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🟡 Canoeing in the Wilderness (Full Audiobook) | Henry David Thoreau · Historical Adventure Audiobooks

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Thoreau was born at Concord, Massachusetts, July 12, 1817. and
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: at the time he made this wilderness canoe trip he
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: was 40 years old. The record of the journey is
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the latter half of his The Maine Woods, which is
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: perhaps the finest ideal of the forest ever written. It
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: is particularly charming in its blending of meditative and poetic
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: fancies with the minute description of the voyager's experiences. The
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: chief attraction that inspired Thoreau to make the trip was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the primitiveness of the region. here was a vast track
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of almost virgin woodland peopled only with a few loggers
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and pioneer farmers indians and wild animals no one could
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: have been better fitted than thoreau to enjoy such a
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: region and to transmit his enjoyment of it to others
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: for though he was a person of culture and refinement
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: with a college education and had for an intimate friend
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: so rare a man as ralph waldo emerson he was
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: half wild in many of his tastes and impatient of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the restraints and artificiality of the ordinary social life of
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the towns and cities He liked especially the companionship of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: men who were in close contact with nature, and in
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: this book we find him deeply interested in his Indian
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: guide and lingering fondly over the man's characteristics and casual remarks.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: The Indian retained many of his aboriginal instincts and ways,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: though his tribe was in most respects civilized. His home
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: was in an Indian village, on an island in the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Penobscot River at Old Town, a few miles above Bangor.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Thoreau was one of the world's greatest nature writers, and
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: as the years pass, his fame steadily increases. He was
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: a careful and accurate observer, more at home in the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: fields and woods than in village and town, and with
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a gift of piquant originality in recording his impressions. The
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: play of his imagination is keen and nimble, yet his
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: fancy is so well balanced by his native common sense
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: that it does not run away with him. There is
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: never any doubt about his genuineness. or that what he
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: states is free from bias and romantic exaggeration. It is
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to be noted that he was no hunter. His inquisitiveness
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: into the ways of the wild creatures carried with it
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: no desire to shoot them, and to his mind the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: killing of game for mere sport was akin to butchery.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: The kindly and sympathetic spirit constantly manifest in his pages
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: is very attractive, and the fellowship one gains with him
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: through his written words is both delightful and wholesome. He
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: stimulates not only a love for nature, but a love
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: for simple ways of living, and for all that is
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: sincere and unaffected in human life wherever found. In the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: present volume, various details and digressions that are not of
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: interest to most readers have been omitted, but except for
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: such elimination Thoreau's text has been retained throughout. It is
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: believed that nothing essential has been sacrificed, and that the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: narrative in this form will be found lively and forming,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and thoroughly enjoyable. Clifton Johnson, Hadley, Massachusetts CHAPTER I. MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: JULY 20-23, 1857. I started on my third excursion to
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the Maine woods Monday, July 20, 1857, with one companion
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: arriving at Bangor the next day at noon. The succeeding morning,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: a relative of mine, who is well acquainted with the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Penobscot Indians, took me in his wagon to Old Town
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to assist me in obtaining an Indian for this expedition.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: We were ferried across to the Indian island in a bateau.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: The ferryman's boy had the key to it, but the father,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: who was a blacksmith, after a little hesitation cut the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: chain with a cold chisel on the rock. he told
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: me that the Indians were nearly all gone to the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: seaboard and to Massachusetts, partly on account of the smallpox,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of which they are very much afraid, having broken out
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: in Old Town. The old chief Neptune, however, was there still.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: The first man we saw on the island was an
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Indian named Joseph Paulus, whom my relative addressed familiarly as Joe.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: He was dressing a deerskin in his yard, the skin
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: was spread over a slanting log, and he was scraping
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: it with a stick held by both hands. He was
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: stoutly built, perhaps a little above the middle height, with
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: a broad face and, as others said, perfect Indian features
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and complexion. His house was a two-story white one with blinds,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the best looking that I noticed there and as good
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: as an average one on a New England village street.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: It was surrounded by a garden and fruit trees, single
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: corn stalks, standing thinly amid the beans. We asked him
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: if he knew any good Indian who would like to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: go into the woods with us, that is, to the
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Allagash Lakes by way of Moosehead and return by the
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: east branch of the Penobscot. to which he answered, out
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: of that strange remoteness in which the Indian ever dwells
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: to the white man, me like to go myself, me
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: want to get some moose, and kept on scraping the skin.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: The ferryman had told us that all the best Indians
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: were gone except Polis, who was one of the aristocracy. He,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to be sure, would be the best man we could have,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: but if he went at all, would want a great price.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Hollis asked at first two dollars a day, but agreed
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: to go for a dollar and a half, and fifty
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: cents a week for his canoe. He would come to
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Bangor with his canoe by the seven o'clock train that evening,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: we might depend on him. We thought ourselves lucky to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: secure the services of this man, who was known to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: be particularly steady and trustworthy. I spent the afternoon with
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: my companion, who had remained in Bangor, in preparing for
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: our expedition, purchasing provisions, hard bread, pork, coffee, sugar, etc.,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and some India rubber clothing. At evening, the Indian arrived
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: in the car, then I led the way while he
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: followed me, three-quarters of a mile to my friend's house
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: with the canoe on his head. I did not know
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the exact route, but steered by the lay of the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: land as I do in Boston. I tried to enter
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  Speaker 1: into conversation with him, but as he was puffing under
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the weight of his canoe, not having the usual apparatus
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: for carrying it, but above all, as he was an Indian,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I might as well have been thumping on the bottom
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: of his birch the while. In answer to the various
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: observations that I made, he only grunted vaguely from beneath
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: his canoe once or twice so that I knew he
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  Speaker 1: was there. Early the next morning the stage called for us.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: My companion and I had each a large knapsack as
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: full as it would hold, and we had two large
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: rubber bags which held our provisions and utensils. As for
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the Indian, all the baggage he had beside his axe
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and gun was a blanket which he brought loose in
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: his hand. However, he had laid in a store of
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: tobacco and a new pipe for the excursion. the canoe
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: was securely lashed diagonally across the top of the stage,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: with bits of carpet tucked under the edge to prevent
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: its chafing. The driver appeared as much accustomed to carrying
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: canoes in this way as band-boxes. At the Bangor house,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: we took in four men bound on a hunting excursion,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: one of the men going as cook. They had a dog,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: a middling-sized, brindled cur, which ran by the side of
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the stage, his master showing his head and whistling from
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: time to time. but after we had gone about three
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: miles the dog was suddenly missing, and two of the
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: party went back for him while the stage, which was
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: full of passengers, waited. At length one man came back
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: while the other kept on. This whole party of hunters
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: declared their intention to stop till the dog was found,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: but the very obliging driver was ready to wait a
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: spell longer. He was evidently unwilling to lose so many passengers,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: who would have taken a private conveyance or perhaps the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: other line of stages the next day. Such progress did
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: we make, with a journey of over sixty miles to
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: be accomplished that day, and a rainstorm just setting in.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: We discussed the subject of dogs and their instincts till
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: it was threadbare, while we waited there and the scenery
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: of the suburbs of Bangor is still distinctly impressed on
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  Speaker 1: my memory. After a full half an hour the man returned,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: leading the dog by a rope. He had overtaken him
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: just as he was entering the Bangor house. He was
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: then tied on the top of the stage, but being
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: wet and cold several times in the course of the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: journey he jumped off, and I saw him dangling by
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: his neck. This dog was depended on to stop bears.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: He had already stopped one somewhere in New Hampshire, and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I can testify that he stopped a stage in Maine.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: This party of four probably paid nothing for the dog's ride,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: nor for his run, while our party of three paid
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: two dollars and were charged four for the light canoe
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: which lay still on the top. The stage was crowded
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: all the way. If you had looked inside, you would
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: have thought that we were prepared to run the gauntlet
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: of a band of robbers, for there were four or
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: five guns on the front seat and one or two
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: on the back one, each man holding his darling in
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  Speaker 1: his arms. It appeared that this party of hunters was
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: going our way, but much further. Their leader was a
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: handsome man, about thirty years old, of good height, but
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: not apparently robust, of gentlemanly address and faultless toilette. He
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: had a fair white complexion, as if he had always
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: lived in the shade, and an intellectual face. and with
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: his quiet manners might have passed for a divinity student
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: who had seen something of the world. I was surprised
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: to find that he was probably the chief white hunter
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: of Maine and was known all along the road. I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: afterwards heard him spoken of as one who could endure
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a great deal of exposure and fatigue without showing the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: effect of it, and he could not only use guns
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: but make them, being himself a gunsmith. In the spring
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: he had saved a stage-driver and two passengers from drowning
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: in the backwater of the Pistataquus on this road. having
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: swum ashore in the freezing water and made a raft
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and got them off, though the horses were drowned, at
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: great risk to a while the only other man who
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: could swim withdrew to the nearest house to prevent freezing
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: he knew our man and remarked that we had a
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: good indian there a good hunter adding that he was
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: said to be worth six thousand dollars the indian also
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: knew him and said to me the great hunter The
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Indian sat on the front seat with a stolid expression
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: of face as if barely awake to what was going on. Again,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I was struck by the peculiar vagueness of his replies
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: when addressed in the stage or at the taverns. He
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: really never said anything on such occasions. He was merely
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: stirred up like a wild beast and passively muttered some
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: insignificant response. His answer in such cases was vague as
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a puff of smoke, suggesting no responsibility, and if you
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: considered it, you would find that you had got nothing
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: out of him. This was instead of the conventional palavar
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and smartness of the white man and equally profitable. Most
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: get no more than this out of the Indian and
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: pronounce him stolid accordingly. I was surprised to see what
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: a foolish and impertinent style a main man, a passenger,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: used in addressing him as if he were a child,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: which only made his eyes glisten a little. A tipsy
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Canadian asked him at a tavern in a drawling tone
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: if he smoked, to which he answered with an indefinite yes.'
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Won' t you lend me your pipe a little while?' asked
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the other he replied looking straight by the man's head
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: with a face singularly vacant to all neighboring interests me
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: got no pipe yet i had seen him put a
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: new one with a supply of tobacco into his pocket
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: that morning our little canoe so neat and strong drew
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a favorable criticism from all the wiseacres among the tavern
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: loungers along the road By the roadside, close to the wheels,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I noticed a splendid great purple-fringed orcas which I would
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: fain have stopped the stage to pluck, but as this
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: had never been known to stop a bear like the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: cur on the stage, the driver would probably have thought
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: it a waste of time. When we reached the lake
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: about half-past eight in the evening, it was still steadily raining,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and in that fresh cool atmosphere the hylas were peeping
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: and the toads ringing about the lake. It was as
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: if the season had revolved backward two or three months.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: or I had arrived at the abode of Perpetual Spring.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: We had expected to go upon the lake at once,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and after paddling up two or three miles to camp
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: on one of its highlands, but on account of the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: rain we decided to go to one of the taverns
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: for the night. Section 2 of Canoeing in the Wilderness
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: by Henry David Thoreau CHAPTER II. FRIDAY, JULY 24. About
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  Speaker 1: four o'clock the next morning, though it was quite cloudy,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: accompanied by the landlord to the water's edge in the twilight,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: we launched our canoe from a rock on Moosehead Lake.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: We had a rather small canoe for three persons, eighteen
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: and one-fourth feet long by two feet six and one-half
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: inches wide in the middle and one foot deep within,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I judged that it would weigh not far from eighty pounds.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: The Indian had recently made it himself, and its smallness
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: was partly compensated for by its newness, as well as
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: staunchness and solidity, it being made of very thick bark
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and ribs. Our baggage weighed about 166 pounds. The principal
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: part of the baggage was, as usual, placed in the
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: middle of the broadest part, while we stowed ourselves in
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the chinks and crannies that were left before and behind it,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: where there was no room to extend our legs. the
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: loose articles being tucked into the ends. The canoe was
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: thus as closely packed as a market basket. The Indian
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: sat on a crossbar in the stern, but we flat
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: on the bottom with a splint or chip behind our
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: backs to protect them from the crossbar, and one of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: us commonly paddled with the Indian. Paddling along the eastern
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: side of the lake in the still of the morning,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: we soon saw a few shell drakes, which the Indian
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: called shikorways, and some puetweets on the rocky shore. We
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: also saw and heard loons. It was inspiring to hear
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the regular dip of the paddles as if they were
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: our fins or flippers, and to realize that we were
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: at length fairly embarked. Having passed the small rocky isle
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: within two or three miles of the foot of the lake,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: we had a short consultation respecting our course, and inclined
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: to the western shore for the sake of its lee,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: for otherwise if the wind should rise, it would be
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: impossible for us to reach Mount Kineo, which is about
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: midway up the lake on the east side. but at
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: its narrowest part, where probably we could recross if we
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: took the western side. The wind is the chief obstacle
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: to crossing the lakes, especially in so small a canoe.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: The Indian remarked several times that he did not like
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: to cross the lakes in little-um canoe, but nevertheless, just
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: as we say, it made no odds to him. Moosehead
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Lake is twelve miles wide at the widest place, and
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: thirty miles long in a direct line, but longer as
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: it lies. Paddling near the shore, we frequently heard the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: pepe of the olive-sided flycatcher, also the wood peewee and
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the kingfisher. The Indian, reminding us that he could not
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: work without eating, we stopped to breakfast on the main
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: shore southwest of Deer Island. We took out our bags
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and the Indian made a fire under a very large
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: bleached log, using white pine bark from a stump, though
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: he said that hemlock was better, and kindling with canoe
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: birch bark. Our table was a large piece of freshly
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: peeled birch bark, laid wrong side up, and our breakfast
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: consisted of hard bread, fried pork, and strong coffee well sweetened,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: in which we did not miss the milk. While we
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: were getting breakfast, a brood of twelve black dippers, half grown,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: came paddling by within three or four rods, not at
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: all alarmed, and they loitered about as long as we stayed,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: now huddled close together, now moving off in a long line,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: very cunningly. Looking northward from this place it appeared as
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: if we were entering a large bay, and we did
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: not know whether we should be obliged to diverge from
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: our course and keep outside a point which we saw,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: or should find a passage between this and the mainland.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: It was misty dog-day weather, and we had already penetrated
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: a smaller bay of the same kind, and knocked the
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: bottom out of it, though we had been obliged to
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: pass over a bar between an island and the shore,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: where there was but just breadth and depth enough to
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: float the canoe, and the Indian had observed very easy
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Macomb bridge here. but now it seemed that if we
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: held on we should be fairly embayed. Presently, however, the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: mist lifted somewhat and revealed a break in the shore northward.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: The Indian immediately remarked, I guess you and I go there.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: This was his common expression instead of saying we. He
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: never addressed us by our names, though curious to know
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: how they were spelled and what they meant. We called
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: him Polis. He had already guessed very accurately at our ages,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and said that he was forty-eight. After breakfast, I emptied
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the melted pork that was left into the lake, making
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: what the sailors call a slick, and watching to see
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: how much it spread over and smoothed the agitated surface.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: The Indian looked at it a moment and said, That
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: make hard paddle em through, hold em canoe. So say
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: old times. We hastily reloaded, putting the dishes loose in
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the bows, that they might be at hand when we wanted,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and set out again. the western shore near which we
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: paddled along rose gently to a considerable height and was
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: everywhere densely covered with the forest in which was a
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: large proportion of hardwood to enliven and relieve the fur
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: and spruce the indian said that the lichen which we
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: saw hanging from the trees was called corcork we asked
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: him the names of several birds which we heard this
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: morning the thrush which was quite common and whose note
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: he imitated he said was called but sometimes he could
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: not tell the name of some small bird which I
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: heard and knew, but he said, I tell all the
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: birds about here, can't tell little em noise, but I
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: see em, then I can tell. I observed that I
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: should like to go to school, to him to learn
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: his language, living on the Indian island the while, could
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: not that be done? Oh, yer, he replied, good many
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: do so. I asked how long he thought it would take,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: he said one week, I told him that in this
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: voyage I would tell him all I knew, and he
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: should tell me all he knew, to which he readily agreed.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Mount Kineo, which was generally visible, though occasionally concealed by
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: islands or the mainland in front, had a level bar
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: of cloud concealing its summit, and all the mountaintops about
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: the lake were cut off at the same height. Ducks
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: of various kinds were quite common, and ran over the
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: water before us as fast as a horse trots. The
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Indian asked the meaning of reality. as near as I
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: could make out the word, which he said one of
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: us had used. Also, of interrent, that is, intelligent, I
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: observed that he could rarely sound the letter R, but
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: used L, as also R for L sometimes, as load
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: for road, pickle L for pickerel, sugle island for sugar island.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: He generally added the syllable um to his words, as petalum, etc.,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: On a point on the mainland, where we landed to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: stretch our legs and look at the vegetation, going inland
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: a few steps I discovered a fire still glowing beneath
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: its ashes, where somebody had breakfasted, and a bed of
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: twigs prepared for the following night. So I knew not
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: only that they had just left, but that they designed
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: to return, and by the breadth of the bed, that
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: there was more than one in the party. You might
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: have gone within six feet of these signs without seeing them.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: There grew the beaked hazel, rue seven feet high, and
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: red osier, whose bark the indian said was good to
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: smoke tobacco before white people came to this country indian
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: tobacco the indian was always very careful in approaching the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: shore lest he should injure his canoe on the rocks
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: letting it swing round slowly sidewise and was still more
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: particular that we should not step into it on shore,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: nor till it floated free and then should step gently
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: lest we should open its seams or make a hole
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: in the bottom. After passing Deer Island we saw the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: little steamer from Greenville, far east in the middle of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the lake. Sometimes we could hardly tell her from an
