TO MT. SYLVESTER WITH THE MICMACS 263 



Having told Joe that I should not come in 1906, he had 

 therefore made other plans to go trapping with his brother 

 Nicholas. Nevertheless, he was good enough to delay his 

 trip for several days, to make sure that I could obtain the 

 services of one Steve Bernard, who alone knew part of the 

 Sylvester country, and another excellent Indian, John Hinx, 

 whose hunting-ground lay to the east in the neighbourhood 

 of the Eastern Maelpeg. These two men were to meet me 

 at the Long Harbor telegraph office on 3rd October. 



Another cogent reason for adopting this route into the 

 interior was that I wished to ascend and map the Long 

 Harbor River, the largest unknown stream in Newfoundland. 

 No white man had ever passed up its waters, so that it held 

 some fascination for me. Mr. Howley, of course, had been to 

 Mount Sylvester, but he had reached it through the Bay de 

 Nord River and its chain of large lakes, and he had not 

 had time to survey the waters or country to the east, or to 

 do more than roughly indicate the position of the Maelpeg, 

 with its sinuous bays and hundred islands. All the district 

 north of Long Harbor telegraph station was practically 

 unknown, except the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, 

 where a few Fortune Bay men go in annually for a short 

 distance to kill deer in the late fall. 



After two days spent in St. John's to collect provisions 

 and canoes from Mr. Blair, I took the train to Placentia, 

 where one finds the Glencoe ready to steam along the southern 

 coast. At the station I met the Premier, Sir Robert Bond, 

 who asked me to sit with him, and we had a chat for three 

 hours until we reached Whitburn, near which place he has a 

 comfortable home, to which he retires from the cares of office 

 every Saturday to Monday. 



Sir Robert Bond is much interested in birds and mammals, 



