uides, who had been unable to
believe that the flimsy bag they carried could be used as a
boat, were in ecstasies. Rude but efficient paddles were hastily
hewn from the nearest tree, and soon we were all gliding in our
ten-pound boat over the waves of Ampersand, which glittered in
the morning sunlight. To the guides the boat was something
astonishing; they could not refrain from laughter to find that
they were really afloat in it, and pointed with surprise at the
waves, which could be seen _through_ the boat, rippling against
its sides. With the aid of the boat, with prismatic compass and
sextant, I was able to secure an excellent map of the lake; and
we almost succeeded in catching a deer, which was driven into
the lake by a strange hound. The dog lost the trail at the
water, and desiring to put him on the track, we paddled to him.
He scrambled into the boat with an air of satisfaction, as if he
had always travelled in just such a thing. Soon we had regained
the trail, and making the mountains echo to his voice, he again
pursued the deer on into the trackless forest.

"Continuing our work, we passed down into the outlet, where, in
trying to effect a landing, we suddenly came face to face with a
large panther, which had evidently been watching us. He fled at
our approach.

"Our baggage was quickly packed, and the temporary frame of the
canoe having been taken out and thrown away, we rolled up our
boat and put it in the bottom of a knapsack.... The same day by
noon we reached Cold Brook again, here navigable. In an hour and
a half we had re-framed the canvas, cut out two paddles from a
dry cedar-tree, had dinner, loaded the boat, and were off,
easily gliding down stream to the Saranac River. Three men, the
heaped baggage in the centre, and the solemn hound, who seemed
to consider himself part of the company, sitting upright near
the prow, forming in all a burden of about one third of a ton,
was a severe test of the green boughs of which we had made the
frame.

"Ascending the Saranac River, we struck out into the broad
Saranac Lake, some six miles in length, and though the winds and
the waves buffeted us, the canvas sides of the boat responding
elastically to each beat of the waves, we got safely along till
near the Sister Islands, when, the wind blowing very fresh, th