20 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



not have consented, except by a special recommendation 



from their pastor, Mr. B , to whom I had taken letters. 



This reluctance arose from the unprincipled conduct of 

 most of the whites towards them. 



At last, however, Mitchell Louis, and Joe Soccous, 

 agreed to accompany me to a part of the country in which 

 I could kill Moose and Carabou, provided I understood 

 hunting, as on this point, they appeared to place but little 

 faith, as I had come from a distant and thickly settled 

 country as well as from a great city; but above all, I car- 

 ried a double-barrelled percussion rifle, with a hair trigger, 

 &c. a weapon they had never seen. 



Friday, October 9, 18 — . Joined my two guides on 

 the banks of the river; they had provided themselves with 

 two birch bark canoes. I had a white companion, Mr. 

 H. who was placed in the bow of one, and I in that of the 

 other, the provisions and baggage occupying the centre of 

 each. As the Indians had to dance with their friends 

 nearly all night, and hear mass before parting with them 

 this morning; it was eleven o'clock before we set out up 

 the river. It was the first time I ever was in a birch bark 

 canoe, and to a novice a " birch" is certainly a ticklish 

 article; I was obliged to sit down on the bottom and hold 

 myself as steady as possible, or the least motion to one side 

 heeled the frail vessel, and it being a natnr.nl effort to 

 throw oneself in the opposite direction, the evil was always 

 increased rather than remedied; while Joe, who paddled 

 the boat, sat as firm and unconcerned as if he had neither 

 jacket or powder to get wet, and was himself the passenger: 

 sometimes, however, he exclaimed, " 'spose uni no still, 

 him no paddle um canoe;" but in a few hours I ceased to 

 give further trouble, and not only could balance myself, 

 but began to paddle. Our canoes were about twelve feet 

 long, and three wide at midships, and will carry but two 

 persons and baggage, or six or eight hundred weight, and 

 weigh about 60 pounds. 



Ascended several rapids, by means of setting poles, the 

 Indians standing up in the stern: at noon we landed to 

 dine, but as we did not wish to lose time in cooking, made 

 our dinners on raw pork and biscuit, our drink being sugar 

 and water; performed the necessary operation with an 

 Indian, of smoking our pipes, and continued our journey 

 until night, when we encamped on a woody island. We 

 had no tents, and as there was every appearance of rain 

 before morning, Joe stretched his blanket on two poles, 

 as a substitute. A mallard, some partridges (Pheasants, 

 Tetrao lanbellus) which I shot during the day, supplied 

 us with an excellent supper, and made amends for our sorry 

 dinner. Some squaws paid us a visit in our camp, with a 

 present of chokeberries in a neat little birch basket; my 

 comrades returned the visit in the evening, leaving me to 



take care of the camp, and enjoy a solitary pipe, whilst 

 listening to the owls and journalising. The scenery during 

 the day was romantic, the timber consisting of oak, poplar, 

 birch, and a very few pines; at one time we had a distant 

 view of mount Kitahden, it was covered with snow, and 

 ajDpeared about sixty miles distant. 



Our first night proved rainy, and as few people are fond 

 of lying under wet bed clothes, we were off bright and 

 early, passed some rapids, which were very bad at this low 

 stage of the water; in one or two places, the fall was full a 

 foot perpendicular, and yet the Indians poled up them with 

 a facility truly astonishing, as these small birch canoes are 

 so light, and appear so frail, that no one who had not seen 

 them managed by an Indian, would ever suppose that they 

 could be conveyed over whirling rapids, with the safety of 

 a common boat in smooth water. 



The river widened, and in many places was almost like 

 a lake filled with islands of a fine rich soil, settled by Indians. 

 We also passed some good farms on the main land, belong- 

 ing to white people; but in general, the Indian farms were 

 quite as comfortable in appearance as those of the whites. 

 At noon, left the main river, and entered the Passedunky, 

 through a n.arrow channel, with scarcely room for a canoe 

 to pass amid a chaos of rocks: it soon, however, began to 

 widen to more than one hundred yards, deep, and still, 

 banks low, rich, and matted, with a variety of timber and 

 underwood, but heavy hemlocks stamped the prominent 

 character of the scene. Through this still, deep water, we 

 paddled about five miles; then through rapids and rocks a 

 few miles further, to such another place, where we landed 

 to cook our dinner and mend one of the canoes, which had 

 been damaged among the rocks. 



While these operations were performing by the Indians, 

 II. and myself hunted for our supper, though our game 

 turned out rather scanty, as we made but indifferent work 

 among the pheasants, and were obliged to fill the deficiency 

 with a bittern, which subsequently was displaced from that 

 honour by better game. 



As evening approached, the Indians were just begging 

 that I would halt the next da}', as it was Sunday, and my 

 New England friend saying that he was "conscientiously 

 scrupulous" about travelling on the Sabbath, when a fine 

 buck espied us coming up the stream, but mistook us for 

 other deer, as we all laid flat in the bottom of our canoes; 

 nothing could be seen but the muzzle of my rifle, my eyes, 

 and the Indian's paddles; so completely was the poor 

 animal deceived, that he swam within gun-shot before he 

 discovered his mistake; we let him rise the bank out of 

 the water as he made for the thicket, before I sent him a 

 leaden messenger; one of the Indians and he entered the 

 thicket together, and nothing was heard for some moments 



