the little lake could not have been more than a couple of miles, for
the entire distance from the western to the eastern edge was not over
three miles. In what seemed no more than a few moments the boats
pulled up at the western end of what was to be their first portage.
"Now," said Moise, "we'll show those boy how a Companee man make the
portage." He busied himself arranging his packs, first calling for the
tent, on which he placed one package after another. Then he turned in
the ends of the canvas and folded over the sides, rolling all up into
a big bundle of very mixed contents which, none the less, he fastened
by means of the strap which now served him as support for it all.
"I know how you did that," said Rob--"I watched you put the strap down
inside of the roll."
"Yes," said Moise, smiling, "she'll been what Injun call tump-strap.
White man he'll carry on hees shoulder, but Injun an' _voyageur_,
she'll put the tump-band on her head, what? That's best way for much
load."
Moise now proceeded to prove the virtue of his remarks. He was a very
powerful man, and he now swung up the great pack to his shoulders,
although it must have weighed much over a hundred and fifty pounds and
included almost the full cargo of the foremost boat.
"Throw something on top of her," said Moise. "She'll been too light!
I'm afraid I'll ron off, me."
"Well, look at that man," said Jesse, admiringly. "I didn't know any
man was so strong."
"Those Companee man, she'll have to be strong like hox!" said Moise,
laughing. "You'll ought to seen heem. Me, I'm not ver' strong. Two,
three hondred pounds, she'll make me tire."
"Well, trot on over, Moise," said Alex, "and I'll bring the boat.
Young gentlemen, each of you will take what he can conveniently carry.
Don't strain yourselves, but each of you do his part. That's the way
we act on the trail."
The boys now shouldered their small knapsacks and, each carrying his
rifle and rod, started after the two stalwart men who now went on
rapidly across the portage.
Moise did not set down his pack at all, but trotted steadily across,
and Alex followed, although he turned at the summit and motioned to
Rob to pause.
"You'd hardly know it," said Rob, turning to John and Jesse, who now
put down their packs, "but here we are at the top of this portage
trail and the top of the Peace River pass. Here was where old Sir
Alexander really turned toward the west, just as we now are turning
toward the east. It's fine, isn't it?"
"I'm glad I came," remarked John.
"And so am I," added Jesse; "I believe we're going to have a good
time. I like those two men awfully well--they're just as kind, and my!
how strong!"
Presently they all met again at the eastern edge of the dim trail. "I
stepped it myself," said John, proudly. "Both Sir Alexander and old
Simon Fraser were wrong--she's just six hundred and ninety-three
paces!"
"Maybe they had longer legs than you," smiled Alex. "At any rate,
there's no doubt about the trail itself. We're precisely where they
were."
"What made them call that river the Parsnip River?" demanded Jesse of
Alex, to whom he went for all sorts of information.
"I'll show you," said Alex, quietly, reaching down and breaking off
the top of a green herb which grew near by. "It was because of the
wild parsnips--this is one. You'll find where Sir Alexander mentions
seeing a great many of these plants. They used the tops in their
pemmican. You see, the north men have to eat so much meat that they're
glad to get anything green to go with it once in a while."
"What's pemmican?" asked Jesse, curiously.
"We used to make it out of buffalo meat, or moose or caribou," said
Alex. "The buffalo are all gone now, and, in fact, we don't get much
pemmican any more. It's made by drying meat and pounding it up fine
with a stone, then putting it in a hide sack and pouring grease in on
top of it. That used to be the trail food of the _voyageurs_, because
a little of it would go a good way. Do you think you could make any of
it for the boys, Moise?"
"I don' know," grinned Moise. "Those squaw, she'll make pemmican--not
the honter. Besides, we'll not got meat. Maybe so if we'll get moose
deer we could make some, if we stop long tam in camp. But always squaw
make pemmican--not man."
"Well, we'll have to give some kind of imitation of the old ways once
in a while," commented Alex, "for though they are changed and gone,
our young friends here want to know how the fur-traders used to
travel."
"One thing," said John, feeling at his ankle. "I'll be awfully glad
when we get out of the devil's club country."
"Do you have those up in Alaska?" asked Alex.
"Have them?--I should say we have! They're the meanest thing you can
run across out of doors. If you step on one of those long, snaky
branches, it'll turn around and hit you, no matter where you are, and
whenever it hits those little thorns stick in and stay."
