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58. NO. 25,

S I\/l - 19 & their lands, but not nearly the value there-
I-E ONG X ' flflflLE STN GS. of. But although these shores have long
‘ > | been strangers to the moccasined foot of

: the red hunter, although many moons have
paled and died since these mighty elms and

| firs spread their numerous branches above

: : "% | the barken bivouac of that grandest of all
| Indian races, the pure old Iroquois, still

larly almost g hundred feet in g massive | the river voices, and the restless pine trees

pile, its shelving Irregularity perforateq :

by numerous caves and crested by the

hardy cedar, whose roots: miraculously

g
) Al

BY H. PAULINE J OEINSOIV.

i} HREE taut little bass-
/4 wood- canoes, manned
{ at the stern, maidened
at the bow, six-gleam-
ing, agile paddles—and

Sing of the lonely years, when all along

Thegse"o shores they heard the Indian’s hunting song,
And watched his elfish, whispering canoe

Flit 1like a spirit, as they listened to

- DETROIT, MICHIGAN, THURSDA

Sl v
g ¢ AT
’»‘\ l’

~ - ¥
e ‘ .
My

tive contrivance’the villagers have of con-
veying letters and:parcels across the river,
which here is bridgeless.. ‘A stout wire
cable stretches.from: shore to shore, over
which slips a huge: wicker ‘basket, worked
by the simple metHod of “pulling a string.’’:

@ simple demands of
the villagers, We!#ouched at the bank for
a half hour, and 'had an all too brief
glimpse into an artist's home. Luckily it
was the studio:of” Carl Ahrens, who hasg

And this meets all th

W
- 3 v -

.. JUNE 15, 1893,

7,
77

ford, sleeping in the sunshine, behind us
laughs the wild old river out of its rocky
gorge- at Elora, we drift slowly, regretfully
toward the boathouse, where stand the
men who taunted us with probable failure.
‘We have had no disaster, no upset, noth-
ing but success, so the men cheer and
hurrah us, call us ‘‘some of the boys,” and
shake hands heartily as we beach the last
time, for our sweet, mad cruise is over,

draw their nutriment from those earthless
cliffs. '
Below the Narrows another rock frowns
out conspicuously. It is called’ “The Old
Man’s Face,” as it bears a striking resem-
lance to a hugian profile. Then the river
breaks into a turbulent little cascade some
five feet high, and finally sinks exhausted
and lulled .into a huge stone basin ' known
as ““The Devil’s- Punch*“Bowil.” Below ‘this
we' la.unched‘ our three frail 'cx#f.t. The
temptation to.run this. ! o

before us a run of nine-
ty-seven miles on one
of the most rollicking
:riveré in Ontario; who
would ask more than
this for a typical out-
Ing in merry May-time?
- For days, and days
d cruisers had 'vainly tried
us from going. By ‘‘us’™
dhree girlswwhe were -magd-

ttempt running -those— wild | Was almost irresistible, -but ‘our “cautious
swollen by recent rains until { Roes have ‘ever run ‘the gorge, X seems,

threatening enough. to. lessen
& spring cruise even in the
of some of our ‘best club
at we three girls won’t at-
way of an outdoor ‘rolic,
ling of genulne - 'Canadian
orth the planning.: . ’ :
g 1s the most popular sport
.8 to-day is beyond dispute,

and only two have ever lived through 'it,
the occupants of the others gladly escap-
ing with their lives and: the experience, nor
bemoaning the canoes slivered and.wrecked
or their kit lost forever in the angry swirl
of those thunderous rapids. =~ . 4 -
In Elora they tell of some French trap-

e

ITRet Tatied tr Klaks fix DMrr T wato lsas

And in the midst of this territory the
little Dutch village has sprung up; its citi-
zens, stolid, prosaic, unromantic, are as
great' a contrast to the erstwhile legard-
loving Indians, who lived end hunted ana
died here, as two nations of two cont'nents
could well be, .

The second merning Yrought- . sky. o
Ltprauotss, a genial sun ‘and oh! blessed for’
‘tune, a stiff breeze that whistied ub g i

| the west and' struck us full astern. Of

course, we hoisted canvas. The Benedlcts
‘in ‘the pe-de-queu ran up a scrap of a
lateen and swerved around the bend of the
river before we .had time to ship our
masts. Nip and Jeanette in the Nora,
Tuck and I in the Wild Cat, each ran
out a lugsail that caught the breeze in the
twinkling of an eye and we scurried cut

recently -made such a hit in domestic and
child painting. Picturesque as ever, sur-
rounded with home affections and effects,
the rising artist gave us a welcome that
lacked no warmth, and/when we left two |}
artists joined us:inm 'their tiny bark _canoe, | 5
accompanying ‘us’ sofifofitour ‘miles down{ @
stream. We bade ‘theém good-bye. with Te- | &
gret and skimmoge# putting. intopretty, .
graystane-Galt gt 5Ag@lock that afternoon,
starce realizing ‘that We -had/run thirty-

