246 CANADIAN WILDS. 



When we got fairly settled in Comeau's den, 

 the conversation naturally drifted into hunting 

 and fishing. Bob made some inquiries about 

 the pools on the Trinity. To make his explana- 

 tions clear, Comeau pulled out a drawer of pho- 

 tographic views of the river. In rummaging 

 these over, he cast aside a gold medal. "Excuse 

 me," I said, reaching over and taking up the 

 medal. On it I read engraved : 



"PRESENTED TO N. A. COMEAU BY THE E. H. S. 

 FOR BRAVERY IN SAVING LIFE. 



Upon my asking him to recount the circum- 

 stances, he blushed and looked quite confused, 

 and said : "Oh ! it was nothing worth speaking 

 of, but I suppose people talked so much about 

 it that they gave me that token. It was noth- 

 ing more than any man would have done," and 

 this was all we could get from him unless we 

 had carried persistency to an ungentlemanly de- 

 gree. 



After having spent a very pleasant hour, we 

 returned on board, and the Captain told us the 

 story that the hero himself would not : 



Two years before, one day in January Co- 

 meau arrived home from the back country to 

 find that two men had that day while seal hunt- 

 ing off shore been driven off the coast toward 

 the ice pack in the gulf. One of the men was 



