20 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



lighting the way to the Far North for explorers and engi- 

 neers and captains of industry. 



At Grand Rapids Island, 165 miles down stream from 

 Athabasca Landing, we came on the thirteenth day to 

 the end of our steamboat navigation. There is here an 

 island in the middle of the river. The rapids between it 

 and the west bank are spectacular and so dangerous that 

 we heard of no attempt to run them by boat. They will 

 doubtless sometime give water power to a city and to 

 factories built in that vicinity. 



The rapids to the east of the island are spectacular 

 enough but they are occasionally run by expert canoemen 

 and sometimes by the scows of the fur traders. The 

 scows are unloaded at the upper end of the island, which 

 is about half a mile long. Sometimes they are carried 

 on a tramway across the island, and the freight always 

 is so carried. Some of the scows run the rapids. Serious 

 accidents do not often happen but danger is always immi- 

 nent and whoever is within reach always goes out to a 

 vantage point and watches breathlessly as the rapids are 

 being run. 



It is common that Indians have a contempt for the 

 rivercraft, woodcraft and plainscraft of white men. This 

 is partly because many white men who go beyond the 

 frontier are unbelievably helpless and partly because the 

 white men themselves have an exaggerated respect for the 

 ability of the Indians and tell the Indians that no white 

 man can do certain things which to en Indian are easy. 

 It is human to believe that we excel in one way or an- 

 other, and so the Indian readily puts on himself the .white 

 man's valuation. 



But it is a fact that there are few such canoemen in the 

 world as are developed in certain parts of Ontario. Our 



