Read Ebook: Voyage of the Paper Canoe A Geographical Journey of 2500 Miles from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico During the Years 1874-5 by Bishop Nathaniel H Nathaniel Holmes

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ISLAND OF ST. PAUL. -- THE PORTALS OF THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. -- THE EXTINCT AUK. -- ANTICOSTI ISLAND. -- ICEBERGS. -- SAILORS' SUPERSTITIONS. -- THE ESTUARY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. -- TADOUSAC. -- THE SAGUENAY RIVER. -- WHITE WHALES. -- QUEBEC.

THE RICHELIEU RIVER. -- ACADIAN SCENES. -- ST. OURS. -- ST. ANTOINE. -- ST. MARKS. -- BELOEIL. -- CHAMBLY CANAL. -- ST. JOHNS. -- LAKE CHAMPLAIN. -- THE GREAT SHIP CANAL. -- DAVID BODFISH'S CAMP. -- THE ADIRONDACK SURVEY. -- A CANVAS BOAT. -- DIMENSIONS OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. -- PORT KENT. -- AUSABLE CHASM. -- ARRIVAL AT TICONDEROGA.

THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE GEORGE BY FATHER JOGUES. -- A PEDESTRIAN JOURNEY. -- THE HERMIT OF THE NARROWS. -- CONVENT OF ST. MARY'S of THE LAKE. -- THE PAULIST FATHERS. -- CANAL ROUTE FROM LAKE. CHAMPLAIN TO ALBANY. -- BODFISH RETURNS TO NEW JERSEY. -- THE LITTLE FLEET IN ITS HAVEN OF REST.

THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE PAPER BOAT. -- THE HISTORY OF THE ADOPTION OF PAPER FOR BOATS. -- A BOY'S INGENUITY. -- THE PROCESS OF BUILDING PAPER BOATS DESCRIBED. -- COLLEGE CLUBS ADOPTING THEM. -- THE GREAT VICTORIES WON BY PAPER OVER WOODEN SHELLS IN 1876.

PAPER CANOE MARIA THERESA. -- THE START. -- THE DESCENT OF THE HUDSON RIVER. -- -- CROSSING THE UPPER BAY OF NEW YORK. -- PASSAGE OF THE KILLS. -- RARITAN RIVER. -- THE CANAL ROUTE FROM NEW BRUNSWICK TO THE DELAWARE RIVER. -- FROM BORDENTOWN TO PHILADELPHIA.

DESCENT OF DELAWARE RIVER. -- MY FIRST CAMP. -- BOMBAY HOOK. -- MURDERKILL CREEK. -- A STORM IN DELAWARE BAY. -- CAPSIZING OF THE CANOE. -- A SWIM FOR LIFE. -- THE PERSIMMON GROVE. -- WILLOW GROVE INN. -- THE LIGHTS OF CAPES MAY AND HENLOPEN.

THE PORTAGE TO LOVE CREEK. -- THE DELAWARE WHIPPINGPOST. -- REHOBOTH AND INDIAN RIVER BAYS. -- A PORTAGE TO LITTLE ASSAWAMAN BAY. -- ISLE OF WIGHT BAY. -- WINCHESTER PLANTATION. -- CHINCOTEAGUE. -- WATCHAPREAGUE INLET. -- COBB'S ISLAND. -- CHERRYSTONE. -- ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. -- THE "LANDMARK'S" ENTERPRISE.

THE ELIZABETH RIVER. -- THE CANAL. -- NORTH LANDING RIVER. -- CURRITUCK SOUND. -- ROANOKE ISLAND. -- VISIT TO BODY ISLAND LIGHT -- HOUSE. -- A ROMANCE OF HISTORY. -- PAMPLICO SOUND. -- THE PAPER CANOE ARRIVES AT CAPE HATTERAS.

