The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1911-05-12

take the canoe out on the lake SO
that 1 could get few photographs.
l told him to keep directly between
me and the sun, so that at the
opportune moment secured several
fine pictures. The photo used as
the initial letter of this article is
one of the pictures 1 took.
Joe had discovered big moose
quite close to our camp and we
spent the rest of the afternoon try
ing to stalk the animal so that
could get picture. But we were
doomed to disappointment. The
old chap was too wary, and gave
us the slip.
We dined that night on delicious
fried pike, juicy bacon and hot
biscuits, with coffee, unlimited, to
wash it down.
Next morning we resumed our
trip towards the outlet at the
northwest end of the lake, passing
great many islands on the way.
Enroute we passed the little steamer
which plies back and forth collect
ing fish, and carrying passengers
and freight to the eastern end of
the lake, locality l would have
been glad to explore had we the
time.
Reaching the outlet we made a
short portage around the falls, on
the American side, then padded
down the river short distance and
made another short portage around
the rapids. A little way below
here the river swung north and we
kept up a small bay to the south,
then portrayed forty rods to cut off
big bend in the river and some
bad rapids.
1t was along about here that we
came to a particularly rough piece
of the river. 1t looked like a good
opportunity to get picture of the
Indian shooting" the rapids. 1
asked Joe if we could take the canoe
through, and he smiled his easy
confidence.
1t looked easy. Having trimmed
the craft to his satisfaction Joe
shifted his old pipe to the other
side of his mouth, stood up in the
canoe for a minute, to get the
channel fixed in his mind, and in
an instant was flying with the
speed of race horse down through
the swirling, boiling tumult of
white water. arranged my
camera and snapped the canoe as it
flew past. 1t turned out to be a
fine negative. ItsNas all over in a
couple of minutes. When I
reached the pool II the foot of the
rapids, after a hasI climb over the.
rocks, Joe was seated i'll the canoe,
pulled up on the sand, quietly
smoking as if nothing unusual had
occurred. He seemed to consider it
an everyday occurrence.
Having come through this bit of
rapids so nicely, we ran several
others instead of portaging, and
thereby saved much time and labor.
The Indians quickness and ex-
periences always brought us
through in safety, though the river
hereabouts is quite broken and
rapids are numerous. The guides
are well acquainted with all the
streams, however, and accidents
are rare, and never amount to more
than wetting at most.
Continuing along down the river
we reached the next portage,
where, after passing through
series of little lakes, the river
poured into narrow, impossible
gorge in the rocks.
The trail lies on the right, to the
head of steep bay and then con-
tinues down this bay. We emerged
below the rapids to find another
short carry, and then two miles of
splendid padding.
There now lay between us and
beautiful Crooked Lake only fifty
yards of fnal portage and this
rough bit of river was passed.
Crooked Lake is a delightful
piece of water, with heavily timber
ed shores and fine scenery. A
splinded waterfall greeted us at
this point.
AS it was dinner time Joe pro-
ceeded to prepare grub while took
photographs Of the surroundings.
We were nov on the upper waters
of Crooked Lake, which might
really be calleda river. We canoed
for about two hours along channel
scarce thirty rods in width. The
surroundings are of great beauty,
dense forests d pine on either side,
and high jagged rocks at intervals.
At one point about seven miles
down the channel, a cliff of rocks
rose to height of seven hundred
feet above the water.
We were sodn out on the main
body of the LAKE and heading west
ward toward a large, timbered
Island ro,,hd fho south ord of