230 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



' ' The little landscape round 

 Was green and woody, and refreshed the eye ; 

 It was a spot which you might aptly call 

 The Valley of Seclusion. " 



Bright and beautiful was the weather, and the two birds 

 which charm the mornings of that wilderness wild were pip- 

 ing their mellifluous notes, while the only responses heard 

 were the snores of our guides in a one-sided bark shanty, 

 where they lay on fir-boughs, toasting their feet before a 

 smudge fire. As it appeared to be about seven o'clock, I was 

 surprised to see not a soul moving. I walked a few rods to 

 the river, where I watched admiringly the salmon's leap, but 

 looked in vain for a seal. After having been up nearly an 

 hour, and perceiving that friends and guides were still asleep, 

 I concluded to call up the gaffers and cuisinier, or cook. As 

 our cook was perfectly innocent of any language but a Ka- 

 nuck patois, by which tongue potatoes or pommes de terre 

 are known as potack, of course I found it difficult to make 

 him understand either English or French, and that is an un- 

 pardonable fault in a cook. 



Well, as they lay snoring, and not one awake, I thought I 

 would see what time it was before arousing them ; and on 

 consulting my watch, I learned that it was precisely half past 

 three o'clock ! Well, said I, sotto voce, this is a strange coun- 

 try, and, lest I should disturb my lodging comrades, I re- 

 clined outside the tent, and tried to take another nap ; but 

 the black flies had also awoke, and began paying their dis- 

 tresses to me, much to the sacrifice of an amount of beauty 

 too scant to lose any without an exposure of its want. I re- 

 monstrated at the presentation of bills at such an unseason- 

 able hour, but they only shouted the louder, and called to- 

 gether so great a number as to oblige me to decamp. I 

 therefore resorted to Rattling Run to take a bath. While 

 bathing it was all very well, but between undressing and 

 dressing they took me at a disadvantage, and by both mus- 

 quitoes and black flies I was decidedly worsted. On my re- 



