VERGH OF CIVILIZATION. 373 
ed and large game found. In wandering about the neigh- 
borhood of my temporary residence, about two miles from 
home I came upon one of those beautiful little sheets of 
water so frequently found upon the northern portion of the 
American continent. This soon became a favorite retreat, 
for wild duck were numerous on a portion where wild rice 
grew luxuriantly, and passenger-pigeons and spruce grouse 
had adopted it as a watering-place, owing to its freedom 
from intruders. All devoted admirers of nature know 
what a pleasure it is to be alone where none of man’s work 
mars the prospect, where every object the eye rests upon 
is as it came from the Creator’s hands, unsullied and un- 
changed. As I sat on a rocky promontory to -see the sun 
dip the horizon, perhaps visions of my distant land or far- 
off friends flitting before me, I was struck with the im- 
mense numbers of fish that kept breaking the unrippled 
surface—good gvidence that the rod and line might find 
abundant work, and on the next visit I determined to put 
it to the test. 
To those who are acquainted with the birch-bark canoe 
it is needless for me to say any thing. All the praises I 
could sound could not further enhance it in their estima- 
tion ; but to those who are not, to them let me say that 
tifere is not in existence a more perfect piece of mechanism 
for the purpose it is intended. Only learn to handle it 
properly, and you can go in it anywhere, over shoals, down 
rapids, through channels where an oar would be useless, 
and finally, if necessary, you can take it on your shoulders, 
and tramp across portages where nothing but an ox-team 
could transport a boat. In construction they are models 
of skill, yet the Indian alone knows how to make them; for 
although a white man may occasionally attempt their man- 
ufacture, they never do so successfully. On the following 
day, with my birch-bark on my shoulders, looking like a 
