberless autumns. +The axe had never hurried slow old servant decay. Once in a while we +came across a prostrate trunk lying in the trough of destruction its +fall had occasioned. But the rest of the time we trod a carpet to the +making of which centuries of dead forest warriors had wrapped +themselves in mould and soft moss and gentle dissolution. Sometimes a +faint rounded shell of former fair proportion swelled above the level, +to crumble to punkwood at the lightest touch of our feet. Or, again, +the simulacrum of a tree trunk would bravely oppose our path, only to +melt away into nothing, like the opposing phantoms of Aeneas, when we +placed a knee against it for the surmounting. + +If the pine woods be characterized by cathedral solemnity, and the +cedars and tamaracks by certain horrifical gloom, and the popples by a +silvery sunshine, and the berry-clearings by grateful heat and the +homely manner of familiar birds, then the great hardwood must be known +as the dwelling-place of transparent shadows, of cool green lucency, +and the repository of immemorial cheerful forest tradition which the +traveller can hear of, but which he is never permitted actually to +know. + +[Illustration: IN THIS LOVABLE MYSTERY WE JOURNEYED ALL THE REST OF +THAT MORNING.] + +In this lovable mystery we journeyed all the rest of that morning. The +packs were heavy with the first day's weight, and we were tired from +our climb; but the deep physical joy of going on and ever on into +unknown valleys, down a long, gentle slope that must lead somewhere, +through things animate and things of an almost animate life, opening +silently before us to give us passage, and closing as silently behind +us after we had passed--these made us forget our aches and fatigues for +the moment. + +At noon we boiled tea near a little spring of clear, cold water. As yet +we had no opportunity of seeing farther than the closing in of many +trees. We were, as far as external appearances went, no more advanced +than our first resting-place after surmounting the ridge. This effect +is constant in the great forests. You are in a treadmill--though a +pleasant one withal. Your camp of to-day differs only in non-essentials +from that of yesterday, and your camp of to-morrow will probably be +almost exactly like to-day's. Only when you reach your objective point +do you come to a full realization that you have not been the Sisyphus +of the Red Gods. + +Deuce returning from exploration brought indubitable evidence of +porcupines. We picked the barbed little weapons from his face and nose +and tongue with much difficulty for ourselves and much pain for Deuce. +We offered consolation by voicing for his dumbness his undoubted +intention to avoid all future porcupines. Then we took up the afternoon +tramp. + +Now at last through the trees appeared the gleam of water. Tawabinisáy +had said that Kawágama was the only lake in its district. We therefore +became quite excited at this sapphire promise. Our packs were thrown +aside, and like school-boys we raced down the declivity to the shore. + + + + +XIV. + +ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS. + + +We found ourselves peering through the thicket at a little reed and +grass grown body of water a few acres in extent. A short detour to the +right led us to an outlet--a brook of width and dash that convinced us +the little pond was only a stopping-place in the stream, and not a +headwater as we had at first imagined. Then a nearer approach led us +past pointed tree-stumps exquisitely chiselled with the marks of teeth; +so we knew we looked, not on a natural pond, but on the work of +beavers. + +I examined the dam more closely. It was a marvel of engineering skill +in the accuracy with which the big trees had been felled exactly along +the most effective lines, the efficiency of the filling in, and the +just estimate of the waste water to be allowed. We named the place +obviously Beaver Pond, resumed our packs, and pushed on. + +Now I must be permitted to celebrate by a little the pluck of Dick. He +was quite unused to the tump-line, comparatively inexperienced in +woods-walking, and weighed but one hundred and thirty-five pounds. Yet +not once in the course of that trip did he bewail his fate. Towards the +close of this first afternoon I dropped behind to see how he was making +it. The boy had his head down, his lips shut tight together, his legs +well straddled apart. As I watched he stumbled badly over the merest +twig. + +"Dick," said I, "are you tired?" + +"Yes," he confessed frankly. + +"Can you make it another half-hour?" + +"I guess so; I'll try." + +At the end of the half-hour we dropped our packs. Dick had manifested +no impatience--not once had he even asked how nearly time was up--but +now he breathed a deep sigh of relief. + +"I thought you were never going to stop," said he simply. + +From Dick those words meant a good deal. For woods-walking differs as +widely from ordinary walking as trap-shooting from field-shooting. A +good pedestrian may tire very quickly in the forest. No two successive +steps are of the same length; no two successive steps fall on the same +quality of footing; no two successive steps are on the same level. +Those three are the major elements of fatigue. Add further the facts +that your way is continually obstructed both by real difficulties--such +as trees, trunks, and rocks--and lesser annoyances, such as branches, +bushes, and even spider-webs. These things all combine against +endurance. The inexperienced does not know how to meet them with a +minimum of effort. The tenderfoot is in a constant state of muscular +and mental rigidity against a fall or a stumble or a cut across the +face from some one of the infinitely numerous woods scourges. This +rigidity speedily exhausts the vital force. + +So much for the philosophy of it. Its practical side might be +infinitely extended. Woodsmen are tough and enduring and in good +condition; but no more so than the average college athlete. Time and +again I have seen men of the latter class walked to a standstill. I +mean exactly that. They knew, and were justly proud, of their physical +condition, and they hated to acknowledge, even to themselves, that the +rest of us were more enduring. As a consequence they played on their +nerve, beyond their physical powers. When the collapse came it was +complete. I remember very well a crew of men turning out from a lumber +camp on the Sturgeon River to bring in on a litter a young fellow who +had given out while attempting to follow Bethel Bristol through a hard +day. Bristol said he dropped finally as though he had been struck on +the head. The woodsman had thereupon built him a little fire, made him +as comfortable as possible with both coats, and hiked for assistance. I +once went into the woods with a prominent college athlete. We walked +rather hard over a rough country until noon. Then the athlete lay on +his back for the rest of the day, while I finished alone the business +we had come on. + +Now, these instances do not imply that Bristol, and certainly not +myself, were any stronger physically, or possessed more nervous force, +than the men we had tired out. Either of them on a road could have +trailed us, step for step, and as long as we pleased. But we knew the +game. + +It comes at the last to be entirely a matter of experience. Any man can +walk in the woods all day at some gait. But his speed will depend on +his skill. It is exactly like making your way through heavy, dry sand. +As long as you restrain yourself to a certain leisurely plodding, you +get along without extraordinary effort, while even a slight increase of +speed drags fiercely at your feet. So it is with the woods. As long as +you walk slowly enough, so that you can pick your footing and lift +aside easily the branches that menace your face, you will expend little +nervous energy. But the slightest pressing, the slightest inclination +to go beyond what may be called your physical foresight, lands you +immediately in difficulties. You stumble, you break through the brush, +you shut your eyes to avoid sharp switchings. The reservoir of your +energy is open full cock. In about an hour you feel very, very tired. + +This principle holds rigidly true of every one, from the softest +tenderfoot to the expertest forest-runner. For each there exists a +normal rate of travel, beyond which are penalties. Only, the +forest-runner, by long use, has raised the exponent of his powers. +Perhaps as a working hypothesis the following might be recommended: +_One good step is worth six stumbling steps; go only fast enough to +assure that good one._ + +You will learn, besides, a number of things practically which memory +cannot summon to order for instance here. "Brush slanted across your +path is easier lifted over your head and dropped behind you than pushed +aside," will do as an example. + +A good woods-walker progresses without apparent hurry. I have followed +the disappearing back of Tawabinisáy when, as my companion elegantly +expressed it, "if you stopped to spit you got lost." Tawabinisáy +wandered through the forest, his hands in his pockets, humming a little +Indian hymn. And we were breaking madly along behind him with the +crashing of many timbers. + +Of your discoveries probably one of the most impressive will be that in +the bright lexicon of woodscraft the word "mile" has been entirely left +out. To count by miles is a useless and ornamental elegance of +civilization. Some of us once worked hard all one day only to camp +three miles downstream from our resting-place of the night before. And +the following day we ran nearly sixty with the current. The space of +measured country known as a mile may hold you five minutes or five +hours from your destination. The Indian counts by time, and after a +little you follow his example. "Four miles to Kettle Portage" means +nothing. "Two hours to Kettle Portage" does. Only when an Indian tells +you two hours you would do well to count it as four. + +Well, our trip practically amounted to seven days to nowhere; or +perhaps seven days to everywhere would be more accurate. It was all in +the high hills until the last day and a half, and generally in the +hardwood forests. Twice we intersected and followed for short distances +Indian trails, neither of which apparently had been travelled since the +original party that had made them. They led across country for greater +or lesser distances in the direction we wished to travel, and then +turned aside. Three times we blundered on little meadows of +moose-grass. Invariably they were tramped muddy like a cattle-yard +where the great animals had stood as lately as the night before. +Caribou were not uncommon. There were a few deer, but not many, for the +most of the deer country lies to the south of this our district. +Partridge, as we had anticipated, lacked in such high country. + +In the course of the five days and a half we were in the hills we +discovered six lakes of various sizes. The smallest was a mere pond; +the largest would measure some three or four miles in diameter. We came +upon that very late one afternoon. A brook of some size crossed our +way, so, as was our habit, we promptly turned upstream to discover its +source. In the high country the head-waters are never more than a few +miles distant; and at the same time the magnitude of this indicated a +lake rather than a spring as the supply. The lake might be Kawágama. + +Our packs had grown to be very heavy, for they had already the weight +of nine hours piled on top. And the stream was exceedingly difficult to +follow. It flowed in one of those aggravating little ravines whose +banks are too high and steep and uneven for good footing, and whose +beds are choked with a too abundant growth. In addition, there had +fallen many trees over which one had to climb. We kept at it for +perhaps an hour. The brook continued of the same size, and the country +of the same character. Dick for the first time suggested that it might +be well to camp. + +"We've got good water here," he argued, quite justly, "and we can push +on to-morrow just as well as to-night." + +We balanced our packs against a prostrate tree-trunk. Billy contributed +his indirect share to the argument. + +"I lak' to have the job mak' heem this countree all over," he sighed. +"I mak' heem more level." + +"All right," I agreed; "you fellows sit here and rest a minute, and +I'll take a whirl a little ways ahead." + +I slipped my tump-line and started on light. After carrying a heavy +pack so long, I seemed to tread on air. The thicket, before so +formidable, amounted to nothing at all. Perhaps the consciousness that +the day's work was in reality over lent a little factitious energy to +my tired legs. At any rate, the projected two hundred feet of my +investigations stretched to a good quarter-mile. At the end of that +space I debouched on a widening of the ravine. The hardwood ran off +into