A LONG CARRYING-PLACE. 393 



strike straight off along a mountain side, seemed a most 

 extraordinary and somewhat venturesome undertaking. 

 None of the guides but Charlie had ever been over this 

 route, and I could not but think if we had sent him 

 back, as we at one time contemplated, I should hardly 

 have ventured to take it. He, however, knew it well, 

 and so we pushed on. The three guides turned their 

 boats over their heads and struck boldly, into the woods, 

 while we loaded ourselves down with rifles, paddles, 

 carpet-bags, blankets, and tinware, and trudged after. 

 Charlie estimated it to be three miles to the nearest 

 pond, but he must have measured the distance with long 

 paces, for it seemed to me full ten miles. At all events 

 it took us almost the entire long summer day to traverse 

 it.* It is true, we had to go it twice over, for we could 

 not carry all our traps in one journey. Leaving the 

 first load in the woods, when well tired out, we would 

 go back for the rest. It was the hardest day's tramp I 

 ever experienced. Many a time my eyes would search 

 earnestly for the carpet-bags which we had left standing 



* I have found since, in French's great map of the State of New 

 York, by far the best that has ever been published, that the dis- 

 tance by his scale is full six miles, and I am inclined to think that 

 his measurement is much nearer right than Charlie's guess-work. 



17* 



