120 NEW BRUNSWICK. 
twelve dollars, and taving neither braces nor thwarts, 
"but an open space its entire length, is convenient for 
holding a long rod, and being steadier under foot, offers 
many advantages over the birch canoe. It is particularly 
excellent in descending a shallow river, where occasional 
contact with rocks is inevitable ; but is too heavy to 
portage comfortably. For rapid travel, either up or down 
stream, it is invaluable. 
Our baggage was stowed, a comfortable seat made 
with the end of the tent upon the bottom of the canoe, 
our rods were rigged out for an occasional cast, and we 
commenced the ascent of the " Smiling Water." There 
had been heavy and continuous rains, and quite a freshet 
had now changed its ordinary placid exterior into one of 
angry turbulence. The river poured down fierce and 
wild, crested with foam and discolored with sand and 
decayed matter. But we made swift ]3rogress ; starting 
&VQ miles above Boiestown, we soon passed the last 
■eettlement, and entering among the mountains, amid 
which flows the upper stream, trusted ourselves alone 
to the dangers of the wilderness, to the mercy of the 
black-flies for our comfort, and to our skill as sportsmen 
for our support. 
Ten months of close confinement in the city, years 
amid the horrors of civilization, had well prepared us 
to appreciate a return to man's natural state of savage 
life ; long contact with vice and folly had made us eager 
to taste once more of truth and purity, the communion 
with nature uncorrupted and unsullied ; to feel the air 
blow through the waving trees instead of down narrow 
streets ; to hear the water rippling over its native bed, 
