3S The Home of tJic Wolverene and Beaver. 



should she rend her frail sides in shooting a rapid. 

 On first seeing these canoes piled up with goods, 

 and their gunwales within a few inches of the 

 water even before the crew had taken their seats, a 

 stranger would undoubtedly prophesy the disappear- 

 ance of the vessel and her contents before many 

 miles were accomplished, but such is the skill of the 

 Canadian voyageiirs that accidents rarely happen. 

 The little fleet paddle from the wharf, shoot the 

 rapid at St. Anne's — familiar to us in Moore's boat 

 song — and then consider their journey fairly com- 

 » menced, for at that spot stands the last church on 

 the island, dedicated to the reputed tutelary saint 

 of voyagers. 



To follow them minutely in their long passage 

 to the Grande Portage would be tedious. The few 

 scattered homesteads on the river banks are soon 

 left behind, and they are in the lonely wilderness, 

 whose echoes are awakened by the song and 

 mirthful jests of the light-hearted Frenchmen. 

 Falls are frequently encountered, and rapids that it 

 would be too dangerous to shoot, and then comes 

 the labour of a portage or a lUcJiarge, the former 

 term meaning the transport of both goods and 

 canoe overland, the latter of the goods alone. 

 Each man carries two packages on his back 

 su^'pended in a sling that passes over the forehead. 



