r quite thirty miles below the lake,
below a region of rapids and obstructions against which we had
especially stipulated, and up which no craft had ever travelled. A
mile's work brought us to the beginning of this second series of
troubles. Lying across the river at all heights, depths and angles were
the tough pine logs we had dreaded, and at every mile or two were
tumbling rapids. All that long Friday we took our turns with the axe,
lopping off branches that we might squeeze under or shunt over logs;
climbing with our stores and boats over great log-drifts held by the
grip of the rocky defiles; wading through shoals and dragging our canoes
through mud and sand; plunging suddenly into holes that engulfed us to
our armpits; paddling astride our decks over pools too deep for wading;
chopping and wrenching logs that forbade other means of passage;
fighting inch by inch up plunging gorges, down which and over whose
rugged boulders the narrowed waters foamed in almost resistless fury and
milky foam--on and up, rod by rod, half a mile in the hour, till we came
to a weary and desolate camp not two leagues from our breakfasts. There
we cooked our suppers and ate in hoods and gloves, fighting mosquitos
and black flies for every morsel, speculating as to the morrow's
probabilities and discussing the question of victory or defeat. We rose
from the night's sleep resolved upon seeing Itasca, and until
mid-afternoon fought over again the battles of yesterday, and at last
came out upon a smooth, placid stream, up which we paddled with easy
swing some nine miles. Then the river narrowed and shallowed, and we
again took to our feet upon a beautiful gravelly bottom. At times the
way was closed to sight by rushes and wild rice, and we could only beat
our way through. At last the water, thickly grown with reeds, broadened
and deepened, and a score of paddle-strokes carried us through the green
curtain out upon Itasca's beautiful surface, over which we glided, under
the shadows of the setting sun, up to Schoolcraft's Island for a
Sunday's quiet.

Our heavy and restful sleep was not broken till long after the sun was
glinting upon us through the trees. Our first work was given to building
a lodge of underbrush and making preparations for two days' stay on the
lonely island, completed by unfurling the signal of the New York Canoe
Club from a high stump hard by the camp-fire. Barring the mosquitos,
Sunday's rest was a pleasant and refreshing