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: island which had a few trees on it, Here we
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: were exposed to the wind from over the whole breadth
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: of the lake and ran a little risk of being swamped.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: While I had my eye fixed on the spot where
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: a large fish had leaped, we took in a gallon
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: or two of water, but we soon reached the shore
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and took the canoe over the bar at Sandbar Island
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a few feet wide only and so saved a considerable distance.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: We crossed a broad bay and found the water quite rough.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: A very little wind on these broad lakes raises a
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: sea which will swamp a canoe. Looking off from the shore,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the surface may appear to be almost smooth a mile distant,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: or if you see a few white crests, they appear
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: nearly level with the rest of the lake. But when
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: you get out so far, you may find quite a
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: sea running, an air long before you think of it.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: A wave will gently creep up the side of the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: canoe and fill your lap, like a monster, deliberately covering
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you with its slime before it swallows you. Or it
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: will strike the canoe violently and break into it. The
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: same thing may happen when the wind rises suddenly, though
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: it were perfectly calm and smooth there a few minutes before,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: so that nothing can save you unless you can swim ashore,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: for it is impossible to get into a canoe when
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: it is upset. Since you sit flat on the bottom,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: though the danger should not be imminent, a little water
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: is a great inconvenience, not to mention the wetting of
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: your provisions. We rarely crossed even a bay directly from
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: point to point when there was wind. but made a
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: slight curve corresponding somewhat to the shore that we might
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the sooner reach it if the wind increased when the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: wind is aft and not too strong the indian makes
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: a spirit sail of his blanket he thus easily skims
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: over the whole length of this lake in a day
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the indian paddled on one side and one of us
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: on the other to keep the canoe steady and when
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: he wanted to change hands he would say to other
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: side he asserted in answer to our questions that he
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: had never upset a canoe himself, though he may have
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: been upset by others. Think of our little eggshell of
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: a canoe tossing across that great lake a mere black
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: speck to the eagle soaring above it. My companion trailed
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: for trout as we paddled along, but the Indian warning
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: him that a big fish might upset us, for there
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: are some very large ones there, he agreed to pass
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the line quickly to the stern if he had a bite.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: While we were crossing this bay, where Mount Kineo rose
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: dark before us within two or three miles, the Indian
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: repeated the tradition respecting this mountain's having anciently been a
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: cow moose, how a mighty Indian hunter succeeded in killing
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: this queen of the moose tribe with great difficulty while
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: her calf was killed somewhere among the islands in Penobscot Bay,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and to his eyes this mountain had still the form
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of the moose in a reclining posture. He told us
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: at some length and with apparent good faith, and asked
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: us how we supposed the hunter could have killed such
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: a mighty moose as that. An Indian tells such a
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: story as if he thought it deserved to have a
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: good deal said about it, only he has not got
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: it to say, and so he makes up for the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: deficiency by a drawing tone, long-windedness, and a dumb wonder
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: which he hopes will be contagious. We approached the land
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: again through pretty rough water, and then steered directly across
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the lake at its narrowest part to the eastern side,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and were soon partly under the lee of the mountain
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: having paddled about twenty miles. It was now about noon.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: We designed to stop there that afternoon and night, and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: spent half an hour looking along the shore northward for
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: a suitable place to camp. At length, by going half
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: a dozen rods into the dense spruce and firwood on
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the side of the mountain, almost as dark as a cellar,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: we found a place sufficiently clear and level to lie
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: down on after cutting away a few bushes. The Indian
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: cleared a path to it from the shore with his axe,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and we then carried up all our baggage, pitched our tent,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and made our bed. in order to be ready for
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: foul weather, which then threatened us and for the night.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: He gathered a large armful of fir twigs, breaking them off,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: which he said were the best for our bed, partly,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I thought, because they were the largest and could be
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: most rapidly collected. It had been raining more or less
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: for four or five days and the wood was even
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: damper than usual, but he got dry bark from the
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: underside of a dead leaning hemlock, which he said he
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: could always do. This noon his mind was occupied with
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: a law question, and I referred him to my companion
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: who was a lawyer. It appeared that he had been
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: buying land lately, I think it was a hundred acres,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: but there was probably an encumbrance to it, somebody else
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: claiming to have bought some grass on it for this year.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: He wished to know to whom the grass belonged, and
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: was told that if the other man could prove that
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: he bought the grass before he, Polis, bought the land,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the former could take it whether the latter knew it
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: or not. To which he only answered, Strange. He went
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: over this several times, fairly sat down to it, with
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: his back to a tree, as if he meant to
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: confine us to this topic henceforth. but as he made
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: no headway, only reached the jumping-off place of his wonder
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: at white men's institutions after each explanation, we let the
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: subject die. He said that he had fifty acres of grass, potatoes, etc.,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: somewhere above Old Town, besides some about his house, that
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: he hired a good deal of his work hoeing, etc.,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: and preferred white men to Indians because they keep steady
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and know how. After dinner, we returned southward along the shore,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: in the canoe, on account of the difficulty of climbing
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: over the rocks and fallen trees, and began to ascend
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the mountain along the edge of the precipice. But a
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: smart shower coming up just then, the Indian crept under
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: his canoe while we, protected by our rubber coats, proceeded
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to botanize. So we sent him back to the camp
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: for shelter, agreeing that he should come for us with
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: his canoe toward night. It had rained a little in
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the forenoon, and we trusted that this would be the
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: clearing-up shower, which it proved. but our feet and legs
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: were thoroughly wet by the bushes. The clouds breaking away
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: a little, we had a glorious wild view as we ascended,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of the broad lake with its numerous forest-clad islands extending
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: beyond our sight both north and south, and the boundless
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: forest undulating away from its shores on every side, as
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: densely packed as a rye field and enveloping nameless mountains
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: in succession. It was a perfect lake of the woods.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Looking southward, the heavens were completely overcast, the mountains capped
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: with clouds, and the lake generally wore a dark and
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: stormy appearance, but from its surface six or eight miles
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: distant there was reflected upward through the misty air a
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: bright blue tinge from the unseen sky of another latitude beyond.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: They probably had a clear sky then at the south
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: end of the lake. Again we mistook a little rocky
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: islet seen through the drisk with some taller bare trunks
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: or stumps on it for the steamer with its smoke pipes,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: but as it had not changed its position after half
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: an hour we were undeceived. So much do the works
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: of man resemble the works of nature. A moose might
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: mistake a steamer for a floating isle, and not be
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: scared till he heard its puffing or its whistle. If
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I wished to see a mountain or other scenery under
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the most favorable auspices, I would go to it in
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: foul weather so as to be there when it cleared up.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: We are then in the most suitable mood, and nature
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: is most fresh and inspiring. There is no serenity so
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: fair as that which is just established in a tearful eye. Jackson,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: in his report on the geology of Maine, says, Hornstone,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: which will answer for flints, occurs in various parts of
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the state. The largest mass of this stone known in
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the world is Mount Kineo, upon Moosehead Lake, which appears
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: to be entirely composed of it, and rises 700 feet
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: above the lake level. This variety of hornstone I have
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: seen in every part of New England in the form
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: of Indian arrowheads, hatchets, chisels, etc., which were probably obtained
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: from this mountain by the Aboriginal inhabitants of the country.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I have myself found hundreds of arrowheads made of the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: same material. It is generally slate-coloured, with white specks, becoming
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: a uniform white where exposed to the light and air.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I picked up a small, thin piece which had so
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: sharp an edge that I used it as a knife,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: and to see what I could do, fairly cut off
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: an aspen one inch thick with it by bending it
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: and making many cuts, though I cut my fingers badly
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: with the back of it in the meanwhile. From the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: summit of the precipice, which forms the southern and eastern
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: sides of this mountain peninsula, five or six hundred feet high,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: we probably might have jumped down to the water, or
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: to the seemingly dwarfish trees on the narrow neck of
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: land which connects it with the main. It is a
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: dangerous place to try the steadiness of your nerves. The
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: plants which attracted our attention on this mountain were the mountain-sink-foil,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: abundant and in bloom still at the very base by
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the waterside, very beautiful harebells overhanging the precipice, bearberry, the
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Canadian blueberry, wild holly, the great round-leafed orchis, bunchberry, reddening
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: as we ascended, green at the base of the mountain
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: red at the top, and the small fern Woodzia ilvensis
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: growing in tufts now in fruit. Having explored the wonders
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of the mountain, and the weather being now cleared up,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: we commenced the descent. We met the Indian puffing and
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: panting about one-third of the way up, but thinking that
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: he must be near the top. On reaching the canoe,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: we found that he had caught a lake trout weighing
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: about three pounds while we were on the mountain. When
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: we got to the camp, the canoe was taken out
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: and turned over, and a log laid across it to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: prevent its being blown away. the indian cut some large
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: logs of damp and rotten wood to smoulder and keep
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: fire through the night the trout was fried for supper
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: our tent was of thin cotton cloth and quite small
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: forming with the ground a triangular prism closed at the
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: rear end six feet long seven wide and four high
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: so that we could barely sit up in the middle
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: it required two forked stakes a smooth ridge pole and
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: a dozen or more pins to pitch it it kept
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: off dew and wind and an ordinary rain and answered
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: our purpose well enough We reclined within it till bedtime,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: each with his baggage at his head, or else sat
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: about the fire, having hung our wet clothes on a
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: pole before the fire for the night. As we sat
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: there just before night, looking out through the dusky wood,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: the Indian heard a noise which he said was made
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: by a snake he imitated it at my request making
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: a low whistling note feet feet two or three times
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: repeated somewhat like the peep of the hyla but not
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: so loud he said that he had never seen them
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: while making it but going to the spot he finds
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the snake this he said was a sign of rain
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: When I had selected this place for our camp he
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: had remarked that there were snakes here, but they won't
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: do any hurt, I said. Oh no, he answered, just
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: as you say, it makes no difference to me. He
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: lay on the right side of the tent because he
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: said he was partly deaf in one ear and he
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: wanted to lie with his good ear up. As we
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: lay there he inquired if I ever heard Indians sing.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I replied that I had not often and asked him
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: if he would not favor us with a song. he
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: readily assented and lying on his back with his blanket
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: wrapped around him he commenced a slow somewhat nasal yet
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: musical chant in his own language which probably was taught
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: his tribe long ago by the catholic missionaries he translated
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: it to us sentence by sentence afterward it proved to
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: be a very simple religious exercise or hymn the burden
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: of which was that there was only one god who
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: ruled all the world His singing carried me back to
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the period of the discovery of America, when Europeans first
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: encountered the simple faith of the Indian. There was indeed
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: a beautiful simplicity about it, nothing of the dark and savage,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: only the mild and infantile. The sentiments of humility and
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: reverence chiefly were expressed. It was a dense and damp
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: spruce and firwood in which we lay, and except for
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: our fire, perfectly dark, and when I awoke in the night,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I either heard an owl from deeper in the forest
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: behind us, or a loon from a distance over the lake.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Getting up some time after midnight to collect the scattered
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: brands together while my companions were sound asleep, I observed,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: partly in the fire, which had ceased to blaze, a
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: perfectly regular elliptical ring of light, about five inches in
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: its shortest diameter, six or seven in its longer, and
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: from one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch wide. It was
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: fully as bright as the fire, but not reddish or
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: scarlet like a coal, but a white and slumbering light,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: like the glow-worms. I saw at once that it must
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: be phosphorescent wood, which I had often heard of but
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: never chanced to see. Putting my finger on it, with
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: a little hesitation, I found that it was a piece
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: of dead moose wood which the Indian had cut off
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: in a slanting direction the evening before. Using my knife,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: I discovered that the light proceeded from that portion of
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: the sapwood immediately under the bark, and thus presented a
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: regular ring at the end, and when I paired off
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: the bark and cut into the sap, it was all
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: aglow along the log. I was surprised to find the
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: wood quite hard and apparently sound, though probably decay had
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: commenced in the sap, and I cut out some little
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: triangular chips, and placing them in the hollow of my hand,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: carried them into the camp, waked my companion, and showed
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: them to him. They lit up the inside of my hand,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: revealing the lines and wrinkles, and appearing exactly like holes
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: of fire raised to a white heat. I noticed the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: part of a decaying stump within four or five feet
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: of the fire, an inch wide and six inches long,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: soft and shaking wood, shown with equal brightness. I neglected
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: to ascertain whether our fire had anything to do with this,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: but the previous day's rain and long-continued wet weather undoubtedly had.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I was exceedingly interested by this phenomenon. It could hardly
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: have thrilled me more if it had taken the form
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: of letters, or of the human face. I little thought
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: that there was such a light shining in the darkness
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: of the wilderness for me. The next day the Indian
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: told me their name for the light, Ertusuku. And on
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: my inquiring concerning the will-o'-the-wisp, he said that his folks
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: sometimes saw fires passing along at various heights, even as
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: high as the trees and making a noise. I was
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: prepared after this to hear of the most startling and
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: unimagined phenomena witnessed by his folks. They are abroad at
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: all hours and seasons, in scenes so unfrequented by white men.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Nature must have made a thousand revelations to them which
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: are still secrets to us. I did not regret my
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: not having seen this before. since I now saw it
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: under circumstances so favorable. I was in just the frame
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: of mind to see something wonderful, and this was a
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: phenomenon adequate to my circumstances and expectation, and it put
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: me on the alert to see more like it. I
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: let science slide and rejoiced in that light as if
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: it had been a fellow creature. A scientific explanation, as
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: it is called, would have been altogether out of place there.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: That is for pale daylight. Science, with its retorts, would
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: have put me to sleep. It was the opportunity to
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: be ignorant that I improved. It made a believer of
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: me more than before. I believed that the woods were
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: not tenantless, but chock-full of honest spirits as good as
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: myself any day. Not an empty chamber in which chemistry
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: was left to work alone, but an inhabited house. It suggested, too,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: that the same experience always gives birth to the same
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: sort of belief or religion. One revelation has been made
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: to the Indian, another to the white man. I have
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: much to learn of the Indian, nothing of the missionary.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I am not sure but all that would tempt me
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: to teach the Indian my religion would be his promise
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: to teach me his. Long enough I had heard of
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: irrelevant things. Now at length I was glad to make
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: acquaintance with the light that dwells in rotten wood. I
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: kept those little chips and went them again the next night,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: but they emitted no light. CHAPTER III. SATURDAY, JULY 25.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: At breakfast, the Indian, evidently curious to know what would
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: be expected of him the next day, asked me how
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: I spent the Sunday when at home. I told him
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: that I commonly sat in my chair reading, etc., in
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: the forenoon and went to walk in the afternoon, at
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: which he shook his head and said er that is
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: ver bad how do you spend it i asked him
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: he said that he did no work that he went
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: to church at oldtown when he was at home in
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: short he did as he had been taught by the
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: whites when we were washing the dishes in the lakes
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: many fishes came close up to us to get the
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: particles of grease the weather seemed to be more settling
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: this morning and we set out early in order to
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: finish our voyage up the lake before the wind arose
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Soon after starting, the Indian directed our attention to the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: northeast carry, which we could plainly see about thirteen miles distant.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: This carry is a rude wooden railroad running north and
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: south about two miles, perfectly straight from the lake to
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: the Penobscot through a low tract, with a clearing three
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: or four rods wide. This opening appeared as a clear, bright,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: or light point in the horizon, resting on the edge
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: of the lake. We should not have suspected it to
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: be visible if the Indian had not drawn our attention
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: to it. It was a remarkable kind of light to
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: steer for, daylight seen through a vista in the forest,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: but visible as far as an ordinary beacon by night.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: We crossed a deep, wide bay north of Kineo, leaving
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: an island on our left and keeping up the eastern
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: side of the lake. We then crossed another broad bay which,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: as we could no longer observe the shore particularly, afforded
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: ample time for conversation. The Indian said that he had
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: got his money by hunting, mostly high up the west
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: branch of the Penebscot and toward the head of the St. Johns.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: He had hunted there from a boy, and knew all
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: about that region. His game had been beaver, otter, black
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: cat or fisher, sable, moose, etc. Canada lynx were plenty
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: yet in burnt grounds. For food in the woods he
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: uses partridges, ducks, dried moose meat, hedgehog, etc. Loons too
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: were good, only biolum good. Pointing into the bay, he
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: said that it was the way to various lakes which
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: he knew. Only solemn bear-haunted mountains with their great wooded
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: slopes were visible. The Indian said that he had been
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: along there several times. I asked him how he guided
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: himself in the woods. Oh, said he, I can tell
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: good many ways. When I pressed him further, he answered,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I look him side hill. And he glanced toward
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a high hill or mountain on the eastern shore. Great
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: difference between the north and south. See where the sun
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: is shown most. So trees. The large limbs bend toward south.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I look him locks. Rocks. I asked what he
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: saw on the rocks, but he did not describe anything
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: in particular, answering vaguely in a mysterious or drawling tone.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Bare locks on lakeshore, great difference between north, south, east,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: west side, can tell what the sun is shown on. Suppose,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: said I, that I should take you in a dark
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: night right up here into the middle of the woods
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: a hundred miles, set you down, and turn you round
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: quickly twenty times. Could you steer straight to Old Town? Oh, you're,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: said he, have done plenty much same thing. I will
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: tell you. Some years ago, I met an old white
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: hunter at Millinocket. Very good hunter. He said he could
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: go anywhere in the woods. He wanted to hunt with
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: me that day, so we start. We chase a moose
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: all the forenoon, round and round, till middle of afternoon
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: when we kill him. Then I said to him, Now
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: you go straight to camp. He said, I can't do that.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know where I am. Where you think camp?
