IN CAMP AND CANOE 151 



fragrant bed of balsam boughs. Some anglers prefer 

 Canadians for guides, others Indians. The best of 

 either are good enough for me. But some know one 

 river better than another, and it is advisable to con- 

 sult either with the hotel people or with somebody 

 who has already made a given trip before engag- 

 ing guides. For the Grande Decharge I prefer the 

 Canadian voyageurs to be found there. But in as- 

 cending the Mistassini or Peribonca River I like to 

 be accompanied by some of the Montagnais Indians 

 from Pointe Bleue (four miles from Koberval), who 

 have their hunting-grounds in the vicinity. 



The strength and endurance of these guides are 

 marvellous. I have known them to carry from three 

 hundred to four hundred pounds of baggage each over 

 the portages. Only, perhaps, in their management of 

 their canoes in heavy rapids are they more wonderful 

 than in their portaging of canoes and provisions. It 

 is an experience that none should miss to run some of 

 the rapids of the Grande Decharge, the Peribonca, 

 or the Ashuapmouchouan. The sensation, as the frail 

 craft glides with almost imperceptible velocity down 

 a steep incline of smooth water, or dips into the hol- 

 low of a great sea, is thrilling in the extreme. Now 

 it seems that the crest of a huge wave is about to 

 break over the side of the canoe ; the next instant the 

 birch-bark is lifted sideways out of the hollow. Then 

 again the bow is apparently upon the point of being 

 submerged, when the canoeman in front cuts off the 

 head of the breaker with his paddle. Here, in a very 

 dangerous place where two currents violently collide, 

 or in the very vicinity of a whirlpool, the guides, rest- 



