ir 



i8 



NOTES OF THE HUNT. 



li 





I* ■■ 



II r 



Sunday, 5th October. 



tQY common consent everyone slept late this morn 

 J^ ing ; breakfast at half-past nine. After a lig'^'t 

 luncheon at one, having written some letters Matthews 

 and ths guest started for Gouldie's to post them. Billy 

 accorrpanied us, and kept up a rattling chat the whole 

 way down the lake and across the portage. Memories 

 of his early life in England ; on the ocean — he is the son 

 of a sea-captain at Newcastle-on-Tyne — in the Cana- 

 dian backwoods with lumbermen, .mong 



" Planks and shingles, boards and lath, 

 Made by steam-power in its wrath," 



as Mr. A. G. Churchill, termed the Gravenhurst poet, 

 writes or sings ; on the Muskoka Lakes, the Petawawa 

 River, the Ottawa, where he had been cook for John 

 Brennan, that rough, dare-devil but chivalrous " boss " 

 for the well-known lumbermen, the brothers Dollar, and 

 for various companies. All this and more Billy told us 

 graphically on the way. Having reached the head of 

 Trading Lake, a telegram awaited us announcing that 

 the New York members of the party would leave 

 Toronto next day and arrive at Camp on Tuesday. 

 So far good, but not a word as to Dwight, and no 

 further news of Battin's condition. We met at Mrs. 

 Gouldie's Mr. Haigh, a handsome six-foot specimen of 

 the Englishman of courteous manners and eccentric 

 tastes, who invited us to visit his floating dwelling on 

 the north branch of the Muskoka. After an early tea 

 with Mrs. Gouldie we came back to Camp and read 

 quietly till bed-time. During the night it blew hard, 

 and rained so violently as to flood the snanty, causing 

 its occupants to move their beds repeatedly, and finally 

 to cover themselves with rubber coats. 



