Hunting and Trapping on the Upper Magalloway River and Parmachenee Lake; First Winter in the Wilderness - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIX. BETURN TO CIVILIZATION. 'TT^HEN we shoved our boat into the roaring .*. river. Away we flew toward home and friends. Never did two fellows feel better tlian wo did. We talked, laughed, sang and shouted while our boat parted the white-topped waves, skimming over the rapids below. But toward night we sung a different song, as we found the low lands of the Magalloway all overflowed and the ice in the river nearly as solid as ever. And it was with a great deal of trouble that we pushed our boat through the alders and slush for nearly a mile, to get to ground that was out of water. Then we went into camp again, to wait for the sun and current to wear the ice out of our way. The Jiime did not hang as heavily on our hands, however, at it did before, for we amused ourselves shooting musk-rats. The overflow had forced them from their homes, and they had taken refuge on floating logs and stumps which lay scattered through the alders that covered the whole valley. Every morning and evening we climbed a tall spruce tree that grew near our tent, and looked out over the flooded country. We could see the course of the river, marked by a strip of ice which had risen with the water. On the fourth morning we started again, although the ice still hung in the river; but we could work along the edge of it and through the bushes. We were now obliged to try for home, for our meat was all gone, and our imported goods very short. All day we worked our boat along, sometimes drawing it over the ice, but most of the time forcing it along the edge and through the bushes. At night we went ashore on a high knoll about half a mile from the river. Here we stayed the next day, and also ate our first musk-rat. And the only objection we could find to it was,...