252 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



fire, boil the kettle, and prepare the dinner, while 

 the Indians swing each a canoe on to his shoulders 

 and start through the woods. In three trips 

 everything is carried across, and we embark again 

 upon a lovely lake. 



The " carry " was not long, only about half a 

 mile, and there was a good blazed trail, so that 

 it was a comparatively easy job ; but under the 

 most favourable circumstances this portaging, or 

 carrying, is very hard work. It is hard enough to 

 have to lift eighty or one hundred pounds on your 

 back. It is worse when you have to carry the 

 burden half a mile, and get back as quickly as you 

 can for another load ; and when you have to crawl 

 under fallen limbs, climb over prostrate logs, 

 balance yourself on slippery tree-trunks, flounder 

 through bogs, get tangled up in alder swamps, 

 force yourself through branches which slap you 

 viciously in the face, with a big load on your back, 

 a hot sun overhead, and several mosquitoes on 

 your nose. I know of nothing more calculated 

 to cause an eruption of bad language, a consider- 

 able gain in animal heat, and a corresponding loss 

 of temper. But it has to be done, and the best 

 way is to take it coolly, and, if you cannot do that, 

 to take it as coolly as you can. 



