ract; and sometimes we ran
with the central current to the very brink of the chute, darting aside
just in time to escape going over. At the foot of the last fall we made
our camp on a curving beach of sand, and spent the rest of the afternoon
in fishing.

It was interesting to see how closely the guides could guess at the
weight of the fish by looking at them. The ouananiche are much longer
in proportion to their weight than trout, and a novice almost always
overestimates them. But the guides were not deceived. "This one will
weigh four pounds and three-quarters, and this one four pounds, but
that one not more than three pounds; he is meagre, M'sieu', BUT he is
meagre." When we went ashore and tried the spring balance (which every
angler ought to carry with him, as an aid to his conscience), the guides
guess usually proved to be within an ounce or two of the fact. Any one
of the senses can be educated to do the work of the others. The eyes of
these experienced fishermen were as sensitive to weight as if they had
been made to use as scales.

Below the last fall the Peribonca flows for a score of miles with an
unbroken, ever-widening stream, through low shores of forest and bush
and meadow. Near its mouth the Little Peribonca joins it, and the
immense flood, nearly two miles wide, pours into Lake St. John. Here
we saw the first outpost of civilisation--a huge unpainted storehouse,
where supplies are kept for the lumbermen and the new settlers. Here
also we found the tiny, lame steam launch that was to carry us back to
the Hotel Roberval. Our canoes were stowed upon the roof of the cabin,
and we embarked for the last stage of our long journey.

As we came out of the river-mouth, the opposite shore of the lake was
invisible, and a stiff "Nor'wester" was rolling big waves across the
bar. It was like putting out into the open sea. The launch laboured and
puffed along for four or five miles, growing more and more asthmatic
with every breath. Then there was an explosion in the engine-room. Some
necessary part of the intestinal machinery had blown out. There was a
moment of confusion. The captain hurried to drop the anchor, and the
narrow craft lay rolling in the billows.

What to do? The captain shrugged his shoulders like a Frenchman. "Wait
here, I suppose." But how long? "Who knows? Perhaps till to-morrow;
perhaps the day after. They will send another boat to look for us in the
course of time."

But the quarters were cr