With Gun e-^ Rod in Canada 



We made the Hopper for lunch. It clouded up, so 

 we hurried to get on our way. Quite a breeze had sprung 

 up from the north-east, and this meant a head wind on 

 the big lake. By the time we had left the protection 

 of the islands and were skirting the east shore of Lake 

 Rossignol, we were bucking a heavy sea with wind and 

 rain. With Joe rowing, me paddling, and Walter 

 cheering us on, we made fair headway. There was a 

 narrow channel running behind Bear Island, and we 

 succeeded in making this and getting a little shelter from 

 the wind and sea. From the north-eastern end of Bear 

 Island to Lowe's Lake was a two-mile pull, and we had a 

 pretty tough time. Without a very seaworthy boat and 

 an unusual oarsman we could not have attempted it. 

 Safely in the shelter of the land at the mouth of Lowe's 

 Lake we paused for breath. It was here that we met 

 Joe's brother just starting off on a moose-hunt in his 

 boat. Am.ong other supplies he carried a gallon jug 

 of forty-over-proof rum. If ever wet, tired men needed 

 a drink it was right at that moment. " Rich " tendered 

 the jug, and we in turn tendered our grateful and heart- 

 felt thanks. 



From the entrance to Lowe's Lake to the landing was 

 only a mile, and we made it in jig-time. Joe cut some 

 dry pitch pine out of an old stump and built a roaring 

 fire. It was still raining. We pitched the tent, and 

 then Joe did something I had, up to that time, never seen 

 done before. He built a smudge right in the tent and 

 closed the flaps. In twenty minutes the ground beneath 

 the tent was bone dry. He then raked out the smudge 

 and spread the tanned horse-hide which he used for a 

 ground cloth, hair up. This made us quite comfortable. 



While Walter and I were changing our wet clothes 

 in the heat of the roaring fire, built within six feet of the 

 front of the tent, Joe was packing the trout. As near as 



28 



