FOREST AND STREAM 
401 
Across The Heart of Newfoundland 
Story of A Journey Through a Fish and Game Region at the Front Door of Civilization But 
Hitherto Unexplored 
Narrative of a Trip by Raynal C. Bolling and Livingston E. Jones From the Journal of the Former. 
(Concluded From June Forest and Stream.) 
This is the third and last installment of the story of the very interesting trip of Messrs. Boll¬ 
ing and Jones from Badger Station west and southe through the center of Newfoundland. As 
stated before the journey for the most part was through unexplored country. One of the bodies 
of water traversed—Maelpaeg Lake—while already known and mapped roughly, is called the Lake 
of One Thousand Islands, and is said to contain that number. Think of the fine camping and 
fishing spots which a lake like this holds for the future! This story will be followed later in 
the season by another one of caribou hunting in Newfoundland, equally interesting. 
EPTEMBER 15th. A fine day 
with light westerly wind. We 
started through a good stiff 
rapid just below the camp with 
more following. One after 
another, drops from twenty 
to fifty feet in a quarter of a 
mile with several exciting ex¬ 
periences. Twice John having only one good 
hand lost his pole in the deep holes between 
the smooth slippery boulders; the second time 
was at the head of a very violent rapid about a 
quarter of a mile long. Bolling and he were 
crossing to the westerly side when the pole got 
away and it was impossible to hold the boat 
without it. They hastily got under way with 
the paddles and for a few seconds it looked 
as if they were going over the biggest drop 
where the river sheared across, broadside on, 
but the paddles straightened them in the nick 
of time as they went through at express speed, 
shipping water. An upset here would have 
broken the canoe, the stuff would have been 
lost, while Bolling and John would have had a 
hard time to get out. Both times the pole fol¬ 
lowed down stream and was recovered. An¬ 
other time, when they were lowering the loaded 
canoe and had to shoot it out into the heavy 
current, there was too much slack on the line 
and Bolling was unable to stop it. The knotted 
end came into his hands, jerking him off a high 
rock and it seemed he would have to let go or 
be dragged into the deep current, but by good 
luck his body brought up against a large boulder 
and the runaway canoe was checked and pulled 
into the backwater. 
After lunch, an hour of the same heavy water, 
my canoe swamped in a backset while be¬ 
ing lowered over a drop, but in the eddy below 
we were able to get the stuff out and the canoe 
was uninjured. Presently the character of the 
river changed. It broadened out and the rap¬ 
ids became shallower so that we were able to 
drop down easily enough on the pole or run 
with the paddle, occasionally getting out to wade 
the boats across long flat bars, the river like 
a narrow lake with swift current. Since noon 
we had been expecting to come to the big falls 
which we supposed to be some eight miles up 
Little River from the head of tidewater, but 
they did not appear and we finally had to camp, 
Below Was a Series of Small Falls. 
after having come probably some fifteen miles. 
Saw two doe caribou to-day, both very tame, 
one of which on a bar in the river let the canoe 
drift down within ten feet. 
September 16th. Got away in the morning 
as soon as possible after breakfast, washing dishes 
and stuffing everything into the water-proof bags. 
Without these bags we should have been in 
trouble, for the boats not only leaked freely, 
but water was shipped in running the rapids and 
an average of one day in three it rained. The 
stepping in and out after wading in the water 
also kept several inches sloshing about in the 
bottom of the canoes. 
Running through a rapid just below the camp 
where the river breaks through some slaty ledges 
unlike the previous rocks, we came into a long 
still water, with high birch-covered shores. 
Around every turn we were hoping to see the 
river break through the mountains to the south¬ 
west, but presently found it turning sharply to 
the east where was a telegraph line crossing at 
the lower end of a still water, and now we felt 
sure we were just above the last falls. There 
was half a mile of long, hard, rapid bending 
through the hills from east to west, down which 
we lowered the boats, until at the end there 
was a sheer drop of fifteen feet where we had 
to unload and carry along a narrow shelf some 
three feet wide and twelve feet above deep 
swift water. The river ran off to the east again 
with sharp curves, rapids and islands. We now 
came to what we thought was the last fall before 
salt water. Crossing in the swift current just 
above the rapids at the head of the fall, we 
landed on the left bank. Below was a series of 
small falls and a third of a mile further down 
it was evident that there was a tremendous fall, 
for a column of spray and mist hung over it in 
great column. We afterward found this drop 
was in two falls, one of fifty and the other of 
several hundred feet. 
Leaving the canoes we each took a load and 
started over the rocks along the shore at the 
top of the falls, intending to pack down and 
lunch below and then get all the stuff over and 
be out to salt water by night. Leaving the river 
and traveling back on the barren on account of 
the drop, we came into a country cut through 
with great ravines, and going on a short dis¬ 
tance, looked over into a wonderful deep gorge 
where hundreds of feet down the river boiled 
like a caldron and appeared about six inches 
wide. This was not encouraging. Clambering 
down the precipitous bank of a ravine, Bolling 
and I left the 1 men to cook lunch while we went 
on a half mile further to a point where we 
could see two miles of the river in a deep gorge 
and white with rapids. It seemed impassable 
for boats and looked as if it would take a week 
to get through with our canoes and outfit if the 
canoes could be gotten through at all. 
As our time was short, we seriously considered 
abandoning the canoes and all the stuff except 
one load apiece with which to travel out over 
the high barren mountains the other side of the 
river to the southwest, and so reach the coast. 
Went back and down into the ravine where the 
men had cooked lunch. This was our last meat, 
and grub was running short—no sugar or baking 
powder, twenty pounds of moist caked flour, five 
pounds of mouldy green cornmeal, a little tea, 
a pound of dried fruit, a cup of beans and two 
pounds of soggy rice and macaroni mixed. 
This was enough to last us a week on very hard 
fare and the men responded in admirable fash¬ 
ion. Leaving our loads here we went south for 
two miles along the edge of the gorge to learn 
more of the river below; then Bolling and John 
went on some miles further to see around the 
