BEGINNING THE SEARCH
Ray was surprised next forenoon at the ease with which Ganawa managed
their journey up-stream. For the greater part of the distance the old
Indian knelt in the stern of the canoe, and by means of a pole steered
and pushed the craft safely past many rocks and through much swift
water, while Bruce walked along the south bank and pulled on a long
rope. In a few places they lifted the canoe out of the water and
carried it a short distance over land. Ray, with his gun and his dog,
walked along the trail as if he were furnishing the safe conduct for
the two canoeists. Although Ganawa and Bruce worked the canoe up-stream
with great caution, they nevertheless made such good progress that they
reached the great whirlpool at the foot of the falls during the
forenoon.
The falls of the Michipicoten have the character of a mountain
cataract. The water does not drop over a projecting cliff as it does at
Niagara, but in some half dozen turns and twists it rushes down a steep
cliff of granite. Over the last step the water rushes at an angle which
makes a mad whirlpool, in which the water turns and turns like a caged
animal that is vainly looking for an escape from its prison. At certain
stages of the water, the outflow from the whirlpool seems to come
entirely from below, while the whirling surface water will hold logs
and other objects in its grip for days to leave them finally stranded
on the rocks. When the water is at this stage, even the lumbermen find
it at times impossible to break the whirling and milling movement of
the logs.
From the whirlpool the travellers had to carry their canoe and packs up
a steep trail of a hundred and fifty feet and some distance beyond,
until it was safe to put the canoe in the water again; for above great
falls and rapids the water of a river acquires a vicious gliding
swiftness, which seizes men and animals as with a vise-like grip from
which they can seldom escape. The water above the falls of the
Michipicoten is especially treacherous. The river is wide and quite
smooth and one may wade into it near the shore, but in the deep water
in the middle of the stream the river is madly rushing to the first
chute of the falls, and a boat or canoe once caught in the midstream
rush rarely escapes destruction. Even in recent years several white
men, who did not gauge right the danger of the smoothly gliding stream,
have lost their lives by being carried over the falls.
About a mile above the roaring, thundering falls, Ganawa stopped at a
camping-place close to a quiet pool in the river.
“My sons,” he said, “here we shall stay, maybe several days. You, my
sons, may now set up our tepee and make us a good camp.” As in this
place also a set of poles was standing in position, making camp was
quick and easy work; but Bruce and Ray, after the tepee was up, went to
work at cutting a goodly lot of firewood. For this and other work,
Bruce had brought a good heavy ax, because, as he said, it seemed
foolish to him for a full-grown man to work with a small boy’s hatchet.
He admitted that these small axes were valuable weapons for the Indian
warriors and hunters and for the squaws in cutting firewood. “But for a
white man,” he insisted, “give me a real ax, the kind used by the
wood-choppers and farmers of New England. Ray may use an Indian
hatchet; it is about the right weight for him.”
The lads chopped two kinds of wood. One pile consisted of short and dry
pieces of pine, spruce, mountain ash, white elm, white cedar, a little
black ash, and small sticks of dry willow, moose-maple, pin-cherry, and
choke-cherry.
The moose-maple so common north of Lake Superior is not a real tree,
but only a good-sized bush. The lads did not cut any dry birch, because
dead birch wood found in the forest is nearly always both wet and
rotten and valueless as fuel. The bark of the birch does not allow the
wood to dry, and within a few years the dead wood has changed to a kind
of punk, which is good for smoking fish and meat, but quite worthless
for a real fire. Sugar maple, soft maple, oaks, butternut, black
walnut, and other trees common farther south and east do not grow along
the Michipicoten River nor are they found in the region of Michipicoten
Bay. Common broad-leaved trees in this region are the aspen, or common
poplar, the balsam poplar, or balm of Gilead, and the white birch. The
white birch is the most common; it grows to a good size and, if cut
green, makes the best fuel found in the North woods.
After the lads had cut a supply of dry wood for purposes of cooking and
for a fire in the tepee, they started to cut a lot of green birch for
their outdoor camp-fires. Birch is the only kind of broad-leaved wood
found in the northern forest which will burn green. It will not sputter
and throw sparks, but after it is well started by the use of some dry
wood it can be kept going indefinitely with a steady red glow by adding
fuel as it is needed.
All the evergreens will burn green, but they are unpleasant to handle
on account of their pitch and they make much black smoke; while green
poplars, elm, oak, and ironwood are so sappy, especially in the summer
season, that they will steam and sizzle on the fire and can hardly be
made to burn with the aid of dry wood.
After the lads had cut enough wood to last them for a week or so,
Ganawa told them that they must now secure food for several days before
they could go and look for signs of the cache of their friends. Bruce
was more than willing to do this, because he saw with much anxiety that
the small supply of food which they had brought with them would soon be
gone, if they touched it at all.
The great country north and northeast of Lake Superior is very poor in
wild plant food suitable for human beings. There is little or no wild
rice, and there are no roots or bulbs which can be gathered in large
quantities. There is, however, an abundance of blueberries and
raspberries in good seasons; but a man who has no bread or meat cannot
live long on berries.
In the matter of animal food, however, the case stands better for the
North Country. The great swamps, valleys and hills of this region have
long been and still are the home of the moose, the biggest animal of
the deer family now living. At times woodland caribou are found in the
region, and generally there is a supply of snowshoe rabbits. At the
present time, deer are fairly common in the region, but the journals
and stories of the old voyageurs and traders do not mention deer, which
at that time had not spread so far north.
The most reliable food supply of the region is fish, and Bruce and Ray
now set about securing enough fish so they might later on give all
their time to exploring and looking for some clue of the whereabouts of
Jack Dutton.