A FAMOUS PERIBONCA PORTAGE 61 



water with a very sharp pitch a distance of perhaps 

 forty feet, and it takes careful footing to reach the 

 summit if you have any load to carry. We had four 

 Indian guides, only one of whom could speak any Eng- 

 lish. They belonged to the Montagnies tribe. They 

 were splendid canoemen, and well-behaved and willing 

 workers. 



When this portage was reached I noted that the 

 Indians, for the first time on the trip, were smiling to 

 each other, and that they talked a little, although they 

 were usually very taciturn. I inquired of " Charley,' 1 

 the spokesman of the bunch, what they were smiling 

 at, and obtained from him the story of the following 

 incident : 



At the very headwaters of the Peribonca Kiver lived 

 a trapper, small in stature himself, but with a big, 

 buxom wife. It was his custom to come down the 

 river in the balmy month of June accompanied by his 

 stout wife, his canoes loaded with furs, the result of 

 the previous season's catch. 



From Lake St. John, by the Saguenay Kiver, the 

 journey was continued to Quebec. Here the furs were 

 sold and supplies purchased for the coming winter, and 

 after a fortnight spent in the quaint old city the return 

 was made. So it happened that but two months and a 

 half before our trip this same bunch of Indians had 

 convoyed this pair to their home in the far-off north- 

 land. While in Quebec the good dame had looked 



