THE FRENCH TRAPPER 57 



crew, got his moccasins wet when the canoe took water. 

 They all settle forward. One paddler pauses to bail 

 out water with his hat. 



Thus the lowest waterfalls are run without a port 

 age. Coming back this way with canoes loaded to the 

 water-line, there must be a disembarking. If the rapids 

 be short, with water enough to carry the loaded 

 canoe high above rocks that might graze the bark, all 

 hands spring out in the water, but one man who re 

 mains to steady the craft ; and the canoe is &quot; tracked &quot; 

 up-stream, hauled along by ropes. If the rapids be at 

 all dangerous, each voyageur lands, with pack on his 

 back and pack-straps across his forehead, and runs 

 along the shore. A long portage is measured by the 

 number of pipes the voyageur smokes, each lighting 

 up meaning a brief rest; and a portage of many 

 &quot; pipes &quot; will be taken at a running gait on the hottest 

 days without one word of complaint. Nine miles is 

 the length of one famous portage opposite the Chau- 

 diere Falls on the Ottawa. 



In winter the voyageur becomes coureur des bois 

 to his new masters. Then for six months endless reach 

 es, white, snow-padded, silent ; forests wreathed and 

 bossed with snow; nights in camp on a couch of pines 

 or rolled in robes with a roaring fire to keep the wolves 

 off, melting snow steaming to the heat, meat sputter 

 ing at the end of a skewered stick; sometimes to the 

 mar die done! mar die done! of the driver, with crisp 

 tinkling of dog-bells in frosty air, a long journey over 

 land by dog-sled to the trading-post; sometimes that 

 blinding fury which sweeps over the northland, turn 

 ing earth and air to a white darkness; sometimes a 

 belated traveller cowering under a snow-drift for 



