THE ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH. 
229 
down on the sand between us and the fire for the sake 
of the smoke, which he tried to make enter his blanket 
about his face, and for the same purpose he lit his pipe 
and breathed the smoke into his blanket. 
As we lay thus on the shore, with nothing between us 
and the stars, I inquired what stars he was acquainted 
with, or had names for. They were the Great Bear, 
which he called by this name, the Seven Stars, which he 
had no English name for, “ the morning star,” and “ the 
north star.” 
In the middle of the night, as indeed each time that 
we lay on the shore of a lake, we heard the voice of the 
loon, loud and distinct, from far over the lake. It is a 
very wild sound, quite in keeping with the place and the 
circumstances of the traveller, and very unlike the voice 
of a bird. I could lie awake for hours listening to it, it 
is so thrilling. When camping in such a wilderness as 
this, you are prepared to hear sounds from some of its in¬ 
habitants which will give voice to its wildness. Some idea 
of bears, wolves, or panthers runs in your head naturally, 
and when this note is first heard very far off at midnight, 
as you lie with your ear to the ground, — the forest being 
perfectly still about you, you take it for granted that it 
is the voice of a wolf or some other wild beast, for only 
the last part is heard when at a distance, — you conclude 
that it is a pack of evolves baying the moon, or, per¬ 
chance, cantering after a moose. Strange as it may 
seem, the 66 mooing ” of a cow on a mountain-side comes 
nearest to my idea of the voice of a bear; and this bird’s 
note resembled that. It was the unfailing and character¬ 
istic sound of those lakes. We were not so lucky as to 
hear wolves howl, though that is an occasional serenade. 
Some friends of mine, who two years ago went up the 
