Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-05-01

take train at Quebec for the back
country, and when you have been
jolted over 200 miles or more of that
rickety road, you are put off IN
wilderness of pine and tangled under
brush-in the dusk forsaken, ghost
ly place-fearfully silent when the
train has puffed out of hearing.
Thence you go by canoe down tor
tuous, fussy little stream-dodging
boulders, picking the way through
noisy rapids, padding laboriously
through long stretches of slow, back
water-until you sweep out into the
head waters of the Kamlchou. In
the twilight you make the lower end
of the lake, where you find hard
ground and a clear space to pitch
your camp. If you love this patch Of
unspoiled wilderness as some men do,
you look back over the quiet water,
and upon the wooded shores, which
rise to the sky, now all aglow, and
you know that you are happy to have
escaped for a time from the life you
have left in the cities.
II have heard you say, Ellerton,"
said l, one evening, when the days
fishing had been we'll done and we
were loafng blissfully on the shore,
that you had an adventure here"
About 60 seconds long," said he.
Not long enough to turn a mans
hair gray" said l, with laugh.
81 don't know about that" he re-
sponded, soberly. II don't know about
that. Seconds seem to be very long
sometimes. A minute is not like
minute when death stares you in the
face"
But you escaped" said l.
That's the ridiculous part of it."
said Ellerton.
Well" said I, you've time to tell
the story before we take SWIM"
"Swim." said he, with shudder.
II think I'll not go in tonight. I've
already recalled vividly enough the
minute of horror l had off the point
there"
And that is the story" said I.
"Yes," said he, you're right. 1t was
my first summer on the kamicnou,
when l was in happy ignorance of
how dens real Kamichou fog may
be. l was here with Jack Black, Of
our company, who had made this
his fishing ground for years. I was
his guest, in fact, and therefore bound
In politeness to follow where he led.
We had spent the early part of the
afternoon whipping the streams above
nd had
iown the lake, casting from the boat,
.urn about, until we were mile above
.he point, and we'll out over deep wa
ter. Then we let the boat drift, and
both took to fishing.
ut had been lowering all day. Dull
clouds hung in the sky from the hills
to the hills, and turned the waters of
the lake black. 1t was hot. gray,
lamp-oppressiyely 'muggy,' indeed,
as Jack had said. 1t was not long
before a roll of thunder sounded from
the northeast. Then on the instant
certain nervous depression, which
Invariably falls upon me with the ap-
proach of a storm, strongly asserted
itself; and l looked about in some
apprehension.
Jack. said l, it's going to blow
hard, probably; it's going to rain hard,
anyway. think we'd better pull in
"Oh, pshaw!' said Jack. Rain
won't hurt u.s.
BLACK clouds were crowding up
from the northeast. l could readily
distinguish them from the unbroken
gray of the sky overhead, and it
seemed to me that wind had torn
their edges to tatters. The rain had
hidden the hills, and l could see it
sweeping over the lake toward us.
I'VE caught only the edge of the
storm, however. 1t was nothing more,
after all, than a heavy summer show
er. 1t cleared the sky for time and
left the water unruffled. We were
drenched, to be sure, and l had the
boat to bail out, but we were well
content; and so we fished on until the
evening came down, and l caught
sight of the first star.
"'Now, jack said l, we had better
get in
Jack is at this moment somewhere
In the interior of Newfoundland, where
the mosquitoes are as big as horse
flies. and gather, so the visitors say,
in clouds which darken the sun. The
salmon are proportionately large and
plentiful. That man is after them.
Neither distance, hardship nor expense
can dampen the ardor with which he
pursues the game fish. You will not
wonder, then, when l say that all the
polite persuasion l could bring to bear
upon him on this occasion was of no
effect.
"'Your wife will be growing anx-
ious,' said l, at last.
"'Oh, no., said he, placidly, she
won't expect me for an hour yet
1--WE were then half a mile offshore
just beyond the edge of the sand
bars. The lower end of the lake, here,
for something less than half mile
from the outlet. is not at any place
more than four feet deep, and in many