[Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the Forest and Stream Publishing Company, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
Washington, il “ ■=“■* 
Te s!x*Mt>’8, a »!i , a Three Mo's' Zirl NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1879. 
Volume 13—No. SI. 
No. Ill Fulton Street, New Fork 
THE END. 
rpBE course of the weariest river 
Ends in the great grey sea; 
The acorn forever and ever 
Strives upward to the tree. 
The rainbow the airy adorning 
Shines promise through the storm; 
The glimmer of coming morning 
Through midnight gloom will form. 
By time all knots are riven,, 
Complex although they be, 
And peace will at last be given, 
Dear, both to you and me. 
Then, tho’ the path may be dreary, 
Look onward to the goal; 
Though the heart and the head be weary. 
Let Faith inspire the soul. 
Seek the right, though the wrong be tempting. 
Speak truth at any cost, 
Vain is all weak exempting 
When once the gem is lost. 
Let strong hand and keen eye be ready 
For plain and ambushed foes; 
Thought earnest and fancy steady 
Bear best unto the close. 
The heavy clouds may be raining, 
But with evening comes the light; 
Through the dark are low winds complaining, 
Vet the sunrise gilds the hight. 
And love has his hidden treasure 
For the patient and the pure; 
And time gives his fullest measure 
To the workers who endure; 
And the word no law has shaken 
Has the future pledge supplied ; 
For we know that when we " awaken" 
We shall be " satisfied.” 
—Tinsley's Magazine. 
J £iver and Jake, 
NUMBER III. 
T HE first view of Lake Nepigon opened suddenly be¬ 
fore us. The portage trail had led us over bare 
granite rocks, with few trees to relieve the monotonous 
scenery after leaving Big Sturgeon Lake, gradually ris¬ 
ing higher and higher until we reached the summit with in 
two hundred yards of Nepigon waters. The rocks over 
which we had travelled had been rounded and polished 
ages ago by the vast Northern glacier pushing its way 
over all obstructions, or by the swell of that universal 
sea, above whose surface the heights of this region were 
among the first to rise, We stood upon what some geo¬ 
logists say is the oldest land in the world. But the first 
view of the lake drove geological reflections from our 
minds. The great smooth rounded rock upon which we 
stood, descended so steeply to the water’s edge that we 
felt the need of the sure “ shoe packs ” used by the men 
in carrying their loads—for the surface, where not rough¬ 
ened by lichens, was so polished as to afford only preca¬ 
rious footing. Down by the water the seas dashed wildly 
up the rock, for the wind which had blown heavily on 
Big Sturgeon Lake, came all the fiercer over the broad 
expanse of Nepigon. Down to the left extended a deep 
bay, and to the front and right were green islands, seem¬ 
ingly beyond number; an occasional high peak, or bluff, 
showing above its neighbors. We knew by the force of 
the sea3 that they came from some great body of 
water, yet to the eye the lake seemed everywhere 
bounded by not distant shores. 
Right around us a few low bushes upon which the blue¬ 
berry was just ripening, and occasionally some taller 
shrub found root, where, in crevices of the rock, a little 
moss made soil had accumulated ; while over to the North 
a hundred yards, Upon a higher rock, a few stunted pines 
struggled for existence. Down to the left some balsam 
and spruce could be seen, where a depression in the sur¬ 
face had received for ages the wash from the higher sur¬ 
rounding rocks, But the islands of the lake bore a fresher 
promise, and looked green and beautiful in the dis¬ 
tance. 
We camped upon the rock, securing our tent with what, 
few loose stones we could find, and there we stayed until 
four the next afternoon, wind bound. There was little 
animal life to be seen, the wind keeping off even the pestif¬ 
erous black fly, for the most part. A few pigeons after 
the blue berries, and one or two cedar birds we saw among 
the dwarfed pines, but nothing else. The wind was too 
heavy to cast a fly, and a few throws of the spoon along 
the rocks yielded nothing but exercise. So that it was 
with pleasure we saw the wind going down and the sea 
quieting, until we could launch and load our canoes—a 
difficult t hin g to do between the waves and the slippery 
rocks. But we finally pushed off, intending to make an 
island some seven or eight miles to the north, to camp 
for the night. Wassy had been over this route and knew 
every island and rock. The brigades usually go another 
way, a few miles shorter, but by that there is a “cross¬ 
ing,” or “traverse” of some fourteen or fifteen miles, 
which even the big brigade canoes with their eight or ten 
paddlers, dread to take. As we went, the longest trav¬ 
erse is about seven miles, as we estimated it. 
