places, that we might try them as we came to them. We soon found a cedar slab stuck up on which was written in charcoal:

"Fish Hear!"

The occupant of the first canoe which came along, not caring to make the experiment, and seeing his opportunity for a play upon words, added:

"Do Fish Hear?"

The next canoe, catching the joke, wrote:

"Do not Fish Hear?"

When the third canoe came up, the contents of the placard were read to the Indian, and his opinion asked. Looking round for signs of fish, he quietly exclaimed:

"Ugh! Fish not Hear!"

Although what was intended for a very different purpose had resulted in a novel discussion of a mooted question, it was decided that the very "bad spell" had reached a very wise conclusion.

For two weeks we were in daily telegraphic correspondence with Gen. ARTHUR, whose illness obliged him to return home after he had accompanied us as far as Bangor on our way hither. The character of his illness (which subsequently developed into a malignant carbuncle) rendered us uneasy, and our anxiety could only be appeased by

these daily bulletins. A fatal termination of the malady was only avoided, under Providence, by careful home nursing and the best medical attendance, aided by a strong constitution and an indomitable will. The announcement of his hopeful convalescence was a pleasant piece of news, and when word came that he had "started for the Cascapedia," the Judge was eloquent in the expression of his gratitude and pleasure. But when one delightful Saturday morning he was seen in the distance snugly ensconced midships of his canoe, there was great joy in camp and preparations were made to give him a fitting welcome.

The Shedden pool, directly in front of the camp, had been left unfished for two days that he might enjoy it at its best. And it never "panned out " more richly than during the first afternoon he fished it. In five hours he landed four salmon, besides losing one through the stupidity of his gaffer, after a two hours' fight. They averaged twenty-seven pounds, the largest weighing thirtypounds. With the capture of his first fish the last vestige of his illness left him. There is no medicine equal to the rise, strike and struggle of a thirty-pound salmon to bring back lost vigor to an appreciative convalescent.

The advent of the General among us was celebrated by the guides in the evening by a dance.

This was rendered possible, in due form, from the fact that one of the Indians was a violinist, and had his instrument with him. The lady of the neighboring farm-house kindly proffered her best room, and her three daughters were quite willing to join in the merry-making. It was a pleasant reunion, marked by all the decorum, with a thousand-fold the vivacity usually exhibited by the "first families" under like circumstances. The violinist was not a Paganini, but he kept perfect time with both elbow and heels. The Indians were very lively dancers, and the young ladies, by the ease and homely grace with which, in their tunic-like costumes, they followed the lead of their partners, gave evidence of long practice. If none of "the gentlemen" (as the guests were politely designated) "tripped the light, fantastic toe," it was from no discourtesy. The measured steps practiced in the salons of "society," compared with the hearty movements of these lusty dancers, would have been as monotonous as the dull thud of a muffled drum compared with the rattling thunder of a ponderous trip-hammer.

The dancing was interspersed with vocal music. Two of the young ladies sang, in duet, with exquisite taste and expression, that beautiful Scotch ballad, "I maun gang awa', lassie ;" and the General, not to be outdone in courtesy, recited Burns' "Tam

o'Shanter" and "Cotter's Saturday Night," in a most admirable manner, to the great delight of the venerable Scotch matron of the household and "ithers o' that ilk " who were present. The Judge also delighted every one by his good-humored rendering of that classically pathetic ballad, "Sam Jones, the fisherman," while DUN brought tears to the eyes of his susceptible audience by artistically chanting that profoundly plaintive ditty :

"On Springfield mountains there did dwell,
A comely youth I knew full well,"

which "comely youth," it may be remembered, having been cruelly jilted, wandered off brokenhearted to die ignominiously from the bite of "a pesky sarpent."

In reportorial parlance, "nothing occurred to mar the festivities of the occasion," and all retired at an early hour the happier for having participated in the innocent hilarity of the evening.

CHAPTER XIX.

A SEARCH AFTER SOLITUDE.

How use doth breed a habit in a man!
The shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,

I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.

-[Shakspeare.

It may be laid down as a position which will seldom deceive, that when a man cannot bear his own company, there is something wrong.-[Dr. Johnson.

AVING fished all the pools in the neighborhood of our main camp, I fancied that I could enjoy myself for a little while in a somewhat more primitive manner, alone, fishing some famous pools ten or twelve miles higher up the river. For, to tell the truth, our luxurious surroundings hardly comported with my early education in wood-craft, or with my ideas of the material elements which should enter into the camplife of those who were even ostensibly "roughing it." Our commissary had assured us that it would be good for our general health to "live low on the river." But what a strange conception he had of