CAPE HATTERAS LIGHT. -- HABITS OF BIRDS. - STORM AT HATTERAS INLET. -MILES OF WRECKS. -THE YACHT JULIA SEARCHING FOR THE PAPER CANOE. -- CHASED BY PORPOISES. -- MARSH TACKIES. - OCRACOKE INLET. - A GRAVEYARD BEING SWALLOWED UP BY THE SEA. -- CORE SOUND. -- THREE WEDDINGS AT HUNTING QUARTERS. - MOREHEAD CITY. -- NEWBERN. - SWANSBORO. - A PEANUT PLANTATION. -- THE ROUTE TO CAPE FEAR.

A PORTAGE TO LAKE WACCAMAW. -- SUBMERGED SWAMPS. -- NIGHT AT A TURPENTINE DISTILLERY. -- A DISMAL WILDERNESS. -- OWLS AND MISTLETOE. -- CRACKERS AND NEGROES. -- ACROSS THE SOUTH CAROLINA LINE. -- A CRACKER'S IDEA OF HOSPITALITY. -- POT BLUFF. -- PEEDEE RIVER. -- GEORGETOWN. -- WINYAH BAY. -- THE RICE PLANTATIONS OF THE SANTEE RIVERS. -- A NIGHT WITH THE SANTEE NEGROES. -- ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON.

THE INTERIOR WATER ROUTE TO JEHOSSEE ISLAND. -- GOVERNOR AIKEN'S MODEL RICE PLANTATION. -- LOST IN THE HORNS. -- ST. HELENA SOUND. -- LOST IN THE NIGHT. -- THE PHANTOM SHIP. -- THE FINLANDER'S WELCOME. -- A NIGHT ON THE EMPEROR'S OLD YACHT. -- THE PHOSPHATE MINES. -- COOSAW AND BROAD RIVERS. -- PORT ROYAL SOUND AND CALIBOGUE SOUND. -- CUFFY'S HOME. -- ARRIVAL IN GEORGIA. -- RECEPTIONS AT GREENWICH SHOOTING-PARK.

ROUTE TO THE SEA ISLANDS OF GEORGIA. -- STORM-BOUND ON GREEN ISLAND. -- OSSABAW ISLAND. -- ST. CATHERINE'S SOUND. -- SAPELO ISLAND. -- THE MUD OF MUD RIVER. -- NIGHT IN A NEGRO CABIN. -- "DE SHOUTINGS" ON DOBOY ISLAND. -- BROUGHTON ISLAND. -- ST. SIMON'S AND JEKYL ISLANDS. -- INTERVIEW WITH AN ALLIGATOR. -- A NIGHT IN JOINTER HAMMOCK. -- CUMBERLAND ISLAND AND ST. MARY'S RIVER. -- FAREWELL TO THE SEA.

A PORTAGE TO DUTTON. -- DESCENT OF THE ST. MARY'S RIVER. -- FETE GIVEN BY THE CITIZENS TO THE PAPER CANOE. -- THE PROPOSED CANAL ROUTE ACROSS FLORIDA. - PORTAGE TO THE SUWANEE RIVER. -- A NEGRO SPEAKS ON ELECTRICITY AND THE TELEGRAPH. -- A FREEDMAN'S SERMON.

THE RICH FOLIAGE OF THE RIVER. -- COLUMBUS. - ROLINS' BLUFF. -- OLD TOWN HAMMOCK. - A HUNTER KILLED BY A PANTHER. -- DANGEROUS SERPENTS. -- CLAY LANDING. -- THE MARSHES OF THE COAST. -- BRADFORD'S ISLAND. -- MY LAST CAMP. -- THE VOYAGE ENDED.

LIST OF MAPS DRAWN AND ENGRAVED AT THE UNITED STATES COAST SURVEY BUREAU, FOR THE "VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE."

GUIDE MAPS OF CANOE ROUTE.

