THE ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH. 
267 
Falls. We pitched no tent, but lay on the sand, putting 
a few handfuls of grass and twigs under us, there being 
no evergreen at hand. For fuel we had some of the 
charred stumps. Our various hags of provisions had got 
quite wet in the rapids, and I arranged them about the 
fire to dry. The fall close by was the principal one on 
this stream, and it shook the earth under us. It was a 
cool, because dewy, night; the more so, probably, owing 
to the nearness of the falls. The Indian complained a 
good deal, and thought afterward that he got a cold there 
which occasioned a more serious illness. We were not 
much troubled by mosquitoes at any rate. I lay awake a 
good deal from anxiety, but, unaccountably to myself, was 
at length comparatively at ease respecting him. At first 
I had apprehended the worst, but now I had little doubt 
but that I should find him in the morning. From time 
to time I fancied that I heard his voice calling through 
the roar of the falls from the opposite side of the river; 
but it is doubtful if we could have heard him across the 
stream there. Sometimes I doubted whether the Indian 
had really seen his tracks, since he manifested an un¬ 
willingness to make much of a search, and then my anx¬ 
iety returned. 
It was the most wild and desolate region we had 
camped in, where, if anywhere, one might expect to meet 
with befitting inhabitants, but I heard only the squeak of 
a night-hawk flitting over. The moon in her first quar¬ 
ter, in the fore part of the night, setting over the bare 
rocky hills, garnished with tall, charred, and hollow stumps 
or shells of trees, served to reveal the desolation. 
Thursday, July 30. 
I aroused the Indian early this morning to go in search 
