BUSINESS AND ROMANCE 319 



chargers, forward they bounded at every stroke. Vigorously 

 the voyageurs plied their paddles. Stiffening their arms and 

 curving their backs, they bent the blades. Every muscle was 

 strained. The sharp bows cleaved the lumpy water, sending it 

 gurgling to the paddles that slashed it, and whirled it aside. 

 On they went. Now Oo-koo-hoo's canoe was gaining. As that 

 brightly painted craft gradually forged ahead, its swiftly run- 

 ning wake crept steadily along the sides of the other canoes. 

 Presently the wavelets were sounding "whiff, whiff, whiff," as 

 the white bows crushed them down. Then at last his canoe 

 broke free and lunged away, leaving all the brigade to follow 

 in its broadening trail. The pace was too exhausting; the 

 canoes strung out; but still the narrow blades slashed away, for 

 the portage was at hand. With dangerous speed the first 

 canoe rushed abreast of the landing, and just as one expected 

 disaster the bowman gave the word. Instantly the crew, with 

 their utmost strength, backed water. As the canoe came to a 

 standstill the voyageurs rolled their paddle-handles along the 

 gunwales, twirling the dripping blades and enveloping the 

 canoe in a veil of whirling spray. Then, jumping into the 

 shallow water, they lined up and quickly passed the packs 

 ashore. The moment the cargo was transferred to the bank, 

 the crew lifted the great canoe off the water and turned it 

 bottom up, while four of them placed their heads beneath and 

 rested the gunwales upon their ca/)o/e-bepadded shoulders. 

 As they carried it off, one was reminded of some immense 

 antediluvian reptile crawling slowly over the portage trail. 



There was now much excitement. Other crews had arrived, 

 and were rapidly unloading. As the landing was over-crowded 

 the portaging began. Each man tied the thin, tapering ends of 

 his tump-line — a fifteen-foot leather strap with a broad centre 

 — about a pack, swung it upon his back, and, bending forward, 

 rested its broad loop over his head. Upon the first his com- 

 panion placed two more packs; then, stooping beneath the 