S A e S
Pl b RS

THE GRAVE' ON THE PLATIE Lo

7
M

- SR LA AR §
e M

three miles sincs moypitg.: « '~ - 1
A night in'a goujMhotel was refreshing,
though we all agre¥Wthat! the Dutch inn (8
of last night's expeiifnce. was ithe jolliést R
place for canoelsts:' “{What :though they [#
gave you a feather ied to sleep on, and {B
another to sleep iundey, thefr. eheer was iof
the best, and we felt: homesick for the |
-White, bare floors ‘ang. the ‘curious. broken |§
English of mine host... =~ ' L

n; i

L]

The third day dawne %i'filuer, balmier even
than its predecessor, and. we launched just

the back lakes, rivers and
that have not mirrored pad-
boro sail and bivouac; but
as that stretch of the Grand
between Elora and Brant-
3 by ladies. Old canoeists
yald never do it, 'I‘hpy told
would regret taking us be-
‘night closed in; that the
“long, too arduous, too haz-
r three jolly comrades stood
clared that we girls would
? In - *“better shape’’ than
nen they had piloted down
iver, that is one long series
rapids, from the moment it
- Grand Falls at Elora, until
st the pretty little city of
irly 100 miles distant. In
' this we went by rail to
e stream, shipping our ca-
he day previous. Our three
regulation sixteen-foot bass-
hirty-inch beam and good,
bows. Not one of them |
sixty-five pounds and with
was light and consisted of
ecessities, our entire outfit
ler-weight compared to' that
by novices at-river cruising.
ill old hands. and very old
about as |jolly" a crowd' as
ogether—just gix of us, Mr.
edict,” “Nip” and *““Tuck,”

Ay

Who ‘had ‘cruised in a Rice
> Brantford boat house “to
recl, - Newy York' City, .only.
o) 'and my own girl ‘friend,

‘. DEVIL'S PUNCH BOWL.

pers who,. some fifty: years ago, were rup-
Ding this then unknown river. iThey had
"‘h'o_ax‘d ~of the fal) an‘:mxgem»msmful
‘portage thereat. - Launching again ‘{n " the
myself. Corkscrew, they reached the Devil’s Punch-
were a rellglous crowd; at|Bowl with barely their souls in their bodies
- developed that way when | but their birch-bark, guns, at_l}mulet_i_gnmand_
i) the quaint old-time hotel provender.the river had torn to shveds be-
ghted ominous lead-colored yond recognition. So we decided hot to

swans as you gould .wish to sce. 1 lounged
forward, while Tuek (Friar Tuck we ealled
him, - because he ‘boré fio resemblance 16 a
divine) managed the steering blade and the
sheet at the same time, quite a ‘wonderful
feat in such stiff weather. We cut through
some minor rapids like materialized light-
ning, splitting the spray into two gauzy

nose to nose, as pretty a palr of white |

below the Galt’ dam, with various friends
and the omnipresent ‘small boy in full
force to wish-us good Iuck, for this was to:|
be our day of days, Ipnasmuch as we were[
to brave the wildéqfif;rapfidd of the run.’ , 3

We skirled silently through the pretty | +
town and in an hour were drifting between
the velvetiest banks and greenest shores in
the province. Then came some bolder out- | M
lines, followed by a wée village called Glen- | B
morris, whose existence 18 proclaimed sole-| B
ly by the presence of a Bingle stone build-
ing and a dam. We braved the latter in
great style, running it straight, with bow
plumb ahead, /The. little crafts pitched,
leapt, dipped, then shd ‘royally through
the foot. foam :with shever a: treacherous
tilt from. either of them, Then came the e
Chicopee .dam, a /rosring torrent of har-
nessed water, which ‘the boys ran with |j
mad persistency. Beradict did not attempt
it; he said he had two 'c¢hildren at home
who needed a father for a few years longer.
On we rushed' restlessty, ‘dodging the boul-
ders that began to gpring up.‘like mush-
rooms everywhere., Alfew moments more
and what is' the sweéet, far sound that |8 :
reaches our, ears? Ahl The rapids at last, | S8
skirling, - rollicking ' far. 'to. forward, ' and | ‘&
above their laughter(the steady rush of _ ’
waters, falling ‘athwunt. @nother dam. - o
shouts back Bene- | B8

