The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-08-06


of dispatching it with my squirrel rifle.
The next few days seemed to pass more
slowly than ever, though all were kept
busy with farm work. The cellar was
filled to overlooking with the products Of
the farm and garden. A great hole was
dug in the side of a bank near by into
which about one thousand bushels of po-
tatoes were piled and covered securely
from the frost. Most of the corn had been
harvested and l we'll recollect the long
rows of golden traces hung along the
rafters, the work of my aged grandfather,
who often boosted that he could yet make
a better trace of corn than any of his
grandsons. They were, indeed beautiful.
Monday, the second day of October, came
at last and we were off at four O. clock.
Ny sister was to take us eight miles to
the river and drive home the team. From
that point we were to take canoes, and it
had been agreed that to guard against &C
cident we should fasten two canoes to-
gether at each end, by flashing a stick
across, forming sort of catamaran boat,
very safe and still light and easy to pad
die. These canoes were made in the sum-
mer by two Indians whom my father had
employed to bend and fill fifty pairs of
snow shoes from caribou skins that had
been cured by some special process, and
noDci6araG r,1ah hattar than tho
ordinary snow shoe. The canoes were
made at the same time from birch bark
taken from trees on the farm, and as the
Indians were employed by the day they
did faithful work
We reached the landing at six o clock
and transferred our luggage to the canoes,
and although everything was slowed
closely we found we had quite a load.
The air was crisp and our spirits exuber-
ant. AS we launched our boats on the
broad Penobscot, song after song awoke
the echoes that beautiful morning,
as we vigorously piled the paddles. My
brothers all had fair voices and had gain
ed quite a local reputation as singers.
To me the air seemed filed with melody
as we glided along mile after mile, uncon-
scious of time or distance, until rounding
bend in the river we were greeted with a
ncers, who had Just arrived from a neigh
boring town, and were enjoying a lunch
beside the river. We were invited to
come ashore and have some coffee and
lunch with them, which we We're very
glad to do. We rested half an hour. in
viting the party to break bread with us
whenever they came our way, and with a
parting song again pushed off for camp.
We had planned to reach the mouth of
the Passadumkeag, eighteen miles from
the start, at noon. Then a long, steady
o clock, where we would have to unload
and carry our canoes and luggage around
the falls, then pull of four miles would
bring us to the mouth of the Nicktous,
where we were to camp that night. We
had planned to stop at noon, make coffee
and eat our dinner, but our lunch with
the picnicers had taken the sharp edge
off our appetites, so we lunched from our
basket on board the canoes, keeping the
paddles going at the same time. We
found some quick water and hard pulling
before we reached the falls. l was be-
coming rather tired and proposed to ex-
change my paddle for fish line but my
brothers advised me to wait until we
passed the falls so as not to increase our
luggage, intimating that the trout |
would catch might increase the weight of
our luggage very materially, and there
would be plentyof trout to be caught above
the falls before reaching our camping
place for the night. We reached the falls
earlier by half an hour than we expected,
and soon had our canoes launched above.
We secured a few minnows and soon had
one trolling at the end of my line. In
few moments | felt a sharp pull and saw
a good sized trout leap from the water, |
soon had him safe in the boat and in half
an hour half a dozen others, which my
brother said were enough for SUPPER but
saw a fine looking place some distance up
the stream where the water dashed against
a large boulder in the middle of the
stream piling up foam just below. L
thought there must be big trout there
which l wanted very much to see. SO
carefully re-b batting my hook L let out one
hundred feet Of line, as the boat circled
around to avoid the current it brought my
line across the eddy just below the
boulder, felt sharp strike and soon
had big trout tugging at my line. As
the fish leaped from the water in frantic
efforts to free itself my brothers eAclaim-
ed, THAT is beauty worth sa ving' and
all ceased padding and joined in the ex-
element. l have caught some large trout
at home, but this was by far the largest
one l had ever hooked. After most ex-
citing tussle | succeeded in bringing him
along side the boat. John standing ready
with the landing net soon had him on
board; a speckled beauty which weighed
as near as we could Judge about three