cedars. I pushed through the stiff rods and yielding fans of the +latter, and all at once found myself leaning out over the waters of the +lake. + +It was almost an exact oval, and lay in a cup of hills. Three wooded +islands, swimming like ducks in the placid evening waters, added a +touch of diversity. A huge white rock balanced the composition to the +left, and a single white sea-gull, like a snowflake against pines, +brooded on its top. + +I looked abroad to where the perfect reflection of the hills confused +the shore line. I looked down through five feet of crystal water to +where pebbles shimmered in refraction. I noted the low rocks jutting +from the wood's shelter whereon one might stand to cast a fly. Then I +turned and yelled and yelled and yelled again at the forest. + +Billy came through the brush, crashing in his haste. He looked long and +comprehendingly. Without further speech, we turned back to where Dick +was guarding the packs. + +That youth we found profoundly indifferent. + +"Kawágama," we cried, "a quarter-mile ahead." + +He turned on us a lack-lustre eye. + +"You going to camp here?" he inquired dully. + +"Course not! We'll go on and camp at the lake." + +"All right," he replied. + +We resumed our packs, a little stiffly and reluctantly, for we had +tasted of woods-travel without them. At the lake we rested. + +"Going to camp here?" inquired Dick. + +We looked about, but noted that the ground under the cedars was +hummocky, and that the hardwood grew on a slope. Besides, we wanted to +camp as near the shore as possible. Probably a trifle further along +there would be a point of high land and delightful little +paper-birches. + +"No," we answered cheerfully, "this isn't much good. Suppose we push +along a ways and find something better." + +"All right," Dick replied. + +We walked perhaps a half-mile more to the westward before we discovered +what we wanted, stopping from time to time to discuss the merits of +this or that place. Billy and I were feeling pretty good. After such a +week Kawágama was a tonic. Finally we agreed. + +"This'll do," said we. + +"Thank God!" said Dick unexpectedly, and dropped his pack to the ground +with a thud, and sat on it. + +I looked at him closely. Then I undid my own pack. "Billy," said I, +"start in on grub. Never mind the tent just now." + +"A' right," grinned Billy. He had been making his own observations. + +"Dick," said I, "let's go down and sit on the rock over the water. We +might fish a little." + +"All right," Dick replied. + +He stumbled dully after me to the shore. + +"Dick," I continued, "you're a kid, and you have high principles, and +your mother wouldn't like it, but I'm going to prescribe for you, and +I'm going to insist on your following the prescription. This flask does +not contain fly-dope--that's in the other flask--it contains whisky. I +have had it in my pack since we started, and it has not been opened. I +don't believe in whisky in the woods; not because I am temperance, but +because a man can't travel on it. But here is where you break your +heaven-born principles. Drink." + +Dick hesitated, then he drank. By the time grub was ready his vitality +had come to normal, and so he was able to digest his food and get some +good out of it; otherwise he could not have done so. Thus he furnished +an admirable example of the only real use for whisky in woods-travel. +Also it was the nearest Dick ever came to being completely played out. + +That evening was delightful. We sat on the rock and watched the long +North Country twilight steal up like a gray cloud from the east. Two +loons called to each other, now in the shrill maniac laughter, now with +the long, mournful cry. It needed just that one touch to finish the +picture. We were looking, had we but known it, on a lake no white man +had ever visited before. Clement alone had seen Kawágama, so in our +ignorance we attained much the same mental attitude. For I may as well +let you into the secret; this was not the fabled lake after all. We +found that out later from Tawabinisáy. But it was beautiful enough, and +wild enough, and strange enough in its splendid wilderness isolation to +fill the heart of the explorer with a great content. + +Having thus, as we thought, attained the primary object of our +explorations, we determined on trying now for the second--that is, the +investigation of the upper reaches of the River. Trout we had not +accomplished at this lake, but the existence of fish of some sort was +attested by the presence of the two loons and the gull, so we laid our +non-success to fisherman's luck. After two false starts we managed to +strike into a good country near enough our direction. The travel was +much the same as before. The second day, however, we came to a +surveyor's base-line cut through the woods. Then we followed that as a +matter of convenience. The base-line, cut the fall before, was the only +evidence of man we saw in the high country. It meant nothing in itself, +but was intended as a starting-point for the township surveys, whenever +the country should become civilized enough to warrant them. That +condition of affairs might not occur for years to come. Therefore the +line was cut out clear for a width of twenty feet. + +We continued along it as along a trail until we discovered our last +lake--a body of water possessing many radiating arms. This was the +nearest we came to the real Kawágama. If we had skirted the lake, +mounted the ridge, followed a creek-bed, mounted another ridge, and +descended a slope, we should have made our discovery. Later we did just +that, under the guidance of Tawabinisáy himself. Floating in the birch +canoe we carried with us we looked back at the very spot on which we +stood this morning. + +But we turned sharp to the left, and so missed our chance. However, we +were in a happy frame of mind, for we imagined we had really made the +desired discovery. + +Nothing of moment happened until we reached the valley of the River. +Then we found we were treed. We had been travelling all the time among +hills and valleys, to be sure, but on a high elevation. Even the bottom +lands, in which lay the lakes, were several hundred feet above +Superior. Now we emerged from the forest to find ourselves on bold +mountains at least seven or eight hundred feet above the main valley. +And in the main valley we could make out the River. + +It was rather dizzy work. Three or four times we ventured over the +rounded crest of the hill, only to return after forty or fifty feet +because the slope had become too abrupt. This grew to be monotonous and +aggravating. It looked as though we might have to parallel the River's +course, like scouts watching an army, on the top of the hill. Finally a +little ravine gave us hope. We scrambled down it; ended in a very steep +slant, and finished at a sheer tangle of cedar-roots. The latter we +attempted. Billy went on ahead. I let the packs down to him by means of +a tump-line. He balanced them on roof; until I had climbed below him. +And so on. It was exactly like letting a bucket down a well. If one of +the packs had slipped off the cedar-roots, it would have dropped like a +plummet to the valley, and landed on Heaven knows what. The same might +be said of ourselves. We did this because we were angry all through. + +Then we came to the end of the cedar-roots. Right and left offered +nothing; below was a sheer, bare drop. Absolutely nothing remained but +to climb back, heavy packs and all, to the top of the mountain. False +hopes had wasted a good half day and innumerable foot-pounds. Billy and +I saw red. We bowed our heads and snaked those packs to the top of the +mountain at a gait that ordinarily would have tired us out in fifty +feet. Dick did not attempt to keep up. When we reached the top we sat +down to wait for him. After a while he appeared, climbing leisurely. He +gazed on us from behind the mask of his Indian imperturbability. Then +he grinned. That did us good, for we all three laughed aloud, and +buckled down to business in a better frame of mind. + +That day we discovered a most beautiful waterfall. A stream about +twenty feet in width, and with a good volume of water, dropped some +three hundred feet or more into the River. It was across the valley +from us, so we had a good view of its beauties. Our estimates of its +height were carefully made on the basis of some standing pine that grew +near its foot. + +And then we entered a steep little ravine, and descended it with +misgivings to a cañon, and walked easily down the cañon to a slope that +took us by barely sensible gradations to a wooded plain. At six o'clock +we stood on the banks of the River, and the hills were behind us. + +Of our down-stream travel there is little really to be said. We +established a number of facts--that the River dashes most scenically +from rapid to rapid, so that the stagnant pool theory is henceforth +untenable; that the hills get higher and wilder the farther you +penetrate to the interior, and their cliffs and rock-precipices bolder +and more naked; that there are trout in the upper reaches, but not so +large as in the lower pools; and, above all, that travel is not a joy +for ever. + +For we could not ford the River above the Falls--it is too deep and +swift. As a consequence, we had often to climb, often to break through +the narrowest thicket strips, and once to feel our way cautiously along +a sunken ledge under a sheer rock cliff. That was Billy's idea. We came +to the sheer rock cliff after a pretty hard scramble, and we were most +loth to do the necessary climbing. Billy suggested that we might be +able to wade. As the pool below the cliff was black water and of +indeterminate depth, we scouted the idea. Billy, however, poked around +with a stick, and, as I have said, discovered a little ledge about a +foot and a half wide and about two feet and a half below the surface. +This was spectacular, but we did it. A slip meant a swim and the loss +of the pack. We did not happen to slip. Shortly after, we came to the +Big Falls, and so after further painful experiment descended joyfully +into known country. + +The freshet had gone down, the weather had warmed, the sun shone, we +caught trout for lunch below the Big Falls; everything was lovely. By +three o'clock, after thrice wading the stream, we regained our +canoe--now at least forty feet from the water. We paddled across. Deuce +followed easily, where a week before he had been sucked down and nearly +drowned. We opened the cache and changed our very travel-stained +garments. We cooked ourselves a luxurious meal. We built a +friendship-fire. And at last we stretched our tired bodies full length +on balsam a foot thick, and gazed drowsily at the canvas-blurred moon +before sinking to a dreamless sleep. + + + + +XV. + +ON WOODS INDIANS. + + +Far in the North dwell a people practically unknown to any but the +fur-trader and the explorer. Our information as to Mokis, Sioux, +Cheyennes Nez Percés, and indirectly many others, through the pages of +Cooper, Parkman, and allied writers, is varied enough, so that our +ideas of Indians are pretty well established. If we are romantic, we +hark back to the past and invent fairy-tales with ourselves anent the +Noble Red Man who has Passed Away. If we are severely practical, we +take notice of filth, vice, plug-hats, tin cans, and laziness. In fact, +we might divide all Indian concepts into two classes, following these +mental and imaginative bents. Then we should have quite simply and +satisfactorily the Cooper Indian and the Comic Paper Indian. It must be +confessed that the latter is often approximated by reality--and +everybody knows it. That the former is by no means a myth--at least in +many qualities--the average reader might be pardoned for doubting. + +Some time ago I desired to increase my knowledge of the Woods Indians +by whatever others had accomplished. Accordingly I wrote to the +Ethnological Department at Washington asking what had been done in +regard to the Ojibways and Wood Crees north of Lake Superior. The +answer was "nothing." + +And "nothing" is more nearly a comprehensive answer than at first you +might believe. Visitors at Mackinac, Traverse, Sault Ste. Marie, and +other northern resorts are besought at certain times of the year by +silent calico-dressed squaws to purchase basket and bark work. If the +tourist happens to follow these women for more wholesale examination of +their wares, he will be led to a double-ended Mackinaw-built +sailing-craft with red-dyed sails, half pulled out on the beach. In the +stern sit two or three bucks wearing shirts, jean trousers, and broad +black hats. Some of the oldest men may sport a patched pair of +moccasins or so, but most are conventional enough in clumsy shoes. +After a longer or shorter stay they hoist their red sails and drift +away toward some mysterious destination on the north shore. If the +buyer is curious enough and persistent