A council was held at the hotel, and a dozen different water routes were
discussed. As the boys still wanted to carry out their original design
of making a voyage to Quebec, they decided to take the canoes by rail to
Rouse's Point, and from thence to descend the Richelieu River to the St.
Lawrence. The railway journey would take nearly a whole day, but they
thought it would be a pleasant change from the close confinement of
canoeing.
As it would have taken three days to send the canoes to Rouse's Point by
freight, the canoeists were compelled to take them on the same train
with themselves. They went to the express office on Monday morning, and
tried to make a bargain with the express company. The agent astonished
them by the enormous price which he demanded, and Harry, who acted as
spokesman, told him that it was outrageous to ask such a price for
carrying four light canoes.
The man turned to a book in which were contained the express company's
rates of charges, and showed Harry that there was a fixed rate for
row-boats and shells.
"But," said Harry, "a canoe is not a row-boat nor a shell. What justice
is there in charging as much for a fourteen-foot canoe as for a
forty-foot shell?"
"Well," said the agent, "I don't know as it would be fair. But then
these canoes of yours are pretty near as big as row-boats."
"A canoe loaded as ours are don't weigh over one hundred and ten pounds.
How much does a row-boat weigh?"
"Well, about two or three hundred pounds."
"Then is it fair to charge as much for a canoe as for a row-boat that
weighs three times as much?"
The agent found it difficult to answer this argument, and after thinking
the matter over he agreed to take the canoes at half the rate ordinarily
charged for row-boats. The boys were pleased with their victory over
him.
At ten o'clock the train rolled into the Sherbrooke station. To the
great disappointment of the boys, no express car was attached to it, the
only place for express packages being a small compartment twelve feet
long at one end of the smoking-car. It was obvious that canoes fourteen
feet long could not go into a space only twelve feet long, and it seemed
as if it would be necessary to wait twelve hours for the night train, to
which a large express car was always attached. But the conductor of the
train was a man who could sympathize with boys, and who had ideas of his
own. He uncoupled the engine, which was immediately in front of the
smoking-car, and then had the canoes taken in through the door of the
smoking-car and placed on the backs of the seats. Very little room was
left for passengers who wanted to smoke; but as there were only four or
five of these, they made no complaint. The canoes, with blankets under
them to protect the backs of the seats, rode safely, and when, late in
the afternoon, Rouse's Point was reached, they were taken out of the car
without a scratch.
There was just time enough before sunset to paddle a short distance
below the fort, where a camping ground was found that would have been
very pleasant had there been fewer mosquitoes. They were the first
Canadian mosquitoes that had made the acquaintance of the young
canoeists, and they seemed to be delighted. They sung and buzzed in
great excitement, and fairly drove the boys from their supper to the
shelter of their canoes.
Harry had a long piece of mosquito netting, which he threw over the top
of his canoe tent, and which fell over the openings on each side of the
tent, thus protecting the occupant of the canoe from mosquitoes without
depriving him of air. None of the other boys had taken the trouble to
bring mosquito-netting with him, except Charley, who had a sort of
mosquito-netting bag, which he drew over his head, and which prevented
the mosquitoes from getting at his face and neck.
As for Joe and Tom, the mosquitoes fell upon them with great enthusiasm,
and soon reduced them to a most miserable condition. Tom was compelled
to cover his head with his India-rubber blanket, and was nearly
suffocated. Joe managed to tie a handkerchief over his face in such a
way as to allow himself air enough to breathe, and at the same time to
keep off the mosquitoes. Instead of covering the rest of his body with
his blanket, he deliberately exposed a bare arm and part of a bare leg,
in hopes that he could thus satisfy the mosquitoes, and induce them to
be merciful. At the end of half an hour both Tom and Joe felt that they
could endure the attacks of the dreadful insects no longer. They got up,
and stirring the embers of the fire, soon started a cheerful blaze.
There were plenty of hemlock-trees close at hand, and the hemlock boughs
when thrown on the fire gave out a great deal of smoke. The two
unfortunate boys sat in the lee of the fire and nearly choked themselves
with smoke; but they could endure the smoke better than the mosquitoes,
and so they were left alone by the latter.
[Illustration: GETTING BREAKFAST UNDER DIFFICULTIES.]
The wind died down before morning, and the mosquitoes returned. As soon
as it was light the canoeists made haste to get breakfast and to paddle
out into the stream. The mosquitoes let them depart without attempting
to follow them; and the boys, anchoring the canoes by making the ballast
bags fast to the painters, enjoyed an unmolested bath. As they were
careful to anchor where the water was not four feet deep, they had no
difficulty in climbing into the canoes after the bath. Joe's mishap on
Lake Memphremagog had taught them that getting into a canoe in deep
water was easier in theory than in practice.
Later in the morning the usual southerly breeze, which is found almost
every morning on the Richelieu, gave the canoeists the opportunity of
making sail. The breeze was just fresh enough to make it prudent for the
canoes to carry their mainsails only, and to give the canoeists plenty
of employment in watching the gusts that came through the openings in
the woods that lined the western shore.