“It’s the stone dam,*' ! A |
on all, “4ook: slippy, and we'll |

2y
n
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g

F
P

Vel

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=R
i
oyl

dict. “Hang
run- her,” :

For reasons above jmentioned the Bene- |!
dicts took  the quieldst.break under the | &

lee shore, but the rest:of us—what aid we |18
care? iPlunge fr-ufhe center, and thead |,
for' the big' recurl;" "y d Nip, ‘headin

the way. Then his canoe leapt, shot. out | &%
stralght, was lost tg .wiew for a second, |
only to reappear, r}dfil’g“Mgh- on the terri- | K
ble black curling waves 'that,\iaashed.\Ahlm'
about like a straw. In another second we

slowly up from the sou- emulate these worthy pioneer voyageurs—
ers for fair .weather that | the rain was quite wet enough for us with-
our usually thoughtless | out trying the river.
ve done credit to a better We packed gur kit in, Govered it with
less, despite our reforma- | rubber sheetr, donned our waterproof
t on the long looked for coats, sorted ourselves into congenial pairs
| and, amid good wishes from the teamsters
ashore, we shot out into the swollen stream
and the long, singular cruise began,

The only things that made life worth 'Ilv—
ing that day were the beauty of the land-
scape and—dinner. Our course lay through
one of Ontario’s finest farming * districts,
for, after leaving Elora, all hints of stone
and granite disappeared as though by mag-
ic. . The world seamed to be just waking
to the realization that it had a boundless

to the sound of rain,’”’

y the boys’ voices clamor-
eron’s door across the cor-
g, “Oh! nonsense, we can
in like this with the girls.”
ioned door flew open, fol-

wings over our bow .deck and otherwise
raising excitement enough. to warrant a
c'a,utiona.ry shout from Nip, who was spin-
ning away helter-skelter, narrowly escap-
Ing various boulders and half the time
scaring the wits out. of his bow ballast.
Finally the gale hlew a regular rip-snorter
and with difficulty we lowered canvas, for
a bend in_the river brought. us dead against
the wind, which blew straight into our teeth,
and then we knew. that meant-hard work..
The ‘salls stowed, we took to the paddles,
and for an hour'I never put in harder
work. We ‘“sawed wood” right along, but
the canoe. barely moved, Such a head
wind blows only once in a lifetime,
Benedict assumed for himself the posi-

t

f

were in it, and for two minutes I think
my eyes stood out like cannon balls. T}
bow upraised in mid: air, then plunged
headlong into a wave that loomed a solid
wall of water right .ahead. We, split her
crest in twain, ahd I got:about two pails |
of water slapped right onto. my chest.. The |
canoe lunged, toppled;srighted herself, then
met the second wave fairand square bow ;
on. Another deluge of water and I thought
we were swamped, but not a bit of it.
The taut little Wild Cat rode regally

dropped into the comparative calm at the

The | ||

hrough wave after. wave until she

oot of her namesake, : ' ;
A shout of triumph arose from all hands,

warmth of life stowed away under its
brown bosom, life that was welling up into | '
the trees, the simple wild flowers, the si-
lent fields. It was the first flush of May
time, and, despite the drizzle that monot-
onously fell the ‘day through, we thor-
oughly ‘enjoyed the beauty of shore, stream
and atmosphere. As is usual on a cruise,
all hands clamored for dinner early, so we
beached on a sodden bank and hunted for
as sheltered a spot as could be found. The
boys built a fire in a little hollow that was
rain-soaked and muggy. It was a marvel-
ous feat, but boys seem to have Satan’s
own command of flame, and in a half hour
we had a big pot of strong black tea ready
for consumption. It is a strange fact, but
I never tasted any tea as good as that the
boys make around a camp fire. The only
difficulty about this tea was, where were
we to sit while we drank it? Benedict had
appropriated the only stump in the place.
He was using it as a butler’'s pantry, carv-

ing the laree thoreon

rare

or rather all throats, and then followed a |
general break for shore, svhere we emptied |
out the canoes and wrung out the cush-|
ions and kit. ‘ vk
“What’s next?"" demanded Jeannie, who is |
the greatest dare-devil.alive (for her size). |
Some one replied, *“The Eleven Link
rapids.” The very name of it went to my
head like wine. Full often had I heard of
this famous stretch of seven miles, wherein
eleven wildcats followed: one another like
the links in a chain, with but-a few yards
space between wherein youw could breathe
and grasp your paddle with renewed vigor.
“Tuck,” I said, ‘I shall steer through
these; you take the bow.”
‘“All right,” he assented.
what you can do.”
Accordingly I tucked his big form away
forward, brought tha kit aft, and, kneeling
at the stern thwart' I grasped my paddle
for business.
There is nothing in life that sends me as

*“You know best