Thus he furnished
an admirable example of the only real use for whisky in woods-travel.
Also it was the nearest Dick ever came to being completely played out.
That evening was delightful. We sat on the rock and watched the long
North Country twilight steal up like a gray cloud from the east. Two
loons called to each other, now in the shrill maniac laughter, now with
the long, mournful cry. It needed just that one touch to finish the
picture. We were looking, had we but known it, on a lake no white man
had ever visited before. Clement alone had seen Kawagama, so in our
ignorance we attained much the same mental attitude. For I may as well
let you into the secret; this was not the fabled lake after all. We
found that out later from Tawabinisay. But it was beautiful enough, and
wild enough, and strange enough in its splendid wilderness isolation to
fill the heart of the explorer with a great content.
Having thus, as we thought, attained the primary object of our
explorations, we determined on trying now for the second--that is, the
investigation of the upper reaches of the River. Trout we had not
accomplished at this lake, but the existence of fish of some sort was
attested by the presence of the two loons and the gull, so we laid our
non-success to fisherman's luck. After two false starts we managed to
strike into a good country near enough our direction. The travel was
much the same as before. The second day, however, we came to a
surveyor's base-line cut through the woods.
Pages:
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152