Canoeing in Swift Water 



(Continued] 



III. WHAT TO DO WHEN THE WIND 

 CATCHES YOU ON LAKES, AND HOW TO 

 RUN THE SURF 



NO guide or sportsman likes to be confronted by a 

 head wind and a rough lake, combined with the 

 necessity for getting across to a comfortable 

 camp, or perhaps keeping an appointment with a team 

 at a certain landing. I well remember Old Joe Patter- 

 son's answer some years ago when we were thus embar- 

 rassed. He was guide for me on a moose-hunt in the 

 Rossignol district in Nova Scotia. We had captured 

 our moose and were paddling toward camp. Eight 

 miles of lake lay ahead of us. 



As we turned Sam's Point we struck a heavy sea and 

 a half-gale of north-west wind. The lake was a seething 

 mass of white water. We landed in the lee of the point 

 and surveyed the prospect. It looked bad. 



I said: " Joe, what do you do in a case like this ?" 



" We don't," was his laconic reply. 



Generally speaking, under such conditions, the way to 

 get across is just as Joe said " Don't !" 



However, after waiting on the point awhile I began 

 to get restive, and decided to try it. I had a sixteen- 

 foot basswood canoe, which was not a regular hunting 

 model built for pleasure rather than work but a fine 

 acting boat in a seaway. She had open gunwales with 

 a rail outside like a chafing batten, one and a half inches 



164 



