and the mountain almost seemed to beckon us to come up higher. The
photographic camera and a trustworthy lunch were stowed away in the
pack-basket. The backboard was adjusted at a comfortable angle in the
stern seat of our little boat. The guide held the little craft steady
while I stepped into my place; then he pushed out into the stream, and
we went swiftly down toward Round Lake.

A Saranac boat is one of the finest things that the skill of man has
ever produced under the inspiration of the wilderness. It is a frail
shell, so light that a guide can carry it on his shoulders with ease,
but so dexterously fashioned that it rides the heaviest waves like a
duck, and slips through the water as if by magic. You can travel in
it along the shallowest rivers and across the broadest lakes, and make
forty or fifty miles a day, if you have a good guide.

Everything depends, in the Adirondacks, as in so many other regions of
life, upon your guide. If he is selfish, or surly, or stupid, you will
have a bad time. But if he is an Adirondacker of the best old-fashioned
type,--now unhappily growing more rare from year to year,--you will find
him an inimitable companion, honest, faithful, skilful and cheerful. He
is as independent as a prince, and the gilded youths and finicking fine
ladies who attempt to patronise him are apt to make but a sorry show
before his solid and undisguised contempt. But deal with him man to man,
and he will give you a friendly, loyal service which money cannot buy,
and teach you secrets of woodcraft and lessons in plain, self-reliant
manhood more valuable than all the learning of the schools. Such a
guide was mine, rejoicing in the Scriptural name of Hosea, but commonly
called, in brevity and friendliness, "Hose."

As we entered Round Lake on this fair morning, its surface was as smooth