A JOURNEY TO THE RED RIVER 67 



This seems to be owing to the confined character of the 

 fall, which is completely surrounded with hus^e pine-clad 

 rocks. It is one of the finest falls in Canada, and is well 

 known to the Indians by the name of Keckibecki ; and 

 they have some weird traditions about it, and consider 

 the falling and precariously-rooted pines in the abyss to 

 be the spirits of condemned men. 



After leaving the Mountain Portage, rapid-shooting 

 and portage-making were of almost daily occurrence. 

 The latter was often a troublesome and time-consuming 

 operation ; for while two men carried the canoe overland 

 on their shoulders, the remaining three of us were not 

 sufficient to carry the whole of our goods in one journey. 

 We had consequently to make a second, and sometimes a 

 third, trip. As some of the portages were several miles 

 in length, it will be easily understood that it frequently 

 happened that the greater part of a day was taken up in 

 making them. 



The rapid-shooting was performed, I cannot say 

 wherever it was safe to resort to it, but wherever my reck- 

 less companions thought that there was a comparative 

 chance of successfully running the rapid. Reckless ! yes, 

 that is the word. These Indians seemed to delight in a 

 haphazard risk of life. Remonstrance on my part was 

 useless. They simply made no reply, and took no notice 

 of me ; and rushed down torrents that I should describe 

 as almost waterfalls. I was often terrorised (I make no 

 pretence of attempting to conceal the fact) and held my 

 breath, with a silent prayer at heart, expecting instant 

 death. But these cool rascals quietly smoked, not even 

 deigning to notice my terror, and sent the frail canoe 

 flying, at express- train speed, down frightful -looking 

 cataracts. After a time I gradually became ashamed 

 to show my nervousness, and then grew used to it, and 

 finally took the danger as a matter of course. But we 

 had several narrow escapes, and it is a wonder that I sur- 

 vived one of them to write this narrative. 



