322 TRAVELLING BY WATER. 



had to be straddled, trees avoided, and brushwood 

 traversed; still we toiled, and in the end reaped 

 our reward. 



The cascade which I inspected was neither as 

 perpendicular as Montmorency, nor so protracted as 

 Chaudier, still quite sufficient to have made frag- 

 ments of our craft and sent us by express to the 

 happy hunting-grounds. 



Like the fiery colt which from rest and abundant 

 food rushes with headlong, uncontrolled speed till 

 exhausted, when he settles down to be a well- 

 behaved nag, so Moose river, after coursing so 

 frantically for miles and precipitating itself over 

 an abyss of thirty feet, flowed peacefully on as if 

 incapable of a continuance of such violent exercise, 

 or as if rejoicing in the reaction. 



Thankful again to enjoy the ease of travelling 

 by water, for hours we glided slowly along, more 

 disposed for rest than conversation. The country 

 became more level and more wooded, while the 

 river expanded in width. During the day several 

 minx were seen and constant evidences of the 

 vicinity of beavers. With these exceptions and the 

 monotonous tapping of woodpeckers, animal life did 

 not appear to exist. 



When the declining sun was nearly touching the 

 tree -tops, we entered the mouth of a tributary 

 about sixty feet wide ; a hundred yards above its 

 embouchure was a beautiful waterfall, just too high 

 for salmon to pass over. The basin in which the 



