VOYAGE UP THE TOBIQUE. 75 



paddle me up the Tobique river with all speed, as far as 

 the Red Rapids. 



The Tobique and the Restook, or Aroostook, are both 

 large feeders of the St John, descending to it, as I have 

 already mentioned, from opposite directions. The former 

 comes from the north-east, and is derived from four main 

 sources, which unite into one stream about eighty miles 

 above its confluence with the St John. The interior 

 country through which it flows is still unsettled, with a few 

 scattered exceptions, and inaccessible for want of roads. 

 At the time of my visit the waters were low, and the 

 river full of shallows and rapids, which made the ascent 

 fatiguing, and condemned my boatman to the use of his 

 pole for the most part, instead of his paddle. He pushed 

 me willingly along, however, and the mist gradually 

 cleared away as we ascended. After a couple of miles' 

 polling, we came to the narrows of the Tobique, where 

 the river is hemmed in by high rocks, and runs deep and 

 swift through a chasm nearly a mile in length. There 

 was to. me a new interest in feeling myself heading in so 

 frail a canoe these now sullen waters, and now swift and 

 tumbling rapids, and warily avoiding the projecting rocks 

 and rocky islets. Like the salmon underneath, the canoe 

 seemed to pick out for itself, as if by instinct, those places 

 in the rapids which were the easiest and safest to ascend. 

 It was beautiful to see with what skill and strength of 

 arm it was propelled, equally through the strong silent 

 streams and the troubled and noisy currents. 



When we emerged from the narrows, and had over- 

 come the rapids above them, the river opened out, and 

 presently the sun threw some of his rays slantways 

 through the mist along the trees on the right bank of 

 the river. Seen through a veil of unilluminated mist, the 

 mixed pines and birch and maple thus hghted up, on the 

 edge of the expanding sheet of water which lay between 

 us, gave the scene, as we emerged from the gloom of the 