enough, he may elicit the fact +that they are Ojibways. + +Now, if this same tourist happens to possess a mildly venturesome +disposition, a sailing-craft, and a chart of the region, he will sooner +or later blunder across the dwelling-place of his silent vendors. At +the foot of some rarely-frequented bay he will come on a diminutive +village of small whitewashed log houses. It will differ from other +villages in that the houses are arranged with no reference whatever to +one another, but in the haphazard fashion of an encampment. Its +inhabitants are his summer friends. If he is of an insinuating address, +he may get a glimpse of their daily life. Then he will go away firmly +convinced that he knows quite a lot about the North Woods Indian. + +And so he does. But this North Woods Indian is the Reservation Indian. +And in the North a Reservation Indian is as different from a Woods +Indian as a negro is from a Chinese. + +Suppose, on the other hand, your tourist is unfortunate enough to get +left at some North Woods railway station where he has descended from +the transcontinental to stretch his legs, and suppose him to have +happened on a fur-town like Missináibie at the precise time when the +trappers are in from the wilds. Near the borders of the village he will +come upon a little encampment of conical tepees. At his approach the +women and children will disappear into inner darkness. A dozen +wolf-like dogs will rush out barking. Grave-faced men will respond +silently to his salutation. + +These men, he will be interested to observe, wear still the deer or +moose skin moccasin--the lightest and easiest foot-gear for the woods; +bind their long hair with a narrow fillet, and their waists with a red +or striped worsted sash; keep warm under the blanket thickness of a +Hudson Bay capote; and deck their clothes with a variety of barbaric +ornament. He will see about camp weapons whose acquaintance he has made +only in museums, peltries of whose identification he is by no means +sure, and as matters of daily use--snow-shoes, bark canoes, bows and +arrows--what to him have been articles of ornament or curiosity. +To-morrow these people will be gone for another year, carrying with +them the results of the week's barter. Neither he nor his kind will see +them again, unless they too journey far into the Silent Places. But he +has caught a glimpse of the stolid mask of the Woods Indian, concerning +whom officially "nothing" is known. + +In many respects the Woods Indian is the legitimate descendant of the +Cooper Indian. His life is led entirely in the forests; his subsistence +is assured by hunting, fishing, and trapping; his dwelling is the +wigwam, and his habitation the wide reaches of the wilderness lying +between Lake Superior and the Hudson Bay; his relation to humanity +confined to intercourse with his own people and acquaintance with the +men who barter for his peltries. So his dependence is not on the world +the white man has brought, but on himself and his natural environment. +Civilization has merely ornamented his ancient manner. It has given him +the convenience of cloth, of firearms, of steel traps, of iron kettles, +of matches; it has accustomed him to the luxuries of white +sugar--though he had always his own maple product--tea, flour, and +white man's tobacco. That is about all. He knows nothing of whisky. The +towns are never visited by him, and the Hudson's Bay Company will sell +him no liquor. His concern with you is not great, for he has little to +gain from you. + +This people, then, depending on natural resources for subsistence, has +retained to a great extent the qualities of the early aborigines. + +To begin with, it is distinctly nomadic. The great rolls of birch bark +to cover the pointed tepees are easily transported in the bottoms of +canoes, and the poles are quickly cut and put in place. As a +consequence, the Ojibway family is always on the move. It searches out +new trapping-grounds, new fisheries, it pays visits, it seems even to +enjoy travel for the sake of exploration. In winter a tepee of double +wall is built, whose hollow is stuffed with moss to keep out the cold; +but even that approximation of permanence cannot stand against the +slightest convenience. When an Indian kills, often he does not +transport his game to camp, but moves his camp to the vicinity of the +carcass. There are of these woods dwellers no villages, no permanent +clearings. The vicinity of a Hudson's Bay post is sometimes occupied +for a month or so during the summer, but that is all. + +An obvious corollary of this is that tribal life does not consistently +obtain. Throughout the summer months, when game and fur are at their +poorest, the bands assemble, probably at the times of barter with the +traders. Then for the short period of the idling season they drift +together up and down the North Country streams, or camp for big +pow-wows and conjuring near some pleasant conflux of rivers. But when +the first frosts nip the leaves, the families separate to their +allotted trapping districts, there to spend the winter in pursuit of +the real business of life. + +The tribe is thus split into many groups, ranging in numbers from +the solitary trapper, eager to win enough fur to buy him a wife, to a +compact little group of three or four families closely related in +blood. The most striking consequence is that, unlike other Indian +bodies politic, there are no regularly constituted and acknowledged +chiefs. Certain individuals gain a remarkable reputation and an equally +remarkable respect for wisdom, or hunting skill, or power of woodcraft, +or travel. These men are the so-called "old men" often mentioned in +Indian manifestoes, though age has nothing to do with the deference +accorded them. Tawabinisáy is not more than thirty-five years old; +Peter, our Hudson Bay Indian, is hardly more than a boy. Yet both are +obeyed implicitly by whomever they happen to be with; both lead the way +by river or trail; and both, where question arises, are sought in +advice by men old enough to be their fathers. Perhaps this is as good a +democracy as another. + +The life so briefly hinted at in the foregoing lines inevitably +develops and fosters an expertness of woodcraft almost beyond belief. +The Ojibway knows his environment. The forest is to him so familiar in +each and every one of its numerous and subtle aspects that the +slightest departure from the normal strikes his attention at once. A +patch of brown shadow where green shadow should fall, a shimmering of +leaves where should be merely a gentle waving, a cross-light where the +usual forest growth should adumbrate, a flash of wings at a time of day +when feathered creatures ordinarily rest quiet--these, and hundreds of +others which you and I should never even guess at, force themselves as +glaringly on an Indian's notice as a brass band in a city street. A +white man _looks_ for game; an Indian sees it because it differs +from the forest. + +That is, of course, a matter of long experience and lifetime habit. +Were it a question merely of this, the white man might also in time +attain the same skill. But the Indian is a better animal. His senses +are appreciably sharper than our own. + +In journeying down the Kapúskasíng River, our Indians--who had come +from the woods to guide us--always saw game long before we did. They +would never point it out to us. The bow of the canoe would swing +silently in its direction, there to rest motionless until we indicated +we had seen something. + +"Where is it, Peter?" I would whisper. + +But Peter always remained contemptuously silent. + +One evening we paddled directly into the eye of the setting sun +across a shallow little lake filled with hardly sunken boulders. There +was no current, and no breath of wind to stir the water into betraying +riffles. But invariably those Indians twisted the canoe into a new +course ten feet before we reached one of the obstructions, whose +existence our dazzled vision could not attest until they were actually +below us. They _saw_ those rocks, through the shimmer of the +surface glare. + +Another time I discovered a small black animal lying flat on a point of +shale. Its head was concealed behind a boulder, and it was so far away +that I was inclined to congratulate myself on having differentiated it +from the shadow. + +"What is it, Peter?" I asked. + +Peter hardly glanced at it. + +"Ninny-moósh" (dog), he replied. + +Now we were a hundred miles south of the Hudson's Bay post, and two +weeks north of any other settlement. Saving a horse, a dog would be +about the last thing to occur to one in guessing at the identity of any +strange animal. This looked like a little black blotch, without form. +Yet Peter knew it. It was a dog, lost from some Indian hunting-party, +and mightily glad to see us. + +The sense of smell, too, is developed to an extent positively uncanny +to us who have needed it so little. Your Woods Indian is always +sniffing, always testing the impressions of other senses by his +olfactories. Instances numerous and varied might be cited, but probably +one will do as well as a dozen. It once became desirable to kill a +caribou in country where the animals are not at all abundant. +Tawabinisáy volunteered to take Jim within shot of one. Jim describes +their hunt as the most wonderful bit of stalking he had ever seen. The +Indian followed the animal's tracks as easily as you or I could have +followed them over snow. He did this rapidly and certainly. Every once +in a while he would get down on all fours to sniff inquiringly at the +crushed herbage. Always on rising to his feet he would give the result +of his investigations. "Ah-téek [caribou] one hour." + +And later, "Ah-téek half hour." + +Or again, "Ah-téek quarter hour." + +And finally, "Ah-téek over nex' hill." + +And it was so. + +In like manner, but most remarkable to us because the test of direct +comparison with our own sense was permitted us, was their acuteness of +hearing. Often while "jumping" a roaring rapids in two canoes, my +companion and I have heard our men talking to each other in quite an +ordinary tone of voice. That is to say, I could hear my Indian, and Jim +could hear his; but personally we were forced to shout loudly to carry +across the noise of the stream. The distant approach of animals they +announce accurately. + +"Wawashkeshí" (deer), says Peter. + +And sure enough, after an interval, we too could distinguish the +footfalls on the dry leaves. + +As both cause and consequence of these physical endowments--which place +them nearly on a parity with the game itself--they are most expert +hunters. Every sportsman knows the importance--and also the +difficulty--of discovering game before it discovers him. The Indian has +here an immense advantage. And after game is discovered, he is +furthermore most expert in approaching it with all the refined art of +the still hunter. + +Mr. Caspar Whitney describes in exasperation his experience with the +Indians of the Far North-West. He complains that when they blunder on +game they drop everything and enter into almost hopeless chase, two +legs against four. Occasionally the quarry becomes enough bewildered so +that the wild shooting will bring it down. He quite justly argues that +the merest pretence at caution in approach would result in much greater +success. + +The Woods Indian is no such fool. He is a mighty poor shot--and he +knows it. Personally I believe he shuts both eyes before pulling +trigger. He is armed with a long flint or percussion lock musket, whose +gas-pipe barrel is bound to the wood that runs its entire length by +means of brass bands, and whose effective range must be about ten +yards. This archaic implement is known as a "trade gun" and has the +single merit of never getting out of order. Furthermore ammunition is +precious. In consequence, the wilderness hunter is not going to be +merely pretty sure; he intends to be absolutely certain. If he cannot +approach near enough to blow a hole in his prey, he does not fire. + +I have seen Peter drop into marsh-grass so thin that apparently we +could discern the surface of the ground through it, and disappear so +completely that our most earnest attention could not distinguish even a +rustling of the herbage. After an interval his gun would go off from +some distant point, exactly where some ducks had been feeding serenely +oblivious to fate. Neither of us white men would have considered for a +moment the possibility of getting any of them. Once I felt rather proud +of myself for killing six ruffed grouse out of some trees with the +pistol, until Peter drifted in carrying three he had bagged with a +stick. + +Another interesting phase of this almost perfect correspondence to +environment is the readiness with which an Indian will meet an +emergency. We are accustomed to rely first of all on the skilled labour +of some one we can hire; second, if we undertake the job ourselves, on +the tools made for us by skilled labour; and third, on the shops to +supply us with the materials we may need. Not once in a lifetime are we +thrown entirely on our own resources. Then we improvise bunglingly a +makeshift. + +The Woods Indian possesses his knife and his light axe. Nails, planes, +glue, chisels, vices, cord, rope, and all the rest of it he has to do +without. But he never improvises makeshifts. No matter what the +exigency or how complicated the demand, his experience answers with +accuracy. + +Utensils and tools he knows exactly where to find. His job is neat and +workmanlike, whether it is a bark receptacle--water-tight or not--a +pair of snow-shoes, the repairing of a badly-smashed canoe, the +construction of a shelter, or the fashioning of a paddle. About noon +one day Tawabinisáy broke his axe-helve square off. This to us would +have been a serious affair. Probably we should, left to ourselves, have +stuck in some sort of a rough straight sapling handle which would have +answered well enough until we could have bought another. By the time we +had cooked dinner that Indian had fashioned another helve. We compared +it with the store article. It was as well shaped, as smooth, as nicely +balanced. In fact, as we laid the new and the old side by side, we +could not have selected, from any evidence of the workmanship, which +had been made by machine and which by hand. Tawabinisáy then burned out +the wood from the axe, retempered the steel, set the new helve, and +wedged it neatly with ironwood wedges. The whole affair, including the +cutting of the timber, consumed perhaps half an hour. + +To travel with a Woods Indian is a constant source of delight on this +account. So many little things that the white man does without, because +he will not bother with their transportation, the Indian makes for +himself. And so quickly and easily! I have seen a thoroughly +waterproof, commodious, and comfortable bark shelter made in about the +time it would take one to pitch a tent. I have seen a raft built of +cedar logs and cedar bark ropes in an hour. I have seen a badly-stove +canoe made as good as new in fifteen minutes. The Indian rarely needs +to hunt for the materials he requires. He knows exactly where they +grow, and he turns as directly to them as a clerk would turn to his +shelves. No problem of the living of physical life is too obscure to +have escaped his varied experience. You may travel with Indians for +years, and learn something new and delightful as to how to take care of +yourself every summer. + +The qualities I have mentioned come primarily from the fact that the +Woods Indian is a hunter. I have now to instance two whose development +can be traced to the other fact--that he is a nomad. I refer to his +skill with the bark canoe and his ability to carry. + +I was once introduced to a man at a little way station of the Canadian +Pacific Railway in the following words:-- + +"Shake hands with Munson; he's as good a canoeman as an Indian." + +A little later one of the bystanders remarked to me:-- + +"That fellow you was just talking with is as good a canoeman as an +Injun." + +Still later, at an entirely different place, a member of the bar +informed me, in the course of discussion:-- + +"The only man I know of who can do it is named Munson. He is as good a +canoeman as an Indian." + +At the time this unanimity of praise puzzled me a little. I thought I +had seen some pretty good canoe work, and even cherished a mild conceit +that occasionally I could keep right side up myself. I knew Munson to +be a great woods-traveller, with many striking qualities, and why this +of canoemanship should be so insistently chosen above the others was +beyond my comprehension. Subsequently a companion and I journeyed to +Hudson Bay with two birch canoes and two Indians. Since that trip I +have had a vast respect for Munson. + +Undoubtedly among the half-breed and white guides of Lower Canada, +Maine, and the Adirondacks are many skilful men. But they know their +waters; they follow a beaten track. The Woods Indian--well, let me tell +you something of what he does. + +We went down the Kapúskasíng River to the Mattágami, and then down that +to the Moose. These rivers are at first but a hundred feet or so wide, +but rapidly swell with the influx of numberless smaller streams. Two +days' journey brings you to a watercourse nearly half a mile in +breadth; two weeks finds you on a surface approximately a mile and a +half across. All this water descends from the Height of Land to the sea +level. It does so through a rock country. The result is a series of +roaring, dashing boulder rapids and waterfalls that would make your +hair stand on end merely to contemplate from the banks. + +The regular route to Moose Factory is by the Missinaíbie. Our way was +new and strange. No trails; no knowledge of the country. When we came +to a stretch of white water, the Indians would rise to their feet for a +single instant's searching examination of the stretch of tumbled water +before them. In that moment they picked the passage they were to follow +as well as a white man could have done so in half an hour's study. Then +without hesitation they shot their little craft at the green water. + +From that time we merely tried to sit still, each in his canoe. Each +Indian did it all with his single paddle. He seemed to possess absolute +control over his craft. + +Even in the rush of water which seemed to hurry us on at almost +railroad speed, he could stop for an instant, work directly sideways, +shoot forward at a slant, swing either his bow or his stern. An error +in judgment or in the instantaneous acting upon it meant a hit; and a +hit in these savage North Country Rivers meant destruction. How my man +kept in his mind the passage he had planned during his momentary +inspection was always to me a miracle. How he got so unruly a beast as +the birch canoe to follow it in that tearing volume of water was always +another. Big boulders he dodged, eddies he took advantage of, slants of +current he utilized. A fractional second of hesitation could not be +permitted him. But always the clutching of white hands from the rip at +the eddy finally conveyed to my spray-drenched faculties that the rapid +was safely astern. And this, mind you, in strange waters. + +Occasionally we would carry our outfit through the woods, while the +Indians would shoot some especially bad water in the light canoe. As a +spectacle nothing could be finer. The flash of the yellow bark, the +movement of the broken waters, the gleam of the paddle, the tense +alertness of the men's figures, their carven, passive faces, with the +contrast of the flashing eyes and the distended nostrils, then the leap +into space over some half-cataract, the smash of spray, the exultant +yells of the canoemen! For your Indian enjoys the game thoroughly. And +it requires very bad water indeed to make him take to the brush. + +This is, of course, the spectacular. But also in the ordinary gray +business of canoe travel the Woods Indian shows his superiority. He is +tireless, and composed as to wrist and shoulder of a number of +whale-bone springs. From early dawn to dewy eve, and then a few +gratuitous hours into the night, he will dig energetic holes in the +water with his long, narrow blade. And every stroke counts. The water +boils out in a splotch of white air-bubbles, the little suction holes +pirouette like dancing-girls, the fabric of the craft itself trembles +under the power of the stroke. Jim and I used, in the lake stretches, +to amuse ourselves--and probably the Indians--by paddling in furious +rivalry one against the other. Then Peter would make up his mind he +would like to speak to Jacob. His canoe would shoot up alongside as +though the Old Man of the Lake had laid his hand across its stern. +Would I could catch that trick of easy, tireless speed! I know it lies +somewhat in keeping both elbows always straight and stiff, in a lurch +forward of the shoulders at the end of the stroke. But that, and more! +Perhaps one needs a copper skin and beady black eyes with surface +lights. + +Nor need you hope to pole a canoe upstream as do these people. +Tawabinisáy uses two short poles, one in either hand, kneels amidships, +and snakes that little old canoe of his upstream so fast that you would +swear the rapids an easy matter--until you tried them yourself. We were +once trailed up a river by an old Woods Indian and his interesting +family. The outfit consisted of canoe Number One--_item_, one old +Injin, one boy of eight years, one dog; canoe Number Two--_item_, +one old Injin squaw, one girl of eighteen or twenty, one dog; canoe +Number Three--_item_, two little girls of ten and twelve, one +dog. We tried desperately for three days to get away from this party. +It did not seem to work hard at all. We did. Even the two little girls +appeared to dip the contemplative paddle from time to time. Water +boiled back of our own blades. We started early and quit late, and +about as we congratulated ourselves over our evening fire that we had +distanced our followers at last, those three canoes would steal +silently and calmly about the lower bend to draw ashore below us. In +ten minutes the old Indian was delivering an oration to us, squatted in +resignation. + +The Red Gods alone know what he talked about. He had no English, and +our Ojibway was of the strictly utilitarian. But for an hour he would +hold forth. We called him Talk-in-the-Face, the Great Indian Chief. +Then he would drop a mild hint for sáymon, which means tobacco, and +depart. By ten o'clock the next morning he and his people would +overtake us in spite of our earlier start. Usually we were in the act +of dragging our canoe through an especially vicious rapid by means of a +tow-line. Their three canoes, even to the children's, would ascend +easily by means of poles. Tow-lines appeared to be unsportsmanlike--like +angle-worms. Then the entire nine--including the dogs--would roost on +rocks and watch critically our methods. + +The incident had one value, however: it showed us just why these people +possess the marvellous canoe skill I have attempted to sketch. The +little boy in the leading canoe was not over eight or nine years of +age, but he had his little paddle and his little canoe-pole, and, what +is more, he already used them intelligently and well. As for the little +girls--well, they did easily feats I never hope to emulate, and that +without removing the cowl-like coverings from their heads and +shoulders. + +The same early habitude probably accounts for their ability to carry +weights long distances. The Woods Indian is not a mighty man +physically. Most of them are straight and well built, but of only +medium height, and not wonderfully muscled. Peter was most beautiful, +but in the fashion of the flying Mercury, with long smooth panther +muscles. He looked like Uncas, especially when his keen hawk-face was +fixed in distant attention. But I think I could have wrestled Peter +down. Yet time and again I have seen that Indian carry two hundred +pounds for some miles through a rough country absolutely without +trails. And once I was witness of a feat of Tawabinisáy, when that wily +savage portaged a pack of fifty pounds and a two-man canoe through a +hill country for four hours and ten minutes without a rest. Tawabinisáy +is even smaller than Peter. + +So much for the qualities developed by the woods life. Let us now +examine what may be described as the inherent characteristics of the +people. + + + + +XVI. + +ON WOODS INDIANS (_continued_). + + +It must be understood, of course, that I offer you only the best of my +subject. A people counts for what it does well. Also I instance men of +standing in the loose Indian body politic. A traveller can easily +discover the reverse of the medal. These have their shirks, their +do-nothings, their men of small account, just as do other races. I have +no thought of glorifying the noble red man, nor of claiming for him a +freedom from human imperfection--even where his natural quality and +training count the most--greater than enlightenment has been able to +reach. + +In my experience the honesty of the Woods Indian is of a very high +order. The sense of _mine_ and _thine_ is strongly forced by +the exigencies of the North Woods life. A man is always on the move; he +is always exploring the unknown countries. Manifestly it is impossible +for him to transport the entire sum of his worldly effects. The +implements of winter are a burden in summer. Also the return journey +from distant shores must be provided for by food-stations, to be relied +on. The solution of these needs is the cache. + +And the cache is not a literal term at all. It _conceals_ nothing. +Rather does it hold aloft in long-legged prominence, for the inspection +of all who pass, what the owner has seen fit to leave behind. A heavy +platform high enough from the ground to frustrate the