322 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



angry stream is waging battle with a hoary bowlder that dis- 

 putes the way. With all its might and fury the frantic river 

 hisses and roars and lashes it. Yet it never moves — it only 

 frowns destruction upon all that dares approach it. 



How the bowman is working! See his paddle bend! With 

 lightning movements he jabs his great paddle deep into the 

 water and close under the left side of the bow; then with a 

 mighty heave he lifts her head around. The great canoe 

 swings as though upon a pivot; for is not the steersman doing 

 exactly the very opposite at this precise moment? We sheer 

 off. But the next instant the paddles are working on the 

 opposite sides, for the bowman sees signs of a water-covered 

 rock not three yards from the very bow. With a wild lunge 

 he strives to lift the bow around; but the paddle snaps like a 

 rotten twig. Instantly he grabs for another, and a grating 

 sound runs the length of the heaving bottom. The next mo- 

 ment he is working the new paddle. A little water is coming 

 in but she is running true. The rocks now grow fewer, but 

 still there is another pitch ahead. Again the bow dips as we 

 rush down the incline. Spray rises in clouds that drench 

 us to the skin as we plunge through the "great swell" and 

 then shoot out among a multitude of tumbling billows that 

 threaten to engulf us. The canoe rides upon the backs of 

 the "white horses" and we rise and fall, rise and fall, as they 

 fight beneath us. At last we leave their wild arena, and, enter- 

 ing calmer water, paddle away to the end of the portage 

 trail. 



One morning, soon after sunrise, the brigade came to the end 

 of its journey as it rounded a point and headed for a smoking 

 steamboat that rested upon a shimmeriflg lake; and so entirely 

 did the rising mist envelop the craft that it suggested the 

 silhouette of a distant mountain in volcanic eruption. Then 

 the canoes, each in turn, lay alongside the steamer; the fur 

 packs were loaded aboard, and thence by steamboat and rail- 



