76 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. v. 



entering the gorge. We next tried to pull the canoe up 

 by holding on to the rock with our hands or paddles, but 

 they were perpendicular, sometimes overhanging, and 

 smoothed to a polish by ice. As we could make no way, 

 we glided into an eddy, and proposed to get out of the 

 canoe, climb the rocks to the first ledge, and see if we 

 could find tracking-ground which would enable us to use 

 a long rope. Pierre and I reached a broad ledge twenty 

 feet above the river ; it was overgrown with moss and 

 some small trees, and formed the termination of one of 

 the wooded sides of the mountain on the left bank of the 

 river, whose eastern face, rising perpendicularly to per- 

 haps 800 feet, formed one side of the first gorge of 

 the Moisie. I came to a track, which I took for a Mon- 

 tagiiais path, and calling Pierre, said, ' Here 's an old 

 portage path ; can it lead over the mountain ? ' 



Pierre looked hard at it, stooped down and examined 

 it closely, followed it for a few yards, and returning, said, 

 'Bear-path.' 



' Bear-path ? ' I exclaimed ; ' this well-worn track a 

 bear-path ? ' 



' This is a " bear-path ; " the road by which the bears 

 cross this mountain. You see they can't come any other 

 way nothing but steep rocks all around. No other 

 road. See ! fresh tracks, ' he said, suddenly pointing to 

 several recent impressions which were visible a little 

 farther on. 



'Well,' I replied, 'we can at all events follow this 

 bear-path if we cannot get up the river.' 



Pierre shook his head. ' The bear-path goes over the 

 mountain ; we can't carry canoes there. It is too hio-h 



i. * ' 



