brought
the hateful sound to a close, and was succeeded by a confused collection
of grunts, groans, coughs, grumbles, and sneezes from the unfortunate
sleepers thus rudely roused from their slumbers. The disinclination to
rise, however, was soon overcome; and up we got, merry as larks, the men
loading their boats, while I and my Indians carried our luggage,
etcetera, over the portage.

Our troubles now commenced: the longest and most difficult part of the
route lay before us, and we prepared for a day of toil. Far as the eye
could reach, the river was white with boiling rapids and foaming
cascades, which, though small, were much too large to ascend, and
consequently we were obliged to make portages at almost every two or
three hundred yards. Rapid after rapid was surmounted; yet still, as we
rounded every point and curve, rapids and falls rose, in apparently
endless succession, before our wearied eyes. My Indians, however, knew
exactly the number they had to ascend, so they set themselves manfully
to the task. I could not help admiring the dexterous way in which they
guided the canoe among the rapids. Upon arriving at one, the old
Indian, who always sat in the bow (this being the principal seat in
canoe travelling), rose up on his knees and stretched out his neck to
take a look before commencing the attempt; and then, sinking down again,
seized his paddle, and pointing significantly to the chaos of boiling
waters that rushed swiftly past us (thus indicating the route he
intended to pursue to his partner in the stern), dashed into the stream.
At first we were borne down with the speed of lightning, while the
water hissed and boiled to within an inch of the gunwale, and a person
unaccustomed to such navigation would have thought it folly our
attempting to ascend; but a second glance would prove that our Indians
had not acted rashly. In the centre of the impetuous current a large
rock rose above the surface, and from its lower end a long eddy ran like
the tail of a comet for about twenty yards down the river. It was just
opposite this rock that we entered the rapid, and paddled for it with
all our might. The current, however, as I said before, swept us down;
and when we got to the middle of the stream, we just reached the extreme
point of the eddy, and after a few vigorous strokes of the paddles were
floating quietly in the lee of the rock. We did not stay long,
however--just long enough to look for another ston