324 TEE TRAPPER. 



The scenery on this part of the river was very wild and 

 beautiful. The banks were clothed with a thick-tangled 

 forest of cedar and spruce. In the narrows the foliage of 

 these trees formed a canopy over our heads. In the wider 

 stretches of the river, often dotted with pretty little 

 islands, on which the shell-drakes had their homes, we 

 could see, rising far over the tree tops, the rocky summits 

 of the Shick Shock mountains. The autumn tints were in 

 full beauty, the colouring of the forest was most gorgeous, 

 and the reflections on the water formed an endless and 

 ever- vary ing panorama. Occasionally, as a contrast to 

 these gay and sunlit scenes, we would pass through a 

 defile in which our stream, narrowing to a few feet in 

 uidth, would bound and foam through the rocks. In such 

 places the banks, rising almost perpendicularly to a 

 height of 500 or 600 feet, completely shut out the sun, 

 and presented a grand though rather gloomy effect. 

 Here our bark canoe seemed the merest cockleshell ; but 

 Andrew and his boy were practised voyageurs. Twenty 

 times I imagined that the difficulties in our way were 

 insurmountable, but each time the ready wit of the canoe- 

 men found a method to surmount them. Now they took 

 advantage of an eddy ; now by sheer strength and skill they 

 shoved the dancing canoe up a howling rapid ; now their 

 keen eyes discern real danger, and our canoe is "portaged " 

 round the obstacle. Although they have never been on 

 the river before, instinct invariably leads them to choose 

 the right course. 



Our eyes are delighted with beaver sign all along the 

 river. Freshly cut sticks floating down the stream, and 

 trees cut and felled along the banks denote that the 



