INTRODUCTION. 



XXIX 



arrest, and which soon ran them hard and fast among the rocks, at a spot where 

 the water reached to the armpits of the men, who, when they jumped out into the 

 stream, found extreme difficulty in maintaining their footing. Fortunately our 

 young voyageurs proved remarkably strong and active, and by dint of exertions, of 

 which men leading their hardy lives alone are capable,* they succeeded in extri- 

 cating the canoes from their perilous situation, and in dropping them slowly down 

 the most dangerous portion of the rapids, to within forty or fifty yards of the foot. 

 Then jumping in, a very few minutes sufficed to shoot down that distance, and to 

 unload and drag the canoes out on the bank. This was not effected, however, 

 without considerable injury to both. One was partially filled with water, which 

 wetted our flour, and damaged other of our stores. We considered ourselves fortu- 

 nate, however, in escaping without more serious mishap. 



We afterwards saw the trace, indicating the portage which the Indians are wont 

 to make around these fails. Below them, Red River is easily navigated ; no dan- 

 gerous rapids occurring until it crosses the United States line. 



. The same cannot be said of the streams constituting our return route, from the 

 British settlement at the mouth of Assiniboin, by the Lake of the Woods, and 

 partly by the United States boundary line, to Fort William, on Lake Superior. 

 The frequency of falls and rapids on this route may be judged from the fact, that 

 we made over a hundred portages. Some of these rapids, especially on Winnipeg 

 and Dog Rivers, are hazardous.^ At many points, an error of half a canoe's length 

 in striking a chute, or in bringing to, below it, is sufficient to swamp the canoe, and 

 expose to great peril the lives of all it contains. 



The risk, in our case, was diminished, in consequence of our good fortune in 



* It is astonishing to observe what exertions the voyageurs of the Northwest are capable of making on 

 certain occasions. On one of our expeditions a canoe, weighing two hundred and thirty pounds, was 

 transported over the portage from Long Lake to the head waters of Bad River (a distance of nine miles), 

 on the shoulders of two men. They carried it seven miles without stopping, and rested only once during 

 the whole portage. When one considers the distance ; the constrained position they have to walk in ; 

 the heat of the weather (80° Fahrenheit) ; the narrowness of the trail ; the roots and swampy ground 

 they pass over; the frequent turnouts they have to make around fallen trees, and even sometimes to 

 climb over them ; their power of endurance must be looked upon as extraordinary, and as enabling them 

 to perform a feat which could only be accomplished by very robust men under long training. It is said 

 that some of the engages will carry from four hundred to five hundred pounds on their backs a distance 

 of one thousand yards. 



-j- " The navigation of this stream (the Winnipeg) is frequently attended with fatal accidents, and the 

 number of wooden crosses we observed, at some of the rapids, are the brief mementos erected by the 

 survivors, to the memory of the shipwrecked voyagers." — Long's Second Voyage, p. 89. 



"Over the falls, eagles and hawks soar high in the air, watching for the easy prey which they derive 

 from the numbers of fish that are wounded or killed by being hurried against the rocks by the irresistible 

 force of the current." — Ibid., p. 96. 



