XXVI 

 A BIRCH-BARK CANOE TRIP 



ON the morning of August 20, a morning that broke brightly 

 over the Nepisiquit Bay after two days of mist and rain, 

 I found myself bidding good-bye to our well-fed host at the Wilbur 

 Hotel, Bathurst, New Brunswick. Seated on an express wagon 

 piled up with boxes and bags, and bristling with guns and rods, 

 with two Indians perched on precarious eminences of the motley 

 pile, we waved our farewells. A pair of weedy colts, better up to 

 their work than their appearance promised, bowled us swiftly 

 over the rough road, past farms and bits of uncleared forest, a 

 distance of some nine miles, to the Papineau Falls, on the Nepisiquit 

 River, above which our canoe White Heather, awaited us. 



The falls presented a very fine spectacle, the river pouring 

 itself over a ledge of granite, and where it has receded leaving 

 curious traces of water sculpture, such as circular basins in the 

 solid rock with the round stones still remaining, the gyrations of 

 which had scooped the ' pot-holes ', so called. Here we left our 

 wagon, which was to proceed along the rough lumber track on 

 the river's eastern bank, to join us some sixteen miles above, at 

 the Grand Falls, and this, therefore, will virtually be the starting 

 point of the expedition. 



The muscular arms of my two Indians, Joe and Peter, swiftly 

 forced the light canoe against the rapid current, and having a 

 permit to fish as I moved along, I willingly rested them at the 

 principal salmon pools. 



The first notable pool is Gordon Meadow Brook, named in 

 honour of a former Governor of New Brunswick, famed for his 

 sporting proclivities. Here the river is wide and shallow, but 

 the mouth of a tributary stream invariably has a great fascination 

 for the Salmonidae, and this proves no exception. 



A beautiful pool just beyond, where some immense masses of 

 rocks overlook a lake-like expanse of the river, is noted as the 

 place where a gentleman of St. John encamped with his whole 

 family, after being burned out of house and home by the great, 

 fire. As we passed a brood of young shield ducks were driving 

 and disporting in a very lively fashion. 



