again on the east 
shore to get the 
benefit of the 
early morning 
sun. 
pas next noon 
as we were 
cooking lunch two 
Indian families 
paddled up on 
their way from 
Fort Albany and 
waited to have 
the use of our 
fire. The Indian 
is consummately 
lazy, or exceed- 
ingly efficient in 
labor saving, ac- 
cording to the 
point of view. He 
will not even cut 
wood for a fire if 
he can help it. 
When he travels 
he packs all his worldly possessions in 
his canoe, tent, stove, grub, family and 
dogs. Every corner of the canoe 
swarms with children, dogs and small 
vermin. When he comes to a rapid, 
he puts the women, children and dogs 
ashore, then with the help of his eldest 
boy poles up through the rapids. The 
women and children scramble along 
through the bush, the dogs yelping at 
every jump. Sometimes the squaws 
follow in the second canoe. They seem 
to be able to pole as skillfully as the 
men and to have no difficulty in keep- 
ing up with them, or in handling 
the canoes in bad water. 
We learned from our guests 
that although the current in the 
big river was much swifter than 
in the English, there was only 
one bad piece of water, Cooper’s 
Rapids, impassable in the main 
channel, but navigable close to 
either shore. 
Lunch finished, we packed up, 
but before we were fairly out 
in the stream the squaws had 
thrown the rest of the wood we 
had cut on the fire and were busily 
boiling a kettle of water. About six 
o’clock we rounded a point and there 
lay the Albany before us, flowing ma- 
- jestically to the east. A fine sand bar 
at the forks looked so inviting that we 
turned in for the night. 
Oo) embarking the next morning we 
found as the Indians had said that 
‘the current of the Albany was much 
swifter than that of the English. It is 
so swift, in fact, that up-stream travel 
has to be done almost entirely by 
means of the pole and the tracking 
line. The Albany is a fine clean river 
Page 457 

Above Long Portage, Mattagama River 
over a mile wide in places, broken by 
many islands, a number of them sev- 
eral miles in length, and full of strong 
rips over gravel beds, which are in- 
teresting without being in the least 
dangerous. 
Geo0U camp grounds can be found 
almost anywhere on the _ beach. 
The bush is green and moose are 
abundant along the shores. 
The views along the Albany are im- 
pressive in their vastness. From the 
beach one can frequently look up and 
TTT UU LULU TULL 
This 700-mile voyage to James Bay should 
satisfy the most jaded canoe appetite. 
country is rugged and furnishes endless 
opportunity for adventure. The article will 
be concluded in the September number. 
JIUINIOIWUUTUUAUOTLUOVUUTLUUTUT UOT 
down the river over many miles of 
country. Our map gave so few details 
that we found some difficulty in keep- 
ing track of our location, but from 
time to time we could pick up a tribu- 
tary river, and after two days we 
reached the Ghost River Post, a winter 
outpost of Fort Albany. We had been 
warned not to camp there, on account 
of the bugs, so we made a tour of 
inspection, brief, but sufficient to 
assure us that the warning was fully 
justified, then camped several miles 
down the river. We were now only 
seventy-five miles from Fort Albany. 
The big rapids of which the Indians 
The 
had spoken could not be many miles 
ahead. Every time we caught the 
distant roar of falling water we 
thrilled with expectancy, only to find 
another heavy rip over a gravel bed, 
a bit sharp, perhaps, but a mere child’s 
play to run in comparison with the 
wild waters of the Missinaibe. So 
mile after mile slipped swiftly by, the 
broad river seemed to lose its identity 
in a labyrinth of small islands, and 
we knew by the map we must be 
within a few miles of Fort Albany. 
though how near we could not tell. 
But where were those big 
rapids? Then we remembered 
that the previous day we had 
turned through a narrow chan- 
nel between a large island and 
the south shore, and _ had 
dropped down over a_ sharp 
pitch where a limestone ledge 
crossed the river. There was a 
three-foot chute and some big 
swells, but that was all. We 
had not even shipped a drop of 
water. That must have been 
Cooper’s Rapids and we had 
run through without knowing it. The 
joke was on us. 
Sx miles above Fort Albany we 
passed the power boat used for 
towing barges between Fort Albany 
and English River Post, tied up close 
to an island. It is a forty-foot scow 
fitted out with a gasoline r »tor and 
well adapted to navigate the channels 
among the gravel bars. 
Shortly after one o’clock we caught 
a distant glimpse of the top of a flag- 
pole over an island, our first view of 
the Fort, and for the next half hour 
(Continued on page 494) 