investigations of +animals is all that is required. Visual concealment is unnecessary, +because in the North Country a cache is sacred. On it may depend the +life of a man. He who leaves provisions must find them on his return, +for he may reach them starving, and the length of his out-journey may +depend on his certainty of relief at this point on his in-journey. So +men passing touch not his hoard, for some day they may be in the same +fix, and a precedent is a bad thing. + +[Illustration: NOR NEED YOU HOPE TO POLE A CANOE UPSTREAM AS DO THESE +PEOPLE.] + +Thus in parts of the wildest countries of northern Canada I have +unexpectedly come upon a birch canoe in capsized suspension between two +trees; or a whole bunch of snow-shoes depending fruit-like beneath the +fans of a spruce; or a tangle of steel traps thrust into the crevice of +a tree-root; or a supply of pork and flour, swathed like an Egyptian +mummy, occupying stately a high bier. These things we have passed by +reverently, as symbols of a people's trust in its kind. + +The same sort of honesty holds in regard to smaller things. I have +never hesitated to leave in my camp firearms, fishing-rods, utensils +valuable from a woods point of view, even a watch or money. Not only +have I never lost anything in that manner, but once an Indian lad +followed me some miles after the morning's start to restore to me a +half-dozen trout flies I had accidentally left behind. + +It might be readily inferred that this quality carries over into the +subtleties, as indeed is the case. Mr. MacDonald of Brunswick House +once discussed with me the system of credits carried on by the Hudson's +Bay Company with the trappers. Each family is advanced goods to the +value of two hundred dollars, with the understanding that the debt is +to be paid from the season's catch. + +"I should think you would lose a good deal," I ventured. "Nothing could +be easier than for an Indian to take his two hundred dollars' worth and +disappear in the woods. You'd never be able to find him." + +Mr. MacDonald's reply struck me, for the man had twenty years' trading +experience. + +"I have never," said he, "in a long woods life known but one Indian +liar." + +This my own limited woods-wandering has proved to be true to a +sometimes almost ridiculous extent. The most trivial statement of fact +can be relied on, provided it is given outside of trade or enmity or +absolute indifference. The Indian loves to fool the tenderfoot. But a +sober, measured statement you can conclude is accurate. And if an +Indian promises a thing, he will accomplish it. He expects you to do +the same. Watch your lightest words carefully and you would retain the +respect of your red associates. + +On our way to the Hudson Bay we rashly asked Peter, towards the last, +when we should reach Moose Factory. He deliberated. + +"T'ursday," said he. + +Things went wrong; Thursday supplied a head wind. We had absolutely no +interest in reaching Moose Factory next day; the next week would have +done as well. But Peter, deaf to expostulation, entreaty, and command, +kept us travelling from six in the morning until after twelve at night. +We couldn't get him to stop. Finally he drew the canoes ashore. + +"Moose-amik quarter hour," said he. + +He had kept his word. + +The Ojibway possesses a great pride which the unthinking can ruffle +quite unconsciously in many ways. Consequently the Woods Indian is +variously described as a good guide or a bad one. The difference lies +in whether you suggest or command. + +"Peter, you've got to make Chicawgun to-night. Get a move on you!" will +bring you sullen service, and probably breed kicks on the grub supply, +which is the immediate precursor of mutiny. + +"Peter, it's a long way to Chicawgun. Do you think we make him +to-night?" on the other hand, will earn you at least a serious +consideration of the question. And if Peter says you can, you will. + +For the proper man the Ojibway takes a great pride in his woodcraft, +the neatness of his camps, the savoury quality of his cookery, the +expedition of his travel, the size of his packs, the patience of his +endurance. On the other hand, he can be as sullen, inefficient, stupid, +and vindictive as any man of any race on earth. I suppose the faculty +of getting along with men is largely inherent. Certainly it is blended +of many subtleties. To be friendly, to retain respect, to praise, to +preserve authority, to direct and yet to leave detail, to exact what is +due, and yet to deserve it--these be the qualities of a leader, and +cannot be taught. + +In general the Woods Indian is sober. He cannot get whisky regularly, +to be sure, but I have often seen the better class of Ojibways refuse a +drink, saying that they did not care for it. He starves well, and keeps +going on nothing long after hope is vanished. He is patient--yea, very +patient--under toil, and so accomplishes great journeys, overcomes +great difficulties, and does great deeds by means of this handmaiden of +genius. According to his own standards is he clean. To be sure his +baths are not numerous, nor his laundry-days many, but he never cooks +until he has washed his hands and arms to the very shoulders. Other +details would but corroborate the impression of this instance--that his +ideas differ from ours, as is his right, but that he lives up to his +ideas. Also is he hospitable, expecting nothing in return. After your +canoe is afloat and your paddle in the river, two or three of his +youngsters will splash in after you to toss silver fish to your +necessities. And so always he will wait until this last moment of +departure, in order that you will not feel called on to give him +something in return. Which is true tact and kindliness, and worthy of +high praise. + +Perhaps I have not strongly enough insisted that the Indian nations +differ as widely from one another as do unallied races. We found this +to be true even in the comparatively brief journey from Chapleau to +Moose. After pushing through a trackless wilderness without having laid +eyes on a human being, excepting the single instance of three French +_voyageurs_ going Heaven knows where, we were anticipating +pleasurably our encounter with the traders at the Factory, and +naturally supposed that Peter and Jacob would be equally pleased at the +chance of visiting with their own kind. Not at all. When we reached +Moose our Ojibways wrapped themselves in a mantle of dignity, and +stalked scornful amidst obsequious clans. For the Ojibway is great +among Indians, verily much greater than the Moose River Crees. Had it +been a question of Rupert's River Crees with their fierce blood-laws, +their conjuring-lodges, and their pagan customs, the affair might have +been different. + +For, mark you, the Moose River Cree is little among hunters, and he +conducts the chase miscellaneously over his district without thought to +the preservation of the beaver, and he works in the hay marshes during +the summer, and is short, squab, and dirty, and generally +_ka-win-ni-shi-shin_. The old sacred tribal laws, which are better +than a religion because they are practically adapted to northern life, +have among them been allowed to lapse. Travellers they are none, nor do +their trappers get far from the Company's pork-barrels. So they inbreed +ignobly for lack of outside favour, and are dying from the face of the +land through dire diseases, just as their reputations have already died +from men's respect. + +The great unwritten law of the forest is that, save as provision during +legitimate travel, one may not hunt in his neighbour's district. Each +trapper has assigned him, or gets by inheritance or purchase, certain +territorial power. In his land he alone may trap. He knows the +beaver-dams, how many animals each harbours, how large a catch each +will stand without diminution of the supply. So the fur is made to +last. In the southern district this division is tacitly agreed upon. It +is not etiquette to poach. What would happen to a poacher no one knows, +simply because the necessity for finding out has not arisen. +Tawabinisáy controls from Batchawanúng to Agawa. There old Waboos takes +charge. And so on. But in the Far North the control is more often +disputed, and there the blood-law still holds. An illegal trapper baits +his snares with his life. If discovered, he is summarily shot. So is +the game preserved. + +The Woods Indian never kills waste-fully. The mere presence of game +does not breed in him a lust to slaughter something. Moderation you +learn of him first of all. Later, provided you are with him long enough +and your mind is open to mystic influence, you will feel the strong +impress of his idea--that the animals of the forest are not lower than +man, but only different. Man is an animal living the life of the +forest; the beasts are also a body politic speaking a different +language and with different view-points. Amik, the beaver, has certain +ideas as to the conduct of life, certain habits of body, and certain +bias of thought. His scheme of things is totally at variance with that +held by Me-en-gan, the wolf, but even to us whites the two are on a +parity. Man has still another system. One is no better than another. +They are merely different. And just as Me-en-gan preys on Amik, so does +Man kill for his own uses. + +Thence are curious customs. A Rupert River Cree will not kill a bear +unless he, the hunter, is in gala attire, and then not until he has +made a short speech in which he assures his victim that the affair is +not one of personal enmity, but of expedience, and that anyway he, the +bear, will be better off in the Hereafter. And then the skull is +cleaned and set on a pole near running water, there to remain during +twelve moons. Also at the tail-root of a newly-deceased beaver is tied +a thong braided of red wool and deerskin. And many other curious +habitudes which would be of slight interest here. Likewise do they +conjure up by means of racket and fasting the familiar spirits of +distant friends or enemies, and on these spirits fasten a blessing or a +curse. + +From this it may be deduced that missionary work has not been as +thorough as might be hoped. That is true. The Woods Indian loves to +sing, and possesses quaint melodies, or rather intonations, of his own. +But especially does he delight in the long-drawn wail of some of our +old-fashioned hymns. The church oftenest reaches him through them. I +know nothing stranger than the sight of a little half-lit church filled +with Indians swaying unctuously to and fro in the rhythm of a cadence +old Watts would have recognized with difficulty. The religious feeling +of the performance is not remarkable, but perhaps it does as a +starting-point. + +Exactly how valuable the average missionary work is I have been puzzled +to decide. Perhaps the church needs more intelligence in the men it +sends out. The evangelist is usually filled with narrow, preconceived +notions as to the proper physical life. He squeezes his savage into log +houses, boiled shirts, and boots. When he has succeeded in getting his +tuberculosis crop well started, he offers as compensation a doctrinal +religion admirably adapted to us, who have within reach of +century-trained perceptions a thousand of the subtler associations a +savage can know nothing about. If there is enough glitter and tin +steeple and high-sounding office and gilt good-behaviour card to it, +the red man's pagan heart is tickled in its vanity, and he dies in the +odour of sanctity--and of a filth his out-of-door life has never taught +him how to avoid. The Indian is like a raccoon: in his proper +surroundings he is clean morally and physically because he knows how to +be so; but in a cage he is filthy because he does not know how to be +otherwise. + +I must not be understood as condemning missionary work; only the stupid +missionary work one most often sees in the North. Surely Christianity +should be adaptable enough in its little things to fit any people with +its great. It seems hard for some men to believe that it is not +essential for a real Christian to wear a plug-hat. One God, love, +kindness, charity, honesty, right living, may thrive as well in the +wigwam as in a foursquare house--provided you let them wear moccasins +and a _capote_ wherewith to keep themselves warm and vital. + +Tawabinisáy must have had his religious training at the hands of a good +man. He had lost none of his aboriginal virtue and skill, as may be +gathered from what I have before said of him, and had gained in +addition certain of the gentle qualities. I have never been able to +gauge exactly the extent of his religious _understanding_, for +Tawabinisáy is a silent individual, and possesses very little English; +but I do know that his religious _feeling_ was deep and reverent. +He never swore in English; he did not drink; he never travelled or +hunted or fished on Sunday when he could possibly help it. These +virtues he