PORTAGE DES MORTS. 



67 



a north canoe, lost his footing, and was so much injured 

 by the heavy burden crushing him as he sank to the 

 ground, that he died after the lapse of a few hours, A 

 north canoe often weighs between three and four hun- 

 dred pounds when soaked by long immersion in water ; 

 this unwieldy burden is borne by two voyageurs, one at 

 the bow, the other at the stern, when crossing the portages ; 

 and bruises, sprains, or ruptures are the frequent conse- 

 quences of over-exertion, rendered necessary, however, 

 by the present condition of the portage paths. 



Portage des Morts is twenty-six chains long, and it 

 overcomes a descent of seven feet in the small stream 

 connecting Pickerel Lake with Dore Lake, a sheet of 

 water about a mile across, but extending much further in 

 a north-westerly direction. 



Among the trees observed here remarkable for their 

 size, ceclar, ash, white and red pine, with birch of two 

 kinds, may be enumerated. The cedar is far superior to 

 any before seen. A clay sub-soil is found in the valley of 

 a small river running near the portage path, and the up- 

 turned roots of trees on the hill-side showed fine washed 

 white sand upon which a sandy loam rested. The foot of 

 Dore Lake brings us to the Portage des Deux Eivieres, 

 which lets us down 117*21 feet into Sturgeon Lake, in a 

 distance of 32 chains. 



The whole country seems to sink with the French and 

 the Deux Eivieres Portage. The hills about Sturgeon 

 Lake at its upper end are not above 100 feet high, and if 

 the valleys and lakes were filled up between the tract of 

 country south-west of French Portage, it would be nearly 

 a level plain, with a slight south-westerly descent. In 

 Sturgeon Eiver, leading to the lake of that name, we met 

 with the first marshy place since leaving the mouth of the 



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