The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-16

to be at ease. No matter how fierce
 was the rapid or how high the wave, his paddle seemed to throw oil upon it, and
 he brought you safely through the
 flood. A rushing river or a foaming
 cataract had no hidden terrors for him. He knew by the shade of the water and
 the curl of the wave how deep was the
 reef, and he would puggle his canoe trough the rocky jaws of death. One | slip, one false movement, and the tiny fcraft would be shattered on the rocks l or sWamped by the back eddy. A Ca
 nadian voyageur seldom has two
 chances, and on account of it's element 1 of constant danger the running of rap ids is a most exciting sport Imagine
 yourself bounding down a watery stair
 way, perhaps half mile in length,
 swept around a bend by the milky cata- ract, the banks flying by like the pano-
 rama past the window of a train Your
 pulses are galloping, but your eye is | fastened on your bow man, whose every
 movement you must second. His pad dle is now on the port, now on the star pOll SlNG ttllOll IL ID LII NSI ouL III front to guard against false channels. Over the last chute you bound like to- began on the ice, and slide at length into smooth water. The other canoes
 race down, taking exactly the same
 course, but running less risk now that
 you have picked out the safe waterway. A landing is made at the foot of the
 rapids, since here is always the best
 fishing ground. The axes ring out for
 a while, and then in the little clearing
 the tents are pitched. Meantime the
 cook has made fire on the beach, and
 over it on a pole the kettle is hung.
 Tea bread, pork and beans-with
 stewed prunes as the plat du jour- make banquet in the woods, with hun-
 ger for a sauce piquante. One will eat
 anything, and lots of it, when the aro- matic balsam gets in his lungs and the
 taffrail log shows thirty or forty miles a day. Then a good long snake round the campfire to keep the flies at bay; a game of cards; more of Perrot's sto- ries, or your own; and if you have run across a flock of wild duck during the day there will be a bowl of bouillon be- fore you turn in for the night.
 As was due to return to England in the autumn it became necessary for me to abandon the party in the woods We reached a Hudson's Bay post in late September, and here l prepared to take my leave. Fortunately the factor of the post was sending two Indians down to the railway for the winter supplies, and 1t was soon arranged for a couple of pounds that I should have a place in their canoe. Our cook prepared a hamper of food to last me for week or so, and at daybreak one morning we padded out of sight of Nepigon House, | Tn four months I had picked up some | Ojibway, but in spite of my few phrases that journey down to the Great Lakes | was a lonesome one.
 One night the waves rose higher and higher, and so did the bark canoe, un- til began to doubt If she could wealth CT the increasing gale. Our only chance was to run for a cape that thrust out long, lean finger into the surf, beyond which we hoped to find lee shore. On the brave little canoe bounded, riding the pillows like a cork, but not always the white waves that curled up astern. Constant baline', however, kept her afoat. and she rode swiftly to- ward the point. A sandbar ran out some distance, and to avoid swamping E we kept her head seaward bit. At ast we fancied ourselves clear of the oar, and swinging her bow around we yybed the blanket. Over she went, for in shallow water, and we ragged our goods ashore and spent the lext few hours shivering before a fire.
 We camped here for day and half ill the storm had spent itself, and to make up time we decided to travel by light. This was the most delightful e-x 'erience of all. the gentle progress of a 'irch-bark canoe over the moonlit wa CTS. Wrapped in blanket to keep out { he steely cold of the northern night, ne sits 'midships and listens dreamily Q the, chunking of the paddles and the ' roning of the red men. The solitude of (
 forest older than Lebanon is around ] ou, but you are happy. The howl of a J yolf echoes from the mainland, but it ts in well with your lonely mood. i Tow far away you feel from Trafalgar 6 quare-yet still in the infinite empire. g