254 Fisnixe in Amertcan WATERS. 
knew how to manage bark canoes better than to speak any 
language, their patois being a medley of French, Indian, and 
English. But they were all trusty and industrious, as all 
Canadian guides are. It is best that each angler have two 
guides and one canoe; for, though one man only is needed to 
attend an angler for gating and rowing in the neighborhood 
of the encampment, yet for long journeys up rapid rivers 
two men are indispensable. Cabins for cooking and for lodg- 
ing may also be soon erected, and they are preferable to port- 
able tents. 
The River St. John winds like a serpent between the moun- 
tains, and as the fall from our plateau to the mouth—27 miles 
—is more than 150 feet, the rapids are very swift; so that 
many times in rounding a bend we surprised a family of seals 
teaching their young to catch salmon, wild geese with their 
goslings, ducks with their broods, and expected to see Bruin, 
but didn’t. 
The row down the river was most pleasurable. The thin 
bark canoe responded to the lashings of the tide, and we felt 
as the lobster-peddler said, “ All alive! all alive!” The doc- 
tor, who had taken a front seat in the canoe, with his coat on 
and broad-brimmed hat, had found the passage so jolly that 
—like Obadiah Oldbuck—he had turned over a new leaf by 
taking off both his hat and coat, and remarked, as we shot a 
rapid, “ Let her went !” 
The Indians were returning up the St.John to their homes 
in the icy regions, having disposed of their furs at the Min- 
gan fair, and laid in a winter supply of flour and salt. 
Tt was all vain to look kindly to these Esquimaux squaws, 
who are really beautiful, with their olive complexions, raven 
locks, and lustrous eyes. They are wedded to the forest. We 
met some twenty odd Indian canoes ascending the river to 
their homes, who knew enough of English to ask “Salmon 
plenty?” But very few would make so bold as to ask, “ Has 
you nothing good for me?” Of course they do not suppose 
it degrading to beg from civilized men, for they consider 
