e house. By-the-bye, one of
these guns had a melancholy interest attached to it a few months after
this. While firing a salute of fourteen rounds, in honour of the
arrival of a Roman Catholic bishop, one of them exploded while the man
who acted as gunner was employed in ramming home the cartridge, and blew
him about twenty yards down the bank. The unfortunate man expired in a
few hours. Poor fellow! he was a fine little Canadian, and had sailed
with me, not many weeks before, in a voyage up the St. Lawrence. But to
return. Our voyage, during the first few days, was prosperous enough,
and I amused myself in shooting the gulls which were foolish enough to
come within range of my gun, and in recognizing the various places along
shore where I had rested and slept on the memorable occasion of my
snow-shoe trip.

But when did the St. Lawrence prove friendly for an entire voyage?
Certainly not when I had the pleasure of ploughing its rascally waters!
The remainder of our voyage was a succession of squalls, calms, contrary
winds, sticking on shoals for hours, and being detained on shore, with
an accompaniment of pitching, tossing, oscillation and botheration, that
baffles all description. However, time brings the greatest miseries to
an end; and in the process of time we arrived at Tadousac--loaded our
boat deeply with flour--shook hands with our friends--related our
adventures--bade them adieu--and again found ourselves scudding down the
St. Lawrence, with a snoring breeze on our quarter.

Now this was truly a most delectable state of things, when contrasted
with our wretched trip up; so we wrapped our blankets round us (for it
was very cold), and felicitated ourselves considerably on such good
fortune. It was rather premature, however; as, not long after, we had a
very narrow escape from being swamped. The wind, as I said before, was
pretty strong, and it continued so the whole way; so that on the evening
of the second day we came within sight of Isle Jeremie, while running
before a stiff breeze, through the green waves which were covered with
foam. Our boat had a "drooping nose," and was extremely partial to what
the men termed "drinking;" in other words, it shipped a good deal of
water over the bows. Now it happened that while we were straining our
eyes ahead, to catch a sight of our haven, an insidious squall was
creeping fast down behind us. The first intimation we had of its
presence was a loud and ominous h