CHAI- v. A WATERFALL. (j9 



and Louis' opinions on the subject were not to be relied 

 on. We learned more about the caribou and their habits 

 a few weeks later. Had we known them before, we 

 should not have taken the appearance of a few fresh 

 tracks as strongly presumptive of the presence of numbers 

 of these animals higher up the country, although the 

 beautiful caribou moss was everywhere to be found in 

 abundance on the rocks and mountains around us. 



At four in the morning of the 17th we were in our 

 canoes. The night had been cold, the minimum ther- 

 mometer showing one degree of frost. The sky was 

 without a cloud, the air still, and the high rocks magni- 

 ficently grand. A loon, with its wild note, broke the 

 silence, as we rested for a moment to listen to the sound of 

 a waterfall, w r hose murmur at intervals reached our ears. 



' We shall see it at the next bend,' said Pierre ; ' it comes 

 from the top of yonder mountain. In winter it is all 

 ice above, growing thicker every day, and sometimes in- 

 creasing so much as to surround the near trees. Domenique 

 told me that one year he w r as coming down the river just 

 after it opened, and camped opposite the fall. In the 

 morning, as he was starting, the ice broke off near the 

 top, and fell into the valley quite close to him, bringing 

 with it many trees, which were frozen into it as it went 

 on growing bigger and bigger during the winter. You 

 will see the dead trees lying at the foot of the rock when 

 we come opposite to it. There it is.' 



As we turned round the bend of the river the waterfall 

 came into full view. It may have been 200 feet in alti- 

 tude, but the upper part was broken, and I thought I 

 could see it between the trees on the slope of the mountain 



