Sintamaskin 



bloodthirsty savage allies, had been so bit- 

 terly hated and so desperately feared by the 

 struggling colonies, and with me as guide in 

 the trackless Canadian wilds was this child of 

 the wilderness, this descendant of the little 

 Massachusetts Puritan. 



The first three miles of our journey were 

 northward down the river upon which our 

 camp faced, the south branch of Wastaneau. 

 At this point, about a mile below the lake of 

 the same name, it is a quiet, winding stream, 

 flowing between banks that in summer are 

 low and grassy, with the hills rising behind 

 them on either hand ; but now the snow had 

 in great part obliterated the distinction be- 

 tween river and bank, and we cut off many 

 turns of the stream, passing over land where a 

 few isolated twigs, sticking at random from 

 the white surface, were all that indicated the 

 thick bushes I should see when paddling my 

 canoe here the following September. Gradu- 

 ally the hills approached the river and the low 

 banks disappeared ; one or two rocks showed 

 their heads in a narrow place. The men went 

 slowly, sounding with poles through the snow 

 to see if the ice were good the first premoni- 

 tion of what lay but a little way beyond ; for 



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