They were soon speeding down-stream again. Other small rapids they came upon, but none of the same dimensions as the cataract lately passed.
Jimmy was presently observed making gestures, and having drawn the attention of those in the nearby canoes to himself, he called out:
"Sure it's a connecting link with home!"
"What is?" demanded Jack.
"Be after dipping your hand over the side, and tastin' the water!" replied the scout who was in the boat with Tamasjo and Frank.
Upon doing so, Ned, who had quickly guessed what Jimmy meant, found that there was indeed a brackish taste to the water, as though the influence of the great tides of Hudson Bay might be felt this far up the stream; it would have gone much further only for the numerous rifts that told of a descent of several feet in the drop of the river.
Ned concluded that they had gone quite far enough for the present. Upon asking the voyageur, he learned that they could reach the mouth of the river inside of a couple of hours, if they chose to use their paddles in addition to the set of the now sluggish current of the widening stream.
"Keep on the watch for a suitable hiding place for the boats," he told the others, "and remember, it must be on the larboard side, because that's the way we expect to tramp in search of the wonderful copper mine."
Every one after that kept on the alert for such a place as would be suitable for the purpose to which they intended to put it. Of all the five scouts, it seemed the irony of fate that Jimmy should actually be the one to first make a discovery.
"I'm only a dub at this business, I know," he said after a while, with a grin on his freckled face, that was almost as red as his hair, thanks to the action of the summer sun and the winds they had encountered; "yes, only a tyro, so to speak; but d'ye know it strikes me that over yonder amongst the canes the canoes would lie so snug and unbeknown that nothin'd bring harm to the same, while we chanct to be awanderin' around."