FROM QUEBEC, CANADA, TO PLATTSBURGH, NEW YORK STATE

FROM PLATTSBURGH TO ALBANY

FROM ALBANY TO NEW YORK CITY

FROM NEW YORK CITY TO CAPE HENLOPEN, DELAWARE

FROM CAPE HENLOPEN, DELAWARE, TO NORFOLK, VIRGINIA

FROM NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, TO BOGUE INLET, NORTH CAROLINA

FROM BOGUE INLET, NORTH CAROLINA, TO BULL'S BAY, SOUTH CAROLINA

FROM BULL'S BAY, SOUTH CAROLINA, TO ST. SIMON'S SOUND, GEORGIA

FROM ST. SIMON'S SOUND, GEORGIA, TO CEDAR KEYS, FLORIDA

GREAT AUK . Extinct. ANCHORED AT LAST A FULL-RIGGED NAUTILUS CANOE THE ROB ROY CANOE THE ABORIGINAL TYPE

Photographed at Disco, Greenland.

THE IMPROVED TYPE. -- PAPER CANOE MARIA THERESA A CAPSIZE IN DELAWARE BAY DELAWARE WHIPPING-POST AND PILLORY BODY ISLAND LIGHT HOUSE CROSSING HATTERAS INLET RECEPTION AT CHARLESTON POST-OFFICE HOME OF THE ALLIGATOR THE PANTHER'S LEAP THE VOYAGE ENDED

ISLAND OF ST. PAUL. -- THE PORTALS OF THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. -- THE EXTINCT AUK. -- ANTICOSTI ISLAND. -- ICEBERGS. -- SAILORS' SUPERSTITIONS. -- THE ESTUARY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. -- TADOUSAC. -- THE SAGUENAY RIVER. -- WHITE WHALES. -- QUEBEC.

While on his passage to the ports of the St. Lawrence River, the mariner first sights the little island of St. Paul, situated in the waste of waters between Cape Ray, the southwestern point of Newfoundland on the north, and Cape North, the northeastern projection of Cape Breton Island on the south. Across this entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence from cape to cape is a distance of fifty-four nautical miles; and about twelve miles east-northeast from Cape North the island of St. Paul, with its three hills and two light-towers, rises from the sea with deep waters on every side.

This wide inlet into the gulf may be called the middle portal, for at the northern end of Newfoundland, between the great island and the coast of Labrador, another entrance exists, which is known as the Straits of Belle Isle, and is sometimes called "the shorter passage from England." Still to the south of the middle entrance is another and a very narrow one, known as the Gut of Canso, which separates the island of Cape Breton from Nova Scotia. Through this contracted thoroughfare the tides run with great force.

One hundred years ago, as the seaman approached the dangerous entrance of St. Paul, now brightened at night by its light-towers, his heart was cheered by the sight of immense flocks of a peculiar sea-fowl, now extinct. When he saw upon the water the Great Auk , which he ignorantly called "a pengwin," he knew that land was near at hand, for while he met other species far out upon the broad Atlantic, the Great Auk, his "pengwin," kept near the coast. Not only was this now extinct bird his indicator of proximity to the land, but so strange were its habits, and so innocent was its nature, that it permitted itself to be captured by boat-loads; and thus were the ships re-victualled at little cost or trouble. Without any market-value a century ago, the Great Auk now, as a stuffed skin, represents a value of fifteen hundred dollars in gold. There are but seventy-two specimens of this bird in the museums of Europe and America, besides a few skeletons, and sixty-five of its eggs. It was called in ancient days Gare-fowl, and was the Goiful of the Icelander.

Captain Whitbourne, who wrote in the reign of James the First, quaintly said: "These Pengwins are as bigge as Geese, and flye not, for they have but a little short wing, and they multiply so infinitely upon a certain flat island that men drive them from thence upon a board into their boats by hundreds at a time, as if God had made the innocency of so poor a creature to become such an admerable instrument for the sustenation of man."

In a copy of the English Pilot, "fourth book," published in 1761, which I presented to the library of the United States Coast Survey, is found this early description of this now extinct American bird: "They never go beyond the bank as others do, for they are always on it, or in it, several of them together, sometimes more but never less than two together. They are large fowls, about the size a goose, a coal-black head and back, with a white belly and a milk-white spot under one of their eyes, which nature has ordered to be under their right eye."

