53Q 



Sea -Trout Fishing. 



opens, cutting off the bends, and bearing straight over a mountain 

 and through dense woods to the lake by a rough course of three 

 miles. Sunday, a leisure-day, is usually chosen for this march, and 



most of the hours of it are required 

 to make the carry and settle the new 

 camp. At one trip, the men carry 

 over tents and a week's provision, 

 returning to bring the canoes on a 

 second. Sixty or seventy pounds for 

 each makes up a load, and 

 d _, with this settled com- 



TljS'J pactly on the shoul- 



ders, and steadied 

 by a broad strap 

 passing over the 

 forehead, so as to 

 leave the arms quite free, 

 they climb the steep hill- 

 crest, often cutting steps 

 in the wet clay, and press making a portage. 



through the woods at a quick gait, making the distance within two 

 hours. Portaging the canoes is much more difficult and delicate work. 

 They are turned over, hoisted on the head, and carried poised with 

 the two hands at the edges, a little forward of the middle, giving the 

 bearer at a distance among the trees the look of an ungainly two- 

 legged elephant. For a time, axe and knife must be depended on 

 for tools, sapin for beds, and birch-bark for furniture. As we go on, 

 the thicket grows denser and the solitude deepens. Very little animal 

 life disturbs it. A few squirrels, and a partridge with her brood will 

 chirp and flutter ; at the lake, we shall see swooping fish-hawks and 

 hear the kingfisher's metallic cry. Occasionally, in these woods, as on 



