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CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A PLUNGE DOWN THE RAPIDS 7
II. THE CAMP UNDER THE HEMLOCKS 17
III. COMRADES 28
IV. THE THREE SMOKE SIGNALS 37
V. THE FALSE CHART OF DUBOIS 47
VI. THE TIMBER-CRUISER 57
VII. OWL AND TIMBER WOLF 67
VIII. THE CALL OF THE WILD 77
IX. TRAPPER LORE 84
X. MAGIC IN THE BERRIES 104
XI. A BREAK IN THE CHAIN 117
XII. ON THE TRACK OF ELI 127
XIII. BIRDS OF A FEATHER 137
XIV. WITHOUT AUTHORITY 152
XV. SCENTS A MYSTERY 160
XVI. A LITTLE WITCH 170
XVII. SEEN THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR 184
XVIII. OWEN FINDS HIMSELF A PRISONER 194
XIX. FOR SO IT WAS WRITTEN 204
XX. THE TENT DWELLERS 214
XXI. AT DEAD OF NIGHT 221
XXII. CONCLUSION 231

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CANOE MATES IN CANADA

or

Afloat on the Saskatchewan

CHAPTER I.

A PLUNGE DOWN THE RAPIDS.

Kneeling in a "bullboat," fashioned from the skin of an animal, and
wielding a paddle with the dexterity only to be attained after years of
practice in canoeing, a sturdily-built and thoroughly bronzed Canadian
lad glanced ever and anon back along the course over which he had so
recently passed; and then up at the black storm clouds hurrying out of
the mysterious North.

It was far away in the wilderness of the Northwest, where this fierce
tributary of the great Saskatchewan came pouring down from the
timber-clad hills; and all around the lone voyager lay some of the
wildest scenery to be met with on the whole continent.

Here and there in this vast territory one might come across the
occasional trading posts of the wide-reaching Hudson Bay Company, at
each of which the resident factor ruled with the arbitrary power of a
little czar.

It might be he would discover the fire of some Ishmaelite of the forest,
a wandering "timber-cruiser," marking out new and promising fields for
those he served, and surveying the scene of possible future bustling
logging camps.

Otherwise the country at this time was a vast unknown land, seldom
penetrated by human kind, save the Indian fur gatherers.

Considering that he was in so vast a wilderness t