Thus has the greed of the sailor and pothunter swept from the face of the earth an old pilot -- a trusty aid to navigation. Now the light-house, the fog-gun, and the improved chart have taken the place of the extinct auk as aids to navigation, and the sailor of to-day sees the bright flashes of St. Paul's lights when nearly twenty miles at sea. Having passed the little isle, the ship enters the great Gulf of St. Lawrence, and passes the Magdalen Islands, shaping its course as wind and weather permit towards the dreaded, rocky coast of Anticosti. From the entrance of the gulf to the island of Anticosti the course to be followed is northwesterly about one hundred and thirty-five nautical miles. The island which divides an upper arm of the gulf into two wide channels is one hundred and twenty-three miles long, and from ten to thirty miles wide. Across the entrance of this great arm, or estuary, from the high cape of Gaspe on the southern shore of the mainland to Anticosti in the narrowest place, is a distance of about forty miles, and is called the South Channel. From the north side of the island and near its west end to the coast of Labrador the North Channel is fifteen miles wide. The passage from St. Paul to Anticosti is at times dangerous. Here is an area of strong currents, tempestuous winds, and dense fogs. When the wind is fair for an upward run, it is the wind which usually brings misty weather. Then, from the icy regions of the Arctic circle, from the Land of Desolation, come floating through the Straits of Belle Isle the dangerous bergs and ice-fields. Early in the spring these ice rafts are covered with colonies of seals which resort to them for the purpose of giving birth to their young. On these icy cradles, rocked by the restless waves, tens of thousands of young seals are nursed for a few days; then, answering the loud calls of their mothers, they accompany them into the briny deep, there to follow the promptings of their instincts. The loud roarings of the old seals on these ice rafts can be heard in a quiet night for several miles, and strike terror into the hearts of the superstitious sailor who is ignorant of the origin of the tumult.

Frequently dense fogs cover the water, and while slowly moving along, guided only by the needle, a warning sound alarms the watchful master. Through the heavy mists comes the roar of breaking waters. He listens. The dull, swashy noise of waves meeting with resistance is now plainly heard. The atmosphere becomes suddenly chilled: it is the breath of the iceberg!

Then the shrill cry of "All hands on deck!" startles the watch below from the bunks. Anxiously now does the whole ship's company lean upon the weather-rail and peer out into the thick air with an earnestness born of terror. "Surely," says the master to his mate, "I am past the Magdalens, and still far from Anticosti, yet we have breakers; which way can we turn?" The riddle solves itself; for out of the gloom come whitened walls, beautiful but terrible to behold.

Those terror-stricken sailors watch the slowly moving berg as it drifts past their vessel, fearing that their own ship will be drawn towards it from the peculiar power of attraction they believe the iceberg to possess. And as they watch, against the icy base of the mountain in the sea the waves beat and break as if expending their forces upon a rocky shore. Down the furrowed sides of the disintegrating berg streamlets trickle, and miniature cascades leap, mingling their waters with the briny sea. The intruder slowly drifts out of sight, disappearing in the gloom, while the sailor thanks his lucky stars that he has rid himself of another danger. The ill-omened Anticosti, the graveyard of many seamen, is yet to he passed. The ship skirts along its southern shore, a coast destitute of bays or harbors of any kind, rock-bound and inhospitable.

Wrecks of vessels strew the rocky shores, and four light-houses warn the mariner of danger. Once past the island the ship is well within the estuary of the gulf into which the St. Lawrence River flows, contributing the waters of the great lakes of the continent to the sea. As the north coast is approached the superstitious sailor is again alarmed if perchance, the compass-needle shows sympathy with some disturbing element, the cause of which he believes to exist in the mountains which rise along the shore. He repeats the stories of ancient skippers, of vessels having been lured out of their course by the deviation of the guiding-needle, which succumbed to the potent influence exerted in those hills of iron ore; heeding not the fact that the disturbing agent is the iron on board of his own ship, and not the magnetic oxide of the distant mines.