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I asked. He pointed so. Then I laugh at him.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I take the lead and go right off the other way,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: cross our tracks many times, straight camp. How do you
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: do that? I asked. Oh, I can't tell you, he replied.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Great difference between me and white man. It appeared as
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: if the sources of information were so various that he
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: did not give a distinct conscious attention to any one,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: and so could not readily refer to any one questioned
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: about it, but he found his way very much as
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: an animal does. Perhaps what is commonly called instinct in
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: the animal, in this case, is merely a sharpened and
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: educated sense. Often when an Indian says, I don't know,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: in regard to the route he has to take, he
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: does not mean what a white man would by those words.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: for his Indian instinct may tell him still as much
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: as the most confident white man knows. He does not
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: carry things in his head nor remember the route exactly
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: like a white man, but relies on himself at the moment.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Not having experienced the need of the other sort of knowledge,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: all labeled and arranged, he has not acquired it. The
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: hunter with whom I talked in the stage knew some
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: of the resources of the Indian. He said that he
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: steered by the wind or by the limbs of the hemlocks,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: which were largest on the south side, also sometimes, when
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: he knew that there was a lake near, by firing
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: his gun and listening to hear the direction and distance
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: of the echo from over it. As the forenoon advanced
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: the wind increased. The last bay which we crossed before
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: reaching the desolate pier at the northeast carry was two
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: or three miles over and the wind was southwesterly. After
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: going a third of the way, the waves had increased
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: so as occasionally to wash into the canoe and we
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: saw that it was worse ahead. At first we might
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: have turned about, but were not willing to. It would
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: have been of no use to follow the course of
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: the shore, for the waves ran still higher there on
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: account of the greater sweep the wind had. At any rate,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: it would have been dangerous now to alter our course,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: because the waves would have struck us at an advantage.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: It will not do to meet them at right angles,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: for then they will wash in both sides, but you
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: must take them quartering. so the Indian stood up in
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: the canoe and exerted all his skill and strength for
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: a mile or two, while I paddled right along, in
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: order to give him more steerage way. For more than
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: a mile he did not allow a single wave to
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: strike the canoe as it would, but turned it quickly
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: from this side to that, so that it would always
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: be on or near the crest of a wave when
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: it broke, where all its force was spent, and we
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: merely settled down with it. At length I jumped out
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: onto the end of the pier against which the waves
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: were dashing violently, in order to lighten the canoe and
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: catch it at the landing, which was not much sheltered,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: But just as I jumped, we took in two or
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: three gallons of water. I remarked to the Indian, You
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: managed that well. To which he replied, Very few men
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: do that. Great many waves. When I look out for one,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: another come quick. While the Indian went to get cedar bark, etc.,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: to carry his canoe with, we cooked the dinner on
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: the shore in the midst of a sprinkling rain. He
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: prepared his canoe for carrying in this wise. He took
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: a cedar shingle or splint, eighteen inches long and four
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: or five wide. rounded at one end, that the corners
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: might not be in the way, and tied it with
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: cedar bark by two holes made midway near the edge
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: on each side to the middle crossbar of the canoe.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: When the canoe was lifted upon his head bottom up,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: this shingle, with its rounded end uppermost, distributed the weight
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: over his shoulders and head, while a band of cedar bark,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: tied to the crossbar on each side of the shingle,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: passed round his breast and another longer one outside of
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the last round his forehead. Also a hand on each
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: side rail served to steer the canoe and keep it
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: from rocking. He thus carried it with his shoulders, head, breast, forehead,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: and both hands, as if the upper part of his
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: body were all one hand to clasp and hold it.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: A cedar tree furnished all the gear in this case,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: as it had the woodwork of the canoe. One of
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: the paddles rested on the crossbars and the bows. I
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: took the canoe upon my head and found that I
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: could carry it with ease, but I let him carry it,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: not caring to establish a different precedent. This shingle remained
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: tied to the crossbar throughout the voyage. was always ready
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: for the carries, and also served to protect the back
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: of one passenger. We were obliged to go over this
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: carry twice, our load was so great, but the carries
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: were an agreeable variety, and we improved the opportunity to
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: gather the rare plants which we had seen when we
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: returned empty-handed. We reached the Penebscot about four o'clock, and
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: found there some St. Francis Indians encamped on the bank.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: They were making a canoe, and drying moose meat. Their
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: camp was covered with spruce bark, They had a young moose,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: taken in the river a fortnight before, confined in a
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: sort of cage of logs piled up cob fashion, seven
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: or eight feet high. It was quite tame, about four
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: feet high and covered with moose flies. There was a
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: large quantity of cornel, red maple and also willow and
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: aspen bough stuck through between the logs on all sides,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: butt ends out, and on their leaves it was browsing.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: It looked at first as if it were in a
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: bower rather than a pen. Our Indian said that he
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: used black spruce roots to sow canoes with. obtaining it
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: from highlands or mountains. The St. Francis Indians thought that
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: white spruce roots might be best, but the former said,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: no good, break, can't split em. I'd told him I
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: thought that I could make a canoe, but he expressed
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: great doubt of it. At any rate, he thought that
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: my work would not be neat the first time. Having reloaded,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: we paddled down the Penobscot. We saw a splendid yellow
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: lily by the shore, which I plucked. It was six
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: feet high and had twelve flowers and two whorls forming
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: a pyramid. We afterward saw many more thus tall along
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: this stream and on the east branch. The Indians said
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: that the roots were good for soup, that is, to
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: cook with meat, to thicken it, taking the place of flour.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: They get them in the fall. I dug some and
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: found a mass of bulbs pretty deep in the earth,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: two inches in diameter, looking and even tasting somewhat like
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: raw green corn on the ear. when we had gone
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: about three miles down the penobscot we saw through the
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: tree-tops a thunder-shower coming up in the west and we
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: looked out a camping-place in good season about five o'clock
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: i will describe the routine of camping we generally told
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: the indian that we would stop at the fursuitable place
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: so that he might be on the look-out for it
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Having observed a clear, hard, and flat beach to land on,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: free from mud and from stones which would injure the canoe,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: one would run up the bank to see if there
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: were open and level space enough for the camp between
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: the trees, or if it could be easily cleared, preferring
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: at the same time a cool place on account of insects.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we paddled a mile or more before finding one
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: to our minds, for where the shore was suitable the
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: bank would often be too steep or else too low
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: and grassy and therefore mosquito-y. We then took out the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: baggage and drew up the canoe. the indian cut a
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: path to the spot we had selected which was usually
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: within two or three rods of the water and we
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: carried up our baggage one perhaps takes birch bark always
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: at hand and dead dry wood and kindles a fire
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: five or six feet in front of where we intend
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: to lie it matters not commonly on which side this
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: is because there is little or no wind in so
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: dense a wood at that season and then he gets
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: a kettle of water from the river and takes out
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: the pork bread coffee etc from their several packages Another, meanwhile,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: having the axe, cuts down the nearest dead rock maple
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: or other dry hardwood, collecting several large logs to last
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: through the night, also a green stake with a notch
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: or fork to it which is slanted over the fire,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: perhaps resting on a rock or forked stake, to hang
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the kettle on, and two forked stakes and a pole
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: for the tent. The third man pitches the tent. cuts
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: a dozen or more pins with his knife to fasten
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: it down with, and then collects an armful or two
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: of fir twigs, arborvitae, spruce, or hemlock, whichever is at
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: hand and makes the bed, beginning at either end and
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: laying the twigs wrong side up, in regular rows, covering
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: the stub ends of the last row, first, however, filling
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the hollows, if there are any, with coarser material. Commonly,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: by the time the bed is made, or within 15
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: or 20 minutes, the water boils, the pork is fried,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: and supper is ready. We eat this sitting on the
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: ground or a stump, around a large piece of birch
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: bark for a table, each holding a dipper in one
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: hand and a piece of shipbread or fried pork in
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the other, frequently making a pass with his hand or
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: thrusting his head into the smoke to avoid the mosquitoes. Next,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: pipes are lit by those who smoke and veils are
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: donned by those who have them, and we hastily examine
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: and dry our plants, anoint our faces and hands, and
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: go to bed. Though you have nothing to do but
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: see the country, there is rarely any time to spare,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: hardly enough to examine a plant, before the night or
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: drowsiness is upon you. Such was the ordinary experience, but
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: this evening we had camped earlier on account of the
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: rain and had more time. We found that our camp
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: was on an old indistinct supply road running along the river.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: What is called a road there shows no ruts or
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: trace of wheels, for they are not used, nor indeed
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: of runners, since they are used only in the winter
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: when the snow is several feet deep. it is only
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: an indistinct vista through the wood which it takes an
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: experienced eye to detect we had no sooner pitched our
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: tent than the thunder-shower burst on us and we hastily
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: crept under it drawing our bags after us curious to
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: see how much of a shelter our thin cotton roof
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: was going to be in this excursion Though the violence
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: of the rain forced a fine shower through the cloth
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: before it was fairly wetted and shrunk, with which we
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: were well bedewed, we managed to keep pretty dry, only
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: a box of matches having been left out and spoiled,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: and before we were aware of it the shower was
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: over and only the dripping trees imprisoned us. Wishing to
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: see what fishes were in the river there, we cast
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: our lines over the wet bushes on the shore, but
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: they were repeatedly swept down the swift stream in vain. So,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: leaving the Indian, we took the canoe just before dark,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: and dropped down the river a few rods to fish
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: at the mouth of a sluggish brook. We pushed up
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: this a rod or two, but were soon driven off
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: by the mosquitoes. While there we heard the Indian fire
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: his gun twice in rapid succession. His object was to
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: clean out and dry it after the rain, and he
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: then loaded it with ball being now on ground where
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: he expected to meet with large game. This sudden loud
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: crashing noise in the still aisles of the forest affected
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: me like an insult to nature. or ill manners at
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: any rate, as if you were to fire a gun
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: in a hall or temple. It was not heard far, however,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: except along the river, the sound being rapidly hushed up
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: or absorbed by the damp trees and mossy ground. The
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Indian made a little smothered fire of damp leaves close
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: to the back of the camp, that the smoke might
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: drive through and keep out the mosquitoes, but just before
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: we fell asleep this suddenly blazed up and came near
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: setting fire to the tent. End of section 3 Recording
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: by Melissa Green. CHAPTER IV. SUNDAY, JULY 26. The note
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: of the white-throated sparrow was the first heard in the morning,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: and with this all the woods rang. Though commonly unseen
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: their simple a-tee-tee-tee, tee-tee-tee, tee-tee-tee, so sharp and piercing, was
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: as distinct to the ear as the passage of a
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: spark of fire shot into the darkness of the forest
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: would be to the eye we were commonly aroused by
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: their lively strain very early what a glorious time they
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: must have in that wilderness far from mankind i told
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: the indian that we would go to church to chesuncook
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: this morning some fifteen miles it was settled weather at
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: last a few swallows flitted over the water we heard
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: maryland yellow-throats along the shore the notes of the chickadee
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: and i believe redstarts Moose flies of large size pursued
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: us in midstream. The Indian thought that we should lie
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: by on Sunday, said he, we come here lookum things,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: look all round, but come Sunday look up all that,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: and then Monday look again. He spoke of an Indian
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: of his acquaintance who had been with some ministers to
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: Kedadan and told him how they conducted. This he described
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: in a low and solemn voice. They make a long
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: prayer every morning and night and at every meal. come Sunday,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: they stop them. No go at all that day. Keep still,
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: preach all day. First one, then another, just like church. Oh,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: very good men. One day going along a river, they
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: came to the body of a man in the water,
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: drowned good while. They go right ashore, stop there, go
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: no further that day. They have meeting there, preach and pray,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: just like Sunday. Then they go back and carry the
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: body with them. Oh, they very good men. I judged
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: from this account that their every camp was a camp meeting,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: and that they wanted an opportunity to preach somewhere more
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: than to see Ketteton. However, the Indian added, plying the
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: paddle all the while, that if we would go along
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: he must go with us. He are man, and he
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: supposed that if he no take him pay for what
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: he do Sunday then there's no arm, but if he
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: take him pay then wrong. I told him that he
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: was stricter than white men. Nevertheless, I noticed that he
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: did not forget to reckon in the Sundays at last.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: He appeared to be a very religious man, and said
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: his prayers in a loud voice, an Indian, kneeling before
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: the camp morning and evening, sometimes scrambling up in haste
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: when he had forgotten this, and saying them with great rapidity.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: In the course of the day he remarked, Poor man,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: remember him God more than rich. We soon passed the
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: island where I had camped four years before. The dead water,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: a mile or two below it, the Indian said was
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: a great place for moose, We saw the grass bent
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: where a moose came out the night before, and the
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Indian said that he could smell one as far as
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: he could see him, but he added that if he
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: should see five or six today close by canoe he
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: no shoot him. Accordingly, as he was the only one
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: of the party who had a gun or had come a-hunting,
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: the moose were safe. Just below this a cat-owl flew
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: heavily over the stream, and he, asking if I knew
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: what it was, imitated very well the common hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo-hoo
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: of our woods. We carried a part of the baggage
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: about Pine Stream Falls while the Indian went down in
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the canoe. A Bangor merchant had told us that two
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: men in his employ were drowned some time ago while
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: passing these falls in a bateau, and a third clung
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: to a rock all night and was taken off in
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: the morning. There were magnificent great purple-fringed orchises on this
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: carry and the neighboring shores. I measured the largest canoe
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: birch which I saw in this journey near the end
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: of the carry. It was fourteen and one-half feet in
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: circumference at two feet from the ground. but at five
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: feet divided into three parts. The Indian cut a small
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: woody knob as big as a filbert from the trunk
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: of a fir, apparently an old balsam vesicle filled with wood,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: which he said was good medicine. After we had embarked
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: and gone half a mile, my companion remembered that he
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: had left his knife and we paddled back to get
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: it against the strong and swift current. This taught us
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: the difference between going up and down the stream, for
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: while we were working our way back a quarter of
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: a mile, we should have gone down a mile and
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: a half at least. So we landed. and while he
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: and the Indian were gone back for it, I watched
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: the motions of the foam, a kind of white waterfowl
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: near the shore, forty or fifty rods below. It alternately
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: appeared and disappeared behind the rock, being carried round by
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: an eddy. Immediately below these falls was the Chesakook Deadwater,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: caused by the flowing back of the lake. As we
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: paddled slowly over this, the Indian told us a story
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: of his hunting thereabouts, and something more interesting about himself.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: IT APPEARED THAT HE HAD REPRESENTED HIS TRIBE AT AUGUSTA,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: AND ONCE AT WASHINGTON. HE HAD A GREAT IDEA OF
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: EDUCATION AND WOULD OCCASIONALLY BREAK OUT INTO SUCH EXPRESSIONS AS THIS, ACADEMY,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: GOOD THING. I SUPPOSE THEY USE HIM FIFTH READER THERE.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: YOU BEEN COLLEGE? WE STEERED ACROSS THE NORTHWEST END OF
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: THE LAKE. IT IS AN AGREEABLE CHANGE TO CROSS A
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: LAKE AFTER YOU HAVE BEEN SHUT UP IN THE WOODS,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: NOT ONLY ON ACCOUNT OF THE GREATER EXPANSE OF WATER,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: BUT ALSO OF SKY. It is one of the surprises
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: which nature has in store for the traveler in the forest.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: To look down in this case, over 18 miles of water,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: was liberating and civilizing even. The lakes also reveal the mountains,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: and give ample scope and range to our thought. Already
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: there were half a dozen log huts about this end
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: of the lake, though so far from a road. In
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: these woods, the earliest settlements are clustering about the lakes partly,
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I think, for the sake of the neighborhood as the
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: oldest clearings. Water is a pioneer which the settler follows,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: taking advantage of its improvements. About noon we turned northward
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: up a broad kind of estuary, and at its northeast
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: corner found the Kakumgomok River, and after going about a
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: mile from the lake reached the Umbazookskus. Our course was
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: up the Umbazookskus, but as the Indian knew of a
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: good camping place, that is, a cool place where there
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: were few mosquitoes, about half a mile further up the Kakumgomok,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: we went thither. So quickly we changed the civilizing sky
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: of Chesunkuk for the dark wood of the Kakum Gumuk.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: On reaching the Indians' camping ground on the south side,
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: where the bank was about a dozen feet high, I
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: read on the trunk of a fir tree, blazed by
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: an axe, an inscription in charcoal which had been left
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: by him. It was surmounted by a drawing of a
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: bear paddling a canoe, which he said was the sign
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: used by his family always. The drawing, though rude, could
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: not be mistaken for anything but a bear, and he
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: doubted my ability to copy it. The inscription ran thus.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: I interlined the English of his Indian as he gave
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: it to me. The figure of a bear in a boat,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: July 26, 1853. Naya Sosim. We alone Joseph. Polis. Elioi. Polis. Start. Sia. Olta.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: For Old Town. Anke. Ni. Right away. Gambi. July 15th, 1855. Neososum.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: He added now below. 1857. July 26th. Joe Polis. This
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: was one of his homes. I saw where he had
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: sometimes stretched his moose hides on the sunny north side
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: of the river where there was a narrow meadow. After
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: we had selected a place for our camp and kindled
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: our fire, almost exactly on the site of the Indian's
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: last camp here, he, looking up, observed that tree danger.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: It was a dead part, more than a foot in diameter,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: of a large canoe birch, which branched at the ground.
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: This branch, rising thirty feet or more, slanted directly over
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: the spot which we had chosen for our bed. I
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: told him to try it with his axe, but he
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: could not shake it perceptibly, and therefore seemed inclined to
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: disregard it. and my companion expressed his willingness to run
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: the risk. But it seemed to me that we should
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: be fools to lie under it, for though the lower
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: part was firm, the top, for aught we knew, might
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: be just ready to fall, and we should at any
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: rate be very uneasy if the wind arose in the night.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: It is a common accident for men camping in the
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: woods to be killed by a falling tree. So the
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: camp was moved to the other side of the fire.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: The Indian said that the Umbazookskus, being a dead stream
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: with broad meadows, was a good place for moose, and
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: he frequently came a-hunting here, being out alone three weeks
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: or more from Old Town. He sometimes also went a-hunting
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: to the Cebuis lakes, taking the stage with his gun
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: and ammunition, axe and blankets, hard bread and pork, perhaps
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: for a hundred miles of the way, and jumped off
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: at the wildest place on the road, where he was
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: at once at home and every rod was a tavern
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: site for him. Then, After a short journey through the
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: woods he would build a spruce-bark canoe in one day,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: putting but few ribs into it, that it might be light, and,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: after doing his hunting with it on the lakes, would
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: return with his furs the same way he had come.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Thus you have an Indian availing himself of the advantages
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: of civilization without losing any of his woodcraft, but proving
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: himself the more successful hunter for it. This man was
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: very clever and quick to learn anything in his line.
