10 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



taken place since his ancestors were lords of tlie 

 soil, hearing of the white men's devices as a strange 

 thing, from the stories of their greatest travellers, 

 or some half-breed trapper who might occasionally 

 visit them. And we could well imagine the disgust 

 of these sons of silence and stealth at the noisy trains 

 which rush through the forests, and the steamers 

 which dart along lakes and rivers, once the favourite 

 haunt of game, now driven far away. How bitterly 

 in their hearts they must curse that steady, unfalter- 

 ing, inevitable advance of the great army of whites, 

 recruited from every corner of the earth, spreading 

 over the land like locusts — ^too strong to resist, too 

 cruel and unscrupulous to mingle with them in peace 

 and friendship ! 



At La Crosse we took steamer up the Mississippi 

 — in the Indian language, the " Grreat Biver," but 

 here a stream not more than 120 yards in width — for 

 St. Paul, in Minnesota. The river was very low, and 

 the steamer — a flat-bottomed, stern-wheel boat, draw- 

 ing only a few inches of water — frequently stuck fast 

 on the sand bars, giving us an opportunity of seeing 

 how an American river-boat gets over shallows. Two 

 or three men were immediately sent overboard, to fix 

 a large pole. At the top was a pulley, and through 

 this a stout rope was run, one end of which was 

 attached to a cable passed under the boat, the other 

 to her capstan. The latter was then manned, the 

 vessel fairly lifted up, and the stern wheel being put 

 in motion at the same time, she swung over the shoal 

 into deep water. 



