96 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. vi. 



into the party, who were getting very down in the 

 moutli at the idea of having to stay under the shadow 

 of those tremendous rocks until the water fell as 

 Doinenique had predicted. By the following night we 

 had passed the first Gorge of the Moisie, but canoes 

 and men were strained, bark was cracked, hands were 

 torn with holding on to the rocks, baggage was wetted. 

 But what did all that signify ? Our health was excellent, 

 our spirits roused to the highest pitch, and we all felt 

 glad and thankful that we had overcome this difficulty 

 which threatened to bring our explorations to a very 

 sudden and unexpected close. 



How noiselessly we paddled into the great pool at 

 the foot of the first falls of the Moisie, half a mile 

 above the Gorge, when Pierre pointed his paddle in 

 the direction of two objects swimming towards the 

 shore, and whispered ' Otters ; ' and how we laughed 

 and shouted when Louis with a yawn blustered out 

 'Seals!' 



Seals they were, without doubt, sporting among the 

 trout and salmon, which were leaping up the successive 

 steps of the falls on their way to the spawning grounds 

 higher up the river. 



It was necessary to repair the canoes after the struggle 

 in the Gorge. Indeed one of the canoes was broken 

 when quite close to the extremity, and we had to wait 

 for more than an hour on a slippery rock to build 

 a fire and mend the bark. Night had closed upon us 

 before our tents were up on the shores of the beautiful 

 basin at the foot of the See-way-sini-kop Portage, so 

 named on account of its passing over a bank of drift- 