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: Our tent was of a kind new to him, but
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: when he had once seen it pitched it was surprising
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: how quickly he would find and prepare the pole and
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: forked stakes to pitch it with, cutting and placing them
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: right the first time, though I am sure that the
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: majority of white men would have blundered several times. Now
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: I thought I would observe how he spent his Sunday.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: While I and my companion were looking about at the
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: trees and river he went to sleep. Indeed he improved
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: every opportunity to get a nap whatever the day. Rambling
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: about the woods at this camp, I noticed that they
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: consisted chiefly of firs, spruce, red maple, birch, and along
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: the river the hoary alder. I could trace the outlines
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: of large birches that had fallen long ago, collapsed and
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: rotted and turned to soil, by faint yellowish-green lines of
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: feather-like moss, eighteen inches wide and twenty or thirty feet long,
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: crossed by other similar lines. Wild as it was, it
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: was hard for me to get rid of the associations
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: of the settlements. Any steady and monotonous sound, to which
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: I did not distinctly attend, passed for a sound of
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: human industry. The waterfalls which I heard were not without
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: their dams and mills to my imagination, and several times
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: I found that I had been regarding the steady rushing
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: sound of the wind from over the woods beyond the
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: rivers as that of a train of cars. Our minds anywhere,
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: when left to themselves, are always thus busily drawing conclusions
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: from false premises. I asked the Indian to make us
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: a sugar bowl of birch bark, which he did, using
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: the great knife which dangled in a sheath from his belt.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: but the bark broke at the corners when he bent
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: it up and he said it was not good, that
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: there was a great difference in this respect between the
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: bark of one canoe birch and that of another. My companion,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: wishing to distinguish between the black and white spruce, asked
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: Paulus to show him a twig of the latter which
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: he did at once, together with the black. Indeed he
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: could distinguish them about as far as he could see them.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: As the two twigs appeared very much alike, my companion
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: asked the Indian to point out the difference, whereupon the latter,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: taking the twigs, instantly remarked, as he passed his hand
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: over them successively in a stroking manner, that the white
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: was rough, that is, the needles stood up nearly perpendicular,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: but the black smooth, that is, if bent down. This
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: was an obvious difference, both to sight and touch. I
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: asked him to get some black spruce root and make
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: some thread. whereupon without looking up at the trees overhead
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: he began to grub in the ground instantly distinguishing the
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: black spruce roots and cutting off a slender one three
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: or four feet long and as big as a pipe-stem
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: he split the end with his knife and taking a
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: half between the thumb and forefinger of each hand rapidly
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: separated its whole length into two equal semi-cylindrical halves then
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: giving me another root he said you try but in
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: my hands it immediately ran off one side and i
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: got only a very short piece Though it looked easy,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: I found that there was a great art in splitting
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: these roots. The split is skillfully humored by bending short
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: with this hand or that, and so kept in the middle.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: He then took off the bark from each half, pressing
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: a short piece of cedar bark against the convex side
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: with both hands while he drew the root upward with
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: his teeth. An Indian's teeth are strong, and I noticed
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: that he used his often where we should have used
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: a hand. They amounted to a third hand. He thus
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: obtained in a moment a very neat, tough, and flexible strength.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: which he could tie into a knot or make into
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: a fish-line even. He said that you would be obliged
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: to give half a dollar for spruce root enough for
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: a canoe thus prepared. He had discovered the day before
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: that his canoe leaked a little, and said that it
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: was owing to stepping into it violently. I asked him
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: where he would get pitch to mend it with, for
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: they commonly use hard pitch obtained of the whites at
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: Old Town. He said that he could make something very
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: similar and equally good of material which we had with us,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: and he wished me to guess what. but I could not,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: and he would not tell me, though he showed me
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: a ball of it when made, as big as a
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: pea in like black pitch, saying at last that there
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: were some things which a man did not tell even
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: his wife. Being curious to see what kind of fishes
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: there were in this dark, deep, sluggish river, I cast
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: in my line just before night and caught several small,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: sucker-like fishes, which the Indian at once rejected, saying that
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: they were good for nothing. Also, he would not touch
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: a pout which I caught, and said that neither Indians
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: nor whites thereabouts ever ate them. but he said that
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: some small silvery fishes, which I called white shiven, were
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: the best fish in the Penhamscott waters, and if I
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: tossed them up the bank to him, he would cook
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: them for me. After cleaning them, not very carefully, leaving
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: the heads on, he laid them on the coals and
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: so broiled them. Returning from a short walk, he brought
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: a vine in his hand, saying that it made the
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: best tea of anything in the woods. It was the
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: creeping snowberry, which was quite common there, its berries just grown,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: so we determined to have some tea made of this.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: It had a slight checkerberry flavor, and we both agreed
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: that it was really better than the black tea which
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: we had brought. We thought it quite a discovery, and
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: that it might well be dried and sold in the shops. I, however,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: am not an old tea drinker, and cannot speak with
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: authority to others. The Indian said that they also used
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: for tea a certain herb which grew in low ground,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: which he did not find there, and Labrador tea. Also
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: hemlock leaves, the last especially in winter when the other
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: plants were covered with snow and various other things. We
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: could have had a new kind of tea every night.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: Just before night, we saw a musquash, the only one
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: we saw in this voyage, swimming downward on the opposite
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: side of the stream. The Indian, wishing to get one
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: to eat, hushed us, saying, Stop, me call him, and
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: sitting flat on the bank, he began to make a curious, squeaking,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: wiry sound with his lips, exerting himself considerably. I was
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: greatly surprised. thought that i had at last got into
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: the wilderness and that he was a wild man indeed
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: to be talking to a musquash i did not know
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: which of the two was the strangest to me he
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: seemed suddenly to have quite forsaken humanity and gone over
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: to the musquash side the musquash however as near as
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: i could see did not turn aside and the indian
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: said that he saw our fire but it was evident
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: that he was in the habit of calling the musquash
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: to him, as he said. An acquaintance of mine, who
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: was hunting moose in these woods a month after this,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: tells me that his Indian in this way repeatedly called
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: the musquash within reach of his paddle in the moonlight
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: and struck at them. The Indian said a particularly long
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: prayer this Sunday evening, as if to atone for working
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: in the morning. CHAPTER V. MONDAY, JULY 27. Having rapidly
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: loaded the canoe, which the Indian always carefully attended to
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: that it might be well trimmed, and each having taken
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: a look, as usual, to see that nothing was left,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: we set out again, descending the Kakom Gomek and turning
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: northeasterly up the Umbazooks Goose. This name, the Indians said,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: meant Much Meadow River. We found it now very wide
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: on account of the rains. The space between the woods,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: chiefly bare meadow, was from fifty to two hundred rods
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: in breadth. In the water on the meadows grew sedges,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: wool grass, the common blue flag abundantly, its flowers just
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: showing itself above the high water as if it were
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: a blue water lily, and higher in the meadows a
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: great many clumps of a peculiar narrow-leaved willow, Here also
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: grew the red osier, its large fruit now whitish. It
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: was unusual for the woods to be so distant from
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: the shore, and there was quite an echo from them,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: but when I was shouting in order to awaken it,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: the Indian reminded me that I should scare the moose,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: which he was looking out for and which we all
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: wanted to see. Having paddled several miles up the Umbazookskus,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: it suddenly contracted to a mere brook, narrow and swift,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: the larches and other trees approaching the bank and leaving
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: no open meadow. We landed to get a black spruce
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: pole for pushing against the stream. The one selected was
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: quite slender, cut about ten feet long, merely whittled to
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: a point and the bark shaped off. While we were
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: thus employed, two Indians in a canoe hove in sight
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: round the bushes coming downstream. Our Indian knew one of them,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: an old man, and fell into conversation with him. He
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: belonged at the foot of Moosehead. The other was of
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: another tribe. They were returning from hunting. I asked the
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: younger if they had seen any moose, to which he
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: said no. But I, seeing the moose hides sticking out
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: from a great bundle made with their blankets in the
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: middle of the canoe, added, Only their hides. As he
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: was a foreigner, he may have wished to deceive me,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: for it is against the law for white men and
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: foreigners to kill moose in Maine at this season. But
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: perhaps he need not have been alarmed, for the moose
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: wardens are not very particular. I heard of one who,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: being asked by a white man going into the woods
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: what he would say if he killed a moose, answered,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: If you bring me a quarter of it, I guess
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: you won't be troubled. his duty being, as he said,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: only to prevent the indiscriminate slaughter of them for their hides.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: I suppose that he would consider it an indiscriminate slaughter
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: when a quarter was not reserved for himself. We continued
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: along through the most extensive larch wood which I had seen,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: tall and slender trees with fantastic branches. You do not
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: find straggling trees of this species here and there throughout
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: the wood, but rather a little forest of them, the
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: same as the case with the white and red pines
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: and some other trees, greatly to the convenience of the lumberer.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: they are of a social habit growing in veins clumps
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: groups or communities as the explorers call them distinguishing them
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: far away from the top of a hill or a
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: tree the white pines towering above the surrounding forest or
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: else they form extensive forests by themselves i should have
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: liked to come across a large community of pines which
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: had never been invaded by the lumbering army we saw
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: some fresh moose tracks along the shore. The stream was
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: only from one and one half to three rods wide,
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: quite winding, with occasional small islands, meadows, and some very
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: swift and shallow places. When we came to an island,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: the Indian never hesitated which side to take, as if
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: the current told him which was the shortest and deepest.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: It was lucky for us that the water was so high.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: We had to walk but once on this stream, carrying
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: a part of the load at a swift and shallow reach,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: while he got up with the canoe not being obliged
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: to take out, though he said it was very strong water.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: Once or twice we passed the red wreck of a bateau,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: which had been stove some spring. While making this portage,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: I saw many splendid specimens of the great purple-fringed orchis
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: three feet high. It is remarkable that such delicate flowers
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: should here adore in these wilderness paths. The Umbazooks Goose
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: is called Ten Miles Long. Having pulled up the narrowest
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: part some three or four miles, the next opening in
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: the sky was over Umbazooks Goose Lake, which we suddenly
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: entered about eleven o'clock in the forenoon. It stretches northwesterly
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: four or five miles. We crossed the southeast end to
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: the Cary-into-Mud Pond. hodge who went through this way to
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: the st lawrence in the service of the state calls
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: the portage here a mile and three-quarters long the indian
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: said this was the wettest carry in the state and
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: as the season was a very wet one we anticipated
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: an unpleasant walk as usual he made one large bundle
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: of the pork keg cooking utensils and other loose traps
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: by tying them up in his blanket we should be
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: obliged to go over the carry twice and our method
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: was to carry one half part way and then go
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: back for the rest our path ran close by the
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: door of a log hut and a clearing at this
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: end of the carry which the indian who alone entered
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: it found to be occupied by a canadian and his
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: family and that the man had been blind for a
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: year this was the first house above chesoncook and was
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: built here no doubt because it was the route of
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: the lumberers in the winter and spring After a slight
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: ascent from the lake through the springy soil of the
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: Canadian's clearing, we entered on a level and very wet
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: and rocky path through the dense evergreen forest, a loosely
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: paved gutter merely, where we went leaping from rock to
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: rock and from side to side in the vain attempt
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: to keep out of the water and mud. It was
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: on this carry that the white hunter whom I met
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: in the stage as he told me had shot two
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: bears a few months before. They stood directly in the
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: path and did not turn out for him. He said
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: that at this season bears were found on the mountains
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: and hillsides, in search of berries and were apt to
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: be saucy. Here commences what was called twenty years ago
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: the best timberland in the state. This very spot was
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: described as covered with the greatest abundance of pine, but
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: now this appeared to me comparatively an uncommon tree there,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: and yet you did not see where any more could
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: have stood amid the dense growth of cedar fir, etc.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: the indian with his canoe soon disappeared before us but
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: ere long he came back and told us to take
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: a path which turned off westward it being better walking
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: and at my suggestion he agreed to leave a bow
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: in the regular carry at that place that we might
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: not pass it by mistake thereafter he said we were
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: to keep the main path and he added you see
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: em my tracks but i had not much faith that
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: we could distinguish his tracks since others had passed over
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: the carry within a few days We turned off at
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: the right place, but were soon confused by numerous logging
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: paths coming into the one we were on. However, we
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: kept what we considered the main path, though it was
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: a winding one, and in this, at long intervals, we
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: distinguished a faint trace of a footstep. This, though comparatively unworn,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: was at first a better, or at least a drier,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: road than the regular carry which we had left. It
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: led through an arbor-vita wilderness of the grimmest character. The
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: great fallen and rotting trees had been cut through and
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: rolled aside, and their huge trunks abutted on the path
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: on each side, while others still lay across it two
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: or three feet high. It was impossible for us to
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: discern the Indians' trail in the elastic moss, which, like
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: a thick carpet, covered every rock and fallen tree, as
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: well as the earth. Nevertheless, I did occasionally detect the
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: track of a man, and I gave myself some credit
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: for it. I carried my whole load at once, a
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: heavy knapsack and a large rubber bag containing our bread
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: and a blanket, swung on a paddle, in all about
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: sixty pounds. but my companion preferred to make two journeys
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: by short stages while i waited for him we could
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: not be sure that we were not depositing our loads
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: each time further off from the true path as i
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: sat waiting for my companion he would seem to be
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: gone a long time and i had ample opportunity to
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: make observations on the forest I now first began to
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: be seriously molested by the black fly, a very small
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: but perfectly formed fly of that color, about one-tenth of
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: an inch long, which I felt and then saw in
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: swarms about me as I sat by a wider and
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: more than usually doubtful fork in this dark forest path.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: Remembering that I had a wash in my knapsack, prepared
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: by a thoughtful hand in Bangor, I made haste to
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: apply it to my face and hands and was glad
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: to find it effectual as long as it was fresh,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: or for twenty minutes, not only against black flies but
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: all the insects that molested us. they would not alight
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: on the part thus defended. It was composed of sweet
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: oil and oil of turpentine, with a little oil of
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: spearmint and camphor. However, I finally concluded that the remedy
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: was worse than the disease. It was so disagreeable and
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: inconvenient to have your face and hands covered with such
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: a mixture. Three large, slate-colored birds of the jay genus,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: the Canadian jay, came flitting silently and by degrees toward
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: me and hopped down the limbs inquisitively to within seven
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: or eight feet, fish-hawks from the lake uttered their sharp
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: whistling notes low over the top of the forest near
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: me as if they were anxious about a nest there
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: after i had sat there some time i noticed at
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: this fork in the path a tree which had been
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: blazed and the letters chamb l written on it with
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: red chalk this i knew to mean chamberlain lake so
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: I concluded that on the whole we were on the
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: right course. My companion having returned with his bag, we
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: set forward again. The walking rapidly grew worse and the
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: path more indistinct, and at length we found ourselves in
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: a more open and regular swamp, made less passable than
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: ordinary by the unusual wetness of the season. We sank
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: a foot deep in water and mud at every step
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: and sometimes up to our knees. The trail was almost obliterated,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: being no more than a musquash leaves in similar places
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: when he parts the floating sedge. In fact, it probably
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: was a musquash trail in some places. We concluded that
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: if Mud Pond was as muddy as the approach to
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: it was wet, it certainly deserved its name. It would
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: have been amusing to behold the dogged and deliberate pace
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: at which we entered that swamp, without interchanging a word,
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: as if determined to go through it, though it should
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: come up to our necks. Having penetrated a considerable distance
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: into this, and found a tussock on which we could
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: deposit our loads, though there was no place to sit,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: my companion went back for the rest of his pack.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: After a long while, my companion came back and the
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: Indian with him. We had taken the wrong road and
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: the Indian had lost us. He had gone back to
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: the Canadian's camp and asked him which way we had
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: probably gone, since he could better understand the ways of
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: white men, and he told him correctly that we had
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: undoubtedly taken the supply road to Chamberlain Lake. The Indian
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: was greatly surprised that we should have taken what he
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: called a tow, that is, tote-toting or supply road instead
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: of a carry path, that we had not followed his tracks.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: said it was strange and evidently thought little of our
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: woodcraft having held a consultation and eaten a mouthful of
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: bread we concluded that it would perhaps be nearer for
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: us two now to keep on to chamberlain lake omitting
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: mud pond than to go back and start anew for
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: the last place though the indian had never been through
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: this way and knew nothing about it in the meanwhile
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: he would go back and finish carrying over his canoe
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: and bundle to mud pond cross that and go down
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: its outlet and up chamberlain lake and trust to meet
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: us there before night It was now a little after noon.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: He supposed that the water in which we stood had
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: flowed back from Mud Pond, which could not be far
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: off eastward, but was unapproachable through the dense cedar swamp.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: Keeping on, we were ere long agreeably disappointed by reaching
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: firmer ground, and we crossed a ridge where the path
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: was more distinct, but there was never any outlook over
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: the forest. At one place I heard a very clear
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: and piercing note from a small hawk as he dashed
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: through the treetops over my head. We also saw and
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: heard several times the red squirrel. This, according to the Indian,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: is the only squirrel found in those woods, except a
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: very few striped ones. It must have a solitary time
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: in that dark evergreen forest where there is so little life,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: seventy-five miles from a road as we had come. I
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: wondered how he could call any particular tree there his home,
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: and yet he would run up the stem of one
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: out of the myriads as if it were an old
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: road to him. I fancied that he must be glad
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: to see us, though he did seem to chide us.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: One of those somber fir-and-spruce woods is not complete unless
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: you hear from out its cavernous mossy and twiggy recesses
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: his fine alarm, his spruce voice like the working of
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: the sap through some crack in a tree. Such an
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: impertinent fellow would occasionally try to alarm the wood about me.' Oh,'
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: said I,' I am well acquainted with your family. I
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: know your cousins in Concord very well.' But my overtures
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: were vain, for he would withdraw by his aerial turnpikes
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: into a more distant cedartop and spring his rattle again,
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: We entered another swamp at a necessarily slow pace, where
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: the walking was worse than ever, not only on account
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: of the water but the fallen timber, which often obliterated
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: the indistinct trail entirely. The fallen trees were so numerous
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: that for long distances the route was through a succession
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: of small yards where we climbed over fences as high
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: as our heads, down into water often up to our knees,
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: and then over another fence into a second yard and
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: so on. In many places the canoe would have run
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: if it had not been for the fallen timber. Again
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: it would be more open but equally wet, too wet
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: for trees to grow. It was a mossy swamp, which
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: it required the long legs of a moose to traverse,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: and it is very likely that we scared some of
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: them in our transit that we saw none. It was
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: ready to echo the growl of a bear, the howl
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: of a wolf, or the scream of a panther, but
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: when you get fairly into the middle of one of
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: these grim forests you are surprised to find that the
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: larger inhabitants are not at home commonly, but have left
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: only a puny red squirrel to bark at you. Generally speaking,
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: a howling wilderness does not howl. It is the imagination
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: of the traveler that does the howling. I did, however,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: see one dead porcupine. Perhaps he had succumbed to the
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: difficulties of the way. These bristly fellows are a very
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: suitable small fruit of such unkempt wildernesses. Making a logging
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: road in the main woods is called swamping it, and
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: they who do the work are called swampers. I now
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: perceived the fitness of the term. This was the most
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: perfectly swamped of all the roads I ever saw. Nature
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: must have cooperated with art here, however I suppose they
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: would tell you that this name took its origin from
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: the fact that the chief work of roadmakers in those
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: woods is to make the swamps passable. We came to
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: a stream where the bridge, which had been made of
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: logs tied together with cedar bark, had been broken up,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: and we got over as we could. Such as it was,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: this ruined bridge was the chief evidence that we were
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: on a path of any kind. We then crossed another
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: low rising ground and I, who wore shoes, had an
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: opportunity to wring out my socks. but my companion, who
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: used boots, had found that this was not a safe
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: experiment for him, for he might not be able to
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: get his wet boots on again. He went over the
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: whole ground or water three times, for which reason our
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: progress was very slow. Beside that, the water softened our
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: feet and to some extent unfitted them for walking. As
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: I sat waiting for him, it would naturally seem an
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: unaccountable time that he was gone. Therefore, as I could
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: see through the woods that the sun was getting low
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: and it was uncertain how far the lake might be,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: even if we were on the right course, and in
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: what part of the world we should find ourselves at nightfall,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: I proposed that I should push through with what speed
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: I could, leaving bows to mark my path, and find
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: the lake and the Indian if possible before night, and
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: send the ladder back to carry my companion's bag. Having
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: gone about a mile, I heard a noise like the
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: note of an owl, which I soon discovered be made
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: by the Indian, and answering him we soon came together.
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: He had reached the lake after crossing Mud Pond and
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: running some rapids below it, and had come up about
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: a mile and a half on our path. If he
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: had not come back to meet us, we probably should
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: not have found him that night, for the path branched
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: once or twice before reaching this particular part of the lake.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: So he went back for my companion and his bag.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: having waded through another stream where the bridge of logs
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: had been broken up and half-floated away we continued on
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: through alternate mud and water to the shores of apmohenegamook
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: lake which we reached in season for a late supper
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: instead of dining there as we had expected having gone
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: without our dinner it was at least five miles by
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: the way we had come and as my companion had
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: gone over most of it three times we had walked
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: full a dozen miles in the winter when the water
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: is frozen and the snow is four feet deep it
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: is no doubt a tolerable path to a footman if
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: you want an exact recipe for making such a road
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: take one part mud pond and dilute it with equal
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: parts umbazookskus and ap muhenegamook then send a family of
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: musquash through to locate it look after the grades and
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: culverts and finish it to their minds and let a
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: hurricane follow to do the fencing we had come out
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: on a point extending into ap muhenegamook or chamberlain lake
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: where there was a broad gravelly and rocky shore encumbered
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: with bleached logs and trees We were rejoiced to see
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: such dry things in that part of the world, but
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: at first we did not attend to dryness so much
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: as to mud and wetness. We all three walked into
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: the lake up to our middle to wash our clothes.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: This was another noble lake, twelve miles long. If you
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: add Telos Lake, which since the dam was built has
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: been connected with it by dead water, it will be twenty,
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: and it is apparently from a mile and a half
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: to two miles wide. We were about midway its length
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: on the south side. we could see the only clearing
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: in these parts called the chamberlain farm with two or
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: three log buildings close together on the opposite shore some
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: two and a half miles distant the smoke of our
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: fire on the shore brought over two men in a
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: canoe from the farm that being a common signal agreed
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: on when one wishes to cross it took them about
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: a half hour to come over and they had their
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: labor for their pains this time After putting on such
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: dry clothes as we had and hanging the others to
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: dry on the pole which the Indian ranged over the fire,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: we ate our supper, and lay down on the pebbly
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: shore with our feet to the fire without pitching our tent,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: making a thin bed of grass to cover the stones.
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: Here first I was molested by the little midge called
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: the noceum, especially over the sand at the water's edge,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: for it is a kind of sand-fly. You would not
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: observe them but for their light-colored wings. They are said
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: to get under your clothes and produce a feverish heat,
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: which I suppose was what I felt that night. Our
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: insect foes in this excursion were, first, mosquitoes, only troublesome
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: at night or when we sat still on shore by day. Second,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: black flies. Simulium molestum, which molested us more or less
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: on the carries by day, and sometimes in narrower parts
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: of the stream. Third, moose flies, stout brown flies much
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: like a horsefly. They can bite smartly, according to Polus,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: but are easily avoided or killed. Fourth, the noceums. Of
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: all these, the mosquitoes are the only ones that troubled
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: me seriously. but as I was provided with a wash
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: and a veil they have not made any deep impression.
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: The Indian would not use our wash to protect his
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: face and hands for fear that it would hurt his skin,
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: nor had he any veil. He therefore suffered from insects
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: throughout this journey more than either of us. He regularly
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: tied up his face in his handkerchief and buried it
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: in his blanket, and he now finally lay down on
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: the sand between us in the fire for the sake
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: of the smoke which he tried to make enter his
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: blanket about his face and for the same purpose he
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: lit his pipe and breathed the smoke into his blanket.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: In the middle of the night we heard the voice
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: of the loon, loud and distinct from far over the lake.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: It is a very wild sound, quite in keeping with
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: the place and the circumstances of the traveller, and very
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: unlike the voice of a bird. I could lie awake
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: for hours listening to it, it is so thrilling. When
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: camping in such a wilderness as this you are prepared
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: to hear sounds from some of its inhabitants which will
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: give voice to its wildness. Some idea of bears, wolves,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: or panthers runs in your head naturally, and when this
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: note is first heard very far off at midnight as
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: you lie with your ear to the ground, the forest
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: being perfectly still about you, you take it for granted
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: that it is the voice of a wolf or some
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: other wild beast. You conclude that it is a pack
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: of wolves baying the moon or perchance cantering after a moose.
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: It was the unfailing and characteristic sound of those lakes.
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: Some friends of mine, who two years ago went up
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: the Kakagomic River, were serenaded by wolves while moose-hunting by moonlight.
