106 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. XT. 



each in turn to partake of the delicacy, but we were 

 content with our soup of pressed vegetables and pork, tea 

 cooled by the rain, and innocent of rnilk or sugar which 

 were voted useless luxuries for hard-working explorers in 

 these magnificent wilds. 



After breakfast we retired to one of the tents, compared 

 notes, and summed up ' The Top of the Eidge Portage.' 

 Its length is two miles and forty-one chains, or a little 

 over two miles and a half. The greatest elevation of the 

 Montagnais path is 818 feet above Ojia-pi-si-tagan Lake, 

 and 1,460 feet above the sea. It descends very suddenly 

 at its northern extremity 312 feet to a lake from which 

 Cold-water Eiver issues. This stream falls consequently 

 506 feet in about two miles and a half, by a series of 

 cascades, some of which are very beautiful, but broken by 

 masses of rock and boulders without number. The fore- 

 going details will show that this portage is a most 

 formidable obstacle, and it required much exertion to 

 carry our baggage and canoes over it. The men suffered 

 much from the heat and the flies, but, with the exception 

 of one who drank too much ice-cold water, none of them 

 complained. 



The gorge or narrow valley through which Cold- 

 water Eiver has found its way is flanked by magnifi- 

 cent mountains rising about 2,000 feet above the lake, 

 wildly rugged, boulder covered, and for the most part 

 without vegetation. The most westerly mountain possesses 

 a peculiar interest on account of its being a long-established 

 land-mark and rendezvous of the different tribes of the 

 Montagnais nation. Michel could not tell me the name 

 by which it was known among the tribes. He called it 