"I know," nodded Alex. "I struck plenty of them on the trail up north
from the railroad. They went right through my moccasins. We'll not be
troubled by these, however, when we get east of the divide--that's a
plant which belongs in the wet country of the western slope."
All this time Moise was busy rearranging the cargoes in the first
boat, leaving on the shore, however, such parcels as did not belong in
the _Mary Ann_. Having finished this to his liking, he turned before
they made the second trip on the _Jaybird_ and her cargo.
"Don't we catch any of those feesh?" he asked Alex, nodding back at
the lake.
"Fish?" asked John. "I didn't see any fish."
"Plenty trout," said Moise. "I s'pose we'll better catch some while we
can."
"Yes," said Alex, "I think that might be a good idea. Now, if we had a
net such as Sir Alexander and old Simon Fraser always took along,
we'd have no trouble. Moise saw what I also saw, and which you young
gentlemen did not notice--a long bar of gravel where the trout were
feeding."
"We'll not need any net," said Rob. "Here are our fly-rods and our
reels. If there are any trout rising, we can soon catch plenty of
them."
"Very well. We'd better take the rods back, then, when we go for the
second boat."
When they got to the shore of the middle lake, the boys saw that the
keener eyes of the old _voyageurs_ had noted what they had missed--a
series of ripples made by feeding fish not far from the point where
they had landed.
"Look at that!" cried Jesse. "I see them now, myself."
"Better you'll take piece pork for those feesh," said Moise.
"I don't think we'll need it," replied Rob. "We've plenty of flies,
and these trout won't be very wild up here, for no one fishes for
them. Anyhow, we'll try it--you'll push us out, won't you, Moise?"
Carefully taking their places now in the _Jaybird_, whose cargo was
placed temporarily on the bank, the three boys and Moise now pushed
out. As Rob had predicted, the fish were feeding freely, and there was
no difficulty in catching three or four dozen of them, some of very
good weight. The bottom of the canoe was pretty well covered with fish
when at length, after an hour or so of this sport, Moise thought it
was time to return to shore, where Alex, quietly smoking all the time,
had sat awaiting them.
"Now we'll have plenty for eat quite a while," said Moise.
"That's all right," said John. "I'm getting mighty hungry. How long is
it going to be before we have something to eat?"
"Why, John," said Rob, laughingly, "the morning isn't half gone yet,
and we've just had breakfast."
VI
FOLLOWING MACKENZIE
"Well," said Alex, "now we've got all these fish, we'll have to take
care of them. Come ahead and let's clean them, Moise."
The boys all fell to and assisted the men at this work, Moise showing
them how to prepare the fish.
"How are we going to keep them?" asked John, who always seemed to be
afraid there would not be enough to eat.
"Well," explained Alex, "we'll put them in between some green willow
boughs and keep them that way till night. Then I suppose we'll have to
smoke them a little--hang them up by the tail the way the Injuns do.
That's the way we do whitefish in the north. If it weren't for the
fish which we catch in these northern waters, we'd all starve to death
in the winter, and so would our dogs, all through the fur country."
"By the time we're done this trip," ventured Rob, "we'll begin to be
_voyageurs_ ourselves, and will know how to make our living in the
country."
"That's the talk!" said Alex, admiringly. "The main thing is to learn
to do things right. Each country has its own ways, and usually they
are the most useful ways. An Injun never wants to do work that he
doesn't have to do. So, you'll pretty much always see that the Injun
ways of keeping camp aren't bad to follow as an example, after all.
"But now," said he at length, after they had finished cleaning and
washing off their trout, "we'll have to get on across to the other
lake."
As before, Moise now took the heavier pack on his own broad shoulders,
and Alex once more picked up the canoe.
"She's a little lighter than the other boat, I believe," said he, "but
they're both good boats, as sure's you're born--you can't beat a
Peterborough model in the woods!"
The other boys noticed now that when he carried his canoe, he did so
by placing a paddle on each side, threaded under and above the thwarts
so as to form a support on each side, which rested on his shoulders.
His head would have been covered entirely by the boat as he stood,
were it not that he let it drop backward a little, so that he could
see the trail ahead of him. Rob pointed out to Jesse all these
different things, with which their training in connection with the big
Alaskan sea-going dugouts had not made them familiar.
