96 Reminiscences of 



town we had lunch prepared for us, and with three two- 

 horse pungs took the last road through the woods to the 

 lake, twelve miles, which we did in record time. From 

 the last town we had at our backs a powerful southerly 

 gale, and when we arrived at the lake it was blowing 

 great guns. Here were our two guides and camp 

 keeper and two boats, with the lake end frozen over 

 solid as far as we could well see not far, owing to the 

 curvation of the land, and we were told that the ice 

 stopped a mile and a half distant, and then came open 

 water for a mile, and then ice, and so on alternately to 

 camp, ten miles distant. It was great fun, and a re- 

 markable trip we made with the gale driving us on; 

 we could hardly stand against the wind. 



The Governor and I put on skates and went off 

 flying, for there was no snow to obstruct. Our guides 

 had thoughtfully brought down four sleds to put the 

 boats on to haul them on the ice, and as they saw the 

 gale was strong enough to carry the boats along on 

 the sleds, had blocked up the boats on them and pro- 

 vided themselves with short, stout poles, with heavy, 

 sticking-out nails in the ends to steer by. Very in- 

 genious are these Maine guides. After loading up, they 

 let go with the wind, somewhat irregularly at first, but 

 in fine form after a while, and the boats sledded over 

 the ice about as fast as the Governor and I could go on 

 skates. The great bother was to stop before the open 

 water, but it was managed. Then we all loaded into 

 the boats and pulled across the open, to take the ice 

 again, and so on, shifting half a dozen times, and arriv- 

 ing at camp somewhat in the dark. The camp was lit 

 up as a beacon of glorious expectation, and glad we were 



