246 A BIRCH-BARK CANOE TRIP 



horses, going to their winter's exile in the grim forests in a very 

 jolly frame of mind, keeping up their spirits with lively songs and 

 breakdowns. 



In another hour we had our canoe drawn ashore at Metapedia 

 and our journey was for the present at an end, for here was the 

 railway station, and we were soon on board the train for Bathurst, 

 whence we had started exactly four weeks previously. 



I am sorry to have to record that Joe took the first opportunity 

 of getting gloriously drunk on that ' drink of heroes ' as Dr. 

 Johnson styles brandy and showed he could be as heroic in his 

 potations as in his hunting feats. 



Full many a glorious morning had I seen 

 Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, 

 Kissing with golden face the forests green, 

 Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy. 



After such a trip there will survive lifelong memories of melan- 

 choly plains burnt to a sober russet colour by the summer suns ; 

 of hissing rapids and thundering plunges of confused waters ; 

 of the tranquil beauty of placid lakes over which ospreys circle, 

 where on calm evenings trout leap incessantly, while beaver and 

 wild-duck break the glassy surface into ripples ; of meadows where 

 the huge moose, like a brown shadow thrown from a magic-lantern, 

 steals with astonishing noiselessness across the scene, suddenly 

 vanishing like the baseless fabric of a vision ; of mountains where 

 the rich repast of wild whortleberries attracts stealthy bears, that 

 batten undisturbed, except on some rare occasion when the fatal 

 lead speeds to finish their last feast ; of caribou like gigantic 

 goats rapidly treading the rocky ways of desolate bluffs ; of red 

 deer stealing down to the riverside, half hidden by wild grasses, 

 to drink as the evening shadows lengthen ; and, perhaps beyond 

 all other scenes in impressiveness, that wonderful transformation 

 of the forest when a blaze of scarlet and golden splendour bursts 

 over the foliage just previous to the fall of the leaf. 