Some two or three miles before reaching the first island 
on our line of travel, numbers of gulls came flying out to 
meet us, as they always do when boats approach then- 
nesting places. They flew circling and screaming over 
us as if inspecting our force and trying to frighten us 
away, and then returned as if to report, while others as 
we neared their island, came, inspected, screamed, and 
returned like the first. . Upon a near view of the island 
it looked impracticable for a camp, so we did not touch 
there, hut stopped for a few minutes’ rest at a rocky islet 
two or three hundred yards distant, A few wrens, and 
two young gulls that paddled off in frightened baste as 
we climbed upon the rocks, were the only signs of life 
there, excepting clouds of gnats that danced in the even¬ 
ing sunshine. The gulls, which had circled and screamed 
over us on our approach, flew off to the near island, 
which was densely covered with tall spruces, and to our 
great surprise lighted upon the tops and branches of the 
trees. The Indians and voyageurs were even more aston¬ 
ished than we, to judge by the volume of .Chippewa lan¬ 
guage which broke from then-lips. They, as well as our¬ 
selves, had never seen such a sight. The white forms of 
the gulls againBt the dark green of the trees made a rich 
contrast, which it seemed could not be mistaken; but we 
felt inclined to doubt even the evidence of our senses, 
and sent a bullet from our rifle through the trees, which 
startled up the birds, and we saw them fly off and over 
us, and finally settle back again upon their strange rest¬ 
ing places. When we left the islet the gulls flew off after 
us, watching and screaming for a mile or two, until they 
felt sure, no doubt, that they had driven us away. 
We camped upon an island some fifteen miles almost 
due north Irom the portage. In the manner of canoe In¬ 
dian travel, we took a daylight start the next morning 
and made seven miles before breakfast. I believe this 
was the only morning of our trip that we begun the day’s 
journey in this way. We did not care to repeat it. In 
the early morning we caught sight of some otters at play 
between the island, but were not near enough to frighten 
them, At Wassy’s instance we took out our spoons at 
what he said was a famous lake trout resort, and in ten 
minutes we secured three fine ones, which served for 
breakfast and a substantial chowder dinner later in the 
day. 
All the islands, so far, in the lake were piles of broken 
rocks, which looked as if dropped there in disorder. No 
ledges were apparent. Some of the islands were rimmed 
with irregular piles of stone, looking at a distance like 
the old-fashioned New England farm wall, with sides as 
steep, but higher. It was not until 10 o'clock that morn¬ 
ing that we came to an island at the southern end of the 
traverse I have mentioned, which had solid masses of 
rock at the edge of the water, extending up in places fifty 
or sixty feet in height, and topped by irregular and jag¬ 
ged stones of all shapes and sizes, moss-grown and tree- 
crowned. 
We landed here for a few minutes’ rest in the cool 
shade of rocks and bushes at the water’s edge, for we 
had a fierce sun and not a breath of ah- rippled the sur¬ 
face. As It. expressed it, “there wasn’t even a goose- 
pimple on the lake.” Away off to the northeast, between 
distant islands, sky and water seemed to join ; while to 
the southwest the eye ranged down into the recesses of 
Chief’s Bay, finding no land upon which to rest. 
Further to the south the high steep bluff, where the brig¬ 
ades leave the shelter of land with their freighted canoes 
for Nepigon House, wits purple in the distance; while 
almost directly to the west the bold island height, the 
first land made by the Indians in that long and hazardous 
traverse on their upward trips, showed its outline dis¬ 
tinctly against the sky. When this point is made the 
Indians rest for a while from their work, take their 
much-prized tea, and rejoice over their one more safe 
passage. 
With our small canoes, the seven miles before us looked 
long. The Indians who had made it, and the voyagers 
whose experience with them told them the danger of a 
sudden storm in the mid-passage, scanned the lake and sky 
for signs of change. While thev are remarkable observers 
of many things, my experience'jnstifies me in saying they 
are not good weather prophets. A sign of human presence 
n a forest, a twig broken by game, a canoe upon the water 
t suck a distance our eyes can seenothing, the habits of 
mmals they capture—they have keen sight and observa¬ 
tion for. But as to the weather, even in their own coun¬ 
try, they seem to oftener fail in judgment than the 
average white man. So when one looked anxiously to 
the east and noted and feared the "misty low lying 
rnrple of the distant land, and the haziness in which the 
ine between the sea and sky was lost, and shrugged his 
shoulders at the prospect, and another thought be saw 
signs of wind in the western sky among the fleecy clouds 
there making their appearance, there was nothing, we 
knew, to be gathered from their judgment; and relying 
upon our own, aided by our trusty aneroid barometer 
which since early morning showed a barely visible low 
ering, we pushed off. The men once started, set to 
their work with a vigor born of dread rather than zeal. 
