CHAPTER VI. 



THE UPPER SARANAC SPECTACLE PONDS THE ACCUSATION AND 

 THE DEFENCE AN OCTOGENARIAN SMOKER. 



WE spent the next day in rowing about the Upper Sara- 

 nac, exploring its beautiful bays and islands. We took as 

 many trout in trolling occasionally, as we needed for dinner 

 and supper. It became an established law among us, that 

 we should kill no more game or fish than we needed for sup- 

 plies, whatever their abundance or our temptation might be. 

 It required some self-denial to observe this law, but we kept 

 it with tolerable strictness. There were times when we had 

 a large supply of both venison and fish, but there were seven 

 men of us in all, and we could despose of a good deal of 

 flesh and fish in the twenty-four hours. We had sent our 

 boat with the luggage across the Indian carrying place, a 

 path of a mile through the forest, to the Spectacle Ponds, 

 three little lakes, from which a stream, known as Stony 

 Brook, rises. This stream is navigable for small boats like 

 ours, five miles to the Rackett River. These lakes contain 



64 



