a gale. At one 
time it looked as 
if we would have to 
pick our things 
from the _ bottom, 
as the head seas 
were very heavy, 
and it was only by 
hugging the shore 
within two and 
three feet, and 
keeping in the 
choppy breakers 
that we came 
through. We took 
the steamer from 
Bear Island, and it 
is still raining 
hard. I am now at 
the hotel at Tema- 
gami. 
To-day we start- 
ed on a trip to 
Shelburne and 
Acadia Townships, 
paddled all day in 
the rain, and 
ianded at an old Indian shack, where 
we were glad to take refuge and build 
a fire in the stove. 
APPARENTLY the place had not 
been lived in for two years. The 
inside reminded me of Huck Finn’s de- 
scription of the Cabin in the old boat 
floating down the Mississippi. There 
was an old box stove with holes in the 
top, very rusty but working O. K., three 
old trunks full of something so heavy 
that we could scarcely lift them, and 
covered with a litter of moth-eaten 
blankets and old canvas, three pairs of 
broken snow shoes, two old rusty 
muzzle loading shot guns, and a rusty 
rifle, a mink skin, moth eaten, an er- 
mine skin in same condition, a collec- 
tion of old pots and pans, some weeds 

An Indian family 
Page 715 

Portages are frequent in the north country 
(medicine the guides called them) hung 
from racks from the ceiling to dry, 
two bunks with frowsy old mattresses 
eaten by mice and rats, some old faded 
pictures on the walls—(‘“holy pictures” 
the guide informed me)—one of a priest 
kneeling beside an altar and one of 
Christ in St. Joseph’s arms, another of 
the same, but an old stained engraving, 
an old chest with a lot of women’s hats 
and old clothing hung over it. 
While we were loking at the trunks 
and thinking what a fine hiding place 
for a bootlegger’s stock they would be, 
a big snake glided up to the old bedding. 
Upon: removing the bedding I discov- 
ered two large snakes curled up in a 
nest and one tiny live rat, so young that 
its eyes were not yet open, with them. 
I promptly killed the snakes and one of 
them had five peculiar 
looking lumps along its 
neck, upon investigation 
they turned out to be 
young rats. We had ap- 
parently prevented it from 
swallowing the sixth. 
We put the young rat 
on the floor of the 
outhouse and a large rat, 
dark brown with a short 
tail, ran out from behind 
some rubbish and carried 
it off. The guides called 
it a beaver rat, as it feeds 
on twigs and bark, like a 
beaver, during the Win- 
ter. 
As there were a great 
many mosquitoes, we 
pitched the tents over the 
bunks and the canvas 
bottoms of the tents protected us from 
any crawly creatures, which most prob- 
ably inhabited the bunks. 
AFTER a good night’s rest we woke 
bright and early to find the rain 
over and a glorious clear sky awaiting 
us, so had an early breakfast and bid 
the “haunted” cabin farewell. 
Saw the oldest man in the north coun- 
try to-day—an old Indian called Mis- 
anabee, one hundred and fourteen years 
old. We gave him some tobacco and 
took a snapshot of him with his squaw. 
The old man has a great mop of grey 
hair (I have never yet seen a bald In- 
dian) and is quite “good in the head,” 
as my guide informed us, but he is al- 
most blind. 
Some Indians have a sense of humor. 
The American women are fond of ask- 
ing questions, and one woman asked an 
Indian how it was an Indian had no 
hair on their faces. He told her that 
they had to be out in the cold so much 
in the winter that when they pulled the 
ice off their faces the hair came out too. 
He said it very seriously, and the wo- 
man said, “Oh,” and believed it. An- 
other one asked what made all the calm 
spots which appeared in places on the 
water, although there was a light breeze 
blowing, and was told that “that was 
where they cut the ice in the winter.” 
E paddled along a small lake, and 
then up a winding creek in the 
middle of a dense forest with huge ce- 
dars and pine trees overhanging the 
creek, and for over a mile both banks 
were lined with deep blue iris. The 
next few days were spent in looking 
over some claims, and then we paddled 
back to Temagami. 
