LAKE SUPERIOR. 91 



Our sail was hastily lowered, and the vessels being 

 laid alongside of one another, we held an interest- 

 ing conversation with our fellow-travellers. It ap- 

 peared they had ascended the Neepigon, and gave 

 glowing accounts of the number of fish, but not 

 much of the character of the fishing ; saying that 

 the trout, which were large on the average, were 

 collected in pools as we had found them hi the 

 Batchawaung, and were so numerous as to ruin 

 the sport. They had had a long journey, and were 

 out of whiskey, a deprivation that we hastened to 

 supply ; and were glad to see civilized beings, and to 

 feel that they were once more on the confines of the 

 land of the white man. 



With mutual good wishes we bid them farewell, 

 and watched their barge after we separated growing 

 smaller and smaller in the distance, till it was lost 

 to view. How suggestive are such meetings of 

 individuals who have never encountered one another 

 before, who form an acquaintance as it were in the 

 wilderness, shut out from the rest of mankind, and, 

 separated, never to meet in the wide world again ; 

 like a ray of sunshine through a storm-cloud, shining 

 for an instant across the surrounding darkness, gone 

 in a moment, and never to be re-illumined, leaving 

 nothing behind but a pleasant memory ! Not one 

 of the persons hi either boat will ever forget that 

 meeting, and nevertheless no conceivable circum- 

 stances can bring them together again on the bound- 

 less waters of Lake Superior. 



We reached the Agawa that night. The stream 



