256 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
own course each moment, between the rocks and shal¬ 
lows, and to get into it, moving forward always with 
the utmost possible moderation, and often holding on, if 
you can, that you may inspect the rapids before you. 
By the Indian’s direction we took an old path on the 
south side, which appeared to keep down the stream, 
though at a considerable distance from it, cutting off 
bends, perhaps* to Second Lake, having first taken the 
course from the map with a compass, which was north¬ 
easterly, for safety. It was a wild wood-path, with a few - 
tracks of oxen which had been driven over it, probably 
to some old camp clearing, for pasturage, mingled with 
the tracks of moose which had lately used it. We kept on 
steadily for about an hour without putting down our packs, 
occasionally winding around or climbing over a fallen tree, 
for the most part far out of sight and hearing of the riv¬ 
er ; till, after walking about three miles, we were glad to 
find that the path came to the river again at an old camp 
ground, where there was a small opening in the forest, 
at which we paused. Swiftly as the shallow and rocky 
river ran here, a continuous rapid with dancing waves, I 
saw, as I sat on the shore, a long string of sheldrakes, 
which something scared, run up the opposite side of the 
stream by me, with the same ease that they commonly 
did down it, just touching the surface of the waves, and 
getting an impulse from them as they flowed from under 
them; but they soon came back, driven by the Indian, 
who had fallen a little behind us, on account of the wind¬ 
ings. He shot round a point just above, and came to 
land by us with considerable water in his canoe. He 
had found it, as he said, “ very strong water,” and had 
been obliged to land once before to empty out what he 
had taken in. He complained that it strained him to 
