Oxford Democrat., 1915-06-29
Photogrsphlng a Sleeping Moose
IN THE wILDs WHERE THE RIVERS SEEN
TO BE LINED WITH THEM.

TO BE LINED WITH THEM.
The letter below was written by Mrs
j. P. Sprague formerly Miss Mertie Z
Maxim of South Paris), now OF Grinnell
Iowa, but at the time to which 1t relates
resident of Chicago. DR.. and Mrs.
Sprague conduct a camp for boys and
young men at Minocqua, Wis, during
the summer. In the fall Of 1913 they
made canoe trip into Canada, and the
account of the trip here given was made
little later for the benefit of relatives
iu Maine. The moose pictures secured,
with small amount OF descriptive mat
ter, have been published In one OF the
outdoor magazines, but the full account
of their somewhat unusual experiences
has not before been printed, and 1t Ia
only recently that 1t was brought to the
attention of the Democrat.
don't know where to begin when /
tell the story of our canoe trip. never
euioyed two weeks so much in my life.
It was the & rst real vacation Jack and /
have ever taken together. We have been
away for two or three days at time. but
we had never been able to do anything
lust like this before. In the first place
we closed up everything at camp and the
Lodge, go we felt that we hadn't q care
in the world-and that feeling was a
great relief after all the responsibility OF
the summer.
We started from Fort Frances, Ontario,
taking Canadian Northern train at two
O'Clock one morning. Incidentally
might say that Fort Frances has no trains
that run at respectable hours. We bad
arrived there at two O'Clock the morning
before and we got the first train out,
twenty.four hours later. We spent the
day in getting our outfit ready, and Mr..
Lloyd, with whom Jack had had bust.
ness dealings for several years, took us
out on Rainy Lake in his motor boat 10
the afternoon.
It ia a huge lake, a hundred or so miles
long and with innumerable bays and
islands. At International Falls, just
across the Rainy River-in Minnesota
is the largest pulp mill in the world, l
believe, and a sister plant is being con-
structed in Fort Frances. 1t is an inter-
esting "boom" town and We met some
delightful people, both at this time and
on our way back, when we again had to
spend twenty-four hours there.
We went East on the Canadian North
ern, through a wilderness, and after a
ride of about five hours we're let of al
the "fisheries," which isn't even an ap-
proach to a town-just a hut where
fisherman lives who is catching fish for
the market.
We carried our duffle over the trail
down to the lake, Windigoostigwan by
name, which means in the Indian, Wind
igo's head, from a cliff about half way
down the long narrow body of water. We
put our canoe in the water and found to
our disappointment that it was both very
"tippy" and leaky. On account OF the
customs We had hired a canoe in Fort
Frances, rather than bring one of our own
from Tomahawk. We padded across to
a little point where we intended to make
breakfast, 1 holding my breath, hardly
daring to draw a long one, for fear OF up
setting our frail craft and watching with
great uueasiness the water rising higher
and higher among our duff1e. We had
chosen light canoe because of the work
in portaging, which l knew Jack would
have to do virtually alone-and suspect
that before we had reached the sandy
beach ahead, we both regretted our
choice. But III say right here and then
drop the subject that We had no more
trouble after the first few yards; the
water closed the seams so there was no
more leaking, and we soon became &C.
customed to the tippiness and grew to
like our little craft.
We made breakfast-and how good 1t
tasted. You may be interested in our
outfit and our stock of provisions. We
really took too much and again l should
know what to cut out. In the first place
our coffee was delicious and that in the
woods Is something devoutly to be
wished for. We had the George Wash.
ing,on coffee, which is fine powder and
is made by putting teaspoonful In cup
and simply pouring over it some boiling
water. Every grain dissolves and makes
a delightfully."- clear coffee. Then we bad
egg powder, which we found very help
full in cooking and for scrambled eggs.
Our tea was in tablets and was very sue.
cessful. We had also dehydrated pota-
toes; they look like potato chips, but
they have to be soaked and then cooked.
We had also rice, spaghetti, graham flour,
white -four and corn meal, butter, dried
apples-and there is nothing better 10
the woods-apricots, few dry onions,
bacon-which We did not use at
all-and various other little things. Our
provisions were in two water proof
brown canvas sacks, our dishes In
another, ,aud our blankets, etc. in pack
sack of canvas. Our dishes are of alum
mum, which makes them much easier to
carry because of the light weight. And
they also nest together, thus taking little
space. And we carried tent, too.
Our first day was a glorious one; l
can never forget the beauty of the two
lakes we neutrality-suspicious. and
Baril. We saw only little of the first,
for we cut across the upper corner to the
portage to Baril. You know it was Oc-
tober and the woods were in their most
wonderful coloring-but it was all yel'
low, for there are no naples in that
country.
l ought to tell you about the route we
were on; 1t is called the "Old Dawson
Route" and was made by the Canadian
government, at cost of three million
dollars, before there we're any railroads
in Canada, in order to transport troops
and supplies to Winnipeg in the early
seventies. Lord Wolsey's troops went
over it to quell the Riel rebellion. The
portages now are overgrown, the boats
decayed, the wharves fallen; but 1t Is in
terestiug to see the relics Of the time
when thousands OF men went through
| the wilderness and took with them hun
dreds of tons of freight.
In Baril caught two lake trout anc
could have caught dozen had l so de
sired.
While the sun was still quite high VI
made our first camp tat the sign of th'
skull" as we named 1t. Years before
Indians had camped there and had lef
the skull of a wolf hanging on bircl
tree under which We pitched our tent
We had fried lake trout aud spaghetti
and cheese as the main dishes for ou
supper, and went to sleep on our bougl
bed, happy and quiet, except for the con
tinual noise from flock of wild duck
across the lake and the occasional cry o
a loon.
The next morning Jack got his frs
partridge. mustn't 60 on without tell
ing you about our gun, "our trusty re
peater." We had brought none fror
Wisconsin, but in Fort Frances Jack in
vested four dollars in little single sho
%, which had to have the cartridge du