344 
FOREST AND 
STREAM 
so sore and painful he cannot use it much. I 
have dressed it each morning after a fashion. 
We tried fresh balsam from the trees on it this 
morning, which is considered a sovereign rem¬ 
edy for cuts and bruises among the men here. 
The balsam may have had a healing effect, but ' 
it also had a hardening effect on the flesh which 
did not lessen the pain. 
Wednesday, September loth. Stormed hard 
all day again. I awoke some time before day¬ 
light to hear the wind making a great roar in 
the spruce. Went to sleep again in disgust. At 
breakfast time, the lake was white as far as one 
could see so that any start was out of the ques¬ 
tion. This lying by for two whole days when 
our time is already short, makes me most dis¬ 
gusted. It is the thing of all others in camping 
that is hardest to put up with. Here it is worse 
because we had one of our poorest camps made 
in the rain and just at dark when we had no 
choice. Our tent is too far from the fire to get 
any warmth whatever and cannot be moved 
nearer on account of the stumps. Our only way 
of drying it out is to fill the big three-gallon 
aluminum pail with live coals and set it inside 
of the tent. This takes off a lot of dampness. 
No rain for a few hours this morning, and I 
was just getting into fairly good humor when it 
began to rain again, driving in hard and cold. 
Had to give up work after I nad about fixed 
one boat. Do not know how well these repairs 
will hold because I had only canvas, copper 
tacks and shellac which does not work well in 
the rain. The guides were so sure of the 
efficiency of spruce gum that I let them dis¬ 
card the can of white lead I brought along. I 
shall be wiser next time. Both boats had been 
leaking badly for four or five days due to the 
hard usage. 
I spent the afternoon on odds and ends of 
repairs and changes in my gear; the day has 
gone somehow. To-night we can only hope the 
northeast gale will abate enough to let us get 
down the lake to-morrow. John’s hand has 
been very painful all day so that I put it in a 
sling after dressing it this morning. He can 
now hardly use it at all. Where the skin is 
merely broken, it appears to be getting better 
and does not hurt so much, but across the 
back, it is very sore although not much swollen 
Since losing our baker, we have been mixing 
bread in the frying pan, and it has been greasy, 
black, heavy stuff in spite of John’s efforts. To¬ 
night, I rigged a wire bail on the big pan, and 
we are trying it as a baking pot, suspended over 
the fire, with coals heaped on the top. 
Thursday, September nth. Five o’clock saw 
us packing canoe bags, taking any ropes off tent 
stakes and trees and stowing the outfit in the 
canoes, for the wind had dropped during the 
night and we were eager to make up for lost 
time. There was still enough sea running to 
compel us to avoid the big open stretches and 
to seek shelter, dodging in and out among the 
clustering islands. The fog made it impossible 
to see more than 200 yards, and not knowing 
the lake nor the location of the outlet, except 
that the maps showed it on the southerly end, 
we took a compass course with allowances for 
island dodging. The fog came down thicker, 
and about 11 o’clock, we were convinced that we 
were poking in and out along the main south¬ 
east shore on account of having to come back 
out of several coves where we had expected to 
find channels. At 11:30, just when we were 
rather perplexed, the shore of the lake bore 
away sharply to the westward and a lift in the 
fog showed the outlet dead ahead with a good 
size river pouring out. It was a lucky chance 
to travel all the morning in a fog on strange 
waters and bump into the outlet. 
Going ashore for lunch, we found some old 
yellow bedboughs and some axe work. Bailed 
out the canoes and started again over a short 
rapid at the outlet where the river bends N. N. 
E. and is very confusing as it ought to go south 
and we were not sure that there might be an¬ 
other outlet as this was going in the wrong 
direction for us. The canoes had to be un¬ 
loaded again here for a 50 yard carry over a 
bad pitch, then a series of little lakes full of 
island and deep bays, even with several outlets 
into the next lake, then a series of short rapids, 
John skillfully using the pole with one hand, 
his burned left hand being useless for the last 
three days, but getting along with it pretty well 
cn the upper end of the paddle where he does 
not have to bend it. 
Bolling and I were considerably disturbed 
over his wound as the skin was peeled to the raw 
flesh and the back of his hand and wrist swollen 
to twice their size. Should blood poisoning set 
in, it would be serious. Many days from the 
crudest medical aid and in a rough country, 
but the first aid dressings which Bolling ap¬ 
plied night and morning, together with uncon¬ 
taminated air and surroundings, were undoubt¬ 
edly what saved him. 