wore modestly and unassumingly as an accustomed garment. Yet +he was the most gloriously natural man I have ever met. + +The main reliance of his formalism when he was off in the woods seemed +to be a little tattered volume, which he perused diligently all Sunday, +and wrapped carefully in a strip of oiled paper during the rest of the +week. One day I had a chance to look at this book while its owner was +away after spring water. Every alternate page was in the phonetic +Indian symbols, of which more hereafter. The rest was in French, and +evidently a translation. Although the volume was of Roman Catholic +origin, creed was conspicuously subordinated to the needs of the class +it aimed to reach. A confession of faith, quite simple, in one God, a +Saviour, a Mother of Heaven; a number of Biblical extracts rich in +imagery and applicability to the experience of a woods-dweller; a dozen +simple prayers of the kind the natural man would oftenest find occasion +to express--a prayer for sickness, for bounty, for fair weather, for +ease of travel, for the smiling face of Providence; and then some +hymns. To me the selection seemed most judicious. It answered the needs +of Tawabinisáy's habitual experiences, and so the red man was a good +and consistent convert. Irresistibly I was led to contemplate the idea +of any one trying to get Tawabinisáy to live in a house, to cut +cordwood with an axe, to roost on a hard bench under a tin steeple, to +wear stiff shoes, and to quit forest roaming. + +The written language mentioned above you will see often in the +Northland. Whenever an Indian band camps, it blazes a tree and leaves, +as record for those who may follow, a message written in the phonetic +character. I do not understand exactly the philosophy of it, but I +gather that each sound has a symbol of its own, like shorthand, and +that therefore even totally different languages--such as Ojibway, the +Wood Cree, or the Hudson Bay Eskimos--may all be written in the same +character. It was invented nearly a hundred years ago by a priest. So +simple is it, and so needed a method of intercommunication, that its +use is now practically universal. Even the youngsters understand it, +for they are early instructed in its mysteries during the long winter +evenings. On the preceding page is a message I copied from a spruce +tree two hundred miles from anywhere on the Mattágami River. + +[Illustration] + +Besides this are numberless formal symbols in constant use. Forerunners +on a trail stick a twig in the ground whose point indicates exactly the +position of the sun. Those who follow are able to estimate, by noting +how far beyond the spot the twig points to the sun has travelled, how +long a period of time has elapsed. A stick pointed in any given +direction tells the route, of course. Another planted upright across +the first shows by its position how long a journey is contemplated. A +little sack suspended at the end of the pointer conveys information as +to the state of the larder, lean or fat according as the little sack +contains more or less gravel or sand. A shred of rabbit-skin means +starvation. And so on in variety useless in any but an ethnological +work. + +[Illustration 1: A short journey.] + +[Illustration 2: A medium journey.] + +[Illustration 3: A long journey.] + +The Ojibways' tongue is soft, and full of decided lisping and sustained +hissing sounds. It is spoken with somewhat of a sing-song drawl. We +always had a fancy that somehow it was of forest growth, and that its +syllables were intended in the scheme of things to blend with the woods +noises, just as the feathers of the mother partridge blend with the +woods colours. In general it is polysyllabic. That applies especially +to concepts borrowed of the white men. On the other hand, the Ojibways +describe in monosyllables many ideas we could express only in phrase. +They have a single word for the notion, Place-where-an-animal-slept- +last-night. Our "lair," "form," etc., do not mean exactly that. Its +genius, moreover, inclines to a flexible verb-form, by which adjectives +and substantives are often absorbed into the verb itself, so that one +beautiful singing word will convey a whole paragraph of information. My +little knowledge of it is so entirely empirical that it can possess small +value. + +In concluding these desultory remarks, I want to tell you of a very +curious survival among the Ojibways and Ottawas of the Georgian Bay. It +seems that some hundreds of years ago these ordinarily peaceful folk +descended on the Iroquois in what is now New York, and massacred a +village or so. Then, like small boys who have thrown only too +accurately at the delivery wagon, they scuttled back home again. + +Since that time they have lived in deadly fear of retribution. The +Iroquois have long since disappeared from the face of the earth, but +even to-day the Georgian Bay Indians are subject to periodical spasms +of terror. Some wild-eyed and imaginative youth sees at sunset a canoe +far down the horizon. Immediately the villages are abandoned in haste, +and the entire community moves up to the head-waters of streams, there +to lurk until convinced that all danger is past. It does no good to +tell these benighted savages that they are safe from vengeance, at +least in this world. The dreaded name of Iroquois is potent, even +across the centuries. + + + + +XVII. + +THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH. + + +We settled down peacefully on the River, and the weather, after so much +enmity, was kind to us. Likewise did the flies disappear from the woods +utterly. + +Each morning we arose as the Red Gods willed; generally early, when the +sun was just gilding the peaks to the westward; but not too early, +before the white veil had left the River. Billy, with woodsman's +contempt for economy, hewed great logs and burned them nobly in the +cooking of trout, oatmeal, pancakes, and the like. We had constructed +ourselves tables and benches between green trees, and there we ate. And +great was the eating beyond the official capacity of the human stomach. +There offered little things to do, delicious little things just on the +hither side of idleness. A rod wrapping needed more waxed silk; a +favourite fly required attention to prevent dissolution; the pistol was +to be cleaned; a flag-pole seemed desirable; a trifle more of balsam +could do no harm; clothes might stand drying, blankets airing. We +accomplished these things leisurely, pausing for the telling of +stories, for the puffing of pipes, for the sheer joy of contemplations. +Deerskin slipper moccasins and flapping trousers attested our +deshabille. And then somehow it was noon, and Billy again at the Dutch +oven and the broiler. + +Trout we ate, and always more trout. Big fellows broiled with strips of +bacon craftily sewn in and out of the pink flesh; medium fellows cut +into steaks; little fellows fried crisp in corn-meal; big, medium, and +little fellows mingled in component of the famous North Country +_bouillon_, whose other ingredients are partridges, and tomatoes, +and potatoes, and onions, and salt pork, and flour in combination +delicious beyond belief. Nor ever did we tire of them, three times a +day, printed statement to the contrary notwithstanding. And besides +were many crafty dishes over whose construction the major portion of +morning idleness was spent. + +Now at two o'clock we groaned temporary little groans; and crawled +shrinking into our river clothes, which we dared not hang too near the +fire for fear of the disintegrating scorch, and drew on soggy hobnailed +shoes with holes cut in the bottom and plunged with howls of disgust +into the upper riffles. Then the cautious leg-straddled passage of the +swift current, during which we forgot for ever--which eternity alone +circles the bliss of an afternoon on the River--the chill of the water, +and so came to the trail. + +Now, at the Idiot's Delight Dick and I parted company. By three o'clock +I came again to the River, far up, halfway to the Big Falls. Deuce +watched me gravely. With the first click of the reel he retired to the +brush away from the back cast, there to remain until the pool was +fished and we could continue our journey. + +In the swift leaping water, at the smooth back of the eddy, in the +white foam, under the dark cliff shadow, here, there, everywhere the +bright flies drop softly like strange snowflakes. The game is as +interesting as pistol-shooting. To hit the mark, that is enough. And +then a swirl of water and a broad lazy tail wake you to the fact that +other matters are yours. Verily the fish of the North Country are +mighty beyond all others. + +Over the River rests the sheen of light; over the hills rests the sheen +of romance. The land is enchanted. Birds dip and sway, advance and +retreat; leaves toss their hands in greeting, or bend and whisper one +to the other; splashes of sun fall heavy as metal through the yielding +screens of branches; little breezes wander hesitatingly here and there +to sink like spent kites on the nearest bar of sun-warmed shingle; the +stream shouts and gurgles, murmurs, hushes, lies still and secret as +though to warn you to discretion, breaks away with a shriek of hilarity +when your discretion has been assured. There is in you a great leisure, +as though the day would never end. There is in you a great keenness. +One part of you is vibrantly alive. Your wrist muscles contract almost +automatically at the swirl of a rise, and the hum of life along the +gossamer of your line gains its communication with every nerve in your +body. The question of gear and method you attack clear-minded. What +fly? Montreal, Parmachenee Belle, Royal Coachman, Silver Doctor, +Professor, Brown Hackle, Cow-dung--these grand lures for the North +Country trout receive each its due test and attention. And on the tail +snell what fisherman has not the Gamble--the unusual, obscure, +multinamed fly which may, in the occultism of his taste, attract the +Big Fellows? Besides, there remains always the handling. Does your +trout to-day fancy the skittering of his food, or the withdrawal in +three jerks, or the inch-deep sinking of the fly? Does he want it +across current or up current; will he rise with a snap, or is he going +to come slowly, or is he going to play? These be problems interesting, +insistent to be solved, with the ready test within the reach of your +skill. + +But that alertness is only one side of your mood. No matter how +difficult the selection, how strenuous the fight, there is in you a +large feeling that might almost be described as Buddhistic. Time has +nothing to do with your problems. The world has quietly run down, and +has been embalmed with all its sweetness of light and colour and sound +in a warm Lethe bath of sun. This afternoon is going to last for ever. +You note and enjoy and savour the little pleasures unhurried by the +thought that anything else, whether of pleasure or duty, is to follow. + +And so for long delicious eons. The River flows on, ever on; the hills +watch, watch always; the birds sing, the sun shines grateful across +your shoulders; the big trout and the little rise in predestined order, +and make their predestined fight, and go their predestined way either +to liberty or the creel; the pools and the rapids and the riffles slip +by upstream as though they had been withdrawn rather than as though you +had advanced. + +Then suddenly the day has dropped its wings. The earth moves forward +with a jar. Things are to be accomplished; things are being +accomplished. The River is hurrying down to the Lake; the birds have +business of their own to attend to, an it please you; the hills are +waiting for something that has not yet happened, but they are ready. +Startled, you look up. The afternoon has finished. Your last step has +taken you over the edge of the shadow cast by the setting sun across +the range of hills. + +For the first time you look about you to see where you are. It has not +mattered before. Now you know that shortly it will be dark. Still +remain below you four pools. A great haste seizes you. + +"If I take my rod apart and strike through the woods," you argue, "I +can make the Narrows, and I am sure there is a big trout there." + +Why the Narrows should be any more likely to contain a big trout than +any of the other three pools you would not be able to explain. In half +an hour it will be dark. You hurry. In the forest it is already +twilight, but by now you know the forest well. Preoccupied, feverish +with your great idea, you hasten on. The birds, silent all in the +brooding of night, rise ghostly to right and left. Shadows steal away +like hostile spies among the treetrunks. The silver of last daylight +gleams ahead of you through the brush. You know it for the Narrows, +whither the instinct of your eagerness has led you as accurately as a +compass through the forest. + +Fervently, as though this were of world's affairs