58 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



something of the fauna of the country, I in- 

 quired whether the porcupine was found near 

 Ingonish. Gillies assented promptly. I then 

 asked how much one weighed when full grown. 

 This staggered him, but after a pause he said, 

 " Which kind of pine was you speaking of, 

 sorr?" 



Mr. Gillies's horse was not endearing in his 

 qualities. In the first place, he was named 

 "Frank," a circumstance I mentally resented; 

 but what was more to the point, he had an evi- 

 dent desire to spill us over the steepest bank 

 he could find. When we were passing a most 

 dangerous unfenced slide on Smoky, where a 

 misstep meant a plunge hundreds of feet down 

 into a rocky ravine, Gillies regaled us with a 

 story of Frank's overturning the Gillies family 

 on a river bank, " breaking the sleigh to pieces 

 all right," and then bolting for home. As 

 Frank and his wagon constituted the only con- 

 veyance within twenty miles that could carry 

 three persons, it was not alone love of life which 

 made me watch the beast with unceasing soli- 

 citude. Thanks to vigilance and the whip, he 

 carried us down Smoky, past Big Rory's, Sandy 

 McDonald's, and so on to the valley of Indian 

 Brook, where we planned to " stay the night " 

 at Angus McDonald's. Standing on the bridge 

 above Indian Brook, we saw the best fisherman 



