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Terms, Five Dollars a Year. ) 
Ten Cents a Copy. 
NEW YORK, 
THURSDAY, 


art 73 § Volume I, Number 4, 
( 103 Fulton Street. 



kor the Forest and Stream. 
g EPHEMERA. 
———4— 

O see the tiny insect crew, 
The fairy fleet now sailing through 
The upper sea, as lightly 
As though time were a holiday, 
And life were childhood’s merry play, 
With visions glowing brightly. 
Philosophy has failed to show 
Their secret mission here below— 
The gypsy delegation. 
They do not speak, nor do they sing, 
Yet they on sportive wing may bring 
Some healing for the nation. 
“ Live while you live,’’ to me they say: 
“ Por lifeis but a summer's day, 
If we interpret rightly. 
Live while you live, with spirits light 
As airy footsteps in a flight 
To scenes that glow more brightly. 
“Live while you live—to-morrow’s sun, 
_ Alife that seemed but just begun, 
- May miss on his appearing. 
Be eager to enjoy the day,” 
They whisper as they sail away. 
On seas of hght careering. 
** Live while you live,’ my heart indites; 
Learn happy lessons from these mites, 
These pantomimic teachers, 
That dance with transports all the day, 
As though they were to live alway, 
As some enraptured creatures. 
But not like these, my soul's reply, 
Shall be thy nobler destiny; 
For thou shalt pase the portal, 
That known and unknown worlds divide, 
And life, not death, shatl there decide 
The fate of the immortal. 
Mantua Ewine. 
Trout ails from the Jlepiqay. 
PEAS TEs) Tells: 




