After they had passed Leach Island, Ganawa steered the canoe within a mile or [[76]]less of the shore, and never had the lads seen a more magnificent view. They were headed north. To their left lay the endless blue sea with no land in sight; but to their right stood the big forested wall of rocks, rising to a height of several hundred or even a thousand feet within a mile or two of the lake. The sun was now shining on this great forest so one could see clearly the mixture of spruce, balsam, fir, and birch, with isolated white pines that were taller and seemed to belong to an older generation of trees.
It was still early in the afternoon when Ganawa rounded some cliffs to the right and landed the canoe, as he had promised, in a sheltered bay of shallow water, now known as Indian Harbor.
“We have come ten leagues,” he said, as he lifted the canoe to a safe place on land; “it is ten leagues more to the Michipicoten. My big son and I will make camp. My little son should catch us some trout for our meal.” [[77]]
“I do want to catch them,” Ray replied, “but I have no bait.”
Then Ganawa took a piece of red flannel out of his hunting bag. “Here, my son,” he told the lad, “that will catch them, if they are here.”
Ray was in high spirits. His dog had behaved well. When gulls and eagles soared rather close to the boat, Tawny did not even lift his head, and now after the canoe had landed, he showed no inclination to leave but literally dogged Ray’s footsteps. The fish were biting, too, and the lad was soon wild with excitement. Never had Ray seen such big rainbow trout. “Oh, Bruce, come and look,” he called; “they are too beautiful to eat,” after, with much splashing and yelling, he had pulled out three of the flashing, jumping fish, weighing from two to three pounds each.
And then came the climax of the day for the lad. A big five-pounder took a vicious bite at the red flannel, and pulled with much more strength than Ray had anticipated. [[78]]The lad held to his pole but in his effort to reach the line, he slipped on the rock and tumbled in amongst the boulders. Tawny uttered just two loud barks before he jumped after the lad, and when Bruce came rushing to the spot, boy and dog were struggling in the water and Bruce could not tell which one was trying to save the other. But in all the excitement Ray held to the line, and when the giant trout at last flashed his great mass of pink and his red spots on the rock, Ray fell on the wildly jumping fish, seized him behind the gills and then ran to the tepee yelling: “Look, Father, look, I’ve got him! I’ve got him!”
By this time a good fire was blazing near the tepee, and Ray was soon in dry clothes and as comfortable and warm as if he had never had a plunge-bath in Lake Superior. When Bruce taunted him with being pulled in by the big fish, Ray only laughed and said, “The fish was worth a cold bath, and I should be glad to fall in again if I could catch another five-pound rainbow trout.” [[79]]
“My father, this evening I shall make a feast,” Bruce told Ganawa. The big trout was soon cleaned and now Bruce made use of a piece of bacon he had bought of a trader at the Soo and taken along as a surprise for Ray and as a kind of emergency ration, for he knew that even the best of Indians are likely to trust to luck for their next meal.
Bruce placed a strip of bacon inside the big fish. He slit the meat along the back and placed a strip of bacon in the cut, and to the outside of the fish he tied several strips of bacon with fine strips of willow bark, and he also used a little salt on the inside and outside of the fish. Then he fastened a smooth clean stick lengthwise through the fish, and for about fifteen minutes he kept the fish slowly turning over a hot fire of live coals, while each end of the rod used as a spit was supported in the fork of a stick set into the ground near the fire.