310 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



the shore about a hundred yards higher up with com- 

 parative ease, and then lowered their canoes through 

 the slack-water pools in the rocks along the side to 

 the place they had only reached with extreme danger. 

 There was no use in arguing with them on the sub- 

 ject ; they had confidence in themselves, and gloried 

 in any danger which they felt certain of overcoming. 

 If any of these Indians say they can take you down 

 a rapid, reliance may be placed in their doing so, as 

 they will not attempt what they feel would be be- 

 yond their powers. Therein lies the great difference 

 between them and the white-faced voyageur, who is 

 so often foolhardy, and prone to allow his pluck to 

 overtax his strength and skill. 



The name of Slave Falls is in memory of a base, 

 cruel act perpetrated there some generations ago by 

 the Chippewahs. The Sioux of the plains have 

 always been their hereditary enemies, and from 

 time immemorial raids have been made by each 

 into the other's country. The Chippewahs, upon 

 one of these forays, had taken two prisoners, whom 

 they kept as slaves. To gratify some passing whim, 

 or to afford amusement to their children, they one 

 day bound these poor wretches in a canoe, and in 

 that manner sent them over these falls, so sublime 

 by nature, but put to a cowardly and degrading use 

 by what we are taught to call nature's noblest crea- 

 ture man. 



The banks of the river are wooded everywhere, 



