FOREST FIRES 113 



After picking our way through this labyrinth of logs 

 we entered the mouth of the stream leading down from 

 " Our Lake," a distance of three miles. We found the 

 stream so very dry that there was not water enough in 

 it to float an empty canoe. This meant, of course, that 

 all the stuff had to be " packed" up to the dam at the 

 foot of the lake, and the canoes as well. 



A canoe having been carried up some days previously 

 and hidden, my companion and I carried as much stuff 

 as we could stagger under up to the dam, and then we 

 walked through a dense swamp, following a thorough- 

 fare until the lake was reached, and, finding the canoe, 

 we paddled down to the dam. As soon as the men ar- 

 rived with their first load we put what stuff we could 

 store in our canoe, and we two paddled off to the 

 camp. 



Oh, how delightfully familiar all the scenery looked 

 as we entered that lovely sheet of water, " Our Lake." 

 There were the big lookout rock, the two coves with 

 sandy shores, which in their time have furnished a feed- 

 ing ground and a playground to countless deer and 

 moose, without counting foxes, minks, ducks, cranes, 

 loons, wild geese and muskrats ; the familiar lily-pads 

 floating on top of the water; old Katahdin Maine's 

 highest mountain towering up eighteen miles away to 

 the eastward ; the Sourdehunk Mountains to the north- 

 east ; and the two great hardwood ridges covered with 

 maple and beech, moosewood and chestnut trees, now 