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: It was a sudden burst as if a hundred demons
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: had broke loose, a startling enough sound which, if any,
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: would make your hair stand on end, and all was
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: still again. It lasted about a moment, and you'd have
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: thought there were twenty of them, when probably there were
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: only two or three. They heard it twice only, and
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: they said that it gave expression to the wilderness which
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: it lacked before. I heard of some men who, while
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: skinning a moose lately in those woods, were driven off
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: from the carcass by a pack of wolves which ate
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: it up, This of the loon, I do not mean
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: its laugh, but its looning, is a long-drawn call, as
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: it were, sometimes singularly human to my ear, hoo-hoo-hoo, like
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: the hallowing of a man on a very high key
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: having thrown his voice into his head. I have heard
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: a sound exactly like it when breathing heavily through my
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: own nostrils half-awake at ten at night, suggesting my affinity
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: to the loon, as if its language were but a
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: dialect of my own, after all. Formerly, when lying awake
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: at midnight in those woods, I had listened to hear
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: some words or syllables of their language, but it chanced
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: that I listened in vain until I heard the cry
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: of the loon. I have heard it occasionally on the
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: ponds of my native town, but there its wildness is
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: not enhanced by the surrounding scenery. I was awakened at
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: midnight by some heavy, low-flying bird, probably a loon, flapping
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: by close over my head along the shore. So, turning
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: the other side of my half-clad body to the fire,
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: I saw it slumber again. End of section 5 CHAPTER VI. TUESDAY,
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: JULY 28. When we awoke we found a heavy dew
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: on our blankets. I lay awake very early and listened
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: to the clear shrill a-tee-tee-tee, tee-tee-tee, of the white-throated sparrow,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: repeated at short intervals without the least variation for half
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: an hour as if it could not enough express its
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: happiness we did some more washing in the lake this
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: morning and with our clothes hung about on the dead
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: trees and rocks the shore looked like washing-day at home
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: the indian taking the hint borrowed the soap and walking
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: into the lake washed his only cotton shirt on his
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: person then put on his pants and let it dry
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: on him i observed that he wore a cotton shirt
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: originally white a greenish flannel one over it but no
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: waistcoat flannel drawers and strong linen or duck-pants, which also
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: had been white, blue woolen stockings, cowhide boots, and a
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: cosseth hat. He carried no change of clothing, but putting
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: on a stout, thick jacket, which he laid aside in
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: the canoe, and seizing a full-sized axe, his gun and
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: ammunition in a blanket, which would do for a sailor
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: knapsack if wanted, and strapping on his belt, which contained
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: a large sheath-knife, he walked off at once, ready to
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: be gone all summer. This looked very independent, a few
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: simple and effective tools and no rubber clothing. He was
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: always the first ready to start in the morning. Instead
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: of carrying a large bundle of his own extra clothing, etc.,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: he brought back the great coats of moose tied up
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: in his blanket. I found that his outfit was the
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: result of a long experience, and in the main hardly
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: to be improved on, unless by washing and an extra shirt.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: Wanting a button here, he walked off to a place
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: where some Indians had recently encamped, and searched for one.
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: but I believe in vain. Having softened our stiffened boots
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: and shoes with the pork fat, the usual disposition of
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: what was left at breakfast, we crossed the lake, steering
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: in a diagonal direction northeasterly about four miles to the outlet.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: The Indian name, Apmohanagamuk, means lake that is crossed, because
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: the usual course lies across and not along it. We
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: did not intend to go far down the Alagash, but
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: merely to get a view of the lakes which are
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: its source, and then return this way to the east
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: branch of the Penobscot. After reaching the middle of the
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: lake we found the waves pretty high and the Indian
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: warned my companion, who was nodding, that he must not
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: allow himself to fall asleep in the canoe lest he
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: should upset us, adding that when Indians want to sleep
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: in a canoe they lie down straight on the bottom.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: But in this crowded one that was impossible. However, he
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: said that he would nudge him if he saw him nodding.
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: A belt of dead trees stood all around the lake,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: some far out in the water, with others prostrate behind them,
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: and they made the shore for the most part almost inaccessible.
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: This is the effect of the dam at the outlet.
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: Thus the natural sandy or rocky shore with its green
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: fringe was concealed and destroyed. We coasted westward along the
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: north side, searching for the outlet, about quarter of a
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: mile distant from this savage-looking shore on which the waves
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: were breaking violently, knowing that it might easily be concealed
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: amid this rubbish or by the overlapping of the shore.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: It is remarkable. how little these important gates to a
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: lake are blazoned there is no triumphal arc over the
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: modest inlet or outlet but at some undistinguished point it
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: trickles in or out through the uninterrupted forest almost as
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: through a sponge we reached the outlet in about an
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: hour and carried over the dam there which is quite
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: a solid structure and about one quarter of a mile
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: farther there was a second dam the result of this
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: particular damming about chamberlain lake is that the headwaters of
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: the st john are made to flow by bangor they
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: have thus dammed all the larger lakes raising their broad
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: surfaces many feet thus turning the forces of nature against
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: herself that they might float their spoils out of the
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: country They rapidly run out of these immense forests all
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: the finer and more accessible pine timber, and then leave
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: the bears to watch the decaying dams, not clearing nor
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: cultivating the land, nor making roads nor building houses, but
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: leaving it a wilderness as they found it. In many
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: parts only these dams remain, like deserted beaver dams. Think
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: how much land they have flowed without asking nature's leave.
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: The wilderness experiences a sudden rise of all her streams
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: and lakes. She feels ten thousand vermin gnawing at the
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: base of her noblest trees. Many combining drag them off,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: jarring over the roots of the survivors and tumble them
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: into the nearest stream till the fairest having fallen. They
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: scamper off to ransack some new wilderness and all is
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: still again. It is as when a migrating army of
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: mice girdles a forest of pines. The chopper fells trees
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: from the same motive that the mouse gnaws them, to
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: get his living. You tell me that he has a
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: more interesting family than the mouse. that is as it
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: happens he speaks of a berth of timber a good
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: place for him to get into just as a worm
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: might when the chopper would praise a pine he would
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: commonly tell you that the one he cut was so
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: big that a yoke of oxen stood on its stump
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: as if that were what the pine had grown for
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: to become the footstool of oxen In my mind's eye
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: I can see these unwieldy team deer with a yoke
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: binding them together, the brazen-tipped horns betraying their servitude, taking
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: their stand on the stump of each giant pine in
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: succession through this whole forest, and chewing their cud there
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: until it is nothing but an ox pasture and run
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: out at that, as if it were good for the
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: oxen and some medicinal quality ascended into their nostrils. Or
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: is their elevated position intended merely as a symbol of
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: the fact that the pistoro comes next in order to
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: the sylvan or hunter life? The character of the logger's
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: admiration is betrayed by his very mode of expressing it.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: If he told all that was in his mind, he
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: would say, It was so big that I cut it down,
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: and then a yoke of oxen could stand on its stump.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: He admires the log, the carcass, or corpse more than
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: the tree. Why, my dear sir, the tree might have
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: stood on its own stump in a great deal more
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: comfortably and firmly than a yoke of oxen can, if
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: you had not cut it down. The Anglo-American can indeed
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: cut down and grub up all this waving forest and
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: make a stump speech on its ruins, but he cannot
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: converse with the spirit of the tree he fells. He
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: cannot read the poetry and mythology which retire as he advances.
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: He ignorantly erases mythological tablets in order to print his
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: handbills and town-meeting warrants on them. Before he has learned
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: his ABC in the beautiful but mystic lore of the wilderness,
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: he cuts it down, puts up a district schoolhouse, and
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: introduces Webster's spelling book. Below the last dam, the river
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: being swift and shallow, we two walked about half a
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: mile to lighten the canoe. I made it a rule
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: to carry my knapsack when I walked and also to
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: keep it tied to a crossbar when in the canoe
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: that it might be found with the canoe if we
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: should upset. I heard the dog-day locusts here, a sound
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: which I had associated only with more open if not
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: settled countries. We were now fairly on the Allagash River.
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: After perhaps two miles of river we entered Heron Lake,
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: scaring up 40 or 50 young shell drakes at the entrance,
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: which ran over the water with great rapidity, as usual
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: in a long line. This lake, judging from the map,
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: is about 10 miles long. We had entered it on
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: the southwest side and saw a dark mountain northeast over
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: the lake which the Indians said was called Peaked Mountain,
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: and used by explorers to look for timber from. The
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: shores were in the same ragged and unsightly condition, encumbered
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: with dead timber both fallen and standing as in the
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: last lake, owing to the dam on the Allagash below.
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: Some low points or islands were almost drowned. I saw
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: something white a mile off on the water which turned
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: out to be a great gull on a rock, which
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: the Indian would have been glad to kill and eat,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: but it flew away long before we were near, and
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: also a flock of summer ducks that were about the
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: rock with it. I asking him about herons, since this
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: was Heron Lake, he said that he found the blue
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: herons' nests in the hardwood trees. Rounding a point, we
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: stood across a bay toward a large island three or
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: four miles down the lake. We met with shadflies midway
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: about a mile from the shore, and they evidently fly
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: over the whole lake. On Moosehead, I had seen a
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: large devil's needle half a mile from the shore coming
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: from the middle of the lake where it was three
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: or four miles wide at least. It had probably crossed.
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: We landed on the southeast side of the island, which
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: was rather elevated and densely wooded, with a rocky shore
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: in season for an early dinner. Somebody had camped there
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: not long before, and left the frame on which they
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: stretched a moose hide. The Indian proceeded at once to
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: cut a canoe birch, slanted it up against another tree
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: on the shore, tying it with a withy, and lay
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: down to sleep in its shade. We made this island
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: the limit of our excursion in this direction. The next
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: dam was about fifteen miles further north down the Allagash.
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: we had been told in Bangor of a man who
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: lived alone a sort of hermit at that dam to
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: take care of it, who spent his time tossing a
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: bullet from one hand to the other for want of employment.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: This sort of tit-for-tat intercourse between his two hands, bandying
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: to and fro a leaden subject, seems to have been
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: his symbol for society. There was another island, visible toward
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: the north end of the lake, with an elevated clearing
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: on it, but we learned afterward that it was not inhabited,
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: had only been used as a pasture for cattle which
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: summered in these woods. This unnaturally smooth-shaven, squarish spot in
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: the midst of the otherwise uninterrupted forest only reminded us
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: how uninhabited the country was. You would sooner expect me
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: to bear than an ox in such a clearing. At
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: any rate, it must have been a surprise to the
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: bears when they came across it. Such, seen far or near,
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: you know at once to be man's work, for nature
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: never does it. In order to let in the light
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: to the earth he clears off the forest on the
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: hillsides and plains and sprinkles fine grass seed like an enchanter,
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: and so carpets the earth with a firm sward. Polis
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: had evidently more curiosity respecting the few settlers in those
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: woods than we. If nothing was said, he took it
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: for granted that we wanted to go straight to the
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: next log hut. Having observed that we came by the
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: log huts at Chesson Cook and the blind Canadians at
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: the Mud Pond Kerry without stopping to communicate with the inhabitants,
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: he took occasion now to suggest that the usual way was,
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: when you came near a house, to go to it,
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: and tell the inhabitants what you had seen or heard,
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: and that they told you what they had seen. but
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: we laughed and said that we had had enough of
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: houses for the present, and had come here partly to
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: avoid them. In the meanwhile, the wind, increasing, blew down
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: the Indian's birch, and created such a sea that we
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: found ourselves prisoners on the island, the nearest shore being
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: perhaps a mile distant, and we took the canoe out
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: to prevent its drifting away. We did not know, but
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: we should be compelled to spend the rest of the
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: day and the night there. At any rate, the Indian
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: went to sleep again, my companion busied himself drying his pants.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: and I rambled along the shore westward, which was quite
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: stony and obstructed with fallen, bleached, or drifted trees for
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: four or five rods in width. Our Indian said that
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: he was a doctor and could tell me some medicinal
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: use for every plant I could show him. I immediately
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: tried him. He said that the inner bark of the
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: aspen was good for sore eyes, and so with various
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: other plants, proving himself as good as his word. According
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: to his account, he had acquired such knowledge in his
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: youth from a wise old Indian with whom he associated,
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: and he lamented that the present generation of Indians had
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: lost a great deal. He said that the caribou was
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: a very great runner, that there were none about this
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: lake now, though there used to be many, and pointed
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: to the belt of dead trees caused by the dams,
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: he said, No like them stump, when he sees that
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: he's scared. Pointing southeasterly over the lake and distant forest,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: he observed Miko Old Town in three days. I asked
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: how he would get over the swamps and fallen trees. Oh,
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: said he, in winter all covered, go anywhere on snowshoes,
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: right across lakes. What a wilderness walk for a man
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: to take alone. None of your half-mile swamps, none of
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: your mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns,
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: without hotels, only a dark mountain or a lake for
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: guideboard and station, overground much of it impassable in summer.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: Here was traveling of the old heroic kind over the
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: unaltered face of nature. From the Alagash River across great Apmuhenegamuk,
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: he takes his way under the bare haunted slopes of
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: Katahdin to Pamadumkuk and Milinoket's island seas, and so to
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: the forks of the Nikitao, ever pushing the boughs of
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: the ferns bruce aside with his load of furs, contending
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: day and night, night and day, with the shaggy demon
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: vegetation traveling through the mossy graveyard of trees, or he
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: could go by that rough tooth of the sea, Kineo.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: great source of arrows and of spears to the ancients,
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: when weapons of stone were used, seeing and hearing moose, caribou, bears, porcupines, lynxes, wolves,
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: and panthers, places where he might live and die and
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: never hear of the United States, never hear of America.
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: There is a lumberer's road called the Eagle Lake Road
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: from the Cebuis to the east side of the lake.
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: It may seem strange that any road through such a
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: wilderness should be passable even in winter, but at this season,
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: passing on the single track and it becomes as smooth
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: almost as a railway. I am told that in the
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: Aroostook country, the sleds are required by law to be
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: of one width, four feet, and sleighs must be altered
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: to fit the track, so that one runner may go
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: in one rut and the other follow the horse, yet
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: it is very bad turning out. We had for some
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: time seen a thunder-shower coming up from the west over
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: the woods of the island, and heard the muttering of
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: the thunder, though we were in doubt whether it would
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: reach us. But now the darkness, rapidly increasing, and a
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: fresh breeze rustling the forest, we hastily put up the
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: plants which we had been drying, and with one consent
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: made a rush for the tent material and set about
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: pitching it. A place was selected and stakes and pins
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: cut in the shortest possible time, and we were pinning
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: it down lest it should be blown away when the
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: storm suddenly burst over us. As we lay huddled together
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: under the tent, which leaked considerably about the sides, with
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: our baggage at our feet, we listened to some of
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: the grandest thunder which I ever heard. Rapid peals, round
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: and plump, bang, bang, bang in succession, like artillery from
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: some fortress in the sky, and the lightning was proportionally brilliant.
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: The Indian said, it must be good powder, all for
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: the benefit of the moose and us echoing far over
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: the concealed lakes. I thought it must be a place
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: which the thunder loved where the lightning practiced to keep
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: its hand in, and it would do no harm to
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: shatter a few pines. Looking out, I perceived that the
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: violent shower falling on the lake had almost instantaneously flattened
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: the waves, and it clearing off we resolved to start
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: immediately before the wind raised them again. Getting outside, I
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: said that I saw a cloud still in the southwest,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: and heard thunder there. We embarked nevertheless and paddled rapidly
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: back toward the dams. At the outlet of Chamberlain Lake
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: we were overtaken by another gusty rainstorm which compelled us
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: to take shelter. The Indian under his canoe on the
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: bank and we under the edge of the dam. However,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: we were more scared than wet. From my covert I
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: could see the Indian peeping out from beneath his canoe
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: to see what had become of the rain. When we
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: had taken our respective places thus once or twice, the
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: rain not coming down in earnest, we commenced rambling about
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood, for the wind had by this time raised
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: such waves on the lake that we could not stir,
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: and we feared that we should be obliged to camp there.
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: We got an early supper on the dam and tried
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: for fish while waiting for the tumult to subside. The
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: fishes were not only few but small and worthless. At length,
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: just before sunset, we set out again. It was a
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: wild evening when we coasted up the north side of
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: the Ap Muhenegamuk Lake. One thunderstorm was just over, and
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: the waves which it had raised still running with violence,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: and another storm was now seen coming up in the southwest,
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: far over the lake. But it might be worse in
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: the morning, and we wished to get as far as
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: possible on our way while we might. It blew hard
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: against the shore, which was as dreary and harbourless as
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: you can conceive. For half a dozen rods in width
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: it was a perfect maze of submerged trees, all dead
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: and bare and bleaching, some standing half their original height,
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: others prostrate and criss across, above or beneath the surface,
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: and mingled with them were loose trees and limbs and
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: stumps beating about. We could not have landed, if we would,
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: without the greatest danger of being swamped, so blow as
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: it might we must depend on coasting. It was twilight, too,
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: and that stormy cloud was advancing rapidly in our rear.
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: It was a pleasant excitement, yet we were glad to reach,
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: at length, the cleared shore of the Chamberlain farm. We
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: landed on a low and thinly wooded point, and while
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: my companions were pitching the tent, I ran up to
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: the house to get some sugar, our six pounds being gone.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: It was no wonder they were, for Paulus had a
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: sweet tooth. He would first fill his dipper nearly a
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: third full of sugar and then add the coffee to it.
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: Here was a clearing extending back from the lake to
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: a hilltop with some dark-colored log buildings and a storehouse
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: in it. and a half-dozen men standing in front of
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: the principal hut greedy for news. Among them was the
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: man who tended the dam on the Allagash and tossed
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: the bullet. He, having charge of the dams and learning
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: that we were going to Webster Stream the next day,
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: told me that some of their men, who were haying
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: at Tellos Lake, had shut the dam at the canal
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: there in order to catch trout, and if we wanted
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: more water to take us through the canal we might
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: raise the gate. They were unwilling to spare more than
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: four pounds of brown sugar, unlocking the storehouse to get it,
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: since they only kept a little for such cases as
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: this and they charged twenty cents a pound for it
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: which certainly it was worth to get it up there.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: When I returned to the shore it was quite dark,
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: but we had a rousing fire to warm and dry
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: us by and a snug apartment behind it. The Indian
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: went up to the house to inquire after a brother
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: who had been absent hunting a year or two, and
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: while another shower was beginning I groped about cutting spruce
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: and arborvita twigs for a bed. I preferred the arborvita
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: on account of its fragrance and spread it particularly thick
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: about the shoulders. It is remarkable with what pure satisfaction
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: the traveller in those woods will reach this camping-ground on
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: the eve of a tempestuous night like this, as if
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: he had got to his inn and, rolling himself in
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: his blanket, stretched himself on his six feet by two
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: bed of dripping fir twigs with a thin sheet of
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: cotton for roof snug as a meadow-mouse in its nest.
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: Invariably our best nights were those when it rained, for
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: then we were not troubled with mosquitoes. You soon come
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: to disregard rain on such excursions, at least in the summers.
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: It is so easy to dry yourself, supposing a dry
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: change of clothing is not to be had. You can
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: much sooner dry yourself by a fire as you can
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: make in the woods than in anybody's kitchen. The fireplace
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: is so much larger, and wood so much more abundant.
