FLYBITES & BLISTERS.... GREAT PEACE OF MIND

THIS IS A BRIEF summary of the canoe trip that I took in Northern Quebec last autumn.

Our starting point was the Montagnais Indian Reservation at Pointe Bleue on Lake St. John. There I left Sheridan Baketel '20 and his family at Tommy Robertson's and with Barthelemy my guide, who is a full blooded Montagnais Indian, we went by automobile to the end of the road at a spot on the Peribonka River about three miles south of Lake Tsitsigama where we put in; thence, traveling by canoe with outboard motor, paddle and pole and by medium of many portages, we went up the Peribonka River to the River Serpent; thence, to the River Poisson Blanc, Lac Croche, and River Brodeuse back to the Peribonka River and thence, up the Peribonka again to the River Epinette Rouge, a river much smaller than the Peribonka.

We then went westerly up the Epinette Rouge River through Lac Peche-Matin and Lac Epinette Rouge and over the height of land to Petit Lac Nipissi, which is approximately two hundred miles in the woods. From Petit Lac Nipissi we went to Grand Lac Nipissi, and thence to the Northeast Mistisibbi River and down the Northeast Mistisibbi, and when I say down I mean down literally, to the main Mistisibbi; thence, down the main Mistisibbi to the River Savard where we were able to travel by car back to Pointe Bleue.

400 WILDERNESS MILES

We were in the woods twenty-five days, covered approximately four hundred miles; made some forty odd portages from one hundred feet to two miles, and went through fifty to sixty miles of rapids.

My guide was a very hard-working, very skillful fellow, with all the guts in the world and, as they say in his country truly "un bon homme."

This trip from what I gather varied a little from the usual canoe trip in that the Lac Nipissi country (Lat. 50° 30' Long. 71° 45') for one reason or another seems to be distinctly off the beaten track, and secondly, a larger party is rather the rule, I believe.

I am enclosing some pictures that I took where, I believe, the camera has caught to a small extent the spirit of the North.

May I suggest that you put them in some corner of your den, and, when the humdrum of business life begins to get irksome, sit down before them and give them serious contemplation. Do not however look too long or too earnestly because if you do it will cost you time and money, and backaches and sweat, and cold and wetness, and flybites and blisters, but, if you pay the price cheerfully and with due humility, by some quiet northern lake you will find perfect relaxation and contentment, and great peace of mind and baby slumber.

Well Here's hoping that some day I meet you on the trail, and in the meantime may all your portages be downhill.

GUIDE, LEFT, AND G. F. COBLEIGH '15

IN THE VAST WILDERNESS OF NORTHERN QUEBEC MR. COBLEIGH CAMPED ON A SMALL LAKE. (TOP RIGHT); CENTER, HIS GUIDE BRINGS IN A SUPPLY OF FOOD; AND BOTTOM, WHITE WATER CANOEING ON THE MISTISIBBI RIVER