Away in the Wilderness

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER FIVE.

  JOURNEYING IN THE WILDERNESS.

  It seemed to Heywood that he had not been asleep more than five minutes,when he was aroused by Jasper laying his heavy hand on his shoulder. Onrubbing his eyes and gazing round him, he found that the first streak ofdawn was visible in the eastern sky, that the canoe was already in thewater, and that his companions were ready to embark.

  It is usually found that men are not disposed to talk at that earlyhour. Heywood merely remarked that it was a fine morning, to whichJasper replied by a nod of his head. Nothing more was said. The artistrolled up his blanket in a piece of oiled-cloth, collected his drawingmaterials and put them into their bag, got into his place in the centreof the canoe, and immediately went to sleep, while Jasper and theIndian, taking their places in the bow and stern, dipped the paddlesinto the water and shot away from the shore. They looked mysterious andghostly in the dim morning light; and the whole scene around them lookedmysterious and ghostly too, for the water in the lake seemed black, andthe shores and islands looked like dark shadows, and a pale thin mistrolled slowly over the surface of the water and hung overhead. No soundwas heard except the light plash of the paddles as the two backwoodsmenurged their little canoe swiftly along.

  By degrees the light of day increased, and Jasper awakened Heywood inorder that he might behold the beautiful scenery through which theypassed. They were now approaching the upper end of the lake, in whichthere were innumerable islands of every shape and size--some of them notmore than a few yards in length, while some were two or three hundredyards across, but all were clothed with the most beautiful green foliageand shrubbery. As the pale yellow of the eastern sky began to grow red,ducks and gulls bestirred themselves. Early risers among them firstbegan to chirp, and scream, and whistle their morning song,--for thereare lazy ones among the birds, just as there are among men. Sometimes,when the canoe rounded a point of rocks a flock of geese were foundfloating peacefully among the sedges, sound asleep, with their headsunder their wings. These would leap into the air and fly off in greatalarm, with much difficulty and tremendous splutter, reminding one ofthe proverb, "The more haste the less speed." At other times they wouldcome upon a flock of ducks so suddenly, that they had no time to takewing, so they dived instead, and thus got out of the way.

  Then the yellow hue of sunrise came, a good while before the sun himselfrose. The last of the bright stars were put out by the flood of light,and multitudes of little birds on shore began to chirp their morningsong; and who can say that this was not a hymn of praise to God, when,in the Holy Bible itself, in the 150th Psalm, we find it written, "Leteverything that hath breath praise the Lord."

  At last the sun burst forth in all his golden glory. Water, earth, andsky glowed as if they had been set on fire. What a blessed influencethe sun has upon this world! It resembles the countenance of a lovingfather beaming in upon his family, driving away clouds, and diffusingwarmth and joy.

  The birds were now all astir together, insomuch that the air seemedalive with them. There are small white gulls, with red legs and redbeaks, in those large inland lakes, just as there are on the ocean.These began to utter their sweet wild cries so powerfully that theyalmost drowned the noise of all the rest. Yet the united chorus of thewhole was not harsh. It was softened and mellowed by distance, and fellon the ears of the two hunters as pleasantly as the finest music does inthe ears of men trained to sweet sounds from infancy.

  Not until the sun had ascended a considerable way on its course throughthe sky, did Jasper think it necessary to lay down his paddle. By thattime the upper end of the lake had been reached, and the hunter had runthe canoe close to a ledge of flat rock and jumped ashore, saying thatit was time for breakfast.

  "I had almost got to believe I was in paradise," said Heywood, as hestepped ashore.

  "I often think there's a good deal of the garden of Eden still left inthis world," replied Jasper, as he carried the kettle up to the levelpart of the rock and began to kindle a fire, while the Indian, as usual,hewed the wood. "If we could only make use of God's gifts instead ofabusin' them, I do believe we might be very happy all our days."

  "See there, Jasper, is one of the birds I want so much to get hold of.I want to make a drawing of him. Would you object to spend a shot onsuch game."

  Heywood pointed as he spoke to a grey bird, about the size of ablackbird, which sat on a branch close above his head. This creature iscalled by the fur-traders a whisky-John, and it is one of the mostimpudent little birds in the world! Wherever you go throughout thecountry, there you find whisky-Johns ready to receive and welcome you,as if they were the owners of the soil. They are perfectly fearless;they will come and sit on a branch within a yard of your hand, when youare eating, and look at you in the most inquisitive manner. If theycould speak, they could not say more plainly, "What have you gotthere?--give me some!" If you leave the mouth of your provision sackopen they are sure to jump into it. When you are done eating they willscarcely let you six yards away before they make a dash at the crumbs;and if you throw sticks or stones at them, they will hop out of the way,but they will not take to flight!

  "It would be a pity to waste powder on them critters," said Jasper, "butI'll catch one for you."

  As he said this he took a few crumbs of broken meat from the bottom ofthe provision sack and spread them on his right hand; then he lay downunder a bush, covered his face with a few leaves, and thrust out hishand. Heywood and the Indian retired a few paces and stood still toawait the result.

