THE RESTIGOUCHE- -WITH NOTES ON ITS FLORA. 21 



five miles north-west of our camping ground at the mouth 

 of the Waagan. Its waters are clear and cold, from the 

 springs and lakes of the dense wilderness to the north, — 

 and some of these sources are probably within the pro- 

 vince of Quebec. Its flow is strong and swift, broken by 

 rapids on an average of every one hundred yards, but 

 nowhere impassable for a canoe. In its course of 110 

 miles, from the Waagan to Tide Head, above Campbell- 

 ton, there is a descent of from 400 to 600 feet. The 

 Restigouche flows through a narrow valley, growing 

 deeper as you descend the stream, flanked b}^ hills rising 

 very steep from the waters' edge, but scarcely ever 

 too steep not to admit of a luxuriant vegetation, 

 chiefly evergreen. In the loops formed by its winding 

 course there may be seen, at intervals, now a stretch of 

 meadow land, now beautiful terraces from thirty to seventy 

 feet above the river; but so suddenly does the stream 

 change its course and rush to the opposite side again, that 

 these meadows and terraces alternate from one side of the 

 river to the other in quick succession. These level spots 

 are clothed with the most luxuriant vegetation, whose 

 vivid green contrasts with the clear, flashing waters below 

 them and the dark evergreen of the hillsides beyond. 



Can you imagine greater pleasure than this — to sit 

 in a canoe, paddle in hand, and wind in and out at the 

 rate of five or six miles an hour amid scenes like these ? 

 And how we wished when our journey was ended that 

 we had gone more slowly ! Yet we only ran three or four 

 hours, on an average, each day. 



I agree with the author of "Little Rivers" when he 

 says : "A river is the most human and companionable of 

 all inanimate things. It has a life, a character, a voice of 

 its own, and is as full of good fellowship as a sugar maple 

 is of sap. * * # * rpj^g j^fg q£ ^ river, like that of 



