688 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June i, 1912 
necessity of getting out and wading by using the 
paddles as poles and working with increase ef¬ 
fort. Shortly we came to Raquette Falls, which 
is one and one-half miles in length, but the por¬ 
tage is made easy by a road the entire distance, 
although if desired a wagon can be called by 
telephone which some up-to-date farmer, with a 
sense for making money, has installed. From 
the number of wagon tracks it is evident that 
this conveyance is very popular with the canoe¬ 
ing element who pass through this section. 
On reaching the end of the carry we immedi¬ 
ately loaded the canoe and very soon reached the 
entrance to Stony Creek Ponds, but on account 
of the low water in the channel one of us was 
obliged to walk. On a bridge which crossed the 
inlet was a band of six or eight men with high- 
powered rifles who had been out in search of 
deer, but were unusccessful and were celebrating 
by having target practice shooting into the woods 
at everything and anything. One fellow in par¬ 
ticular was so careless with the handling of his 
gun that it accidentally went off in the midst of 
the crowd, but luckily did not do any injury, ex¬ 
cepting to make an indentation in the iron lattice 
work and spatter the lead in every direction. We 
asked to stop their shooting until we had passed 
around the bend. Notwithstanding this request, 
the firing was continued, and for some time we 
were in constant fear of a bullet being shot into 
our vitals. 
Ansel, who walked up the road, told us that 
he had seen a black bear a short distance beyond, 
pointing in the direction from whence he had 
come, and after being led back to the spot on 
a “double quick’’ we were surprised to find Mr. 
Bruin chained to a stake. A half-mile carry 
brought us to Upper Saranac Lake, whose sur¬ 
face was like a sheet of glass. Our time on this 
lake was shortlived, however, for after travel¬ 
ing about three-quarters of a mile we came to 
a carry around the Saranac Club, about 200 yards, 
to Middle Saranac Lake. On reaching its outlet 
we made camp, but had no sooner partaken of 
supper and erected our lean-to, when it rained 
and blew. As the tent was pitched in a spot 
sheltered by pine trees, we were very comfort¬ 
able. 
Being a couple of hours’ run from the town 
of Saranac Lake, we did not bother to prepare 
breakfast, but started out for town in a cold 
drizzle. Before reaching' the end of Lower Sara¬ 
nac Lake, the rain stopped. To reach the town 
required a carry of two miles. 
Jack carried the outfit, and his two companions 
doubled up on the canoe. After the former had 
covered about half a mile, he was invited to com¬ 
plete the journey in a touring car, and accepted 
after a little persuasion. When his two compan¬ 
ions arrived with the canoe, all reported a tre¬ 
mendous appetite and made a beeline for a res¬ 
taurant. 
The town was full of hunters, some carrying 
rifles, others pack baskets. The general opinion 
was, however, that very few deer had been shot 
up to this time on account of the th’ck foliage, 
which kept them from view. With a liberal dish 
of bacon and eggs, some pastry and cofifee put 
under our belt, we were eager to get away down 
the Saranac River, which we figured from the 
map would be a gradual drop of i 800 feet to 
the level of Lake Champlain, Our grub supply 
being low. Jack proceeded to do some purchas¬ 
ing, while Ansel and Johnns^ wrote some letters. 
Our start was made from the railroad bridge at 
the end of some rapids, where the water was 
just about deep enough to float our craft loaded 
as it was. The width of the river at this point 
was between fifty and sixty feet, and the speed 
of the current below the rapids was about one 
mile an hour. For quite a distance the river, 
which soon narrowed down to a winding brook 
twelve feet wide, took us through a low-lying 
and grassy valley, until about nine miles from 
Saranac Lake, where it widened out to possibly 
too to 125 feet, and the water became deeper as 
we progressed. Tla^e banks were lined with white 
birch, all timber of any size seemingly having 
been logged or burned. It might not be amiss 
to state that our idea of the Saranac Valley was 
one of a deep swift-flowing stream, with mighty 
pines along its shores. Therefore, you can ap¬ 
preciate this was quite a surprise to us. 
The sun was fast nearing the horizon when we 
rounded a bend in the river and immediately 
were confronted with rapids as far as we could 
see. We began to get up speed, and in the ex¬ 
citement did not discover we were going at a 
good clip down an incline, until without warning 
the canoe ran upon a boulder, which was hardly 
two inches below the surface. The boat did not 
stop until the contents of the canoe began to 
raise, showing that we were hard aground, and 
as it began to swing around broadsides to the 
rapids. Jack jumped out and held her nose up¬ 
stream; Johnny slid overboard next and the 
canoe was towed to shore. Johnny volunteered 
to take the boat down the rapids with the outfit 
and in the descent many rocks were bumped 
and the result was a badly battered canoe, one 
rip being fully ten inches long. Jack was dry¬ 
ing out his clothes at the end of the rapids, and 
Ansel had just finished buying apples from a 
passing farmer, wh'^n the canoe with Johnny in 
the center mounted on the duffle bags was spied 
coming down stream under a good headway. 
