A WHOLE DAY SPENT IN POLING. 415 



little expecting, poor things ! their sad and sudden 

 bereavement. 



This route has been travelled over for so many 

 years, that there was a tale for almost every day's 

 journey. Here a man was drowned ; there one was 

 bm'ied ; at this spot stood a fort in the time of the 

 two companies ; in that direction a quarrel occm-red 

 between theu- servants ; and innumerable trifling 

 incidents, or other points of interest, fill up the inter- 

 mediate distances ; nor is superstition absent herein. 

 In the case of the poor fellow whose death I have 

 above noticed, there were legends of corpse candles 

 and other omens having been seen, the night before 

 he met his fate, by two persons at a distance from 

 each other. 



At the Portage du Bouleau the empty boats were 

 lowered down the rapid with ropes, the stream being 

 shelving, swift, and shallow. In the "Accursed" 

 River an entire day was passed in poling, or dragging 

 over stones and rocks, rough and sharp, and in many 

 places scarcely covered by the stream, whose velocity 

 was, notwithstanding, very considerable ; and the 

 boats were aU much injured. Cumberland Lake and 

 House were reached on the 13th, and the "Pas," 

 a missionary station presided over by the Rev. 

 Mr. Hunter, next morning. A very neat chmch had 