The ship being now within the estuary of the St. Lawrence River, must encounter many risks before she reaches the true mouth of the river, at the Bic Islands.

The shores along this arm of the gulf are wild and sombre. Rocky precipices frown upon the swift tidal current that rushes past their bases. A few small settlements of fishermen and pilots, like Metis, Father Point, and Rimousky, are discovered at long intervals along the coast.

In these St. Lawrence hamlets, and throughout Lower Canada, a patois is spoken which is unintelligible to the Londoner or Parisian; and these villagers, the descendants of the French colonists, may be said to be a people destitute of a written language, and strangers to a literature.

While holding a commission from Francis the First, king of France, Jacques Cartier discovered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, during his first voyage of exploration in the new world. He entered the gulf on St. Lawrence's day, in the spring of 1534, and named it in honor of the event. Cartier explored no farther to the west than about the mouth of the estuary which is divided by the island of Anticosti. It was during his second voyage, in the following year, that he discovered and explored the great river. Of the desolate shores of Labrador, on the north coast, he said, "It might as well as not be taken for the country assigned by God to Cain."

Here, in the mouth of the river, at the Bics, secure anchorage for vessels may be found; but below, in the estuary, for a distance of more than two hundred and forty-five miles, to Gaspe, there is but one port of refuge, that of Seven Islands, on the north coast.

As the ship ascends the river from Bic Islands, a passage of about one hundred and sixty statute miles to Quebec, she struggles against a strong current. Picturesque islands and little villages, such as St. Andre, St. Anne, St. Rogue, St. Jean, and St. Thomas, relieve the monotony. But very different is the winter aspect of this river, when closed to navigation by ice from November until Spring. Of the many tributaries which give strength to the current of the St. Lawrence and contribute to its glory, the Saguenay River with its remarkable scenery is counted one of the wonders of our continent. It joins the great river from the north shore, about one hundred and thirty-four statute miles below Quebec. Upon the left bank, at its mouth, nestles the little village of Tadousac, the summer retreat of the governor-general of the Dominion of Canada.

American history claims for the Roman Catholic church of this settlement an age second only to that of the old Spanish cathedral at St. Augustine, Florida. For three hundred years the storms of winter have beaten upon its walls, but it stands a silent yet eloquent monument of the pious zeal of the ancient Fathers, who came to conquer Satan in the wilderness of a new world. The Saguenay has become the "Mecca" of northern tourists, ever attracting them with its wild and fascinating scenery. Capes Eternity and Trinity guard the entrance to Eternity Bay. The first towers sublimely to a height of eighteen hundred feet, the other is only a little lower. A visit to this mysterious river, with its deep, dark waters and picturesque views, will repay the traveller for the discomforts of a long and expensive journey.

Where the turbulent current of the Saguenay mingles angrily with that of the St. Lawrence, there may be seen disporting in the waves the white whale of aquariums, which is not a whale at all, but a true porpoise , having teeth in the jaws, and being destitute of the fringed bone of the whalebone whales. This interesting creature is very abundant in the Arctic Ocean on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides, and has its southern limits in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, although one is occasionally seen in the Bay of Fundy, and it is reported to have been observed about Cape Cod, on the Massachusetts coast.

As the ship nears the first great port of the St. Lawrence River, the large and well cultivated island of Orleans is passed, and the bold fortifications of Quebec, high up on the face of Point Diamond, and flanked by the houses of the French city, break upon the vision of the mariner. To the right, and below the city, which Champlain founded, and in which his unknown ashes repose, are the beautiful Falls of Montmorency, gleaming in all the whiteness of their falling waters and mists, like the bridal veil of a giantess. The vessel has safely made her passage, and now comes to anchor in the Basin of Quebec. The sails are furled, and the heart of the sailor is merry, for the many dangers which beset the ship while approaching and entering the great water-way of the continent are now over.