the most important, +you congratulate yourself on being in time. Your rod seems to join +itself. In a moment the cast drops like a breath on the molten silver. +Nothing. Another try a trifle lower down. Nothing. A little wandering +breeze spoils your fourth attempt, carrying the leader far to the left. +Curses, deep and fervent. The daylight is fading, draining away. A +fifth cast falls forty feet out. Slowly you drag the flies across the +current, reluctant to recover until the latest possible moment. And so, +when your rod is foolishly upright, your line slack, and your flies +motionless, there rolls slowly up and over the trout of trouts. You see +a broad side, the whirl of a fantail that looks to you to be at least +six inches across; and the current slides on, silver-like, smooth, +indifferent to the wild leap of your heart. + +[Illustration: THEN IN THE TWILIGHT THEY BATHE.] + +Like a crazy man you shorten your line. Six seconds later your flies +fall skilfully just upstream from where last you saw that wonderful +tail. + +But six seconds may be a long, long period of time. You have feared and +hoped and speculated and realized; feared that the leviathan has +pricked himself, and so will not rise again; hoped that his appearance +merely indicated curiosity which he will desire further to satisfy; +speculated on whether your skill can drop the fly exactly on that spot, +as it must be dropped; and realized that, whatever be the truth as to +all those fears and hopes and speculations, this is irrevocably your +last chance. + +For an instant you allow the flies to drift downstream, to be floated +here and there by idle little eddies, to be sucked down and spat out of +tiny suction-holes. Then cautiously you draw them across the surface of +the waters. _Thump--thump--thump_--your heart slows up with +disappointment. Then mysteriously, like the stirring of the waters by +some invisible hand, the molten silver is broken in its smoothness. The +Royal Coachman quietly disappears. With all the brakes shrieking on +your desire to shut your eyes and heave a mighty heave, you depress +your butt and strike. + +Then in the twilight the battle. No leisure is here, only quivering, +intense, agonized anxiety. The affair transcends the moment. Purposes +and necessities of untold ages have concentrated, so that somehow back +of your consciousness rest hosts of disembodied hopes, tendencies, +evolutionary progressions, all breathless lest you prove unequal to the +struggle for which they have been so long preparing. + +Responsibility--vast, vague, formless--is yours. Only the fact that you +are wholly occupied with the exigence of the moment prevents your +understanding of what it is, but it hovers dark and depressing behind +your possible failure. You must win. This is no fish; it is opportunity +itself, and once gone it will never return. The mysticism of lower dusk +in the forest, of upper afterglow on the hills, of the chill of evening +waters and winds, of the glint of strange phantoms under the darkness +of cliffs, of the whisperings and shoutings of Things you are too busy +to identify out in the gray of North Country awe--all these menace you +with indeterminate dread. Knee-deep, waist-deep, swift water, slack +water, downstream, upstream, with red eyes straining into the dimness, +with every muscle taut and every nerve quivering, you follow the +ripping of your line. You have consecrated yourself to the uttermost. +The minutes stalk by you gigantic. You are a stable pin-point in +whirling phantasms. And you are very little, very small, very +inadequate among these Titans of circumstance. + +Thrice he breaks water, a white and ghostly apparition from the deep. +Your heart stops with your reel, and only resumes its office when again +the line sings safely. The darkness falls, and with it, like the +mysterious strength of Sir Gareth's opponent, falls the power of your +adversary. His rushes shorten. The blown world of your uncertainty +shrinks to the normal. From the haze of your consciousness, as through +a fog, loom the old familiar forest, and the hills, and the River. +Slowly you creep from that strange enchanted land. The sullen trout +yields. In all gentleness you float him within reach of your net. +Quietly, breathlessly you walk ashore, and over the beach, and yet an +unnecessary hundred feet from the water lest he retain still a flop. +Then you lay him upon the stones and lift up your heart in rejoicing. + +How you get to camp you never clearly know. Exultation lifts your feet. +Wings, wings, O ye Red Gods, wings to carry the body whither the spirit +hath already soared, and stooped, and circled back in impatience to see +why still the body lingers! Ordinarily you can cross the riffles above +the Halfway Pool only with caution and prayer and a stout staff +craftily employed. This night you can--and do--splash across hand-free, +as recklessly as you would wade a little brook. There is no stumble in +you, for you have done a great deed, and the Red Gods are smiling. + +Through the trees glows a light, and in the centre of that light are +leaping flames, and in the circle of that light stand, rough-hewn in +orange, the tent and the table and the waiting figures of your +companions. You stop short, and swallow hard, and saunter into camp as +one indifferent. + +Carelessly you toss aside your creel--into the darkest corner, as +though it were unimportant--nonchalantly you lean your rod against the +slant of your tent, wearily you seat yourself and begin to draw off +your drenched garments. Billy bends toward the fire. Dick gets you your +dry clothes. Nobody says anything, for everybody is hungry. No one asks +you any questions, for on the River you get in almost any time of +night. + +Finally, as you are hanging your wet things near the fire, you inquire +casually over your shoulder,-- + +"Dick, have any luck?" + +Dick tells you. You listen with apparent interest. He has caught a +three-pounder. He describes the spot and the method and the struggle. +He is very much pleased. You pity him. + +The three of you eat supper, lots of supper. Billy arises first, +filling his pipe. He hangs water over the fire for the dish-washing. +You and Dick sit hunched on a log, blissfully happy in the moments of +digestion, ruminative, watching the blaze. The tobacco smoke eddies and +sucks upward to join the wood smoke. Billy moves here and there in the +fulfilment of his simple tasks, casting his shadow wavering and +gigantic against the fire-lit trees. By-and-by he has finished. He +gathers up the straps of Dick's creel, and turns to the shadow for your +own. He is going to clean the fish. It is the moment you have watched +for. You shroud yourself in profound indifference. + +"_Sacré!_" shrieks Billy. + +You do not even turn your head. + +"Jumping giraffes! why, it's a whale!" cries Dick. + +You roll a _blasé_ eye in their direction, as though such puerile +enthusiasm wearies you. + +"Yes, it's quite a little fish," you concede. + +They swarm down upon you, demanding particulars. These you accord +laconically, a word at a time, in answer to direct question, between +puffs of smoke. + +"At the Narrows. Royal Coachman. Just before I came in. Pretty fair +fight. Just at the edge of the eddy." And so on. But your soul glories. + +The tape-line is brought out. Twenty-nine inches it records. Holy +smoke, what a fish! Your air implies that you will probably catch three +more just like him on the morrow. Dick and Billy make tracings of him +on the birch bark. You retain your lofty calm: but inside you are +little quivers of rapture. And when you awake, late in the night, you +are conscious, first of all, that you are happy, happy, happy, all +through; and only when the drowse drains away do you remember why. + + + + +XVIII. + +MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT. + + +We had been joined on the River by friends. "Doug," who never fished +more than forty rods from camp, and was always inventing water-gauges, +patent indicators, and other things, and who wore in his soft slouch +hat so many brilliant trout flies that he irresistibly reminded you of +flower-decked Ophelia; "Dinnis," who was large and good-natured, and +bubbling and popular; Johnny, whose wide eyes looked for the first time +on the woods-life, and whose awe-struck soul concealed itself behind +assumptions; "Jim," six feet tall and three feet broad, with whom the +season before I had penetrated to Hudson Bay; and finally, "Doc," tall, +granite, experienced, the best fisherman that ever hit the river. With +these were Indians. Buckshot, a little Indian with a good knowledge of +English; Johnnie Challán, a half-breed Indian, ugly, furtive, an +efficient man about camp; and Tawabinisáy himself. This was an honour +due to the presence of Doc. Tawabinisáy approved of Doc. That was all +there was to say about it. + +After a few days, inevitably the question of Kawágama came up. Billy, +Johnnie Challán, and Buckshot squatted in a semi-circle, and drew +diagrams in the soft dirt with a stick. Tawabinisáy sat on a log and +overlooked the proceedings. Finally he spoke. + +"Tawabinisáy" (they always gave him his full title; we called him +Tawáb) "tell me lake you find he no Kawágama," translated Buckshot. "He +called Black Beaver Lake." + +"Ask him if he'll take us to Kawágama," I requested. + +Tawabinisáy looked very doubtful. + +"Come on, Tawáb," urged Doc, nodding at him vigorously. "Don't be a +clam. We won't take anybody else up there." + +The Indian probably did not comprehend the words, but he liked Doc. + +"A'-right," he pronounced laboriously. + +Buckshot explained to us his plans. + +"Tawabinisáy tell me," said he, "he don' been to Kawágama seven year. +To-morrow he go blaze trail. Nex' day we go." + +"How would it be if one or two of us went with him to-morrow to see how +he does it?" asked Jim. + +Buckshot looked at us strangely. + +"_I_ don't want to follow him," he replied, with a significant +simplicity. "He run like a deer." + +"Buckshot," said I, pursuing the inevitable linguistics, "what does +Kawágama mean?" + +Buckshot thought for quite two minutes. Then he drew a semicircle. + +"W'at you call dat?" he asked. + +"Crescent, like moon? half-circle? horseshoe? bow?" we proposed. + +Buckshot shook his head at each suggestion. He made a wriggling mark, +then a wide sweep, then a loop. + +"All dose," said he, "w'at you call him?" + +"Curve!" we cried. + +"Áh hah," assented Buckshot, satisfied. + +"Buckshot," we went on, "what does Tawabinisáy mean?" + +"Man-who-travels-by-moonlight," he replied promptly. + +The following morning Tawabinisáy departed, carrying a lunch and a +hand-axe. At four o'clock he was back, sitting on a log and smoking a +pipe. In the meantime we had made up our party. + +Tawabinisáy himself had decided that the two half-breeds must stay at +home. He wished to share his secret only with his own tribesmen. The +fiat grieved Billy, for behold he had already put in much time on this +very search, and naturally desired to be in at the finish. Dick, too, +wanted to go, but him we decided too young and light for a fast march. +Dinnis had to leave the River in a day or so; Johnnie was a little +doubtful as to the tramp, although he concealed his doubt--at least to +his own satisfaction--under a variety of excuses. Jim and Doc would go, +of course. There remained Doug. + +We found that individual erecting a rack of many projecting arms--like +a Greek warrior's trophy--at the precise spot where the first rays of +the morning sun would strike it. On the projecting arms he purposed +hanging his wet clothes. + +"Doug," said we, "do you want to go to Kawágama to-morrow?" + +Doug turned on us a sardonic eye. He made no direct answer, but told +the following story:-- + +"Once upon a time Judge Carter was riding through a rural district in +Virginia. He stopped at a negro's cabin to get his direction. + +"'Uncle,' said he, 'can you direct me to Colonel Thompson's?' + +"'Yes, sah,' replied the negro; 'yo' goes down this yah road 'bout two +mile till yo' comes to an ol' ailm tree, and then yo' tu'us sha'p to +th' right down a lane fo' 'bout a qua'ter of a mile. Thah you sees a +big white house. Yo' wants to go through th' ya'd, to a paf that takes +you a spell to a gate. Yo' follows that road to th' lef till yo' comes +to three roads goin' up a hill; and, jedge, _it don' mattah which one +of them thah roads yo' take, yo' gets lost surer 'n hell anyway!