When mid-way they rested a moment and lighted then- 
pipes, while I took advantage of the stop to test the tem¬ 
perature of the water. There were no signs of shoals, 
and the clear sunlight shining into tlie deep water en¬ 
abled us to see to a considerable depth. To our surprise 
57 deg. was the lowest point reached. I had tested Nep¬ 
igon River at various places, and found it uniformly 54 
deg.: and in this connection it may be as well to state 
that upon tests made eighteen days later, I found the 
river everywhere 59 deg. But at no other place in the 
lake besides this “ crossing,” away from the influence of 
warm rivers (hereafter to be mentioned) and shallow 
bays, did I find the temperature above 54 deg. I have no 
theory to explain the differences observed. (Lake Su¬ 
perior from Nepigon Bay, down to Cape Gargantua I 
found to be 53 deg., with occasional showing in some lo¬ 
calities of 54 deg. Michipicoten River was 60 deg. These 
observations were made on my homeward coasting trip 
from Red Rock to Sault Ste Marie). 
The canoe grating on the rocks at the end of tho trav¬ 
erse awoke me from a nap I had indulged in the latter 
half of the way, and I found we had been an hour and 
three quarters making the passage. After a short rest, 
we sought a cool and shady place for dinner, and that over 
we started out, hoping to make Nepigon House that 
night. Our course in the afternoon lay between lovely 
islands, upon one of which, at the first sand beach we 
had toueked since leaving Red Rock we stopped for a few 
minutes. It was one of the largest of the islands of the 
lake. A cool brook came down into the sand from the 
high ground in the interior, and the character of the veg-’ 
etation showed evidences of a real soil such as we had 
uot hitherto met with in the lake islands. Tracks of 
rabbits and bear showed the existence of game, but the 
undergrowth was too dense for summer hunting. The 
island rose gradually to the height of several hundred 
feet above the water, and for many days in our voyage it 
could be seen and recognized. 
A breeze springing up from the southeast helped us 
somewhat, but about the middle of the afternoon it sud¬ 
denly shifted to the south and became too fresh for com¬ 
fort, so we rounded a rocky point over which the waves 
began to dash savagely, and took shelter in a little bay 
with an outlook to the west over a traverse of foui- or 
four and a half miles to the next sheltering islands. The 
water had become white with the gale, and the sea, with 
its unbroken sweep of twenty miles from the windward, 
grew every moment heavier and heavier. Content with 
our safe harbor from the storm, we settled down as grace¬ 
fully as possible into camp, and to kill time tried our flies 
about the neighboring rocks, but without success. 
It was afternoon of the next day before the wind and 
sea abated sufficiently to warrant a start, and to ensure 
greater safety the load of the smaller canoe was lightened 
by the exchange of places between R. and F. and myself. 
Even with this, however, some water was shipped, and 
my coat upon a cushion of balsam boughs became rather 
damp before we got over. As we pulled out of the little 
bay the scene presented was most enchanting. The isl¬ 
ands had grown more beautiful as we bad come further 
to the north—the trees larger and vegetation generally 
ranker and more advanced, But now off to the north, 
apparently four or five miles away, uprose from the water 
a huge hare cliff, with purple sides, sheer into the air 
hundreds of feet. Off to the northwest towered another 
bare rock, even higher, apparently four or five miles in¬ 
land from what we thought the shore of the lake. The 
tops of these two mountains, for such they appeared to 
be, were fiat, and at Lire distance seemed without vegeta¬ 
tion. Behind us were the islands we had passed, and all 
along the western coast of the lake were other islands 
so overlapping each other that we supposed them to be 
the mainland. An occasional white cap gave animation 
to the scene, and far off the smoke of an Indian encamp¬ 
ment showed blue against tlie verdured hills. 
The crossing made, we stopped upon an intervening 
island for a short rest, and plucked blueberries and 
strawberries, the latter showing ripe fruit aud blossom 
at the same time. With a short pull from this place we 
rounded the point of an island, and a mile or so away we 
saw the flagstaff and white buildings of Nepigon House. 
Scattered about upon, the islands aud the main shore 
were bark wigwams, aud close by them, just at the 
water’s edge, were numerous canoes, not a few of which 
started off to meet us at the little dock as soon as the 
sharp-sighted Indians discovered we were white and 
