more than sufficient for our canip-cooked dinner. It was 
a great experience for the children, and the playing of the 
larger bass certainly worked them up into a frenzy of ex- 
citement as he leaped clear of the water and did his best 
to pull the rod from the owner's hands. 
It was near noon time, and we pulled for the shore. 
The clouds were forming, but we felt that good fortune 
might favor us yet and but a passing shower would re- 
sult. Before we could gather our firewood, down came 
the rain in torrents, but we did not propose to give up. 
We shaved off some chips from the inner surface of some 
pine driftwood and when a match was called for but two 
solitary matches were forthcoming. The first one mjser- 
ably hissed and went out. Here we were with but a 
single match between us and starvation. Gathering from 
the pocket of my shooting coat some paper as dry as 
tinder, I poked this under the shavings, struck my match 
and at once the paper blazed up, then the shavings ignited 
slowly, and with a little care we soon had a blaze strong 
■enough to warrant fresh additions of more or less damp 
wood. 
The rain kept up and for a time the dripping from the 
trees overhead threatened to wash our fire away, but it 
had now gotten a good start and bade defiance to the rain. 
The frying of the bacon over the coals, the cleaning and 
skinning of the fish and its cooking was enjoyed by the 
children, who, when they were not gathering fresh wood, 
stood around in more or less of a bedraggled condition. 
It was not a pleasant job to bend one's back to the 
pelting rain and stoop over that more or less smoking 
fire with the fat in the pan sizzling and spluttering as the 
beating rain flew into it. But the fire held out and the 
bacon was tried ottt and laid one side upon a sheet of pine 
bark taken from the river (the guide had forgotten the 
tin plates) and cooled off in the rain. The fish was dusted 
with damp corn meal and in time was cooked, during all 
of which process my broad back proved a goodly water- 
shed for the pelting rain that ran in rivulets down my 
spine, finding final lodgment in my shoes. But then it 
was all done in a good cause, and the children were get- 
ting lots of fun out of it. Improvised plates of additional 
pieces of pine bark were secured, the steaming coffee was 
poured out and bread — a little moist, undoubtedly — was 
cut and buttered, and so they ate their hot fried fish and 
]aughed and enjoyed the novelty of the situation, while 
between spells I ruminated over my prospects for a good 
attack of lumbago or rheumatism "after the Fourth." 
The children cared not for the rain ; in fact, I think they 
had more real fun out of the fact that they were camping 
out during a pelting rainstorm than had the sun been 
shining brightly. It was a novel experience, a new sensa- 
tion to them. 
And when I moved about, drenched to the skin, my 
clothes sticking to me like a porous plaster, I consoled 
myself with the fact that unless the boat capsized we 
should not be numbered with those helping to swell the 
accident columns after the Fourth. Yet the fish was 
good and the coffee warming, and the judges, the children, 
voted the dinner a great success. In due course the clouds 
brightened, when we again rowed out upon the river, the 
blistering sun and warm breeze made us soon forget it 
had rained only a short time ago. 
And when we reached home, a little late, of course, be- 
cause of Fourth of July travel, we took inventory and 
found all members present or accounted for. 
Charles Cristadoro, 
Down the Magnetawan* 
In Two Parts— Part Two. 
A FEELING of dread, almost of fear, of what lay before 
us was curiously mingled with our regret on leaving 
Deer Lake, for we felt that we were leaving every vestige 
of civilization behind us, and we knew only vaguely of 
the dangers ahead. Soon after leaving the lake and en- 
tering tlie river again we heard the roar from the Canal 
Rapids, and keeping to the right, we crossed a glance 
boom into a large bay. As we turned into the bay I 
had a feeling that we were going down hill. ^ 
What there was in our surroundings to' give me this 
impression I do not know, but I felt that it was down 
grade to the portage landing at the head of the bay. This 
portage is a tote road about three miles long that the 
river drivers use, but we did not carry more than a mile 
and a half. The road is through a beautiful forest and 
some distance back from the river. The soft ground on 
the road was covered with footprints of deer. They were 
all sizes, from the tiny ones of the little fawn up to some 
very large ones where a big buck had crossed from the 
river into the forest. 
- We saw a flock of six or eight ruffed grouse, and while 
we were not more than fifteen feet away from them, they 
paid no attention to us, but went about their business 
hunting their dinner, as if no one was near. 