_'" + +Then Doug turned placidly back to the construction of his trophy. + +We interpreted this as an answer, and made up an outfit for five. + +The following morning at six o'clock we were under way. Johnnie Challán +ferried us across the river in two instalments. We waved our hands and +plunged through the brush screen. + +Thenceforth it was walk half an hour, rest five minutes, with almost +the regularity of clockwork. We timed the Indians secretly, and found +they varied by hardly a minute from absolute fidelity to this schedule. +We had at first, of course, to gain the higher level of the hills, but +Tawabinisáy had the day before picked out a route that mounted as +easily as the country would allow, and through a hardwood forest free +of underbrush. Briefly indicated, our way led first through the big +trees and up the hills, then behind a great cliff knob into a creek +valley, through a quarter-mile of bottom-land thicket, then by an open +strip to the first little lake. This we ferried by means of the bark +canoe carried on the shoulders of Tawabinisáy. + +In the course of the morning we thus passed four lakes. Throughout the +entire distance to Kawágama were the fresh axe-blazes the Indian had +made the day before. These were neither so frequent nor as plainly cut +as a white man's trail, but each represented a pause long enough for +the clip of an axe. In addition the trail had been made passable for a +canoe. That meant the cutting out of overhanging branches wherever they +might catch the bow of the craft. In the thicket a little road had been +cleared, and the brush had been piled on either side. To an +unaccustomed eye it seemed the work of two days at least. Yet +Tawabinisáy had picked out his route, cleared and marked it thus, +skirted the shores of the lakes we were able to traverse in the canoe, +and had returned to the River in less time than we consumed in merely +reaching the Lake itself! Truly, as Buckshot said, he must have "run +like a deer." + +Tawabinisáy has a delightful grin which he displays when pleased or +good-humoured or puzzled or interested or comprehending, just as a dog +sneezes and wrinkles up his nose in like case. He is essentially +kind-hearted. If he likes you and approves of you, he tries to teach +you, to help you, to show you things. But he never offers to do any +part of your work, and on the march he never looks back to see if you +are keeping up. You can shout at him until you are black in the face, +but never will he pause until rest-time. Then he squats on his heels, +lights his pipe, and grins. + +Buckshot adored him. This opportunity of travelling with him was an +epoch. He drank in eagerly the brief remarks of his "old man," and +detailed them to us with solemnity, prefaced always by his "Tawabinisáy +tell me." Buckshot is of the better class of Indian himself, but +occasionally he is puzzled by the woods-noises. Tawabinisáy never. As +we cooked lunch, we heard the sound of steady footsteps in the +forest--_pat_; then a pause; then _pat_; just like a deer +browsing. To make sure I inquired of Buckshot. + +"What is it?" + +Buckshot listened a moment. + +"Deer," said he decisively; then, not because he doubted his own +judgment, but from habitual deference, he turned to where Tawabinisáy +was frying things. + +"Qwaw?" he inquired. + +Tawabinisáy never even looked up. + +"Adjí-domo" (squirrel), said he. + +We looked at each other incredulously. It sounded like a deer. It did +not sound in the least like a squirrel. An experienced Indian had +pronounced it a deer. Nevertheless it was a squirrel. + +We approached Kawágama by way of a gradual slope clothed with a +beautiful beech and maple forest whose trees were the tallest of those +species I have ever seen. Ten minutes brought us to the shore. There +was no abrupt bursting in on Kawágama through screens of leaves; we +entered leisurely to her presence by way of an ante-chamber whose +spaciousness permitted no vulgar surprises. After a time we launched +our canoe from a natural dock afforded by a cedar root, and so stood +ready to cross to our permanent camp. But first we drew our knives and +erased from a giant birch the half-grown-over name of the banker +Clement. + +There seems to me little use in telling you that Kawágama is about four +miles long by a mile wide, is shaped like a crescent, and lies in a +valley surrounded by high hills; nor that its water is so transparent +that the bottom is visible until it fades into the sheer blackness of +depth; nor that it is alive with trout; nor that its silence is the +silence of a vast solitude, so that always, even at daybreak or at high +midday, it seems to be late afternoon. That would convey little to you. +I will inform you quite simply that Kawágama is a very beautiful +specimen of the wilderness lake; that it is as the Lord made it; and +that we had a good time. + +Did you ever fish with the fly from a birch-bark canoe on absolutely +still water? You do not seem to move. But far below you, gliding, +silent, ghostlike, the bottom slips beneath. Like a weather-vane in an +imperceptible current of air, your bow turns to right or left in +apparent obedience to the mere will of your companion. And the flies +drop softly like down. Then the silence becomes sacred. You whisper-- +although there is no reason for your whispering; you move cautiously, +lest your reel scrape the gunwale. An inadvertent click of the paddle +is a profanation. The only creatures in all God's world possessing the +right to utter aloud a single syllable are the loon, far away, and the +winter wren, near at hand. Even the trout fight grimly, without noise, +their white bodies flashing far down in the dimness. + +Hour after hour we stole here and there like conspirators. Where showed +the circles of a fish's rise, thither crept we to drop a fly on their +centre as in the bull's-eye of a target. The trout seemed to linger +near their latest capture, so often we would catch one exactly where we +had seen him break water some little time before. In this was the charm +of the still hunt. Shoal water, deep water, it seemed all the same to +our fortunes. The lake was full of fish, and beautiful fish they were, +with deep, glowing bronze bellies, and all of from a pound to a pound +and a half in weight. The lake had not been fished. Probably somewhere +in those black depths over one of the bubbling spring-holes that must +feed so cold and clear a body of water, are big fellows lying, and +probably the crafty minnow or spoon might lure them out. But we were +satisfied with our game. + +At other times we paddled here and there in exploration of coves, +inlets, and a tiny little brook that flowed westward from a reed marsh +to join another river running parallel to our own. + +The Indians had erected a huge lean-to of birch bark, from the ribs of +which hung clothes and the little bags of food. The cooking-fire was +made in front of it between two giant birch trees. At evening the light +and heat reflected strongly beneath the shelter, leaving the forest in +impenetrable darkness. To the very edge of mystery crowded the strange +woods noises, the eerie influences of the night, like wolves afraid of +the blaze. We felt them hovering, vague, huge, dreadful, just outside +the circle of safety our fire had traced about us. The cheerful flames +were dancing familiars who cherished for us the home feeling in the +middle of a wilderness. + +Two days we lingered, then took the back track. A little after noon we +arrived at the camp, empty save for Johnnie Challán. Towards dark the +fishermen straggled in. Time had been paid them in familiar coinage. +They had demanded only accustomed toll of the days, but we had returned +laden with strange and glittering memories. + + + + +XIX. + +APOLOGIA. + + +The time at last arrived for departure. + +Deep laden were the canoes; heavy laden were we. The Indians shot away +down the current. We followed for the last time the dim blazed trail, +forded for the last time the shallows of the river. At the Burned Rock +Pool we caught our lunch fish from the ranks of leviathans. Then the +trodden way of the Fur Trail, worn into a groove so deep and a surface +so smooth that vegetation has left it as bare as ever, though the Post +has been abandoned these many years. At last the scrub spruce, and the +sandy soil, and the blue, restless waters of the Great Lake. With the +appearance of the fish-tug early the following day the summer ended. + +How often have I ruminated in the long marches the problem of the +Forest! Subtle she is, and mysterious, and gifted with a charm that +lures. Vast she is, and dreadful, so that man bows before her fiercer +moods, a little thing. Gentle she is, and kindly, so that she denies +nothing, whether of the material or spiritual, to those of her chosen +who will seek. August she is, and yet of a homely, sprightly +gentleness. Variable she is in her many moods. Night, day, sun, cloud, +rain, snow, wind, lend to her their best of warmth and cold, of comfort +and awe, of peace and of many shoutings, and she accepts them, but yet +remains greater and more enduring than they. In her is all the +sweetness of little things. Murmurs of water and of breeze, faint +odours, wandering streams of tepid air, stray bird-songs in fragment as +when a door is opened and closed, the softness of moss, the coolness of +shade, the glimpse of occult affairs in the woods life, accompany her +as Titania her court. How to express these things; how to fix on paper +in a record, as one would describe the Capitol at Washington, what the +Forest is--that is what I have asked myself often, and that is what I +have never yet found out. + +This is the wisdom reflection has taught. One cannot imprison the ocean +in a vial of sea-water; one cannot imprison the Forest inside the +covers of a book. + +There remains the second best. I have thought that perhaps if I were to +attempt a series of detached impressions, without relation, without +sequence; if I were to suggest a little here the beauty of a moon-beam, +there the humour of a rainstorm, at the last you might, by dint of +imagination and sympathy, get some slight feeling of what the great +woods are. It is the method of the painter. Perhaps it may suffice. + +For this reason let no old camper look upon this volume as a treatise +on woodcraft. Woodcraft there is in it, just as there is woodcraft in +the Forest itself, but much of the simplest and most obvious does not +appear. The painter would not depict every twig, as would the +naturalist. + +Equally it cannot be considered a book of travel nor of description. +The story is not consecutive; the adventures not exciting; the +landscape not denned. Perhaps it may be permitted to call it a book of +suggestion. Often on the street we have had opened to us by the merest +sketches of incident limitless vistas of memory. A momentary pose of +the head of a passer-by, a chance word, the breath of a faint +perfume--these bring back to us the entirety of forgotten scenes. Some +of these essays may perform a like office for you. I cannot hope to +give you the Forest. But perhaps a word or a sentence, an incident, an +impression, may quicken your imagination, so that through no conscious +direction of my own the wonder of the Forest may fill you, as the mere +sight of a conch-shell will sometimes till you with the wonder of the +sea. + + + + +SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT. + + +In reply to inquiries as to necessary outfit for camping and +woods-travelling, the author furnishes the following lists:-- + +1. _Provisions per man, one week._ + +7 lbs. flour; 5 lbs. pork; 1-5 lb. tea; 2 lbs. beans; 1 1-2 lbs. sugar; +1 1-2 lbs. rice; 1 1-2 lbs. prunes and raisins; 1-1-2 lb. lard; 1 lb. +oatmeal; baking-powder; matches; soap; pepper; salt; 1-3 lb. +tobacco--(weight, a little over 20 lbs.). This will last much longer if +you get game and fish. + +2. _Pack one, or absolute necessities for hard trip._ + +_Wear_ hat; suit woollen underwear; shirt; trousers; socks; silk +handkerchief; cotton handkerchief; moccasins. + +_Carry_ sweater (3 lbs.); extra drawers (1 1-2 lbs.); 2 extra +pairs socks; gloves (buckskin); towel; 2 extra pairs moccasins; +surgeon's plaster; laxative; pistol and cartridges; fishing-tackle; +blanket (7 1-2 lbs.); rubber blanket (1 lb.); tent (8 lbs.); small axe +(2 1-2 lbs.); knife; mosquito-dope; compass; match-box; tooth-brush; +comb; small whetstone--(weight, about 25 lbs.); 2 tin or aluminium +pails; 1 frying-pan; 1 cup; 1 knife, fork, and spoon--(weight, 4 lbs. +if of aluminium). + +Whole pack under 50 lbs. In case of two or more people, each pack would +be lighter, as tent, tinware, etc., would do for both. + +3. _Pack two--for luxuries and easy trips--extra to pack one._ + +More fishing-tackle; camera; 1 more pair socks; 1 more suit +underclothes; extra sweater; wading-shoes of canvas; large axe; +mosquito net; mending materials; kettle; candles; more cooking-utensils; +extra shirt; whisky. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest, by Stewart Edward White + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST *** + +This file should be named 8tfrs10.txt or 8tfrs10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8tfrs11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8tfrs10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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