204 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



short of venison, we decided to lie by awhile, and 

 float down the river on our \^'ay to camp, in hope 

 of meeting a deer. To this end we had gone 

 ashore at this point, and, kindling a small fire, 

 were waiting for denser darkness. We had barely 

 started the blaze, \A'hen the tap of a carelessly 

 handled paddle against the side of a boat warned 

 us that we should soon have company, and in a 

 moment two boats glided around the curve below, 

 and w^ere headed directly toward our bivouac. The 

 boats contained two gentlemen and their guides. 

 We gave them a cordial, hunter-like greeting, and, 

 lighting our pipes, Avere soon engaged in cheerful 

 conversation, spiced wdth story-telling. It might 

 have been some twenty minutes or more, when 

 another boat, smaller than you ordinarily see even 

 on those waters, containing only the paddler, came 

 noiselessly around the bend below, and stood re- 

 vealed in the reflection of the firelight. I chanced 

 to be sitting in such a position as to command a 

 full view of the curve in the river, or I should not 

 have known of any approach, for the boat was so 

 sharp and light, and he who urged it along so 

 skiUed at the paddle, that not a ripple, no, nor the 

 sound of a drop of water falling from blade or shaft, 

 betrayed the paddler's presence. If there is any- 

 thin"- over which I become enthusiastic, it is such 

 a boat and such paddling. To see a boat of bark or 

 eedar move through the water noiselessly as a cloud 