The Canal Rapids are a mile long. From the Govern- 
ment dam at the head of the rapids the water rushes 
through, a gorge about twenty feet wide with perpendicu- 
lar walls of rock varying from forty to eighty feet in 
height. In places the faces of these walls are broken and 
great masses of boulders lie in the water at their foot, 
while at other places they are absolutely straight and clean 
cut to the water's edge. The current is very swift, the 
waters rough and broken by masses of rock. We cooked 
and ate our dinner on a rock-strewn beach at the end of 
the portage. Back of us was a bank of shale about fifteen 
feet high. Clear, cold water was trickling from all the 
cracks and crevices, over the little shelves and running 
in tiny streams on to the beach. We caught a bucket of 
water while we cooked our dinner. The bank was cov- 
ered with delicate green moss and small ferns. Growing 
on top of the bank just over. the spring was a large maple 
tree which leaned slightly toward the riA^er. We were 
sitting in the cool shadow of the maple, enjoying the 
beauty of our surroundings, when Bennett broke the 
silence by saying, "Bah Jove ! I like this Canadian coun- 
try. If I owned it I would build a barbed-wire fence 
around it and leave it just as it is." 
Below this the river makes several sharp elbow bends, 
and we let the canoes down over a short rapids and then 
had a long stretch of clear, open water ahead. A small 
stream flowing info the river on our left attracted us and 
we paddled up it to a log chute. Here we left our canoes 
F6r£:sT and stream. 
and, following a winding path some distance through a 
pretty bit of woods, came out on the shore of a beautiful 
lake. We had beached our canoes on the shore of an 
eddy about twenty feet across, and when we returned to 
them we put out a troll to see if there were any fish. In 
passing the foot of the chute five times, we hooked five 
bass and landed four, weighing from two to three poimds 
each. This was enough fish for supper, and we pulled 
out into the river, where we found a stiff breeze blowing 
up stream, and when we came into Trout Lake the water 
was quite rough. Rounding a bend in the river where 
tlie South Branch breaks off, we came to the river drivers' 
camp with a river of floating logs ahead of us. The wind 
had been blowing the logs up stream for several days, but 
a boom stretched across the river below the camp kept 
the logs from scattering, and for two miles below this 
boom the logs were packed together as close as a high 
wind could pack them. Captain Beasley, the foreman of 
the drive, received us very cordially. He said that about 
300,000 logs had gone down the river that summer. After 
quite an interesting talk he invited us out to the kitchen 
tent to have supper. It was not yet supper time, but 
the cook had prepared supper for us, and how we did 
enjoy it. We had goo.d Ijread and butter, tea, fried 
potatoes, ham, cheese, pickles, .stewed prunes, pie, small 
sweet cakes and fruit cake that was simply delicious. 
When we Avere ready to start, the foreman sent three of 
the drivers with pike poles to help us through the logs. 
So, bidding good-by to the men who had treated us so 
royally, we started for the logs, accompanied by three 
"Knights of the Spike-sole Boots." 
It was wonderful to see the men walk on the logs and 
with their pike poles open up a way for our canoes. The 
soles of their shoes being full of small nails or spikes 
about one-half inch long, kept them from slipping off 
the logs, but they had to be very quick when a log would 
turn, or go down under the water. No wonder these 
men become reckless and daring. Their life is one of 
continual hardship and danger. 
Working our way through a log drive was a new 
experience, and if we had been compelled to do it un- 
aided, we would have looked a long time before we could 
have sef;n the funny side, but as it was, we had lots of 
sport. When at last we were through the logs, the sun 
was almost down, and we were still two miles from a 
place where we could land and pitch our tents for the 
night. 
It was dark by the time we reached a camp ground, and 
to cut poles and put up the tents was all we could do — 
the beds had to go unmade. A camp-fire was started and 
we made coffee, for we were chilly. No one was in a 
hurry to retire that night, and we sat in the cheerful glow 
of the camp-fire till quite late. I was very tired, and was 
afraid to go to our tent, but I did not want any one to 
know it. I knew we were camped just above the moun- 
tain chute, and we could hear the falls in the distance, but 
it \vas dark when we landed; I had not seen the place in 
daylight, and beyond that charmed circle of firelight all 
was shrouded in mystery and gloom. We had heard a 
lynx away off in the distance, and occasionally I would 
hear the rustling of leaves as some small animal made its 
way through the underbrush, which did not increase my 
desire to go to the tent that lay just outside the circle of 
light. 
