FOREST AND STREAM 
5 
* 
r>99 
A Very Good Head Obtained on the Newfoundland Barrens. 
into Canada until Sunday, and no trains left on 
Sunday in Newfoundland or the Eastern part of 
Canada. We therefore knew that we would 
have to make a long day of it. We started 
heavily loaded about six in the morning and took 
our packs down to Pynsent Lake. There we 
loaded the raft and discovered that it would not 
hold us all so Dan and I were elected to walk, 
while the raft was poled four miles down the 
edge of the lake. The walking was about the 
worst imaginable, being along the steep sides of 
a mountain leading down to the lake, over small 
scrub and fallen timber. In addition, it came on 
to snow heavily so that it was worse as we went 
along. Dan wanted to keep up with the raft so 
he went through the timber at top speed and we 
reached the lower end of the lake just about a 
minute before the raft arrived. 
We were now four miles from the river and 
taking our packs we started across the marsh the 
way we had come. By ten o’clock we were at 
the river. We made a fire and Dan got out the 
last of the whiskey and everybody had a hot 
Scotch and then we put all the stuff in the canoes 
and started down the river to Terra Nova. 
The first six miles down the river was fast 
paddling and we arrived near the entrance to the 
lake about noon and stopped on a sand bar. 
While the rest of the party were getting lunch. 
Dan set a lynx trap on the bar near us, and I 
have since heard from him, saying that when he 
went back he found a big lynx in the trap. He 
had seen the tracks of the lynx both on the way 
going up and coming down and so had decided 
that this was his regular haunt. We had lunch 
of ham and beans and dough boys. The latter 
had to be cooked twice because Piney filled the 
pot too full so that when they raised they auto¬ 
matically extinguished the fire and burned the 
boys and the pot. The second attempt was more 
successful and at half past one we were through 
with lunch and had started down Terra Nova 
Lake. A head wind was blowing, splashing the 
water over the bows of the canoes and for about 
three hours we put all the strength we had into 
the paddles. By the time we reached the bottom 
of the lake and were once more in the river I 
felt that my arms and back were nearly broken. 
At last we beached the canoes at Terra Nova 
As soon as they grated on the shore Smith and 
I jumped out and started for the station house 
as hard as we could go to get the news from 
home and the latest account of the war. When 
we had left, the battle of the Aisne and a big 
battle on the Russian frontier were proceeding 
merrily and we expected great news. At the 
station we found the station agent’s father, who 
was visiting him, standing in front of the stove. 
He seemed to be a well-informed man and he 
told us that as far as the war was concerned 
nothing had happened except that Turkey had 
started in to fight also, and that things were going 
along about the same as when we left. It seemed 
impossible to us that nothing had changed during 
the three weeks we had been out of the world. 
This was the first time that I had had a 
chance to view the metropolis of Terra Nova. 
On one side of the river was a deserted saw mill 
and four or five tumbled down houses, the sole 
purpose of which was to furnish Dan with 
boards to make crates for the heads. On the 
other side was a big dilapidated shack. At one 
end of this live'd a section hand with several 
dirty looking children, while in the rear, lived the 
station agent in one little room with a telegraph 
instrument, a chair and a stove. There was noth¬ 
ing else but a sea of mud and the railroad track. 
We found one or two letters awaiting us and 
we gladly abandoned the slush of the station 
house and went back to the river to the tent. 
Meanwhile Dan had got some boards and crated 
the heads and we had supper and sat down to 
wait for the train which was not due until two in 
the morning. The evening passed slowly and we 
had tea and another supper at eleven o’clock. 
Although we had packed seven miles and pad- 
died seventeen that day, we all sat up around the 
tent and smoked and told stories until about 
train time. The last two hours were spent 
waiting for a train that was two hours late. It 
was half past four before we said good-bye to 
Dan, Piney and the Sweetapple Twins and 
climbed on board the train for Port Aux Bas¬ 
ques with two hind quarters of caribou on the 
platform of the car to keep cool. 
It snowed hard all the way through Newfound¬ 
land and at the Northern end of the Island we 
saw a number of caribou hunters along the rail¬ 
road track waiting for caribou to cross in migra¬ 
tion. We arrived at North Sidney, changed our 
clothes, packed our trunks and went to the sta¬ 
tion to take the night train for Boston. We ar¬ 
rived twenty minutes early and found the station 
filled with soldiers leaving for the front. They 
were singing Tipperary, the people were shouting 
and cheering, and the women were crying. It was 
all very exciting and we watched it with the deep¬ 
est interest until our train pulled out. Then, as 
we were sitting in the smoking compartment I 
leaned over to Smith, and, putting my hand on 
his knee, said, “It was all very interesting, wasn’t 
it, but how long do you suppose it would have 
been before you thought of that we went off with 
out checking our baggage?” Our trunks and other 
paraphernalia were left in the station at Sidney. 
Such are the horrors of war! 
(Thf. End.) 
For a Swift Newfoundland River Cruising, This Canoe Appears Dangerously Overloaded. 