We now ran into a lake about three miles 
long and spied a young stag on the right hand 
shore, and the meat supply being low, Bolling 
generously offered me the shot, but I told him 
to go ahead. The caribou was about 100 yards 
away, standing for the first shot, the four others 
while he ran along the shore; three hits, any¬ 
one of which would have been fatal. After the 
necessary cutting up, we went on again and 
soon saw another stag, which Allen and I chased 
and tried to cut off as it swam across a little 
bay, but could not quite make it, and as his 
horns were not large, we did not interfere with 
him further, but shortly went ashore and had 
a comfortable camp after having traveled fif¬ 
teen miles on Maelpaeg Lake in the morning and 
six or seven miles down river in the afternoon. 
September 12th. Bolling and I had intended 
to get up early and have a look for stags on the 
marshes east of the lake, but the fog was thick 
and John’s hand giving him a good deal of pain, 
we decided not to go but to take advantage of 
every minute in getting down to the coast. The 
lake proved to be eight or ten miles long, narrow 
and full of islands, evidently, Puddops Lake, 
the map being quite accurate to the end of it 
and then only dotted lines. 
Wolf Mountain to the southeast, a fine bar¬ 
ren hill a thousand feet high or more and a few 
miles back from the shore. On our way down 
the lake, we landed and thought of going up it 
but after traveling across the barrens some dis¬ 
tance and having a fine view over miles of 
marsh and barren, but with no deer in sight, 
we decided to return to the boats and paddled 
down the lake with a strong northeast wind 
following that kicked up plenty of sea and made 
the shores white with spume. Ran the outlet 
into a fine swift river and over three good rips 
in the first mile before we held up for lunch. 
Then on down river through fast and heavy 
water into another small lake, where Bolling 
saw a stag on the opposite shore. Just then, 
Allen sung out that there were two good ones 
going up over the barrens on me nearer or left 
hand shore. The canoes were quickly put ashore 
and we ran up a steep little hill and just caught 
a glimpse of the two stags walking across to 
windward some 400 yards off. We hastily ran 
back part way down the little hill and then cut 
across the head of a cove and up another hill, 
traveling parallel to the stags but on the chord 
of their circle. 
Peering over the top of the hill, we saw them 
coming toward us, but did not have time to get 
the glasses out to count the points on their 
horns. The men said they were good heads. 
Bolling said I had better shoot, not intending to 
shoot himself. The stags were head on about 
125 yards away, and the further one having what 
appeared to be the better head, I fired at him 
with my 35 Winchester. The first shot missed, 
the second broke the hind leg and the third 
dropped him. Bolling when he. saw that the 
foremost stag did not go down after I had fired 
two shots, and thinking that that was the one at 
which I was shooting, since it had a fair head 
with the horns peeled and was now making off 
fast across him, could not resist and cut loose 
with four shots, the first two high, as he was 
well below us and the third and fourth from 
his Krag striking, the fourth just right through 
the fore shoulders making the big animal turn 
a complete somersault. The heads were very 
pretty with 23 or 24 points but we were both 
rather ashamed of our shooting. 
Rain coming on again, we made camp nearby 
in a grove of birch and all night the water came 
down in sheets, and though the tents leaked, 
we built a hot fire and made a good long 
night of it. 
September 13th. Bolling and I had wanted to 
go up on the barrens before breakfast, but there 
was such a gale that we gave it up and were off 
down river about 9 o’clock. After a half a mile 
we ran into a long heavy rapid with a drop of 
50 feet in a third of a mile. Had to unload 
twice but were able to lower the loaded boats 
over the rest of the pitch. The sixty-foot lines 
attached to the stern of the canoes were in¬ 
valuable. Where the water was so heavy the 
beats could not make it with men and loads, 
we would get out on the rocks and decide on 
the best plans to run the boats, one of us taking 
the line coi'ed on his arm and standing on a 
rock a little above the drop while another got 
the canoe pointed, shoved it Into the current 
which caught it and swept it over the fall. 
Should there be a succession of falls and the 
canoe taking them while the man on shore or 
on the rock with the rope had to keep up with 
the boat many and startling were the jumps and 
splashes that we made in working through these 
gorges. With a heavy current sweeping the 
boat, it would not do to tighten up on the rope 
unless the boat was true with the current or ex¬ 
cept in a case of absolute necessity to keep it 
from coming to grief on a rock, and even then 
the rope had to be tightened very carefully to 
avoid an upset. A very strong head wind made 
it harder to keep sufficient headway in quick- 
water this morning, and on account of the many 
deep holes, a pole was not practical. 
Three miles more of good strong water, 
which Bolling and John were able to run under 
the paddle. About one o’clock, we reached the 
head of a long narrow lake where the wind had 
kicked up such a sea that it was impossible to 