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: A shed-shaped tent will catch and reflect the heat, and
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: you may be drying while you are sleeping. Some who
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: have leaky roofs in the towns may have been kept awake,
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: but we were soon lulled asleep by a steady, soaking
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: rain which lasted all night. End of Section 6 CHAPTER VII. WEDNESDAY,
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: JULY 29. When we awoke it had done raining, though
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: it was still cloudy. The fire was put out, and
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: the Indians' boots, which stood under the eaves of the tent,
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: were half full of water. He was much more improvident
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: in such respects than either of us, and he had
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: to thank us for keeping his powder dry. We decided
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: to cross the lake at once, before breakfast, and before
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: starting I took the bearing of the shore, which we
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: wished to strike, about three miles distant, lest a sudden
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: misty rain should conceal it when we were midway. Though
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: the bay in which we were was perfectly quiet and smooth,
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: we found the lake already wide awake outside, but not
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: dangerously or unpleasantly so. Nevertheless, when you get out on
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: one of those lakes in a canoe like this, you
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: do not forget that you are completely at the mercy
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: of the wind, and a fickle power it is. The
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: playful waves may at any time become too rude for
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: you in their sport and play right over you. After
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: much steady paddling and dancing over the dark waves, we
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: found ourselves in the neighborhood of the southern land. We
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: breakfasted on a rocky point, the first convenient place that offered.
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: It was well enough that we crossed thus early, for
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: the waves now ran quite high. but beyond this point
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: we had comparatively smooth water. You can commonly go along
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: one side or the other of a lake when you
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: cannot cross it. My companion and I, having a discussion
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: on some point of ancient history, were amused by the
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: attitude which the Indian, who could not tell what we
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: were talking about, assumed. He constituted himself umpire, and judging
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: by our air and gesture, he very seriously remarked from
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: time to time, You beat, or he beat. leaving a
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: spacious bay on our left we entered through a short
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: strait into a small lake a couple of miles over
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: and thence into tellos lake this curved round toward the
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: north-east and may have been three or four miles long
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: as we paddled the outlet from the lake into the
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: east branch of the penobscot is an artificial one and
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: it was not very apparent where it was exactly but
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: the lake ran curving far up north-easterly into two narrow
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: valleys or ravines as if it had for a long
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: time been groping its way toward the penobscot waters by
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: observing where the horizon was lowest and following the longest
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: of these we at length reached the dam having come
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: about a dozen miles from the last camp somebody had
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: left a line set for trout and the jack-knife with
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: which the bait had been cut on the dam beside
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: it and on a log close by a loaf of
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: bread these proved the property of a solitary hunter whom
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: we soon met and canoe and gun and traps were
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: not far off he told us that it was twenty
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: miles to the foot of grand lake and that the
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: first house below the foot of the lake on the
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: east branch was Hunt's, about forty-five miles further. This hunter,
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: who was a quite small, sunburnt man, having already carried
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: his canoe over, had nothing so interesting and pressing to
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: do as to observe our transit. He had been out
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: a month or more alone. How much more respectable is
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: the life of the solitary pioneer or settler in these,
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: or any woods, having real difficulties, not of his own creation,
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: drawing his subsistence directly from nature! than that of the
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: helpless multitudes in the towns who depend on gratifying the
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: extremely artificial wants of society and are thrown out of
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: employment by hard times. Telos Lake, the head of the St.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: John on this side, and Webster Pond, the head of
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: the east branch of the Penebscot, are only about a
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: mile apart, and they are connected by a ravine in
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: which but little digging was required to make the water
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: of the former, which is the highest, flow into the latter.
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: This canal is something less than a mile long and
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: about four rods wide. The rush of the water has
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: produced such changes in the canal that it is now
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: the appearance of a very rapid mountain stream flowing through
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: a ravine, and you would not suspect that any digging
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: had been required to persuade the waters of the St.
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: John to flow into the Penebscot here. It was so
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: winding that one could see but a little way down.
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: It was wonderful how well watered this country is. As
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: you paddle across a lake, bays will be pointed out
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: to you, by following up which, and perhaps the tributary
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: stream which empties in, You may, after a short portage,
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: or possibly at some seasons not at all, get into
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: another river, which empties far away from the one you
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: are on. Generally, you may go in any direction in
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: a canoe by making frequent, but not very long, portages.
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: It seems as if the more youthful and impressionable streams
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: can hardly resist the numerous invitations and temptations to leave
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: their native beds and run down their neighbors' channels. Wherever
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: there is a channel for water, there is a road
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: for the canoe. It is said that some western steamers
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: can run on a heavy dew, whence we can imagine
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: what a canoe may do. This canal so called was
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: a considerable and extremely rapid and rocky river. The Indian
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: decided that there was water enough in it without raising
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: the dam, which would only make it more violent, and
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: that he would run down it alone while we carried
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: the greater part of the baggage, our provisions being about
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: half consumed there was the less left in the canoe.
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: We had thrown away the pork keg, and wrapped its
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: contents in birch bark, Following a moist trail through the
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: forest we reached the head of Webster Pond about the
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: same time with the Indian, notwithstanding the velocity with which
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: he moved, our route being the most direct. The pond
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: was two or three miles long. At the outlet was
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: another dam, at which we stopped and picked raspberries while
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: the Indian went down the stream a half mile through
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: the forest to see what he had got to contend with.
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: There was a deserted log camp here, apparently used the
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: previous winter, with its hovel or barn for cattle. In
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: the hut was a large fir-twig bed raised two feet
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: from the floor. occupying a large part of the single
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: apartment a long narrow table against the wall with a
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: stout log bench before it and above the table a
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: small window the only one there was which admitted a
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: feeble light it was a simple and strong fort erected
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: against the cold we got our dinner on the shore
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: on the upper side of the dam As we were
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: sitting by our fire, concealed by the earth bank of
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: the dam, a long line of sheldrakes, half-grown, came waddling
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: over it from the water below, passing within about a
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: rod of us, so that we could almost have caught
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: them in our hands. They were very abundant on all
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: the streams and lakes which we visited, and every two
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: or three hours they would rush away in a long
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: string over the water before us, twenty to fifty of
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: them at once, rarely ever flying, but running with great
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: rapidity up or down the stream, even in the midst
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: of the most violent rapids, and apparently as fast up
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: as down. an indian at oldtown had told us that
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: we should be obliged to carry ten miles between tellos
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: lake on the st john and second lake on the
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: east branch of the penobscot but the lumberers whom we
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: met assured us that there would not be more than
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: a mile of carry it turned out that the indian
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: was nearest right as far as we were concerned however
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: if one of us could have assisted the indian in
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: managing the canoe in the rapids we might have run
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: the greater part of the way but as he was
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: alone in the management of the canoe in such places
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: we were obliged to walk the greater part My companion
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: and I carried a good part of the baggage on
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: our shoulders, while the Indian took that which would be
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: least injured by wet in the canoe. We did not
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: know when we should see him again, for he had
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: not been this way since the canal was cut. He
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: agreed to stop when he got to smooth water, come
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: up and find our path if he could, and halloo
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: for us, and after waiting a reasonable time go on
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: and try again, and we were to look out in
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: like manner for him. He commenced by running through the
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: sluiceway and over the dam as usual, standing up in
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: his tossing canoe, and was soon out of sight behind
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: a point in a wild gorge. This Webster's dream is
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: well known to lumbermen as a difficult one. It is
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: exceedingly rapid and rocky and also shallow, and can hardly
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: be considered navigable, unless that may mean that what is
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: launched in it is sure to be carried swiftly down it,
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: though it may be dashed to pieces by the way.
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: It is somewhat like navigating a thunderspout. With commonly an
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: irresistible force urging you on, you have got to choose
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: your own course each moment between the rocks and shallows
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: and to get into it, moving forward always with the
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: utmost possible moderation, and often holding on, if you can,
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: that you may inspect the rapids before you. By the
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: Indian's direction we took an old path on the south
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: side which appeared to keep down the stream. It was
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: a wild wood path with a few tracks of oxen
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: which had been driven over it, probably to some old
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: camp clearing for pasturage, mingled with the tracks of moose
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: which had lately used it. we kept on steadily for
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: about an hour without putting down our packs occasionally winding
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: around or climbing over a fallen tree for the most
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: part far out of sight and hearing of the river
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: till after walking about three miles we were glad to
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: find that the path came to the river again at
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: an old camp-ground where there was a small opening in
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: the forest at which we paused Swiftly as the shallow
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: and rocky river ran here, a continuous rapid with dancing waves,
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: I saw, as I sat on the shore, a long
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: string of sheldrakes, which, something scared, run up the opposite
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: side of the stream by me just touching the surface
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: of the waves and getting an impulse from them as
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: they flowed from under them. But they soon came back
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: driven by the Indian who had fallen a little behind
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: us on account of the windings. He shot round a
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: point just above and came to land by us with
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: considerable water in his canoe. He had found it, as
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: he said, very strong water. and had been obliged to
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: land once before to empty out what he had taken in.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: He complained that it strained him to paddle so hard
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: in order to keep his canoe straight in its course,
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: having no one in the bows to aid him, and,
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: shallow as it was, said that it would be no
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: joke to upset there, for the force of the water
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: was such that he had as leaf I would strike
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: him over the head with a paddle, as have that
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: water strike him. Seeing him come out of that gap
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: was as if he should pour water down an inclined
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: and zigzagged trough. then drop a nutshell into it, and
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: taking a shortcut to the bottom, get there in time
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: to see it come out, notwithstanding the Russian tumult, right
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: side up, and only partly full of water. After a
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: moment's breathing space, while I held his canoe, he was
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: soon out of sight again round another bend, and we,
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: shouldering our packs, resumed our course. Before going a mile
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: we heard the Indian calling to us. He had come
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: up through the woods and along the path to find us,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: having reached sufficiently smooth water to warrant his taking us in.
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: The shore was about one-fourth of a mile distant through
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: a dense, dark forest, and as he led us back
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: to it, winding rapidly about to the right and left,
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: I had the curiosity to look down carefully and found
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: that he was following his steps backward. I could only
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: occasionally perceive his trail in the moss, and yet he
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: did not appear to look down, nor hesitate an instant,
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: but led us out exactly to his canoe. This surprised me,
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: for without a compass, or the sight or noise of
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: the river to guide us, we could not have kept
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: our course many minutes. and could have retraced our steps
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: but a short distance, with a great deal of pains
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: and very slowly, using a laborious circumspection. But it was
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: evident that he could go back through the forest wherever
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: he had been during the day. After this rough walking
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: in the dark woods, it was an agreeable change to
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: glide down the rapid river in the canoe once more.
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: This river, though still very swift, was almost perfectly smooth
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: here and showed a very visible declivity, a regularly inclined
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: plain for several miles, like a mirror set a little
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: aslant on which we coasted down. It was very exhilarating,
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: and the perfection of traveling, the coasting down this inclined
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: mirror between two evergreen forests edged with lofty dead-white pines,
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: sometimes slanted halfway over the stream. I saw some monsters there,
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: nearly destitute of branches and scarcely diminishing in diameter for
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: eighty or ninety feet. As we were thus swept along,
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: our Indian repeated in a deliberate and drawling tone the words,
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: Daniel Webster, great lawyer, apparently reminded of him by the
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: name of the stream, and he described his calling on
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: him once in Boston at what he supposed was his boarding-house.
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: He had no business with him, but merely went to
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: pay his respects, as we should say. It was on
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: the day after Webster delivered his Bunker Hill oration. The
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: first time he called, he waited till he was tired
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: without seeing him, and then went away. The next time
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: he saw him go by the door of the room
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: in which he was waiting several times in his shirt-sleeves
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: without noticing him. He thought that if he had come
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: to see Indians they would not have treated him so.
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: At length, after very long delay, he came in, walked
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: toward him, and asked in a loud voice gruffly, What
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: do you want? And he, thinking at first by the
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: motion of his hand that he was going to strike him,
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: said to himself, You'd better take care. If you try
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: that I shall know what to do. He did not
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: like him, and declared that all he said was not
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: worth talk about a musquash. Coming to Falls and Rapids
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: our easy progress was suddenly terminated. the Indian went along
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 1: shore to inspect the water while we climbed over the
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: rocks picking berries. When the Indian came back, he remarked,
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: You got to walk. Very strong water. So, taking out
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: his canoe, he launched it again below the falls and
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: was soon out of sight. At such times he would
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: step into the canoe, take up his paddle and start off,
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: looking far downstream, as if absorbing all the intelligence of
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: forest and stream into himself. We, meanwhile, scrambled along the
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: shore with our packs without any path, This was the
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: last of our boating for the day. The Indian now
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: got along much faster than we and waited for us
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: from time to time. I found here the only cool
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: spring that I drank at anywhere on this excursion, a
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: little water filling a hollow in the sandy bank. It
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: was a quite memorable event, and due to the elevation
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: of the country, for wherever else we had been, the
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: water in the rivers and the streams emptying in was
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: dead and warm, compared with that of a mountainous region.
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: It was very bad walking along the shore, over fallen
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: and drifted trees and bushes and rocks. from time to
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: time swinging ourselves round over the water, or else taking
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: to a gravel bar, or going inland. At one place,
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: the Indian being ahead, I was obliged to take off
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: all my clothes in order to ford a small but
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: deep stream emptying in, while my companion, who was inland,
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: found a rude bridge high up in the woods, and
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: I saw no more of him for some time. I
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: saw there very fresh moose tracks, and I passed one
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: white pine log, lodged in the forest near the edge
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: of the stream, which was quite five feet in diameter
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: at the butt. Shortly after this, I overtook the Indian
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: at the edge of some burnt land, which extended three
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: or four miles at least, beginning about three miles above
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: Second Lake, which we were expecting to reach that night.
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: This burnt region was still more rocky than before, but
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: though comparatively open we could not yet see the lake.
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: Not having seen my companion for some time, I climbed
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: with the Indian a high rock on the edge of
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: the river forming a narrow ridge only a foot or
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: two wide at top in order to look for him.
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: After calling many times, I at length heard him answer
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: from a considerable distance inland, he having taken a trail
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: which led off from the river and being now in
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: search of the river again. Seeing a much higher rock
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: of the same character about one-third of a mile further downstream,
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: I proceeded toward it through the burnt land in order
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: to look for the lake from its summit, and hallowing
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: all the while that my companion might join me on
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 1: the way. Before we came together, I noticed where a moose,
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: which paused I had scared by my shouting, had apparently
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: just run along a large rotten trunk of a pine,
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: which made a bridge thirty or forty feet long over
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 1: a hollow as convenient for him as for me. The
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: tracks were as large as those of an ox, but
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: an ox could not have crossed there. This burnt land
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: was an exceedingly wild and desolate region, Judging by the
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: weeds and sprouts, it appeared to have been burnt about
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: two years before. It was covered with charred trunks, either
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: prostrate or standing, which crocked our clothes and hands. Great
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: shells of trees, sometimes unburnt without, or burnt on one
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: side only, but black within, stood twenty or forty feet high.
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: The fire had run up inside, as in a chimney
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: leaving the sapwood. There were great fields of fireweed, which
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: presented masses of pink. Intermixed with these were blueberry and
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: raspberry bushes. having crossed a second rocky ridge when I
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: was beginning to ascend the third, the Indian whom I
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: had left on the shore beckoned me to come to him,
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: but I made sign that I would first ascend the
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: rock before me. My companion accompanied me to the top.
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: There was a remarkable series of these great rock waves
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: revealed by the burning, breakers as it were. No wonder
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: the river that found its way through them was rapid
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: and obstructed by falls. We could see the lake of
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: the woods, and that the river made an abrupt turn
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: southward round the end of the cliff on which we stood,
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: and that there was an important fall in it a
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: short distance below us. I could see the canoe a
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: hundred rods behind, but now on the opposite shore, and
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: supposed that the Indian had concluded to take out and
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: carry round some bad rapids on that side. But after
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: waiting a while I could still see nothing of him,
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: and I began to suspect that he had gone inland
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: to look for the lake from some hill-top on that side.
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: This proved to be the case, for after I had
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: started to return to the canoe I heard a faint halloo,
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: and described him on the top of a distant rocky hill.
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: I began to return along the ridge toward the angle
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: in the river. My companion inquired where I was going,
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: to which I answered that I was going far enough
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 1: back to communicate with the Indian. When we reached the
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: shore the Indian appeared from out the woods on the
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: opposite side, but on account of the roar of the
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: water it was difficult to communicate with him. He kept
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: along the shore westward to his canoe while we stopped
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: at the angle where the stream turned southward around the precipice.
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: I said to my companion that we would keep along
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: the shore and keep the Indian in sight. We started
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: to do so being close together, the Indian behind us
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: having launched his canoe again, but I saw the latter
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: beckoning to me and I called to my companion, who
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: had just disappeared behind large rocks at the point of
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: the precipice on his way down the stream, that I
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: was going to help the Indian. I did so, helped
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: get the canoe over a fall, lying with my breast
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: over a rock and holding one end while he received
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: it below, and within ten or fifteen minutes I was
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: back at the point where the river turned southward, while
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: Polis glided down the river alone, parallel with me. but
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: to my surprise when I rounded the precipice, though the
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: shore was bare of trees without rocks for a quarter
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 1: of a mile at least, my companion was not to
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: be seen. It was as if he had sunk into
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: the earth. This was the moron accountable to me, because
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: I knew that his feet were very sore and that
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: he wished to keep with the party. I hastened along,
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: hallooing and searching for him, thinking he might be concealed
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: behind a rock, but the Indian had got along faster
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: in his canoe till he was arrested by the falls
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 1: about a quarter of a mile below. He then landed,
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: and said that we could go no further that night.
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: The sun was setting, and on account of falls and
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: rapids we should be obliged to leave this river and
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: carry a good way into another further east. The first
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: thing then was to find my companion, for I was
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: now very much alarmed about him, and I sent the
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: Indian along the shore downstream, which began to be covered
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: with unburnt wood again just below the falls, while I
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: searched backward about the precipice which we had passed. The
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: Indian showed some unwillingness to exert himself, complaining that he
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: was very tired in consequence of his day's work, that
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: it had strained him getting down so many rapids alone.
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: But he went off calling somewhat like an owl. I
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 1: remembered that my companion was nearsighted, and I feared that
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: he had either fallen from the precipice or fainted and
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: sunk down amid the rocks beneath it. I shouted and
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: searched above and below this precipice in the twilight till
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: I could not see, expecting nothing less than to find
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: his body beneath it. For half an hour I anticipated
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: and believed only the worst. I thought what I should
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: do the next day if I did not find him,
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: and how his relatives would feel if I should return
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: without him, I felt that if he were really lost
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: away from the river there, it would be a desperate
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: undertaking to find him. And where were they who could
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: help you? What would it be to raise the country,
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: where there were only two or three camps, twenty or
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: thirty miles apart and no road, and perhaps nobody at home?
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: I rushed down from this precipice to the canoe in
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: order to fire the Indian's gun, but found that my
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: companion had the caps. When the Indian returned, he said
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: that he had seen his tracks once or twice along
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: the shore. This encouraged me very much. He objected to
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: firing the gun, saying that if my companion heard it,
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 1: which was not likely, on account of the roar of
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: the stream, it would tempt him to come toward us,
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: and he might break his neck in the dark. For
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: the same reason we refrained from lighting a fire on
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: the highest rock. I proposed that we should both keep
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: down the stream to the lake, or that I should
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: go at any rate, but the Indian said, No use,
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: can't do anything in the dark. Come morning, then we
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: find him. No harm, he make him camp. No bad
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: animals here, warm night, he well off as you and I.
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: The darkness in the woods was by this so thick
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: that it decided the question. We must camp where we were.
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: I knew that he had his knapsack, with blankets and matches, and,
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: if well, would fare no worse than we, except that
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: he would have no supper nor society. This side of
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: the river being so encumbered with rocks, we crossed to
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: the eastern or smoother shore, and proceeded to camp there,
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 1: within two or three rods of the falls. We pitched
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: no tent, but lay on the sand, putting a few
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: handfuls of grass and twigs under us, there being no
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: evergreen at hand. For fuel we had some of the
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: charred stumps. Our various bags of provisions had got quite
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: wet in the rapids, and I arranged them about the
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: fire to dry. The fall close by was the principal
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: one on this stream, and it shook the earth under us.
