20 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
not have consented, except by a special recommendation 
from their pastor, Mr. B , to whom I had taken letters. 
This reluctance arose from the unprincipled conduct of 
most of the whites towards them. 
At last, however, Mitchell, Louis, and Joe Soccous, 
agreed to accompany me to a part of the country in which 
I could kill Moose and Carabou, provided I understood 
hunting, as on this point, they appeared to place but little 
faith, as I had come from a distant and thickly settled 
country as well as from a great city; but above all, I car- 
ried a double barrelled percussion rifle with a hair trigger, 
&c. a weapon they had never seen. 
Friday , October 9, 18 — . Joined my two guides on 
the banks of the river; they had provided themselves with 
two birch bark canoes. I had a white companion, Mr. 
H. who was placed in the bow of one, and I in that of the 
other, the provisions and baggage occupying the centre of 
each. As the Indians had to dance with their friends 
nearly all night, and hear mass before parting with them 
this morning, it was eleven o’clock before we set out up 
the river. It was the first time I ever was in a birch bark 
canoe, and to a novice a u birch ” is certainly a ticklish 
article; I was obliged to sit down on the bottom and hold 
myself as steady as possible, or the least motion to one side 
heeled the frail vessel, and it being a natural effort to 
throw oneself in the opposite direction, the evil was always 
increased rather than remedied; while Joe who paddled 
the boat, sat as firm and unconcerned as if he had neither 
jacket or powder to get wet, and was himself the passenger: 
sometimes, however, he exclaimed “ ’spose um no still, 
him no paddle um canoe;” but in a few hours I ceased to 
give further trouble, and not only could balance myself, 
but began to paddle. Our canoes were about twelve feet 
long, and three wide at midships, and will carry but two 
persons and baggage, or six or eight hundred weight, and 
weigh about 60 pounds. 
Ascended several rapids, by means of setting poles, the 
Indians standing up in the stern: at noon we landed to 
dine, but as we did not wish to lose time in cooking, made 
our dinners on raw pork and biscuit, our drink being sugar 
and water ; performed the necessary operation with an 
Indian of smoking our pipes, and continued our journey 
until night, when we encamped on a woody island. We 
had no tents, and as there was every appearance of rain 
before morning, Joe stretched his blanket on two poles, 
as a substitute. A mallard, some partridges (Pheasants, 
Tetrao umbellus ) which I shot during the day, supplied 
us with an excellent supper, and made amends for our sorry 
dinner. Some squaws paid us a visit in our camp, with a 
present of choke berries in a neat little birch basket; my 
comrades returned the visit in the evening, leaving me to 
take care of the camp, and enjoy a solitary pipe, whilst 
listening to the owls and journalizing. The scenery during 
the day was romantic, the timber consisting of oak, pop- 
lar, birch, and a very few pines; at one time we had a 
distant view of mount Kitahden, it was covered with snow 
and appeared about 60 miles distant. 
Our first night proved rainy, and as few people are fond 
of lying under wet bed clothes, we were off bright and 
early, passed some rapids which were very bad at this low 
stage of the water; in one or two places, the fall was full a 
foot perpendicular, and yet the Indians poled up them with 
a facility truly astonishing, as these small birch canoes are 
so light and appear so frail, that no one who had not seen 
them managed by an Indian would ever suppose that they 
could be conveyed over whirling rapids, with the safety of 
a common boat in smooth water. 
The river widened, and in many places was almost like 
a lake filled with islands of a fine rich soil, settled by 
Indians. We also passed some good farms on the main 
land, belonging to white people; but in general, the Indian 
farms were quite as comfortable in appearance as the 
whites. At noon, left the main river, and entered the 
Passedunky, through a narrow channel, with scarcely 
room for a canoe to pass amid a chaos of rocks: it soon, 
however, began to widen to more than one hundred yards, 
deep, and still, banks low, rich and matted, with a variety 
of timber and underwood, but heavy hemlocks stamped 
the prominent character of the scene. Through this still, 
deep water, we paddled about five miles; then through 
rapids and rocks a few miles further, to such another place 
where we landed to cook our dinner and mend one of the 
canoes, which had been damaged among the rocks. 
While these operations were performing by the Indians, 
H. and myself hunted for our supper, though our game 
turned out rather scanty, as we made but indifferent work 
among the pheasants, and were obliged to fill the deficiency 
with a bittern, which subsequently was displaced from that 
honor by better game. 
As evening approached, the Indians were just begging 
that I would halt the next day, as it was Sunday, and my 
New England friend saying that he was “ conscientiously 
scrupulous” about travelling on the Sabbath, when a fine 
buck espyed us coming up the stream, but mistook us for 
other deer, as we all laid flat in the bottom of our canoes; 
nothing could be seen but the muzzle of my rifle, my eyes 
and the Indian’s paddles; so completely was the poor 
animal deceived, that he swam within gun-shot before he 
discovered his mistake; we let him rise the bank out of 
the water as he made for the thicket, before I sent him a 
leaden messenger; one of the Indians and he entered the 
thicket together, and nothing was heard for some moments 