  In a few seconds a whisky-John came flying towards the open hand, andalighted on a branch within a yard of it. Here he shook his feathersand looked very bold, but suspicious, for a few minutes, turning firstone eye towards the hand, and then the other. After a little he hoppedon a branch still nearer, and, seeing no motion in the hand, he at lasthopped upon the palm and began to peck the crumbs. Instantly thefingers closed, and Jasper caught him by the toes, whereupon thewhisky-John began to scream furiously with rage and terror. But I ambound to say there was more of rage than of terror in his cry.

  Jasper handed the passionate bird over to the artist, who tried to makea portrait of him, but he screamed and pecked so fiercely that Heywoodwas obliged to let him go after making a rough sketch.

  Breakfast was a repetition of the supper of the night before; it wassoon disposed of, and the three travellers again set forth. This timeJasper sang one of the beautiful canoe songs peculiar to that country,and Heywood and Arrowhead, both of whom had good voices, joined in thechorus.

  They soon passed from the lake into the river by which it was fed. Atfirst the current of this river was sluggish; but as they ascended, itbecame stronger, and was broken here and there by rapids.

  The severe toil of travelling in the backwoods now began. To paddle ona level lake all day is easy enough, for, when you get tired, you canlay down the paddle and rest. But in the river this is impossible,because of the current. The only way to get a rest is to push the bowof the canoe ashore. It was a fine sight to see the movements of Jasperand the Indian when they came to the first rapid. Heywood knew that hecould be of no use, so, like a wise man, he sat still and looked on.

  The rapid was a very strong one, but there were no falls in it; only afurious gush of water over the broken bed of the river, where many largerocks rose up and caught the current, hurling the water back in whitefoam. Any one who knew not what these hunters could do, would havelaughed if you had told him they were about to ascend that rapid in suchan egg-shell of a canoe!

  They began by creeping up, in-shore, as far as they could. Then theydashed boldly out into the stream, and the current whirled them downwith lightning speed, but suddenly the canoe came to a halt in the verymiddle of the stream! Every rock in a rapid has a long tail of stillwater below it; the canoe had got into one of these tails or eddies, andthere it rested securely. A few yards higher up there was another rock,nearer to the opposite bank, and the eddy which tailed off from i
t camedown a little lower than the rock behind which the canoe now lay. Therewas a furious gush of water between them and this eddy, but the men knewwhat the canoe could bear, and their nerves were strong and steady.Across they went like a shot. They were swept down to the extreme pointof the eddy, but a few powerful strokes of the paddle sent them into it,and next moment they were floating behind the second rock, a few yardshigher up the stream.

  Thus they darted from rock to rock, gaining a few yards at each dart,until at last they swept into the smooth water at the head of the rapid.

  Many a time was this repeated that day, for rapids were numerous; theirprogress was therefore slow. Sometimes they came to parts of the riverwhere the stream was very strong and deep, but not broken by rocks, sothat they had no eddies to dart into. In such places Arrowhead andHeywood walked along the bank, and hauled the canoe up by means of aline, while Jasper remained in it to steer. This was hard work, for thebanks in places were very steep, in some parts composed of soft mud,into which the men sank nearly up to their knees, and in other placescovered so thickly with bushes that it was almost impossible to force apath through them. Jasper and the Indian took the steering-paddle byturns, and when Heywood required a rest he got into his place in themiddle of the canoe; but they never halted for more than a few minutesat a time. All day they paddled and dragged the canoe slowly up againstthe strong current, and when night closed in they found they hadadvanced only three miles on their journey.

  The last obstacle they came to that day was a roaring waterfall aboutthirty feet high. Here, it might have been thought, was an effectualcheck to them at last. Nothing without wings could have gone up thatwaterfall, which filled the woods with the thunder of its roar; but thecanoe had no wings, so what was to be done?

  To one ignorant of the customs of that country, going on would haveseemed impossible, but nothing can stop the advance of a backwoodsvoyager. If his canoe won't carry him, he carries his canoe! Jasperand his friends did so on the present occasion. They had reached whatis called a portage or carrying-place, and there are hundreds of suchplaces all over Rupert's Land.

  On arriving at the foot of the fall, Heywood set off at once to a spotfrom which he could obtain a good view of it, and sat down to sketch,while his companions unloaded the canoe and lifted it out of the water.Then Jasper collected together as much of the baggage as he could carry,and clambered up the bank with it, until he reached the still water atthe top of the fall. Here he laid it down and returned for anotherload. Meanwhile Arrowhead lifted the canoe with great ease, placed iton his shoulders, and bore it to the same place. When all had beencarried up, the canoe was launched into the quiet water a few hundredyards above the fall, the baggage was replaced in it, and the travellerswere ready to continue their voyage. This whole operation is called_making_ _a_ _portage_. It took about an hour to make this portage.

  Portages vary in length and in numbers. In some rivers they are few andfar between; in others they are so numerous that eight or twelve mayhave to be made in a day. Many of the portages are not more than aneighth of a mile in length, and are crossed for the purpose of avoidinga waterfall. Some are four or five miles in extent, for many longreaches in the rivers are so broken by falls and rapids, that thevoyagers find it their best plan to take canoes and baggage on theirbacks and cut across country for several miles; thus they avoid roughplaces altogether.

  Jasper delayed starting for half an hour, in order to give Heywood timeto finish his sketch of the fall. It began to grow dark when they againembarked, so, after paddling up stream until a convenient place wasfound, they put ashore and encamped within sight of another waterfall,the roar of which, softened by distance, fell upon their ears all thatnight like the sound of pleasant music.