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: It was a cold, dewy night. I lay awake a
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: good deal from anxiety. From time to time I fancied
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: that I heard his voice calling through the roar of
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: the falls from the opposite side of the river, but
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: it is doubtful if we could have heard him across
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: the stream there. Sometimes I doubted whether the Indian had
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: really seen his track, since he manifested an unwillingness to
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: make much of a search. It was the most wild
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: and desolate region we had camped in, where, if anywhere,
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: one might expect to meet with befitting inhabitants, but I
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: heard only the squeak of a night-hawk flitting over. The
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: moon in her first quarter, in the fore part of
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: the night, setting over the bare rocky hills garnished with tall, charred,
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: and hollowed stumps or shells of trees, served to reveal
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: the desolation. CHAPTER VIII. THURSDAY, JULY 30. I aroused the
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: Indian early to go in search of our companion, expecting
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: to find him within a mile or two further down
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: the stream. The Indian wanted his breakfast first, but I
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: reminded him that my companion had had neither breakfast nor supper.
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: We were obliged first to carry our canoe and baggage
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: over into another stream, the main east branch, about three-fourths
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: of a mile distant, for Webster's stream was no further navigable.
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: We went twice over this carry, and the dewy bushes
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: wet us through like water up to the middle. I
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: hallooed from time to time, though I had little expectation
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: that I could be heard over the roar of the rapids.
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: In going over this portage the last time, the Indian,
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: who was before me with the canoe on his head,
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: stumbled and fell heavily once, and lay for a moment
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: silent as if in pain. I hastily stepped forward to
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: help him, asking if he was much hurt, but after
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: a moment's pause without replying he sprang up and went forward.
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: We had launched our canoe and gone but little way
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: down the east branch, when I heard an answering shout
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: from my companion, and soon after saw him standing on
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: a point where there was a clearing a quarter of
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: a mile below, and the smoke of his fire was
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: rising nearby. Before I saw him I naturally shouted again
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: and again, but the Indian curtly remarked, He hears you.
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: As if once was enough. It was just below the
• 2:06:24
  Speaker 1: mouth of Webster's stream. When we arrived he was smoking
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: his pipe, and said that he had passed a pretty
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: comfortable night, though it was rather cold, on account of
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: the dew. It appeared that when we stood together the
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: previous evening and I was shouting to the Indian across
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: the river, he, being nearsighted, had not seen the Indian
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: nor his canoe, and when I went back to the
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: Indian's assistance did not see which way I went, and
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: supposed that we were below and not above him, and
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: so making haste to catch up, he ran away from us.
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: Having reached this clearing, a mile or more below our camp,
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: the night overtook him, and he made a fire in
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: a little hollow and lay down by it in his blanket,
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: still thinking that we were ahead of him. He had
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: stuck up the remnant of a lumberer's shirt, found on
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: the point, on a pole by the water-side for a signal,
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 1: and attached a note to it to inform us that
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: he had gone on to the lake, and that if
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: he did not find us there he would be back
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: in a couple of hours. If he had not found
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: us soon, he had some thoughts of going back in
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 1: search of the solitary hunter whom he had met at
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: Talos Lake, ten miles behind, and if successful, hire him
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: to take him to Bangor. But if this hunter had
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: moved as fast as we, he would have been twenty
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 1: miles off by this time, and who could guess in
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: what direction? It would have been like looking for a
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: needle in a haymow to search for him in these woods.
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: He had been considering how long he could live on
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: berries alone. We all had good appetites for the breakfast,
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: which we made haste to cook here, and then, having
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: partially dried our clothes, we glided swiftly down the winding
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: stream toward Second Lake. As the shores became flatter with
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: frequent sandbars and the stream more winding in the lower
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: land near the lake, elms and ash trees made their appearance,
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: also the wild yellow lily, some of whose bulbs I
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: collected for a soup. On some ridges the burnt land
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: extended as far as the lake. This was a very
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: beautiful lake, two or three miles long, with high mountains
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: on the southwest side. The morning was a bright one
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: and perfectly still, the lake as smooth as glass, we
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: making the only ripple as we paddled into it. The
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: dark mountains about it were seen through a glaucous mist,
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: and the white stems of canoe birches mingled with the
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 1: other woods around it. The thrush sang on the distant shore,
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: and the laugh of some loons sporting in a concealed
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: western bay, as if inspired by the morning, came distinct
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: over the lake to us. The beauty of the scene
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: may have been enhanced to our eyes by the fact
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: that we had just come together after a night of
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: some anxiety. Having paddled down three quarters of the lake,
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: we came to a standstill while my companion let down
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: for fish. In the midst of our dreams of giant
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: lake trout, even then supposed to be nibbling, our fishermen
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: drew up a diminutive red perch, and we took up
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: our paddles. It was not apparent where the outlet of
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: the lake was, and while the Indian thought it was
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: in one direction, I thought it was in another. He said,
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: I bet you four pence it is there, but he
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: still held on in my direction, which proved to be
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: the right one. As we were approaching the outlet, he
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: suddenly exclaimed, Moose! Moose! and told us to be still.
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: He put a cap on his gun, and standing up
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: in the stern rapidly pushed the canoe straight toward the
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: shore and the moose. It was a cow-moose, about thirty
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 1: rods off, standing in the water by the side of
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: the outlet, partly behind some fallen timber and bushes, and
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: at that distance she did not look very large. She
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: was flapping her large ears, and from time to time
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 1: poking off the flies with her nose from some part
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: of her body. She did not appear much alarmed by
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: our neighborhood, only occasionally turned her head and looked straight
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: at us. and then gave her attention to the flies again.
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: As we approached nearer, she got out of the water,
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: stood higher, and regarded us more suspiciously. Polis pushed the
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: canoe steadily forward in the shallow water, but the canoe
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: soon grounded in the mud eight or ten rods distant
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: from the moose, and the Indian seized his gun. After
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: standing still a moment, she turned so as to expose
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: her side, and he improved this moment to fire over
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: our heads. She thereupon moved off eight or ten rods
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: at a moderate pace across a shallow bay to the
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: opposite shore. and she stood still again while the Indian
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: hastily loaded and fired twice at her, without her moving.
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: My companion, who passed him his caps and bullets, said
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: that Paulus was as excited as a boy of fifteen
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: that his hand trembled, and he once put his ramrod
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: back upside down. The Indian now pushed quickly and quietly back,
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: and a long distance round in order to get into
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: the outlet, for he had fired over the neck of
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: a peninsula between it and the lake, till we approached
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: the place where the moose had stood, when he exclaimed,
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: She's a goner. There, to be sure, she lay perfectly dead,
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: just where she had stood to receive the last shots.
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: Using a tape, I found that the moose measured six
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: feet from the shoulder to the tip of the hoof
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: and was eight feet long. Polis, preparing to skin the moose,
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: asked me to help him find a stone on which
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: to sharpen his large knife. It being flat alluvial ground
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: covered with red maples, etc., this was no easy matter.
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: We searched far and wide a long time till at
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: length I found a flat kind of slate stone on
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: which he soon made his knife very sharp. While he
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: was skinning the moose I proceeded to ascertain what kind
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: of fishes were to be found in the sluggish and
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: muddy outlet. The greatest difficulty was to find a pole.
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 1: It was almost impossible to find a slender straight pole
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: ten or twelve feet long in those woods. You might
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: search half an hour in vain. They are commonly spruce, arborvita, fir, etc., short, stout,
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: and branchy, and do not make good fish-holes even after
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: you have patiently cut off all their tough and scraggy branches.
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 1: The fishes were red perch and shiven. The Indian, having
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: cut off a large piece of sirloin, the upper lip,
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: and the tongue, wrapped them in the hide and placed
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: them in the bottom of the canoe, observing that there
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: was one man, meaning the weight of one. Our load
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: had previously been reduced some thirty pounds, but a hundred
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: pounds were now added, which made our quarters still more
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: narrow and considerably increased the danger on the lakes and
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: rapids as well as the labor of the carries. The
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: skin was ours according to custom, since the Indian was
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: in our employ, but we did not think of claiming it.
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: He being a skillful dresser of moose hides would make
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: it worth seven or eight dollars to him, as I
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: was told. He said that he sometimes earned fifty or
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: sixty dollars in a day at them. He had killed
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 1: ten moose in one day, though the skinning in all
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: took two days. This was the way he had got
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: his property. We continued along the outlet through a swampy
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: region by a long winding dead water, very much choked
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: up by wood, where we were obliged to land sometimes
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: in order to get the canoe over a log. It
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: was hard to find any channel, and we did not
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 1: know but we should be lost in the swamp. It
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: abounded in ducks, as usual. At length, we reached Grand Lake.
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: We stopped to dine on an interesting rocky island, securing
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: our canoe to the cliffy shore. Here was a good
• 2:12:55
  Speaker 1: opportunity to dry our dewy blankets on the open sunny rock.
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: Indians had recently camped here and accidentally burned over the
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: western end of the island. Polis picked up a gun
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: case of blue broadcloth and said that he knew the
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 1: Indian it belonged to and would carry it to him.
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: His tribe is not so large, but he may know
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: all its effects. We proceeded to make a fire and
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 1: cook our dinner amid some pine. I saw where the
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: Indians had made canoes in a little secluded hollow in
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: the woods on the top of the rock where they
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: were out of the wind and large piles of whittlings remained.
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: This must have been a favorite resort of their ancestors,
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: and indeed we found here the point of an arrowhead,
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: such as they have not used for two centuries, and
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: now know not how to make. The Indian picked up
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: a yellowish curved bone by the side of our fireplace
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: and asked me to guess what it was. It was
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: one of the upper incisors of a beaver on which
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: some party had feasted within a year or two. I
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: found also most of the teeth in the skull. We
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: here dined on fried moose meat. Our blankets being dry,
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: we set out again, the Indian, as usual, having left
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 1: his gazette on a tree. We paddled southward, keeping near
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: the western shore. The Indian did not know exactly where
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: the outlet was, and he went feeling his way by
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: a middle course between two probable points, from which he
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: could diverge either way at last without losing much distance.
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: In approaching the south shore, as the clouds looked gusty
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: and the waves ran pretty high, we so steered as
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: to get partly under the lee of an island, though
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: at a great distance from it, I could not distinguish
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: the outlet till we were almost in it, and heard
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: the water falling over the dam there. Here was a
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 1: considerable fall on a very substantial dam, but no sign
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: of a cabin or camp. While we loitered here, Paulus
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: took occasion to cut with his big knife some of
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: the hair from his moose-hide, and so lightened and prepared
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: it for drying. I noticed at several old Indian camps
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 1: in the woods the pile of hair which they had
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 1: cut from their hides. Having carried over the dam, he
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 1: darted down the rapids, leaving us to walk for a
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: mile or more. where for the most part there was
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: no path, but very thick and difficult travelling near the stream.
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 1: He would call to let us know where he was
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: waiting for us with his canoe, when, on account of
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: the windings of the stream, we did not know where
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: the shore was, but he did not call often, forgetting
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: that we were not Indians. He seemed to be very
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 1: saving of his breath, yet he would be surprised if
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: we went by, or did not strike the right spot.
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: This was not because he was unaccommodating, but a proof
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: of superior manners. Indians like to get along with the
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: least possible communication and ado, He was really paying us
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: a great compliment all the while, thinking that we preferred
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: a hint to a kick. At length, climbing over the
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 1: willows and fallen trees, when this was easier than to
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: go round or under them, we overtook the canoe and
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 1: glided down the stream in smooth but swift water for
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: several miles. I here observed, as at Webster's stream, that
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: the river was a smooth and regularly inclined plain down
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: which we coasted. We decided to camp early that we
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: might have ample time before dark. so we stopped at
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: the first favourable shore where there was a narrow gravelly
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: beach some five miles below the outlet of the lake
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: two steps from the water on either side and you
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: come to the abrupt bushy and rooty if not turfy
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: edge of the bank four or five feet high where
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 1: the interminable forest begins as if the stream had but
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: just cut its way through it it is surprising on
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: stepping ashore anywhere into this unbroken wilderness to see so
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: often at least within a few rods of the river,
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: the marks of the axe, made by lumberers who have
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: either camped here or driven logs past in previous springs.
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 1: You will see, perchance, where they have cut large chips
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: from a tall white pine stump for their fire. While
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: we were pitching the camp and getting supper, the Indian
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 1: cut the rest of the hair from his moose hide,
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: and proceeded to extend it vertically on a temporary frame
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: between two small trees, half a dozen feet from the
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 1: opposite side of the fire, lashing and stretching it with
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: arborvitae bark. Asking for a new kind of tea, he
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: made us some pretty good of the checkerberry which covered
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: the ground, dropping a little bunch of it tied up
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: with cedar bark into the kettle. After supper, he put
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: on the moose tongue and lips to boil. He showed
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: me how to write on the underside of birch bark
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: with a black spruce twig which is hard and tough
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: and can be brought to a point. The Indian wandered
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: off into the woods a short distance just before night
• 2:17:08
  Speaker 1: and coming back said, Me found great treasure. What's that?
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 1: we asked. Steel traps under a log, thirty or forty,
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 1: I didn't count them. I guess Indian work, worth three
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: dollars apiece. It was a singular coincidence that he should
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: have chanced to walk to and look under that particular
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: log in that trackless forest. I saw Shivan and Chub
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: in the stream when washing my hands, but my companion
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: tried in vain to catch them. I heard the sound
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: of bullfrogs from a swamp on the opposite side. You
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: commonly make your camp just at sundown, and are collecting wood,
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: getting your supper, or pitching your tent while the shades
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 1: of night are gathering around and adding to the already
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: dense gloom of the forest. You have no time to
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: explore look around you before it is dark you may
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: penetrate half a dozen rods further into that twilight wilderness
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: after some dry bark to kindle your fire with and
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: wonder what mysteries lie hidden still deeper in it or
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: you may run down to the shore for a dipper
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: of water and get a clearer view for a short
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 1: distance up or down the stream And while you stand there,
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: see a fish leap, or duck alight in the river,
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: or hear a thrush or robin sing in the woods.
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: But there is no sauntering off to see the country.
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: Ten or fifteen rods seems a great way from your companions,
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: and you come back with the air of a much-travelled man,
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: as from a long journey with adventures to relate, though
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: you may have heard the crackling of the fire all
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: the while. And at a hundred rods you might be
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: lost past recovery and have to camp out. It is
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: all mossy and moosey. In some of those dense fir-and-spruce
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: woods there is hardly room for the smoke to go up.
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: The trees are a standing night, and every fir-and-spruce which
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: you fell is a plume plucked from night's raven-wing. Then
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 1: at night the general stillness is more impressive than any sound,
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 1: but occasionally you hear the note of an owl, further
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: or nearer, in the woods, and if near a lake,
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: the semi-human cry of the loons at their unearthly revels.
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: To-night the Indian lay between the fire and his stretched
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: moose-hide to avoid mosquitoes. Indeed he also made a small
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: smoky fire of damp leaves at his head and feet,
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: and then, as usual, rolled up his head in his blanket.
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: We with our veils and our wash were tolerably comfortable,
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: but it would be difficult to pursue any sedentary occupation
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: in the woods at this season. You cannot see to
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: read much by the light of a fire through a
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: veil in the evening, nor handle pencil and paper well
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: with gloves or anointed fingers. End of section 8. Recording
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: by Melissa Green. CHAPTER IX FRIDAY, JULY 31 We had
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: smooth but swift water for a considerable distance, where we
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: glided rapidly along, scaring up ducks and kingfishers. But, as usual,
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: our smooth progress ere long come to an end, and
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: we were obliged to carry canoe and all about half
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 1: a mile down the right bank around some rapids or falls,
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: It required sharp eyes sometimes to tell which side was
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: the carry before you went over the falls, but Polis
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: never failed to land us rightly. The raspberries were particularly
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: abundant and large here, and all hands went to eating them,
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: the Indian remarking on their size. Often on bare rocky
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 1: carries the trail was so indistinct that I repeatedly lost it,
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: but when I walked behind him I observed that he
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: could keep it almost like a hound and rarely hesitated,
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: or if he paused a moment on a bare rock,
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: his eye immediately detected some sign which would have escaped me.
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: Frequently we found no path at all at these places
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: and were to him unaccountably delayed. He would only say
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 1: it was very strange. We had heard of a grand
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: fall on this stream and thought that each fall we
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 1: came to must be it, but after christening several in
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: succession with this name we gave up the search. There
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: were more grand or petty falls than I can remember.
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: I cannot tell how many times we had to walk
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: on account of falls or rapids, We were expecting all
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 1: the while that the river would take a final leap
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 1: and get to smooth water, but there was no improvement
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: this forenoon. However, the carries were an agreeable variety. So surely,
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 1: as we stepped out of the canoe and stretched our legs,
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: we found ourselves in a blueberry and raspberry garden, each
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: side of our rocky trail being lined with one or both.
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: there was not a carry on the main east branch
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: where we did not find an abundance of both these berries,
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: for these were the rockiest places and partially cleared, such
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: as these plants prefer, and there had been none to
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: gather the finest before us. We bathed and dined at
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: the foot of one of these carries. It was the
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: Indian who commonly reminded us that it was dinner-time, sometimes
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 1: even by turning the prow to the shore. He once
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: made an indirect but lengthy apology by saying that we
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: might think it strange but that one who worked hard
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: all day was very particular to have his dinner in
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: good season. At the most considerable fall on this stream,
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: when I was walking over the carry close behind the Indian,
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: he observed a track on the rock, which was but
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: slightly covered with soil, and stooping muttered, Caribou. When we returned,
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 1: he observed a much larger track near the same place
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: where some animal's foot had sunk into a small hollow
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 1: in the rock, partly filled with grass and earth, and
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed with surprise, What that? Well, what is it?
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: I asked. Stooping and laying his hand in it, he
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: answered with a mysterious air, and in a half-whisper, Devil.
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: That is Indian devil or cougar. Ledges about here. Very
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 1: bad animal. Pull them rocks all to pieces. How long
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 1: since it was made? I asked. Today or yesterday, said he.
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 1: We spent at least half the time in walking today.
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 1: The Indian being alone, commonly ran down far below the
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 1: foot of the carries before he waited for us. The
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 1: carry paths themselves were more than usually indistinct, often the
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 1: route being revealed only by the countless small holes in
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 1: the fallen timber made by the tacks in the driver's boots.
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: It was a tangled and perplexing thicket through which we
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: stumbled and threaded our way, and when we had finished
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: a mile of it our starting point seemed far away.
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: We were glad that we had not got to walk
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: to Bangor along the banks of this river, which would
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: be a journey of more than a hundred miles. Think
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 1: of the denseness of the forest, the fallen trees and rocks,
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: the windings of the river, the streams emptying in, and
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: the frequent swamps to be crossed. It made you shudder.
