NEW BRUNSWICK. 141 



her for an instant firmly, with poles set squarely on the bot- 

 tom, they give way with simultaneous effort and send her a 

 full length forward. The two hundred mile yoyage has now 

 commenced. 



Poling up stream is as much like descending with the cur- 

 rent as dragging a sled up hill is like sliding down. Two 

 miles an hour is good average speed, and twenty miles a fair 

 day's journey. It is marvelous with what untiring energy 

 and pertinacious effort the Indians mount the long and 

 wearisome rapids. Never pausing, seldom speaking, pushing 

 steadily with simultaneous stroke, the monotonous click of 

 their iron-shod poles upon the bottom seems to mark the 

 time. Now they pick up inch by inch in the quickest cur- 

 rent, where to miss a stroke is to lose a rod, the stern-man 

 seconding with electric quickness each effort of the bow-man. 

 Anon they swing over to the other side, to take advantage 

 of an easier passage, meanwhile borne downward by the tide 

 and dancing like a feather. Here they run up on an eddy 

 to the face of a protruding boulder with the white foam dash- 

 ing by on either side, and, gathering up their strength, push 

 into the rushing tide and up the steep ascent. Sometimes 

 they climb actual falls, driving the prow inch by inch to the 

 base of the cascade, where, holding on an instant firmly to 

 gain a little purchase, they force the canoe by amazing dex- 

 terity up the pitch until it poises on the very curve at an 

 angle of forty-five. Here the stem-man holds hard, the 

 bow-man with the quickness of a flash gathers up his pole 

 and holds, the stern-man follows suit, and then both 

 together, by one desperate, vigorous shoot, force her into 

 smooth water. During this process the passenger clutches 

 the sides of the canoe like grim death, and when all is safely 

 over breathes a wonderful sigh of relief. But the first effort 

 of the canoe-men does not always succeed. Sometimes the 

 current forces the canoe back in spite of every resistance, 

 and then she drops down stream swiftly, though safely, stern 

 foremost, guided by the ever-ready expedients of the voya- 