After landing and dumping out the water we 
paddled half a mile further and made camp for 
the night in a center of an old stage road at a 
height of about thirty feet from the river. 
A bridge, which was the connecting link with 
the road on the opposite side of the stream, had 
been removed, as its usefulness had gone with 
the opening up of the new State road from Sara¬ 
nac Lake to Plattsburg. While eating supper a 
smell of burning rags was in the air and when 
Jack arose later to get his socks that were dry¬ 
ing out before the camp-fire, he was chagrined 
to find the only pair he possessed with their soles 
burned off. A single owl in a nearby tree was 
our only company that evening, and he seemed 
to want to impress that fact upon us, judging 
from its continual hooting. 
The next day we were away early, and as the 
current gradually became swifter, we were not 
surprised to soon find ourselves obliged to land 
and unload the duffle for a carry. Jack offered 
to take the canoe down the rapids to the dam 
at Franklin Falls. As the water was quite swift, 
it seemed only a few seconds before he reached 
the dam. The rapids here rushed through a 
tunnel beneath the dam with considerable force, 
and he decided to undertake the passage through, 
but when hardly a canoe’s length from the en¬ 
trance, he saw there was a drop of fifteen feet 
into a pit of foaming water surrounded by logs 
and with a thrust of a paddle brought the canoe 
broadside to the opening and jumped out on the 
base of the dam. The. boat immediately began 
to fill, and it appeared as though it would be 
crushed by the rushing water, but with the aid 
of the bowline he managed to pull it to shore. 
His companions noticed the predicament and 
came to his assistance, whereupon the canoe was 
portaged around the dam and our troubles were 
ended for the time. 
After proceeding a distance we entered a flat 
country that had been used for the storage of 
water for power purposes. A more dilapidated 
and ghostly scene had never before met our eyes 
and the thousands of dead trees, some standing 
and others uprooted and covered with mud, were 
mute evidence of the terrible destruction. We 
paddled with increased vigor to get out of this 
gloomy place, but it seemed hours before our 
task was accomplished, the snake-like windings 
of the channel making it necessary for us to 
cover practically three times the distance as the 
crow flies. Presently we arrived at the village 
of Union Falls, whose population consisted of 
one family and a cottage, not to forget a team 
of horses and a flock of chickens. 
We portaged one-quarter of a mile to the 
power house. Johnny and Ansel melted some 
tar, which they found here and smeared it over 
the rips in the canoe, as it was leaking so badly 
now that we found it necessary for one man to 
keep bailing continuously. Jack spied a small 
school of catfish or bullheads, and with two 
worms caught thirty-six of them in less than 
that many minutes. The place seemed fairly 
alive with these fish, and view them from the 
shade as they sunned themselves, was a beauti¬ 
ful sight. 1 he lone attendant at the power house 
seemed surprised when we left, taking the fish 
we had caught with us, for as he stated he did 
not. think they were good to eat. On his advice 
we stopped at the farmhouse of Simon Perkes, 
whom we hired to drive us to Clayburg, about 
six miles distant. The river from here to that 
point is very shallow, and the road is such a 
distance back that in the event of a carry being 
necessary, much time would be lost, and then again 
unless we followed the banks of the river, it would 
be hard to tell where the canoe could be put afloat 
again, which would result in a lot of unnecessary 
portaging which, with a hot sun beating upon us, 
did not appear very pleasant. We traveled for 
almost two hours as passengers of “Si,’’ who was 
a talkative and interesting character, and when 
we put off on reaching our destination, Clayburg, 
the history of this section of the Saranac Valley 
was no more a mystery to us. From a high 
rid.ge we could see Mt. Marcy and Whiteface, 
whose summits were covered with snow. We 
soon discovered that the water at this point was 
not deep enough to float the entire outfit, so 
Ansel and Jack walked along the road, while 
Johnny took the duffle and canoe down stream. 
After covering a coupje of miles in this manner. 
Jack got into the canoe also, as it appeared some 
swift rapids were ahead, and Johnny would need 
assistance. To avoid the discomforts of a spill 
in the only clothes we possessed, koth donned 
bathing suits and t’ed the duffle bags securely. 
[to be concluded.] 
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