during a long voyage through the wilderness, urged their
light craft over the troubled water with the speed of the reindeer, and,
with hearts joyful at the happy termination of their trials and
privations, sang, with all the force of three hundred manly voices, one
of their lively airs, which, rising and falling faintly in the distance
as it was borne, first lightly on the breeze, and then more steadily as
they approached, swelled out in the rich tones of many a mellow voice,
and burst at last into a long enthusiastic shout of joy!

Alas! the forests no longer echo to such sounds. The passage of three
or four canoes once or twice a year is all that breaks the stillness of
the scene; and nought, save narrow pathways over the portages, and rough
wooden crosses over the graves of the travellers who perished by the
way, remains to mark that such things were. Of these marks, the Savan
Portage, at which we had arrived, was one of the most striking. A long
succession of boiling rapids and waterfalls having in days of yore
obstructed the passage of the fur-traders, they had landed at the top of
them, and cut a pathway through the woods, which happened at this place
to be exceedingly swampy: hence the name Savan (or _swampy_) Portage.
To render the road more passable, they had cut down trees, which they
placed side by side along its whole extent--which was about three
miles--and over this wooden platform carried their canoes and cargoes
with perfect ease. After the coalition of the two companies, and the
consequent carriage of the furs to England by Hudson Bay--instead of to
Canada, by the lakes and rivers of the interior--these roads were
neglected, and got out of repair; and consequently we found the logs
over the portage decayed and trees fallen across them, so that our men,
instead of running quickly over them, were constantly breaking through
the rotten wood, sinking up to the knees in mud, and scrambling over
trees and branches. We got over at last, however--in about two hours;
and after proceeding a little further, arrived at and encamped upon the
Prairie Portage, by the side of a _voyageur's_ grave, which was marked
as usual with a wooden cross, on which some friendly hand had cut a rude
inscription. Time had now rendered it quite illegible. This is the
height of land dividing the waters which flow northward into Hudson Bay
from those which flow in a southerly direction, through the great lakes,
into the Atlantic