"LA GRANDE DECHARGE" OF LAKE ST. JOHN 175 



navigated those perilous waters, being apparently as 

 much at home upon the surface of the waves as the 

 nautilus in its shell. Despite the rapidity of the tor- 

 rent into which we had entered, the canoes travelled 

 across it almost as rapidly as they descended. There 

 were moments when it looked as though nothing could 

 prevent the swamping of a canoe in a hollow imme- 

 diately before it, over which the crest of a wave was 

 about to break. But it seemed as if the guides held 

 the little craft back, motionless in the rapids, till the 

 danger was past, or, balancing its entire length, assisted 

 it with their paddles to lift itself sideways out of the 

 hollow of a wave, and over with the rapid into an en- 

 tirely different current. It was wonderful how it was 

 all done, but done it was ; and it was an experience, 

 too, that time can never obliterate from the memory. 

 Scarcely had we emerged from the last of the rap- 

 ^ds of the Yache Caille, and got beyond the sound of 

 their roar, when a rumbling noise in the direction in 

 which we were advancing warned us that we were 

 nearing the Gervais rapids, the last which it is possi- 

 ble for the canoes to run. In very high water por- 

 tions of them must be portaged. "We ran them all, 

 except where we landed on the rocks and walked 

 from one fishing point to another. But we spent 

 very little time attempting to tackle the ouananiche, 

 for they would not be tackled by us. The wind had 

 got around to the east, and was strong and cold, and 

 experience had long ago taught us that, under such 

 circumstances, angling in the Discharge was a mere 

 waste of time. We took down our rods, and again 

 to the canoes, and in close upon two miles of the re- 



