254: FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



knew how to manage bark canoes better than to speak any 

 language, their patois being a medley of French, Indian, and 

 English. But they were all trusty and industrious, as all 

 Canadian guides are. It is best that each angler have two 

 guides and one canoe ; for. though one man only is needed to 

 attend an angler for gaffing and rowing in the neighborhood 

 of the encampment, yet for long journeys up rapid rivers 

 two men are indispensable. Cabins for cooking and for lodg- 

 ing may also be soon erected, and they are preferable to port- 

 able tents. 



The River St. John winds like a serpent between the moun- 

 tains, and as the fall from our plateau to the mouth 27 miles 

 is more than 150 feet, the rapids are very swift; so that 

 many times in rounding a bend we surprised a family of seals 

 teaching their young to catch salmon, wild geese with their 

 goslings, ducks with their broods, and expected to see Bruin, 

 but didn't. 



The row down the river was most pleasurable. The thin 

 bark canoe responded to the lashings of the tide, and we felt 

 as the lobster-peddler said, " All alive ! all alive !" The doc- 

 tor, who had taken a front seat in the canoe, with his coat on 

 and broad-brimmed hat, had found the passage so jolly that 

 like Obadiah Oldbuck he had turned over a new leaf by 

 taking off both his hat and coat, and remarked, as we shot a 

 rapid, " Let her went !" 



The Indians were returning up the St. John to their homes 

 in the icy regions, having disposed of their furs at the Min- 

 gan fair, and laid in a winter supply of flour and salt. 



It was all vain to look kindly to these Esquimaux squaws, 

 who are really beautiful, with their olive complexions, raven 

 locks, and lustrous eyes. They are wedded to the forest. We 

 met some twenty odd Indian canoes ascending the river to 

 their homes, who knew enough of English to ask " Salmon 

 plenty ?" But very few would make so bold as to ask, " Has 

 you nothing good for me ?" Of course they do not suppose 

 it degrading to beg from civilized men, for they consider 



