Tr>\MS or iiir 1 1 1 rr nii,'.

and upon St. Regis Lake, north of the Saranac group, two or three families of the beaver -- the most rare of all the tenants of these forests -- might then be found. The otter is somc^vhat abundant, but the panther has become almost extinct ; the wolf is seldom seen, except in winter ; and the black bear, quite abundant in the mountain ranges, was shy and invisible to the summer tourist.

The chief source of the Eaquette is in Raqucttc Lake, toward the western part of Hamilton County. Around it the Indians, in the ancient days, gathered on snow-shoes, in winter, to hunt the moose, then found

THE HUDSOX. 11

there iu large droves ; and from that circumstance they named it " Kaquet," the equivalent in Preuch for snow-shoe in English."^'

tSeven miles from our entrance upon the Raquette, we came to the " Falls," where the stream rushes in cascades over a rocky bed for a mile. At the foot of the rapids we dined, and then walked a mile over a lofty, thickly-wooded hill, to their head, where we re-embarked. Here our guides first carried their boats, and it was surprising to see with what apparent ease our Indian took the heaviest, weighing at least 160 lbs., and with a dog-trot bore it the whole distance, stopping only once. The boat rests upon a- yoke, similar to tliose which water-carriers use in some countries, fitted to the neck and shoulders, and it is thus borne with the ease of the coracle.