ALONE UP MT. KATAHDIN 263 



snatching the camera, tried to draw the dark slide 

 from the plate-holder, but by that time my visitor 

 had forded the narrow neck of water and dis- 

 appeared among the trees on the opposite bank. 

 My opportunity had vanished, and as I stood there 

 I wondered why I had not taken the camera with 

 me. It was the first time I had neglected to do so, 

 and it was also the last, but no other moose ever 

 visited my camp. 



The next day I moved camp to Passamagamet 

 carry, where I determined to learn the rudiments 

 of poling a canoe through the rapids. I had been 

 informed that there would be many rapids to pass 

 before Katahdin brook could be reached, so landing 

 all my effects, including my watch, and ballasting 

 the canoe with stones, I started, after having care- 

 fully watched a guide who kindly gave me sugges- 

 tions and went through a part of the rapids in order 

 to show me how it was done. 



Never shall I forget those first few moments of 

 torture ; the rocks loomed up larger and larger arid 

 ever increasing in numbers, while the water boiled 

 and raced by as though eager to leave such 

 unpleasant neighbours. " Gnashing rocks, with 

 cruel foam upon their lips, sprang out of the 

 obscure, eager to tear us. Great jaws of ugly 

 blackness snapped about us as if we were intro- 

 duced into a coterie of crocodiles," wrote Winthrop 

 on his first experience of rapids. He was with 

 guides, and I doubt not had he been alone his 

 description might even have been stronger. As 

 an eddying current caught the bow of the canoe, 

 it would spin round, in danger of being dashed to 

 pieces if the pole were not quickly dropped between 