The canoe traveller can ascend the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario, avoiding the rapids and shoals by making use of seven canals of a total length of forty-seven miles. He may then skirt the shores of Lake Ontario, and enter Lake Erie by the canal which passes around the celebrated Falls of Niagara. From the last great inland sea he can visit lakes Huron, Michigan, and, with the assistance of a short canal, the grandest of all, Superior. When he has reached the town of Duluth, at the southwestern end of Superior, which is the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, our traveller will have paddled over two thousand miles from salt water into the American continent without having been compelled to make a portage with his little craft. Let him now make his first portage westward, over the road one hundred and fifteen miles from Duluth to the crossing of the Mississippi River at Brainerd, and launch his boat on the Father of Waters, which he may descend with but few interruptions to below the Falls of St. Anthony, at Minneapolis; or, if he will take his boat by rail from Duluth, one hundred and fifty-five miles, to St. Paul, he can launch his canoe, and follow the steamboat to the Gulf of Mexico. This is the longest, and may be called the canoeist's western route to the great Southern Sea. In St. Louis County, Minnesota, the water from "Seven Beaver Lakes" flows south-southwest, and joins the Flood-Wood River; there taking an easterly course towards Duluth, it empties into Lake Superior. This is the St. Louis River, the first tributary of the mighty St. Lawrence system. From the head waters of the St. Louis to the mouth of the St. Lawrence at Bic Islands, where it enters the great estuary, the length of this great water system, including the great Lakes, is about two thousand miles. The area thus drained by the St. Lawrence River is nearly six millions of square miles. The largest craft can ascend it to Quebec, and smaller ones to Montreal; above which city, navigation being impeded by rapids, the seven canals before mentioned have been constructed that vessels may avoid this danger while voyaging to Lake Ontario.

The southern and shorter coast route to the gulf leaves the great river at the Acadian town of Sorel, where the quiet Richelieu flows into the St. Lawrence River. Of the two long routes offered me I selected the southern, leaving the other to be traversed at some future time. To follow the contours of rivers, bays, and sounds, a voyage of at least twenty-five hundred miles was before me. It was my intention to explore the connecting watercourses southward, without making a single portage, as far as Cape Henlopen, a sandy headland at the entrance of Delaware Bay; there, by making short portages from one watercourse to another, to navigate along the interior of the Atlantic coast to the St. Mary's River, which is a dividing line between Georgia and Florida. From the Atlantic coast of southern Georgia, I proposed to cross the peninsula of Florida by way of the St. Mary's River, to Okefenokee Swamp; thence, by portage, to the Suwanee River, and by descending that stream , to reach the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which was to be the terminal point of my canoe journey. Charts, maps and sea-faring men had informed me that about twenty-three hundred miles of the trip could be made upon land-locked waters, but about two hundred miles of voyaging must be done upon the open Atlantic Ocean.

As I now write, I smilingly remember how erroneous were my advisers; for, while prosecuting my voyage, I was but once upon the open sea and then through mistake and for only a few minutes. Had I then known that I could have followed the whole route in a small boat upon strictly interior waters, I should have paddled from the Basin of Quebec in the light paper canoe which I afterwards adopted at Troy, and which carried me alone in safety two thousand miles to the warm regions of the Gulf of Mexico. The counsels of old seamen had influenced me to adopt a large wooden clinker-built, decked canoe, eighteen feet long, forty-five inches beam, and twenty-four inches depth of hold, which weighed, with oars, rudder, mast and sail, above three hundred pounds. The Mayeta was built by an excellent workman, Mr. J. S. Lamson, at Bordentown, New Jersey. The boat was sharp at each end, and the lines from amidships to stem, and from amidships to stempost, were alike. She possessed that essential characteristic of seaworthiness, abundant sheer. The deck was pierced for a cockpit in the centre, which was six feet long and surrounded by a high combing to keep out water. The builder had done his best to make the Mayeta serve for rowing and sailing -- a most difficult combination, and one not usually successful.

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