OLD MURRAY BAY 



happy recollection, as the beach-fire assem- 

 blies of old and young. 



For seventy miles the Murray is canoe- 

 able, but only by a practised hand. I bor- 

 row from an old page : — 



'We broke camp early. Half past four 

 o'clock saw everybody yawning and shiver- 

 ing in the cold river-mist. By five thirty 

 breakfast was over and the charettes were 

 lumbering off through the woods, leaving 

 only two eighteen-foot birch barks, gum 

 with a frying-pan to melt it, and a day's 

 rations, for we are to cover the fifty miles 

 of water to the St. Lawrence before set of 

 sun. 



I 'Nicolas pilots the leading canoe; 



i Michel, of equal skill but past the prime 



of his strength, follows. Little paddling 



I will be needed, so the parson and I travel 



I en monsieur, subject to the word of com- 



' mand in a pinch. The first five miles are 



run easily and swiftly without use of pole, 



then the character of the river changes as 



the hills draw in and the gradient steep- 



;ens. Boulders are strewn thick, there is 



I no free channel: the canoe must be eased 



land held, worked across stream' to drop 



past rock? that would tear the bottom out 



of her, fetched back to the course, hum- 



47 



