"
Still later, at an entirely different place, a member of the bar
informed me, in the course of discussion:--
"The only man I know of who can do it is named Munson. He is as good a
canoeman as an Indian."
At the time this unanimity of praise puzzled me a little. I thought I
had seen some pretty good canoe work, and even cherished a mild conceit
that occasionally I could keep right side up myself. I knew Munson to
be a great woods-traveller, with many striking qualities, and why this
of canoemanship should be so insistently chosen above the others was
beyond my comprehension. Subsequently a companion and I journeyed to
Hudson Bay with two birch canoes and two Indians. Since that trip I
have had a vast respect for Munson.
Undoubtedly among the half-breed and white guides of Lower Canada,
Maine, and the Adirondacks are many skilful men. But they know their
waters; they follow a beaten track. The Woods Indian--well, let me tell
you something of what he does.
We went down the Kapuskasing River to the Mattagami, and then down that
to the Moose. These rivers are at first but a hundred feet or so wide,
but rapidly swell with the influx of numberless smaller streams. Two
days' journey brings you to a watercourse nearly half a mile in
breadth; two weeks finds you on a surface approximately a mile and a
half across. All this water descends from the Height of Land to the sea
level. It does so through a rock country.
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