The river ahead was too rough to proceed along the
south shore, and the men decided to cross. It was very fearsome
looking. Through a narrow opening in the hills farther up, the
river came pouring from between dark, perpendicular walls of the
evergreen in a white, tossing rapid, widening again to one only
less turbulent. A heavy cloud hung over us, throwing a deeper
shade on the hills and turning the water black save for the white
foam of the rapids, while down the narrow valley came a gale of hot
wind like a blast from a furnace. We turned out into the river,
and all paddled as if for life. The canoe danced among the swells,
but in spite of our best efforts the rapid carried us swiftly down.
It was a wild ride, though we reached the other shore in safety,
and looking up the river I wondered what might be in store for us
beyond that narrow gateway. When we passed it would the beyond
prove as much like Hades as this was suggestive of it? It seemed
as if there we must find ourselves within the mysteries.
After we landed, George turned, and in mildly approving tone said:
"I have seen lots of men who would jump out of the canoe if we
tried to take them where you have been just now."
Job's quick eye had seen that the canoes could be taken through the
narrows on the north shore. And when this part of the river was
passed all suggestion of Hades vanished. There stretched before us
Mountain Cat Lake, for beauty, a gem in its setting of hills. It
was half a mile wide and two miles long. In the lower part were
two small wooded islands, but the upper part was clear. Long
spruce covered points reached out into its waters, which still
flowed so swiftly that instead of paddling we poled along the
shore. It was camping time when we reached the head of the lake,
where the river comes down round a fine gravel point in a decided
rapid.
George remarked: "That would be a fine place for Sunday camp."
"Then why not camp there?" I asked.
"Oh, no," he replied emphatically; "that would not do at all.
There would be no Sunday rest for me. I'd have to be watching you
all the time to keep you away from that rapid."
A little way up the river we came to another point which seemed
even finer than the one at the head of the lake, and on this we
made our Sunday camp.