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 1: Yet the Indian from time to time pointed out to
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: us where he had thus crept along day after day
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: when he was a boy of ten and in a
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 1: starving condition. He had been hunting far north of this
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 1: with two grown Indians. The winter came on unexpectedly early,
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 1: and the ice compelled them to leave their canoe at
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: Grand Lake and walk down the bank. They shouldered their
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 1: furs and started for Old Town. The snow was not
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 1: deep enough for snowshoes, or to cover the inequalities of
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: the ground. Polis was soon too weak to carry any burden,
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 1: but he managed to catch one otter. This was the
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 1: most they had to eat on this journey, and he
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 1: remembered how good the yellow lily roots were made into
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 1: a soup with the otter oil. He shared this food
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 1: equally with the other two, but being so small he
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 1: suffered much more than they. He waded through the Matawamkeg
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: at its mouth, when it was freezing cold and came
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 1: up to his chin, and he, being very weak and emaciated,
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 1: expected to be swept away. The first house which they
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 1: reached was at Lincoln, and thereabouts they met a white
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 1: teamster with supplies, who, seeing their condition, gave them as
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: much as they could eat. For six months after getting
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: home he was very low and did not expect to live,
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: and was perhaps always the worse for it. For seven
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 1: or eight miles below that succession of Grand Falls— the
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 1: aspect of the banks as well as the character of
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 1: the stream was changed. After passing a tributary from the northeast,
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: we had swift, smooth water. Low, grassy banks and muddy
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 1: shores began. Many elms as well as maples and more
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 1: ash trees overhung the stream and supplanted the spruce. Mosquitoes,
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: black flies, etc., pursued us in mid-channel, and we were
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 1: glad sometimes to get into violent rapids, for then we
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: escaped them. As we glided swiftly down the inclined plain
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: of the river, a great cat-owl launched itself away from
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: a stump on the bank and flew heavily across the stream,
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 1: and the Indian, as usual, imitated its note. Soon afterward,
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 1: a white-headed eagle sailed down the stream before us. We
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: drove him several miles while we were looking for a
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: good place to camp, for we expected to be overtaken
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 1: by a shower, and still we could distinguish him by
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 1: his white tail sailing away from time to time from
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 1: some tree by the shore still further down the stream.
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: some she-core ways, being surprised by us. A part of
• 2:25:36
  Speaker 1: them dived, and we passed directly over them and could
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: trace their course here and there by a bubble on
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 1: the surface, but we did not see them come up.
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 1: It was some time before we found a camping place,
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: for the shore was either too grassy and muddy where
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: mosquitoes abounded, or too steep a hillside. We at length
• 2:25:53
  Speaker 1: found a place to our minds, where in a very
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: dense spruce wood above a gravelly shore there seemed to
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: be but few insects. The trees were so thick that
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: we were obliged to clear a space to build our
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 1: fire and lie down in, and the young spruce trees
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 1: that were left were like the wall of an apartment
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 1: rising around us. We were obliged to pull ourselves up
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: a steep bank to get there, but the place which
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: you have selected for your camp, though never so rough
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 1: and grim, begins at once to have its attractions, and
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: becomes a very center of civilization to you. Home is home,
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: be it never so homey. The mosquitoes were numerous, and
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: the Indian complained a good deal, though he lay, as
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: the night before, between three fires and his stretched hide.
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: As I sat on a stump by the fire with
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 1: a veil and gloves on, trying to read, he observed,
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: I make you candle. And in a minute he took
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: a piece of birch bark about two inches wide and
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: rolled it hard like an alamette, fifteen inches long, lit it,
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 1: fixed it by the other end horizontally in a split
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: stick three feet high, and stuck it in the ground.
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 1: turning the blazing end to the wind and telling me
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: to snuff it from time to time. It answered the
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: purpose of a candle pretty well. I noticed, as I
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 1: had before, that there was a lull among the mosquitoes
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: about midnight, and that they began again in the morning.
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: Apparently they need rest as well as we. Few if
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: any creatures are equally active at night. As soon as
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 1: it was light, I saw through my veil that the
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: inside of the tent about our heads was quite blackened
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: with myriads, and their combined hum was almost as bad
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: to endure as their stings. I had an uncomfortable night
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 1: on this account, though I am not sure that one
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 1: succeeded in his attempt to sting me. Section 10 of
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: Canoeing in the Wilderness by Henry David Thoreau 10. SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY,
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: AUGUST 1ST THROUGH 3RD I caught two or three large
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: red shiven within twenty feet of the camp, which, added
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 1: to the moose tongue that had been left in the
• 2:27:56
  Speaker 1: kettle boiling overnight, and to our other stores, made a
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 1: sumptuous breakfast. The Indian made us some hemlock tea instead
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: of coffee. This was tolerable, though he said it was
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: not strong enough. It was interesting to see so simple
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 1: a dish as a kettle of water with a handful
• 2:28:11
  Speaker 1: of green hemlock sprigs in it boiling over the huge
• 2:28:14
  Speaker 1: fire in the open air, the leaves fast losing their
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 1: lively green color, and know that it was for our breakfast.
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 1: We were glad to embark once more and leave some
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 1: of the mosquitoes behind. We found that we had camped
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 1: about a mile above Hunt's, which is the last house
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: for those who ascend Katadin on this side. We had
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 1: expected to ascend it from this point, but my companion
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 1: was obliged to give up this on account of sore feet.
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 1: The Indian, however, suggested that perhaps he might get a
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 1: pair of moccasins at this place, and that he could
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 1: walk very easily in them without hurting his feet, wearing
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: several pairs of stockings. and he said beside that they
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: were so porous that when you had taken in water
• 2:28:51
  Speaker 1: it all drained out in a little while. We stopped
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 1: to get some sugar, but found that the family had
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: moved away and the house was unoccupied, except temporarily by
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 1: some men who were getting the hay. I noticed a
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 1: seine here, stretched on the bank, which probably had been
• 2:29:05
  Speaker 1: used to catch salmon. Just below this on the west
• 2:29:08
  Speaker 1: bank we saw a moose hide stretched, and with it
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: a bearskin. The Indian said they belonged to Joe Aiden,
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: but how he told I do not know. he was
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: probably hunting near and had left them for the day.
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 1: Finding that we were going directly to Old Town, he
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: regretted that he had not taken more of the moose
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 1: meat to his family, saying that in a short time
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 1: by drying it he could have made it so light
• 2:29:28
  Speaker 1: as to have brought away the greater part, leaving the bones.
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: We once or twice inquired after the lip, which is
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: a famous tidbit, but he said, That go Old Town
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 1: for my old woman. Don't get it every day. Maples
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 1: grew more and more numerous. It rained a little during
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: the forenoon, and as we expected a wetting we stopped
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 1: early and dined just above Whetstone Falls, about a dozen
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: miles below Hunt's. My companion, having lost his pipe, asked
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 1: the Indian if he could make him one. Oyer, said he,
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 1: and in a minute rolled up one of Birch Park,
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: telling him to wet the bowl from time to time.
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 1: We carried round the falls. The distance was about three-fourths
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 1: of a mile. When we had carried over one load,
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: the Indian returned by the shore and I by the path.
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 1: and though I made no particular haste, I was nevertheless
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 1: surprised to find him at the other end as soon
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 1: as I. It was remarkable how easily he got over
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: the worst ground. He said to me, I take canoe,
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 1: and you take the rest. Suppose you can keep along
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 1: with me? I thought he meant that while he ran
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: down the rapids I should keep along the shore, and
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 1: be ready to assist him from time to time, as
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: I had done before. But as the walking would be
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 1: very bad, I answered, I suppose you will go too
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 1: fast for me, but I will try. But I was
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 1: to go by the path, he said. This, I thought,
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: would not help the matter. I should have so far
• 2:30:42
  Speaker 1: to go to get to the riverside when he wanted me.
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 1: But neither was this what he meant. He was proposing
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 1: a race over the Kerry, and asked me if I
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 1: thought I could keep along with him by the same path,
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 1: adding that I must be pretty smart to do it.
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 1: As his load, the canoe, would be much the heaviest
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: and bulkiest, I thought that I ought to be able
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 1: to do it, and said that I would try. So
• 2:31:03
  Speaker 1: I proceeded to gather up the gun, axe, paddle, kettle, frying-pan, plates, dippers, carpets, etc.,
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 1: and while I was thus engaged he threw me his
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: cowhide boots.' What, are these in the bargain?' I asked.' Oh, yer,'
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 1: said he. But before I could make a bundle of
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 1: my load I saw him disappearing over a hill with
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: a canoe on his head. Hastily scraping the various articles together,
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: I started on the run and immediately went by him
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 1: in the bushes, but I had no sooner left him
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: out of sight in a rocky hollow than the greasy plates, dippers, etc.,
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: took to themselves wings, and while I was employed in
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: gathering them up he went by me. But hastily pressing
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 1: the sooty kettle to my side I started once more,
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 1: and soon passing him again I saw him no more
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 1: on the carry. I do not mention this as anything
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 1: of a feat, for it was but poor running on
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: my part, and he was obliged to move with great
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 1: caution for fear of breaking his canoe as well as
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: his neck. When he made his appearance, puffing and panting
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: like myself, in answer to my inquiries where he had been,
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 1: he said,' Locks cut him feet,' and laughing added,' Omi
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 1: love to play sometimes.' He said that he and his companions,
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: when they came to carry us several miles long, used
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: to try who would get over first, each perhaps with
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 1: a canoe on his head. I bore the sign of
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: the kettle on my brown linen sack for the rest
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 1: of the voyage. As we approached the mouth of the
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 1: east branch, we passed two or three huts, the first
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 1: sign of civilization after hunts, though we saw no road
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 1: as yet. We heard a cowbell, and even saw an
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: infant held up to a small square window to see
• 2:32:34
  Speaker 1: us pass. On entering the west branch at Nikitao, Polis
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 1: remarked that it was all smooth water hence to Old Town,
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 1: and he threw away his pole which was cut on
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 1: the Umbazookskus. We camped about two miles below Nikitao, covering
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: with fresh twigs the withered bed of a former traveler,
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 1: and feeling that we were now in a settled country,
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: especially when in the evening we heard an ox sneeze
• 2:32:55
  Speaker 1: in its wild pasture across the river. Whenever you land
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 1: along the frequented part of the river you have not
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: far to go to find these sites of temporary inns,
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: the withered bed of flattened twigs, the charred sticks, and
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 1: perhaps the tent poles. Not long since similar beds were
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: spread along the Connecticut, the Hudson, and the Delaware. and
• 2:33:13
  Speaker 1: longer still ago, by the Thames and Seine, and they
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: now helped to make the soil where private and public gardens, mansions,
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: and palaces are. We could not get fir twigs for
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 1: our bed here, and the spruce was harsh in comparison,
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 1: having more twig in proportion to its leaf, but we
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 1: improved it somewhat with hemlock. After the regular supper we
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 1: attempted to make a lily soup of the bulbs which
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: I had brought along, for I wished to learn all
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: I could before I got out of the woods. Following
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 1: the Indian's directions, I washed the bulbs carefully, minced some
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: moose meat and some pork, salted and boiled all together,
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 1: but we had not the patience to try the experiment fairly,
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: for he said it must be boiled till the roots
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 1: were completely softened, so as to thicken the soup like flour.
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 1: But though we left it on all night, we found
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 1: it dried to the kettle in the morning and not
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 1: yet boiled to a flour. Perhaps the roots were not
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: ripe enough, for they commonly gather them in the fall.
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 1: The Indian's name for these bulbs was Sheepknock. He prepared
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 1: to camp, as usual, between his moose hide and the fire,
• 2:34:12
  Speaker 1: but it beginning to rain suddenly, he took refuge under
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 1: the tent with us, and gave us a song before
• 2:34:17
  Speaker 1: falling asleep. It rained hard in the night, and spoiled
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 1: another box of matches for us, which the Indian had
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: left out, for he was very careless, but we had
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 1: so much the better night for the rain, since it
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: kept the mosquitoes down. Sunday, a cloudy and unpromising morning,
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 1: one of us observed to the Indian, You did not
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 1: stretch your moose hide last night, did you, Mr. Polis?
• 2:34:37
  Speaker 1: Whereat he replied in a tone of surprise, though perhaps
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 1: not of ill-humour, What you ask me that question for?
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: Suppose I stretch him, you see him. Maybe your way talking.
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 1: Maybe all right. No Indian way. I had observed that
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 1: he did not wish to answer the same question more
• 2:34:54
  Speaker 1: than once, and was often silent when it was put again,
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 1: as if he were moody. not that he was incommunicative,
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 1: for he frequently commenced a long-winded narrative of his own accord,
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 1: repeated at length the tradition of some old battle, or
• 2:35:07
  Speaker 1: some passage in the recent history of his tribe in
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 1: which he had acted a prominent part, from time to
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 1: time drawing a long breath and resuming the thread of
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 1: his tale, with the true storyteller's leisureliness. Especially after the
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 1: day's work was over and he had put himself in
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 1: posture for the night, he would be unexpectedly sociable, and
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: we would fall asleep before he got through. The Indian
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: was quite sick this morning with the colic. I thought
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 1: that he was the worst for the moose meat he
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 1: had eaten. We reached the Matawamkeg at half past eight
• 2:35:36
  Speaker 1: in the morning, in the midst of a drizzling rain,
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 1: and after buying some sugar, set out again. The Indian,
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 1: growing much worse, we stopped in the north part of
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 1: Lincoln to get some brandy for him, but failing in this,
• 2:35:46
  Speaker 1: an apothecary recommended Brandreth's pills, which he refused to take
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 1: because he was not acquainted with them. He said, Me doctor,
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 1: first study my case, find out what ail him. then
• 2:35:57
  Speaker 1: I know what to take. We stopped at mid-forenoon on
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 1: an island and made him a dipper of tea. Here, too,
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 1: we dined and did some washing and botanizing while he
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 1: lay on the bank. In the afternoon we went on
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 1: a little further. As a thundershower appeared to be coming up,
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 1: we stopped opposite a barn on the west bank. Here
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 1: we were obliged to spend the rest of the day
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 1: and night on account of our patient, whose sickness did
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 1: not abate. He lay groaning under his canoe on the bank,
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 1: looking very woebegone, You would not have thought, if you
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 1: had seen him lying about thus, that he was worth
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 1: six thousand dollars, and had been to Washington. It seemed
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 1: to me that he made a greater ado about his
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 1: sickness than a Yankee does, and was more alarmed about himself.
• 2:36:37
  Speaker 1: We talked somewhat of leaving him with his people in Lincoln,
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: for that is one of their homes, but he objected
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 1: on account of the expense, saying, Suppose me well in morning,
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 1: you and I go Old Town by noon. As we
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: were taking our tea at twilight, while he lay groaning
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 1: under his canoe, he asked me to get him a
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: dipper of water. Taking the dipper in one hand, he
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 1: seized his powder-horn with the other, and, pouring into it
• 2:36:59
  Speaker 1: a charge or two of powder, stirred it up with
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: his finger and drank it off. This was all he
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 1: took to-day after breakfast beside his tea. To save the
• 2:37:07
  Speaker 1: trouble of pitching our tent when we had secured our
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 1: stores from wandering dogs, we camped in the solitary half-open
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 1: barn near the bank, with the permission of the owner,
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 1: lying on new-mown hay four feet deep. The fragrance of
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 1: the hay, in which many ferns, etc., were mingled, was agreeable,
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 1: though it was quite alive with grasshoppers, which you could
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: hear crawling through it. This served to graduate our approach
• 2:37:28
  Speaker 1: to houses and feather beds. In the night some large bird,
• 2:37:32
  Speaker 1: probably an owl, flitted through over our heads, and very
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 1: early in the morning we were awakened by the twittering
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 1: of swallows which had their nests there. We started early
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 1: before breakfast, the Indian being considerably better, and soon glided
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 1: by Lincoln and stopped to breakfast two or three miles
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: below this town. We frequently passed Indian islands with their
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 1: small houses on them. The Penobscot Indians seem to be
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 1: more social even than the whites. Ever and anon, in
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 1: the deepest wilderness of Maine, you come to the log
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 1: hut of a Yankee or Canadian settler, but a Penobscot
• 2:38:04
  Speaker 1: never takes up his residence in such a solitude. They
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 1: are not even scattered about on their islands in the Penobscot,
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 1: but gather together on two or three evidently for the
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: sake of society. I saw one or two houses not
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 1: now used by them because, as our Indian said, they
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 1: were too solitary. From time to time we met Indians
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 1: in their canoes going upriver. Our man did not commonly
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 1: approach them, but only exchanged a few words with them
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 1: at a distance. We took less notice of the scenery
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 1: today because we were in quite a settled country. The
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 1: river became broad and sluggish, and we saw a blue
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 1: heron winging its way slowly down the stream before us.
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 1: The sunk haze, a short dead stream, comes in from
• 2:38:42
  Speaker 1: the east two miles above Old Town, Asking the meaning
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 1: of this name, the Indian said, Suppose you are going
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 1: down Penebscot, just like we, and you see a canoe
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: come out of bank and go along before you, but
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 1: you no see him stream. That is Sanke. He had
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 1: previously complimented me on my paddling, saying that I paddled
• 2:39:02
  Speaker 1: just like anybody, giving me an Indian name which meant
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 1: great paddler. When off this stream he said to me,
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 1: who sat in the bows, me teach you paddle. So
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 1: turning toward the shore he got out. came forward, and
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 1: placed my hands as he wished. He placed one of
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 1: them quite outside the boat, and the other parallel with
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 1: the first, grasping the paddle near the end, not over
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: the flat extremity, and told me to slide it back
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 1: and forth on the side of the canoe. This, I found,
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 1: was a great improvement which I had not thought of,
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 1: saving me the labor of lifting the paddle each time,
• 2:39:33
  Speaker 1: and I wondered that he had not suggested it before.
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 1: It is true. Before our baggage was reduced we had
• 2:39:39
  Speaker 1: been obliged to sit with our legs drawn up and
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 1: our knees above the side of the canoe, which would
• 2:39:43
  Speaker 1: have prevented our paddling thus, or perhaps he was afraid
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: of wearing out his canoe by constant friction on the side.
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 1: I told him that I had been accustomed to sit
• 2:39:51
  Speaker 1: in the stern and lift my paddle at each stroke,
• 2:39:54
  Speaker 1: getting a pry on the side each time, and I
• 2:39:56
  Speaker 1: still paddled partly as if in the stern. He then
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 1: wanted to see me paddle in the stern, so, changing paddles,
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 1: for he had the longer and better one, and turning
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 1: end for end, he sitting flat on the bottom and
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 1: I on the crossbar, he began to paddle very hard,
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 1: trying to turn the canoe. Looking over his shoulder and laughing,
• 2:40:13
  Speaker 1: but finding it in vain, he relaxed his efforts, though
• 2:40:16
  Speaker 1: we still sped along a mile or two very swiftly.
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 1: He said that he had no fault to find with
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 1: my paddling in the stern, but I complained that he
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 1: had not paddled according to his own directions in the bows.
• 2:40:26
  Speaker 1: As we drew near to Old Town, I asked Polis
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 1: if he was not glad to get home again, but
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 1: there was no relenting to his wildness, and he said,
• 2:40:34
  Speaker 1: It makes no difference to me where I am. Such
• 2:40:36
  Speaker 1: is the Indian's pretense always. We approached the Indian island
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 1: through the narrow strait called Cook. He said, I spect
• 2:40:44
  Speaker 1: we take in some water there, river so high. Never
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 1: see it so high at this season. Very rough water there.
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 1: Swamp steamboat once. Don't you paddle till I tell you.
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 1: Then you paddle right along. It was a very short rapid.
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 1: When we were in the midst of it, he shouted, Paddle!
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: And we shot through without taking in a drop. Soon
• 2:41:03
  Speaker 1: after the Indian houses came in sight. I could not
• 2:41:06
  Speaker 1: at first tell my companion which of two or three
• 2:41:08
  Speaker 1: large white ones was our guide's. He said it was
• 2:41:11
  Speaker 1: the one with blinds. We landed opposite his door at
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 1: about four in the afternoon, having come some forty miles
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: this day. We stopped for an hour at his house. Mrs. P.
• 2:41:22
  Speaker 1: wore a hat and had a silver brooch on her breast,
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 1: but she was not introduced to us. The house was
• 2:41:27
  Speaker 1: roomy and neat. A large new map of Old Town
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 1: and the Indian Island hung on the wall, and a
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 1: clock opposite to it. This was the last I saw
• 2:41:35
  Speaker 1: of Joe Polis. We took the last train, and reached
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: Bangor that night. End of Section 10 Recording by Melissa
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 1: Green End of Canoeing in the Wilderness by Henry David
• 2:41:47
  Speaker 1: Thoreau