June 8, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
719 
Through North Woods by Canoe 
By JACK 
W E had only gone a hundred yards and were 
in the first of the rapids when we saw 
ahead a series of drops varying from five 
to eight feet and large boulders strewn every¬ 
where, but as we could not paddle to shore, an 
immediate action was necessary. Both jumped out 
and managed to stop the wild flight of the canoe 
and its contents to certain destruction. The force 
of the water almost carried us off our feet. How¬ 
ever, we slowly worked in toward shore and with 
a sigh of relief sat down and viewed our feet and 
legs which had been scratched by the sharp rocks. 
As the sun was already behind the hills we por¬ 
taged the canoe up a steep embankment to a road 
and turned it bottom up. Putting on some cloth¬ 
ing we started down the road, each with a duffle 
bag on his shoulder. On inquiry we were told 
there was a hotel a short distance below the 
bridge, named after the vil¬ 
lage, Redford. It was one 
story high, with a gable roof, 
which part contained the sleep¬ 
ing rooms, and one section of 
the ground floor, the village 
grocery store and butcher 
shop. A stoop ran along the 
front of the building with 
benches distributed here and 
there which at the time were 
occupied by old bearded in¬ 
habitants and hangers-on, who 
gazed at us in astonishment. 
A good wash put us in fine 
fettle, and the amount of grub 
we inade to disappear (for 
which we paid the munificent 
sum of twenty-five cents a 
plate) would give a city res- ‘ 
taurateur heart failure. Fin¬ 
ished with -supper, we sat around smoking 
and swapping yarns with the proprietor and 
his “Dad,” the latter being eighty years of age. 
The place of business, he informed us, was es¬ 
tablished when he was a boy, and his stories of 
the Saranac Valley fifty years ago, the log drives 
down the Saranac River, the log jams at High 
Falls, and the wild time when the river men 
“hit” the town were very interesting. Later in the 
evening Johnny inquired out of curiosity whether 
there was anything to drink in the house, no bar 
being in sight, at which the proprietor took up 
a lantern and led us to the rear of the building 
where there was a small room about six feet 
wide and twelve feet long, containing a small 
counter. In the good old days during the drives 
we were told the principal part of the river- 
man’s earnings were spent here, but the county 
having gone dry, he regretted not being able to 
serve us with anything stronger than ginger 
ale. 
-At 9 o’clock the old cronies who had been 
lounging around left, and the proprietor began a 
series of yawns, from which we deduced that 
it must be bed time, so with him in the lead, 
lantern in hand, we ascended a flight of uncar¬ 
peted stairs, then ducked to escape an overhead 
{Concluded from last iveek.) 
beam and were ushered into our sleeping quarters 
for the night. 
We were awakened next morning by the crow¬ 
ing of. the roosters in the barnyard, but as all 
was still, both within and without, we took a 
beauty sleep for an hour, when a knock on the 
door notified us to prepare for breakfast. Our 
meal over, we hiked up the road for the canoe, 
to put it afloat at the foot of the rapids, our in¬ 
tention being to let one man take the boat and 
outfit down, and the other two to walk along the 
road, until the water should become deep enough 
to float us. Reaching the canoe, we discovered' 
that during the night some prowling beast had 
cleaned us out of the mess of catfish we had 
hidden beneath it. 
As to the character of the country we had still 
to pass through before reaching Plattsburg, we 
were told that the going would only be rough 
for a “short piece,” which we could not estimate, 
for we had never heard such an expression of 
distance before. Our information came in such 
bad form and mixture of “short pieces” and '‘long- 
pieces,” one informant being contradicted by the 
other before the words had hardly left his lips, 
that we decided none of them knew what they 
were talking about. We felt, however, that being 
still quite a distance from Plattsburg and about 
1,200 feet higher than the level of Lake Cham¬ 
plain, that the outlook was quite dubious, as far 
as paddling was concerned from the low condi¬ 
tion of the water, so that when two farmers re¬ 
turning home from a week’s paddling trip 
through the country offered to take us as far 
as Morrisonville for the small amount of $2, we 
accepted.it immediately. 
The canoe was lashed to the wagon and the 
duffle, which we picked up at the hotel, was 
stowed in a barrel and roped to the side. We 
covered mile after mile in this fashion, and now 
and then as we caught a glimpse of the river, 
apparently nothing but a mass of boulders for 
long stretches and hardly any water, we con¬ 
gratulated ourselves on our good luck in secur¬ 
ing this conveyance. Our farmer acquaintances. 
like "Si’’ Perkes, were very talkative and interest¬ 
ing, and when we stopped at noon to feed the 
horses, they proposed our sharing in their lunch, 
but as we had been munching on cakes and eat¬ 
ing pears from their surplus stock all morning, 
we refused the offer with many thanks. Half 
an hour’s rest, and we were on our way again. 
Coming to a stop before a steep hill, one of the 
farmers jumped out of the wagon and beckoned 
us to follow him. He led us through a strip of 
woodland until we came to a high bluff. Below, 
the water rushed through a canon, increasing in 
speed at every foot, now slipping over rocks at 
a very steep angle and dashing and tumbling 
until it appeared like a mass of foam, then mak¬ 
ing a final drop of. forty feet, which splashed 
the spray in every direction. At the foot of the 
hill we again got aboard for the last time. 
On arriving at Morrisonville 
our outfit was unloaded, and 
we found the water was too 
low to navigate, so Johnny 
once more put off in the canoe,, 
attired in a bathing suit, while 
his other companions walked! 
along the road with the dufifle. 
It seemed the further we 
traveled the further away the 
road became from the river, so 
when a light runabout contain¬ 
ing three young sports stopped 
beside us and asked us to 
climb aboard, we did so with¬ 
out hesitating. On reaching 
Plattsburg we made inquiries 
as to the condition of the 
river upstream, and were in¬ 
formed there was a number 
of dams, the first one about 
five miles distant, which furnished water power 
for a paper mill. Within a short time we were ■ 
in connection with the mill by telephone, also 
with Johnny, who assured us everything was all 
right, having borrowed an overcoat, and made 
arrangements to sleep in a farmhouse, also to 
have the canoe trucked down to the lake front 
in the morning. Jack and Ansel camped for the 
night in the rear of a private dwelling, situated 
in the center of the town. 
With the dawn of day, the rain, which had 
started to come down heavy at midnight, turned 
into a drizzle, but nevertheless we packed up our 
outfit, and after a breakfast supplied by a French- 
Canadian family who owned the property on 
which we had camped, the duffle was carried to 
the lake, where we awaited Johnny’s arrival. 
.About 10 o’clock he showed up. and in a short 
time we started down Lake Champlain, hugging 
the shore, so as to make a hurried landing in 
case of a “blow,” which we were warned against 
at this time of the year. We passed to the lee 
of A^alcour Island, and about 3 o’clock the east 
wind, which was blowing, increased, and by the 
time we had reached Port Kent, the water was 
breaking on the shore like surf. .At an oppor¬ 
tune moment we shot in behind a rockv exlen- 