I believe the others sat up because they felt that sleeping 
on the bare ground was getting a little too close to nature 
for comfort; a fact that I fully realized before morning. 
If the floor of our tent had not had such a beautiful 
slope I would have slept fairly well even though I could 
not keep the ground under me warm, and the lumps 
seemed to increase both as to size and number toward 
morning. We went to bed with our feet down hill, for 
I thought if I should start to roll I would perhaps land 
in the camp-fire. As it was, my head had completed a 
quarter-circle when I awoke in the morning and my pil- 
low was lying where I put it when I went to bed. The 
early hours were not wasted in slumber the next morn- 
ing, and one man who is usually averse to early rising 
was quite anxious to get up and start the fire. 
The guides had pared potatoes and boiled them for 
breakfast, and when they were cooked I took a tin cup 
and mashed them, adding butter, pepper and salt, and we 
found this a great improvement on plain boiled potatoes. 
We had been told to stop on Carved Island, which is 
somewhere in this part of the river, but we failed to see 
it. All the river drivers that can carve anything have for 
years left specimens of their work on this island, till there 
is now quite a collection, and among them some very 
beautiful things. We were very much disappointed when 
we found that we had passed the island without seeing it. 
The portage around the Mountain Chute is short, but 
we had to go through some logs in the river just above it, 
and there were more logs in the river below. About a 
mile below this chute we crossed a glance boom into a 
bay on our left, which we followed to the head, where we 
made a short portage into an arm of the Lake of Many 
Islands. This lake is connected with the river about two 
miles further down, and by taking this route we were 
avoiding a stretch of river that was full of logs. We 
camped on a point commanding a good view of the lake 
and made comfortable beds. for. this being Saturdaj', we 
would not break camp before Monday. 
Dinner over and our tents in good shape, the guides 
cut down some small pine trees and set them up around 
our table, which was not well shaded. The table was 
made with pieces of board we had picked up, and two 
short pieces of logs served as seats. We were about out 
of bread, and after dinner I mixed up some more biscuit 
dough, which we baked in the skillets. I had made the 
cakes the size of the skillet and quite thick, but they 
burned before they baked through. They should' be 
rolled very thin, of if thick, the size of biscuit. To bake 
both sides, of course, they must be turned. We have 
found boiled dumplings to make a very good substitute 
for bread. 
After the baking was done we went out in a canoe with 
one of the guides to explore the lake. Just as we were 
starting the other guide called to us to bring in enough 
wall-eyes for supper, but said he did not want any bass. 
We found the fishing in this lake about what we think 
it must have been a hundred years ago. There are no 
cottages or camps on it, and but few tourists come down 
the river. Market-fishermen could not get fish out, for 
there is nearly five miles of carrying to be done. We 
could decide what kind of fish we wanted for a meal, go 
out and in a short time catch all we needed, putting back 
the ones we did not want. We had wall-eyes for supper 
Saturday, bass for breakfast Sunday, and catfish for 
breakfast Monday. 
About sundown wc were on the lake and could catch fish 
as fast as we could bait our hooks, but such fishing was 
not sport. We caught no very large ones, for the smaller 
ones would take the bait, even our largest troll, as soon 
as it touched the water. 
Looking over the lake in any direction we could see the 
fish jumping, and we saw some very large ones, so we 
knew the big fish were there. I do not know whether they 
were feeding or not, but it was a wonderful sight to see 
them jumping all around us, sometimes quite close to the 
canoe. One of our guides, who was a fisherman, said he 
had never seen anything like it before. As the light died 
out of the sky, the fish became quiet again, and we re- 
turned to our camp, but the same thing was repeated 
in the morning about sunrise. The first thing I heard 
when I awoke was the splashing of water, and I opened 
the tent and looked out and could see the fish jumping on 
the lake. We saw this repeated each morning and even- 
ing we spent on this lake. 
We returned to camp with three wall-eyes, which the 
guide cleaned, and cutting each one into four pieces put 
them in the skillet with four or five sliced onions and a 
pint of water. 
When the onions were well done he added salt, pepper, 
butter and a little flour. He called it "a la " (some 
unpronouncable French name), but we thought we had 
never eaten anything better. 