About twelve miles below Rouse's Point the fleet reached "Ile aux Noix,"
a beautiful island in the middle of the stream, with a somewhat
dilapidated fort at its northern end. The boys landed, and examined the
fort and the ruined barracks which stood near it. The ditch surrounding
the fort was half filled with the wooden palisades which had rotted and
fallen into it, and large trees had sprung up on the grassy slope of the
outer wall. The interior was, however, in good repair, and in one of the
granite casemates lived an Irishman and his wife, who were the entire
garrison. In former years the "Ile aux Noix" fort was one of the most
important defenses of the Canadian frontier, and even in its present
forlorn condition it could be defended much longer than could the big
American fort at Rouse's Point. The boys greatly enjoyed their visit to
the island, and after lunch set sail, determined to make the most of the
fair wind, and to reach St. John before night.
The breeze held, and in less than three hours the steeples and the
railway bridge of St. John came in view. The canoeists landed at the
upper end of the town, and Harry and Charley, leaving the canoes in
charge of the other boys, went in search of the Custom-house officer
whose duty it was to inspect all vessels passing from the United States
into Canada by way of the Richelieu River. Having found the officer, who
was a very pleasant man, and who gave the fleet permission to proceed on
its way without searching the canoes for smuggled goods, Harry and
Charley walked on to examine the rapids, which begin just below the
railway bridge. From St. John to Chambly, a distance of twelve miles,
the river makes a rapid descent, and is entirely unnavigable for
anything except canoes.
The first rapid was a short but rough one. Still, it was no worse than
the first of the Magog rapids, and Harry and Charley made up their minds
that it could be safely run. The men of whom they made inquiries as to
the rapids farther down said that they were impassable, and that the
canoes had better pass directly into the canal, without attempting to
run even the first rapid. Harry was inclined to think that this advice
was good, but Charley pointed out that it would be possible to drag the
canoes up the bank of the river, and launch them in the canal at any
point between St. John and Chambly, and that it would be time enough to
abandon the river when it should really prove to be impassable.
Returning to the canoes, the Commodore gave the order to prepare to run
the rapids. In a short time the fleet, with the _Sunshine_ in advance,
passed under the bridge, and narrowly escaping shipwreck on the remains
of the wooden piles that once supported a bridge that had been destroyed
by fire, entered the rapid. There was quite a crowd gathered to watch
the canoes as they passed, but those people who wanted the excitement
of seeing the canoes wrecked were disappointed. Not a drop of water
found its way into the cockpit of a single canoe; and though there was
an ugly rock near the end of the rapid, against which each canoeist
fully expected to be driven as he approached it, the run was made
without the slightest accident.
Drifting down with the current a mile or two below the town, the boys
landed and encamped for the night. While waiting at St. John, Joe and
Tom had provided themselves with mosquito netting, but they had little
use for it, for only a few mosquitoes made the discovery that four
healthy and attractive boys were within reach. The night was cool and
quiet, and the canoeists, tired with their long day's work, slept until
late in the morning.
Everything was prepared the next day for running the rapids, which the
men at St. John had declared to be impassable. The spars and all the
stores were lashed fast; the sand-bags were placed in the
after-compartments; the painters were rove through the stern-posts, and
the life-belts were placed where they could be buckled on at an
instant's notice. After making all these preparations it was rather
disappointing to find no rapids whatever between St. John and Chambly,
or rather the Chambly railway bridge.
"It just proves what I said yesterday," remarked Charley, turning round
in his canoe to speak to his comrades, who were a boat's-length behind
him. "People who live on the banks of a river never know anything about
it. Now I don't believe there is a rapid in the whole Richelieu River
except at St. John. Halloo! keep back, boys--"
While he was speaking, Charley and his canoe disappeared as suddenly as
if the earth, or rather the water, had opened and swallowed them. The
other boys in great alarm backed water, and then paddling ashore as fast
as possible, sprung out of their canoes and ran along the shore to
discover what had become of Charley. They found him at the foot of a
water-fall of about four feet in height, over which he had been carried.
The fall was formed by a long ledge of rock running completely across
the river; and had the boys been more careful, and had the wind been
blowing in any other direction than directly down the river, they would
have heard the sound of the falling water in time to be warned of the
danger into which Charley had carelessly run.
His canoe had sustained little damage, for it had luckily fallen where
the water was deep enough to keep it from striking the rocky bottom.
Charley had been thrown out as the canoe went over the fall, but had
merely bruised himself a little. He towed his canoe ashore, and in
answer to a mischievous question from Joe, admitted that perhaps the men
who had said that the Chambly rapids were impassable were right.
Below the fall and as far as the eye could reach stretched a fierce and
shallow rapid. The water boiled over and among the rocks with which it
was strewn, and there could not be any doubt that the rapid was one
which could not be successfully run, unless, perhaps, by some one
perfectly familiar with the channel. It was agreed that the canoes must
be carried up to the canal, and after two hours of hard work the fleet
was launched a short distance above one of the canal locks.
The lock-man did not seem disposed to let the canoes pass through the
lock, but finally accepted fifty cents, and, grumbling to himself in his
Canadian French, proceeded to lock the canoes through. He paid no
attention to the request that he would open the sluices gradually, but
opened them all at once and to their fullest extent. The result was that
the water in the lock fell with great rapidity; the canoes were swung
against one another and against the side of the lock, and Charley's
canoe, catching against a bolt in one of the upper gates, was capsized
and sunk to the bottom, leaving her captain clinging to the stern of the
_Sunshine_.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
[Illustration: "O NANNY, WILT THOU GANG WI' ME?"]