Camp CAMPBELL, Nepigon River, August, 1873. 
HE first desideratum always when choosing a camp-site 
isa plentiful supply of water, and many other conveni- 
ences are set aside for this. Good water isa luxury that can- 
not be over-estimated. In this respect the sportsman on the 
Nepigon is favored above all others. He has always before 
him a never-failing supply, so remarkable for its coldness 
and its purity that even those who have drank of it habitu- 
ally for years cannot but speak of it whenever they taste 
its refreshing waters. Its.temperature is too cold for bath- 
ing. Even while we are cleaning our fish for breakfast, our 
fingers g. »w numb, and a morning ablution brings a rosy glow 
to the cheeks that the fairest belle might envy. Parties who 
capsize in its waters soon become stiffened and helpless. This 
morning, while fishing in mid-stream, an object was des- 
cried careering down upon the white crests of the rapids, 
in an eddy of which our canoe was anchored. As it swept 
past, we discovered it to be a canoe turned bottom up with 
& man clinging to the stern. Ina moment it had passed 
down into the deeper and still water. We cutloose quickly 
and paddled to the rescue. The unfortunate proved to 
be a hardy axeman belonging to the surveying party. He 
and another had capsized at the head of the rapid, a half 
mile above. His companion succeeded in grasping a limb 
and clambering on shore, but this one was swept down by 
the surging current, holding fast to the canoe, yet helpless 
in the resistless tide. He was almost insensible when picked 
up, and it took nearly two hours chaffing to bring his blood 
to its natural circulation. I stated in a previous letter that 
the temperature oY the Nepigon in mid summer is 32°. It 
is this extreme coldness combined with -its purity, that 
makes it such a splendid nursery for trout and other yarie- 
ties of fish, In this characteristic itis singular, for other 
rivers in this section are much warmer. 
may explain the phenomenon in part. 
Its great depth 
After a hasty breakfast we followed a trail through the 
woods to the head of the rapids, leaving John and the In- 
dians to strike the tent and haul the camp-stufl! over by 
wagon to the end of the portage. At this point is a.log store- 
house belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company where goods 
are temporarily housed while being conveyed to the sev- 
eral posts to the northward. Here the Nepigon river 
widens into a lake twelve miles long by two in width, a 
beautiful sheet of water, enclosed by uWdulating hills and 
bordered in some places by pebbly beaches and in others 
fringed by trees that grow to the water’s edge. A half a 
mile up the shore stood a solitary bark wigwam, and this, 
with the exception of the old log store-house, was the only 
sign of human occupation in this remote wilderness. Pres- 
ently the ox-cart drove up withits load of camp furniture 
and the canoe, and within a few minutes the frail craft was 
afloat and every article carefully bestowed in her, so as to 
make an even keel. The canoe was one of largest size and 
comfortably carried our party of six. The wind was fresh 
and fair; so cutting a mast and spars, we improvised a sail 
from a blanket and presently shot over the somewhat tu- 
multuous surface with a ten-knot speed. Floating like a 
leaf on the waves, although heavily loaded, the canoe sped 
on like an arrow, passing projecting points and receeding 
bays in quick succession, until some four miles had been 
made, when the course was suddenly changed and we shot 
through a labyrinth of rushes into the winding channel of 
tlie river, leaving the broad expanse of lake stretching away 
for eight miles further on. Among these reeds the wild fowl 
gather in September, halting a few days in their migration 
ete The feed; however, is not sufficient to tempt 
them to tarry long. 
A motley party was our crew. John, the half breed, had 
the helm, and a better Palinurus never steered a boat. We 
two, my mining friend and I, sat on the folded tent in the 
after waist, two of the Indians in the forward waist just 
abaft the sail, and Lamahbe, the magician, in the bow— 
the latter and the stern being the most responsible posts of 
duty. Lamahbe had the reputation among thé’ men of his 
tribe of being a conjurer, and his swarthy kinsmen confi- 
dently attributed the present favorable wind to his subtle 
powers. This theory we accepted as extremely plausible, 
for Lamahbe was by nature so infernally lazy that he would 
have much preferred to employ his nicest arts to raise the 
wind rather than be obliged to paddle. In complexion he 
was as dark asa negro, and his features denoted a direct 
descent from the apes af Gibraltar, His head-dress was a 
worn out Scotch cap decorated with a dirty piece of sky 
blue gauze, which with tattered and dirty cotton shirt and 
trousers held together by a leather belt, made up his cos- 
tume. Of the two other Indians, (whose names were so 
long and orthographically constructed that we never at- 
tempted to pronounce or remember them), one wore 
a bright scarlet woolen cap, with brown shirt and trousers, 
and the other a simple bandeau around his coarse black 
flowing hair. Not one of these fellows could speak 
English, but we soon picked up a few words of their ver- 
nacular, and found that the word that pleased them most 
was ‘ skittewaboo,”’ which meaneth whiskey. But of whis- 
key they got little from us. 
The river has a somewhat tortuous channel, and the 
banks being high, the wind came only in occasional puffs, 
so that after proceeding a couple of miles the sail became 
useless and recourse was had to the paddles. Lamahbe’s 
ambition was sorely tested, but a frequent ‘‘ how—houw,” 
which is Indian for ‘‘ quick,” or ‘‘faster,” spurred him to 
unusual effort, and we slowly ascended the somewhat rapid 
current. For the first three miles the river banks were flat, 
though high, and almost bare of trees; in some places cov- 
ered with a green sward, seeming like fields once cleared 
and tilled: But gradually.the banks grew higher and more 
wooded, and the river, never very-narrow,- broadened*out 
toa magnificent expanse, and at length, far up upon its 
surface, where the red-bank of a perpendicular cliff gave 
sharp relief, could be distinguished at their base the dash- 
ing white-caps of the second series of rapids. Down from 
above they tumbled with a considerable fall that shatters 
them into spray, and then sweeping against the barrier of 
the cliff are first set back in a mighty eddy, and then whirled 
off atright angles down stream. The curve of the river 
shore on the hither side, makes a point which is faced by a 
huge granite rock, that affords as fine a cast as ever was vouch 
safed to anglers, either into the tumult of foam on the 
one side or the deep still water on the other. This is the 
site of ““Camp Alexander,” as an inscription chalked on 
the flat face of the rock and dated 1863, informs us. Paus- 
ing here to dine, we made a few unsuccessful casts and re- 
connoitered the neighborhood. Opposite and against the 
face of the cliff we could sce atoms climbing, and at its 
foot descried what seemed to be a small two-masted sail- 
boat. We hardly appreciated the distance across this great 
bend of the river until we crossed amd found the Hoat to be 
a large schooner freighted with supplies, and the mites 
that climbed, to be the employees of the surveying party 
who were engaged in packing tons of stuff across the port- 
age. Here we first began to realize the kind of toil in store 
for us, and we thought it no small task to carry our canoe 
and impediments four miles over this longest of all the 
portages to the navigable water beyond. But these brawny 
and stalworth voyageurs would pack upon their backs a 
! barrel of flour, a cask of molasses, a box of tobacco, or a 
sack of pork that weighed near two hundred pounds 
pausing but once in the whole distance to rest. With a 
broad leather strap six inches wide that passed across their 
foreheads and supported their great weight behind, they 
would traverse hill and valley, now climbing an ascent that 
would be difficult without a load, and anon sliding down 
a descent equally steep and seldom missing a footing. Once 
after a rain, when the trail had become worn and slippery 
with much passing to and fro, Lamahbe missed step on the 
top of the hill which sloped down to a brook, and impelled 
by the weight of his load, he never stopped until he slid 
feet foremost up to his neck in the brook, All his neero- 
mancy couldn’t save him then. 
At the top of the dividing ridge we halted to camp for 
the night- It was already late, and the lowering clouds 
threatened a storm. These were not empty threats; for 
scarcely had we got the tent into position, before a wind- 
gust came that flattened it to the ground. The ridge was 
bare of trees and the wind had full sweep over it. This 
camp-site was chosen solely with a view to get rid of the 
flies which swarmed in the bottom, where there was 
both wood and running water. But it now served, 
besides, as an observatory for one of the grandest 
displays of celestial pyrotechnics ever witnessed. It 
commanded the entire circumyallation of hills and inter- 
vales, and as the darkness fell and the storm developed, 
the whole air became filled with: sheeted lightning that 
flashed without cessation. The thunder rolled and rattled 
and snapped with the sharpness of a rifle crack. It seemed 
to be hitting all around. There was no time for the indul- 
gence of terror, for one occasion of alarm was instantly 
succeeded by another the whole night through. Meanwhile, 
the rain deluged the earth, and ran off in rivulets from our 
crest of high ground. Fortunately we had raised our tent 
before the rain came, and the good canvas was waterproof 
to this severest of tests, keeping us dry until morning. But 
sve went to bed almost supperless. Nevertheless, we slept 
soundly the greater part of the night, and when morning 
dawned the rain had passed, and the rear guard of leaden 
clouds was drifting away. 
Everything outside was soaked. The Indians had turned 
the canoe over, as was their wont, and crawling underneath, 
rolled themselves into a ball under their blankets. They 
were now sleeping soundly. These children of nature had 
taken off their shoe-packs and outer garments, as they al- 
ways do when they lie down for the night, and these now 
lay outside of the shelter where they were exposed all 
night to the rain, Each of the shoe-packs contained a 
quart of water, and their clothes seemed just out of the 
