88 



RECREA TIOX. 



Certainly the depth of water was not 

 materially increased. The sticks are 

 firmly embedded in the mud, but there 

 is little attempt at plastering, and no 

 evidence of that impressive engineer- 

 ing instinct which I had expected. 

 The houses are irregular and poorly 

 built. In Maine, Michigan, and the 

 Rocky mountains they are alike. 

 With the exception of one dam in 

 Maine I have never been impressed 

 either by the design or the amount of 

 labor involved. 



The muskrat hole shows more en- 

 gineering skill. The muskrat house 

 is much better constructed. Neither 

 equal in adaptability or workmanship 

 the nest of the Baltimore oriole, but 

 perhaps that is not a fair comparison. 



We had been making an unsuccess- 

 ful effort to call a moose, and were re- 

 turning to camp late in the evening. 

 The rain fell steadily, and, chilled to 

 the bone, I crouched in the bow of 

 the canoe. Suddenly within 3 feet of 

 me there was a resounding blow on 

 the water, as if it had been struck by 

 a board. The spray flew over me, and 

 I nearly upset the boat by a startled 

 jump to my feet. Darling, laughing 

 heartily, said it was only a beaver, 

 and then explained that when fright- 

 ened they would strike the water with 

 their tail, which he supposed to be a 

 danger signal to their neighbors. 



In spite of the high water, trout 

 were plentiful. Fishing from the shore, 

 I caught trout which the guide im- 

 mediately cleaned and cooked, so 

 we were eating fish 15 minutes after 

 they came from the water. The trout 

 of the Upper Penobscot are game, 

 and gave good sport, fighting much 

 harder than fish of the same size from 

 the lakes. Grouse or deer we did not 

 shoot, for fear of frightening off larg- 

 er game. 



So it kept on day after day. Luck 

 was certainly against us. We saw lit- 

 tle sign of moose, and it rained the 

 greater part of each day. 



Reaching the tent late one after- 

 noon, Darling commenced to cut 



wood, and I to change my wet cloth- 

 ing. By a misstroke of the axe Dar- 

 ling cut his foot to the bone. Hear- 

 ing his exclamation of pain, I rushed 

 from the tent. The blood was spout- 

 ing from his shoe, and he was leaning 

 against a tree with set teeth and a 

 white face. I helped him to the tent, 

 out of the rain. It was not too soon, 

 for he dropped at the door in a dead 

 faint. To stop the flow of blood I im- 

 provised a torniquet with a handker- 

 chief and a short stick. Cutting off 

 the shoe and stocking a ghastly gash 

 about 4 inches long was disclosed. 

 There was some flow of blood in spite 

 of the torniquet, for I had not a suffi- 

 cient knowledge of anatomy to prop- 

 erly locate the artery, that a pad might 

 be put over it ; so dragging him to the 

 bed I ran to the river for a bucket of 

 water ; then putting the foot on the 

 bucket, I poured cold water over the 

 wound. In a few minutes he revived 

 sufficiently to be propped up and pour 

 the water himself, while with a com- 

 mon needle I endeavored to sew the 

 wound. 



Darling would not allow me to use 

 a trout leader, declaring it would poi- 

 son the blood. The only thread I had 

 was black, so I was forced to make a 

 thread by twisting linen fibres from a 

 handkerchief. Human skin seems ten- 

 der and easily torn, but I was sur- 

 prised to find how difficult it was to 

 force the needle through. It could 

 only be done by lifting the skin suffi- 

 ciently to insert a chip of wood 

 against which the needle could be 

 pressed and then pulled through by 

 taking hold of the point. I am sure 

 no ordinary leather would have been 

 tougher. 



Darling' again fainted during the 

 operation. At last the sewing was 

 completed, a rough job, but answer- 

 ing the purpose, and binding the 

 wound with lint made from a hand- 

 kerchief, I could somewhat loosen the 

 torniquet, the pain of which he found 

 unbearable. A long stick was substi- 

 tuted, one end of which Darling could 