For our Sunday dinner we took some boiled rice and 
spread it about one-half inch thick on the center of a small 
square of clean muslin, and in the center of this we put a 
spoonful of stewed prunes that had been seeded. Gather- 
ing up the corners and edges of the muslin and tying them 
with a thread, we had a dumpling ready to drop in boiling 
water. It only required a few minutes to make one apiece 
for each of us, and fifteen or twenty minutes in boiling 
water to cook them. They were served with a dressing 
made of the sweetened prune juice, and were always a 
welcome addition to our bill of fare. They are delicious 
if fresh berries can be had to use instead of prunes. In 
the afternoon we boiled a piece of shoulder with beans 
for our supper. We should have poured the water off 
the meat when it commenced to boil and put on fresh 
water before putting in the beans, for they were salty 
enough to make i;s very thirsty. We cooked a large piece 
of meat, for according to our chart we would "hit, the 
trail" over a three-mile portage the next day, and that 
meant work enough without cooking. That evening the 
sunset was gorgeous, and the sunrise next morning was 
even more brilliant. The glow, the profusion of color, the 
wonderful radiance was simply marvelous. A small divi- 
sion of the river drivers were camped at the Three Snaith 
Dam, about two miles below the lake, and we got bread 
from them on Sunday. Monday morning we \yere up 
early, for the wmd was coming from the east and the 
logs were already moving down the river. We hastened 
our packing, for there were more than enough logs in 
the river ahead of us to make work without waiting for 
those above to come down. 
One of the guides had robbed the sunset of part of its 
sentiment the evening before by saying, "That is a dirty 
sky; we'll have rain to-morrow," but the gray clouds that 
were now settling down proved him a good prophet. 
Nolh ing but the alternative of working our way through 
or carrying around acres and acres of floating logs would 
have induced us to break camp that morning. 
While we were eating breakfast I spoke of having heard 
a dog bark in the night, and the guides laughed and said 
that it was a fox. I, had entirely forgotten that we were 
miles away from a settlement. While the tents were being 
taken down, I sliced the boiled meat and filled a bucket 
with ham sandwiches for our dinner. When -we came 
out iiito the river it was full of scattered logs. After 
traveling some distance we all at once found ourselves in 
a very swift current, and seeing that the logs were being 
rapidly drawn into it, we hastily steered out of danger. 
We learned afterward that th,e current had been caused 
by letting the water off the dam. In one place the logs 
had become wedged across the river, holding back those 
above and leaving a clear space below. Bennett started 
ahead with his little canoe, but the guides told him he 
could not get through there, and they kept closer to the 
shore, but he would not follow. His canoe became wedged 
in among the logs, and he could make no headway, so 
taking a paddle he stepped out on a log and was meeting 
with more success when the log' turned and he landed 
astride of it. He sat still and continued to work his way 
through till one of the guides asked him if he was going 
to leave his canoe and go to Bing Inlet on the log. He 
had forgotten all about his canoe, Avhich was wedged in 
among the logs twelve feet or more behind him. 
The whole performance had been so absurd that we 
could stand no more, and the guides just shouted, while I 
laughed till I could hardly sit up.. With some difficulty 
he worked his way back and got in his canoe, but we could 
see he was very angry. 
After making our way through these logs we had no 
more trouble till a half-mile above the dam, where we had 
to beach our canoes and carry vv^hat we could the rest of 
the wa3^ The river water was cool and palatable, until 
we reached the logs, when it became very warm, iDut as 
soon as we got beyond them the water was again cool. 
The heat is no doubt due to some chemical action. 
We had heard what we thought was thunder soon after 
entering the river, but it had gradually grown louder, ua- 
til at last we began to realize that it was the noise made 
by the logs as they went thundering down the chute below 
the dam. We had a hard, rough carry and a drizzling 
rain was fallmg, but we reached the dam without any 
serious difficulty. The river drivers helped the guides 
take the canoes down through the logs. 
There are three dams across the river here, but the 
logs were only going over one, a glance boom keeping 
them away from the others. We had never seen the 
drivers at work before, and we stayed here a long time 
watching the two men on the glance booms, one on each 
side of the opening in the dam, guiding the logs through 
end first; many of them came up in the eddy below 
looking the worse for the trip. By the time the guides had 
everything over the portage, the cook had dinner ready. 
