years, and has been much used, in consequence, by the heroes of arctic
discovery, in their perilous journeys along the shores of the frozen
sea.

The voyageurs used no plates. Men who travel in these countries become
independent of many things that are supposed to be necessary here. They
sat in a circle round the kettle, each man armed with a large wooden or
pewter spoon, with which he ladled the robbiboo down his capacious
throat, in a style that not only caused Charley to laugh, but afterwards
threw him into a deep reverie on the powers of appetite in general, and
the strength of voyageur stomachs in particular.

At first the keen edge of appetite induced the men to eat in silence;
but as the contents of the kettle began to get low, their tongues
loosened, and at last, when the kettles were emptied and the pipes
filled, fresh logs thrown on the fires, and their limbs stretched out
around them, the babel of English, French, and Indian that arose was
quite overwhelming. The middle-aged men told long stories of what they
_had_ done; the young men boasted of what they _meant_ to do; while the
more aged smiled, nodded, smoked their pipes, put in a word or two as
occasion offered, and listened. While they conversed the quick ears of
one of the men of Charley's camp detected some unusual sound.

"Hist!" said he, turning his head aside slightly, in a listening
attitude, while his comrades suddenly ceased their noisy laugh.

"Do ducks travel in canoes hereabouts?" said the man, after a moment's
silence; "for, if not, there's some one about to pay us a visit. I
would wager my best gun that I hear the stroke of paddles."

"If your ears had been sharper, Francois, you might have heard them some
time ago," said the guide, shaking the ashes out of his pipe and
refilling it for the third time.

"Ah, Louis, I do not pretend to such sharp ears as you possess, nor to
such sharp wit either. But who do you think can be _en route_ so late?"

"That my wit does not enable me to divine," said Louis; "but if you have
any faith in the sharpness of your eyes, I would recommend you to go to
the beach and see, as the best and shortest way of finding out."

By this time the men had risen, and were peering out into the gloom in
the direction whence the sound came, while one or two sauntered down to
the margin of the lake to meet the newcomers.

"Who can it be, I wonder?" said Charley, who had left the tent, and was
now standing besid