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River, over whicli he had travelled a couple of times. His information 

 was Job-like and comforting. He said that the Portage du Talon, the 

 fii-st portage we should come to, was the very worst he had ever en- 

 countered, and that Le Grand Parreseux, further on was not quite so 

 good. 



It had rained in the morning, but about noon the sky cleared, the 

 sun came out and all nature seemed to smile as we glided between the 

 steep banks of the Mattawa River, the outlet of Lake Talon. The 

 scene had changed with a vengence. We were now slowly moving 

 between high rocky bluffs 150 to 2C0 feet high. The warm color of the 

 cliffs, the dark green of the pines, the bright green and yellow of the 

 birch and ])oplar mingled with autumnal tints, formed a picture all 

 liglit and colour, while the bold jagged rocks and complete silence all 

 around made the scene very grand. 



lialf a mile brought us to Talon Chute, the largest fall on the 

 river, which drops at this point forty-two feet. Here all was life and 

 activity for a large gang of men was at work building a timber slide 

 not a small afiair like you see by the side of the Gatineau, but one 

 large enough to accommodate whole logs of any size. 



With fear and trembling the canoes were unloaded and this terrible 

 ])ortage commenced, but as is usually the case the old proverb " The 

 Devil is not so black as he is painted " held good, for tliough rough and 

 rocky and up and down hill, an hour saw us safely on the other side. 

 Crossing Pimisee Lake, a sunny expansion, we descended without 

 trouble the Pimisee Rapids, being merely shoals, the water rippling 

 lietween the stones with no more force than in a brook. That night 

 we camped at the head of the Boileaux Rapids. On the portage here is 

 a grave with a rude cross at its head, carved roughly, with the inscrip- 

 tion " Antoine Joli, drowned 1870." We afterwards learned that he 

 was foreman of a gang of river-drivers, and that similar graves might 

 be found on almost all the other portages along the Mattawa River. 



To proceed, passing the Boileaux and Petit Parcsseux Rapids you 

 arrive at the Grand Pare-sseux, where, according to Mr. Grasswell, the 

 portage was not quite so good as the worst he had ever met in his life. 

 It was all our friend had described it, but by this time no obstacle 

 could stop us, and soon we were across with all our goods and chattels. 

 I.e Grand Paresseux is a very pretty fall of some thirty-four feet, almost 

 perpendicular. The Mille Roches Rapids and mouth of the Amable du 

 Pons River were next passed and the stream began to get wider and the 

 rapids wicked. 



In the Rose Rapids we escaped with a few pails of water and the 

 breakage of a paddle, and in the next the Epines Rapids sad to re- 

 late one of the canoes came to grief entirely. These rapids are shallow 

 and the boulders and rocks in them very close together. In order to 

 get down with loaded canoes it is necessary to get out into the water 

 and j)ilot your canoe between the boulders. Sometimes you are up to 

 your knees in water, sometimes you are up to you neck ; you stub your 



