A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 151 



ease. In five days and a half they reached Lake Nictau, 

 a lake of very cold water, having a temperature of forty- 

 five degrees in summer, and which poured its clear 

 crystal waters directly into the Tobique River. Upon 

 their arrival they were well-nigh devoured by that 

 worst of all plagues, the fierce black fly. They built 

 smudge fires, covered their faces with a tarry, greasy 

 compound, but all to no purpose. They were forcibly 

 driven to a little rocky islet near the centre of the lake. 

 This isle was formed from a huge mass of rock which 

 in some distant age had slid from the side of Bald Top 

 Mountain, which rears its crown, a short distance 

 away, to an elevation of 2,240 feet. Four or five 

 spruce trees had obtained a lodgment on the island 

 rock, and some plebeian undergrowth encircled its 

 edges. There was room enough for four tents, a din- 

 ing table and a cache, for their provisions, and here was 

 the only place in the whole territory, excepting on the 

 top of Bald Mountain, where the troublesome black 

 flies were not present. 



In the early fall preceding the Sebattis migration 

 an old Penobscot Indian, who had known Joe as a boy, 

 made a visit to the Maliset settlement, spending three 

 weeks there, and he had become very intimate 

 with the family. Before the streams were frozen up, 

 Nicholas, for this was the name the Penobscot went 

 by, made the long, long journey by canoe from the 

 mouth of the Tobique to Mount Kineo on Moosehead 



