174 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



strong wind and stream, handicapped as it was by the heavy barge 

 lashed on to one side, which barge carried two broad tramway 

 trucks loaded with flour, pork, and other provisions, consigned 

 to various ports and lumber camps in the wilderness beyond. 

 The passengers, mainly lumbermen about to begin their hard 

 winter's work, were all more or less overcome by their farewell 

 carouse in the last town they were likely to see for many a 

 month, but after a time they settled down under shelter of the 

 tarpaulin which covered the stores, to escape the keen wind and 

 to sleep. This steamer took us only to the first portage, near 

 which strong rapids among huge boulders stopped all navigation. 

 Here the trucks were run across on a tramway and on to another 

 barge with steamer attached on the further side, then on once 

 more up the narrow river, which ran swiftly past the rocky 

 shores where hardwood scrub, now leafless and shorn of its 

 autumnal glories, found precarious foothold. Parties of men were 

 working here and there along the future railway, blasting, 

 chopping down trees, building bridges, and throwing up ballast ; 

 still further on small wooden stakes alone marked out the track. 

 The rattle and whistle of the trains, which will bring down grain 

 and lumber from the north and thus may prove a success 

 financially, will sound the death-knell to all shooting on this 

 river, which up till now has been the favourite resort of deer 

 hunters year after year. 



We had three portages to cross, at the last of which was an 

 hotel with dinner on the table. Here we met the down 

 passengers, and, everybody being hungry, the scramble was 

 great for the good things provided, consisting, as at all country 

 inns, of salt pork, potatoes, cheese, bread and tea. At last, 

 there being nothing more to eat, we parted, and exchanging 

 steamers made another start. Leaving the long and dangerous 

 rapids, we steamed up a wider reach of the river miscalled Seven 

 League Lake. The Ontario side now was covered with pines, 

 spruces, and balsams and their varieties, young hardwood 

 clothing the opposite, or Quebec, shore, with higher forest 

 beyond. Only white pine is cut for the great lumber market at 

 Ottawa, and further and further have the lumbermen to go in 

 search of trees large enough to meet the demand, and harder 

 becomes the task of getting the logs to and down the river. 

 Here and there a bush fire had swept over the country, leaving 



