SOME LABRADOR RIVERS 
tagnais Indians. As the lower part of its 
course is interrupted by numerous rapids and 
falls, the Indians ascend the St. John River 
and portage, with aid of a series of lakes and 
small streams to the Romaine, where its waters 
flow more smoothly. Low,' who has followed 
this route, says of the Romaine below the place 
at which the portage-route leaves it: ‘‘ Noth- 
ing is known of the river for over fifty miles 
below this point, except that it is quite im- 
passable for canoes, probably on account of 
long rapids with perpendicular rocky walls, 
where portages are impossible. Nothing but 
the absolute impossibility of passing up and 
down this part of the river would induce the 
Indians to make use of the present portage- 
route between the Romaine and St. John Rivers, 
which is the longest and worst of those known 
to the writer anywhere in north-eastern Canada. 
Careful inquiries from a score of Indians met 
coming inland afforded no information con- 
cerning this part of the river, which has never 
been descended by any one so far as known.” 
1A. P. Low, Geological Survey of Canada. Report on 
explorations in the Labrador Peninsula, Ottawa, 1896, p. 
170. 
229 
