102 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



agony from Thomas and Olivier, as comparatively 

 seasoned inhabitants, broke the silence of the evening. 

 I knew, too, that they would be only too delighted to 

 hasten away from the dreadful spot at daybreak. An 

 enormous fire was kept burning all night. 



With clothes and veil more or less covered with tar 

 and lard ointment, I fell asleep, and heard, dreamily, 

 through the tent walls, such cries as " Ob ! Olivier, 

 c*est terrible* je n'ai pas dormi." The banks of the 

 Peribonca are, in detail, lovely, but from a distance 

 they present a sameness of appearance which is de- 

 cidedly unattractive. 



That same evening we reached the fishing ground, 

 called the Grand Discharge, which is the point where 

 the greater part of the Saguenay leaves Lake St. John 

 in a series of rapids, the home of nearly all the land- 

 locked salmon in the river. At any rate, they are rarely 

 caught elsewhere. The other portion leaves the lake 

 at Small Discharge, four miles to the west. 



We selected for our camp an island quite free from 

 winged terrors, lying in the very gateway, in the 

 centre of the great river, past which on each side the 

 current ran with deep, eddying swirls, while half-a- 

 mile lower down, behind a wooded bend, could be 

 heard the first of the series of falls that herald the 

 impassable (without portages) portion of the river. 



The backwater swept us round into a sloping, sandy 

 bay, and Olivier jumped out and hauled the canoe 

 gently up. It was a small island, about twenty yards 

 across, without trace of any previous encampment. 



