170 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
should not be imminent* a little water is a great irieon* 
venience, not to mention the wetting of your provisions. 
We rarely crossed even a bay directly, from point to 
point, when there was wind, but made a slight curve 
corresponding somewhat to the shore, that we might 
the sooner reach it if the wind increased. 
When the wind is aft, and not too strong, the Indian 
makes a spritsail of his blanket. He thus easily skims 
over the whole length of this lake in a day. 
The Indian paddled on one side, and one of us* on 
the other, to keep the canoe steady, and when he wanted 
to change hands he would say u t ? other side.” He as¬ 
serted, in answer to our questions, that he had never 
upset a canoe himself, though he may have been upset 
by others. 
Think of our little egg-shell of a canoe tossing across 
that great lake, a mere black speck to the eagle soaring 
above it. 
My companion trailed for trout as we paddled along, 
but the Indian warning him that a big fish might upset 
us, for there are some very large ones there, he agreed 
to pass the line quickly to him in the stern if he had 
a bite. Beside trout, I heard of cusk, white-fish, &c., 
as found in this lake. 
' While we were crossing this bay, where Mount Kineo 
rose dark-before us, within two or three miles, the Indian 
repeated the tradition respecting this mountain’s having 
anciently been a cow moose, — how a mighty Indian 
hunter, whose name I forget, succeeding in killing this 
queen of the moose tribe with great difficulty, while 
her calf was killed somewhere among the islands in 
Penobscot Bay, and, to his eyes, this mountain had 
still the form of the moose in a reclining posture, its 