"Have we got everything now, fellows?" asked Rob, making a last search
before they left the scene of their disembarkation.
"All set!" said John. "Here we go!"
It required now but a few moments to make the second traverse of the
portage, and soon the boats again were loaded. They found this most
easterly of the three lakes on the summit to be of about the same size
as the one which they had just left. It was rather longer than it was
wide, and they could see at its eastern side the depression where the
outlet made off toward the east. Again taking their places at the
paddles in the order established at the start of the day, they rapidly
pushed on across. They found now that this lake discharged through a
little creek which rapidly became deep and clear.
"It's going to be just the way," said Rob, "that Sir Alexander tells.
I say, fellows, we could take that boat and come through here in the
dark, no matter what Simon Fraser said about Sir Alexander."
They found the course down this little waterway not troublesome, and
fared on down the winding stream until at length they heard the sound
of running water just beyond.
"That's the Parsnip now, no doubt," said Alex, quietly, to his young
charges. Already Moise had pushed the _Mary Ann_ over the last
remaining portion of the stream, and she was floating fair and free on
the current of the second stream, not much larger than the one from
which they now emerged.
"_Voila!_" Moise exclaimed. "She'll been the Peace River--or what
those _voyageur_ call the Parsneep. Now, I'll think we make fast ride,
yes."
Jesse, leaning back against his bed-roll, looked a little serious.
"Boys," said he, "I don't like the looks of this. This water sounds
dangerous to me, and you can't tell me but what these mountains are
pretty steep."
"Pshaw! It's just a little creek," scoffed John.
"That's all right, but a little creek gets to be a big river mighty
fast up in this country--we've seen them up in Alaska many a time.
Look at the snow-fields back in those mountains!"
"Don't be alarmed, Mr. Jess," said Alex; "most of the snow has gone
down in the June rise. The water is about as low now as it is at any
time of the year. Now, if we were here on high water, as Simon Fraser
was, and going the other way, we might have our own troubles--I expect
he found all this country under water where we are now, and the
current must have been something pretty stiff to climb against."
"In any case," Rob added, "we're just in the same shape that Sir
Alexander and old Simon were when they were here. We wouldn't care to
turn back, and we've got to go through. If they did it, so can we. I
don't believe this stream's as bad, anyhow, as the Fraser or the
Columbia, because the traders must have used it for a regular route
long ago."
"I was reading," said John, "in Simon Fraser's travels, about how they
did in the rapids of the Fraser River. Why, it was a wonder they ever
got through at all. But they didn't seem to make much fuss about it.
Those men didn't know where they were going, either--they just got in
their boat and turned loose, not knowing what there was on ahead!
That's what I call nerve. Pshaw! Jess, we're only tenderfeet compared
to those chaps!"
"That's the talk!" commented Alex, once more lighting his pipe and
smiling. "We'll go through like a bird, I'm pretty sure."
"Yes," said Moise, "we'll show those boy how the _voyageur_ ron the
rapeed."
"One thing I want to say to you young gentlemen," resumed Alex, "not
to alarm you, but to teach you how to travel. If by any accident the
boat should upset, hang to the boat and don't try to swim. The current
will be very apt to sweep you on through to some place where you can
get a footing. But all these mountain waters are very strong and very
cold. Whatever you do, hang to the boat!"
"Yes!" said Rob, "'don't give up the ship,' as Lawrence said. Sir
Alexander tells how he got wrecked on the Bad River with his whole
crew. But they hung to the canoe and got her out at the foot of the
rapids, after all, and not one of them was hurt."
"He didn't lose a man on the whole trip, for that matter," John added.
"Well, now, let's see about the rapids," said Rob again, spreading out
his map and opening one of his books which he always kept close at
hand. "Simon Fraser tells as day by day what he did when he was going
west. They got into that lake we've just left, about noon. They must
have poked up the creek some time, and very early that same morning.
That was June thirtieth, and on the same day they passed another river
coming in from the west side--which must be between here and the
outlet from McLeod Lake."
"What does the map say about the other side of the stream?" asked
John, peering over Rob's shoulder.
"Well, on the twenty-eighth, as they were coming up they passed two
rivers coming in from the east. That can't be very far below here, and
the first stream on the west side must be pretty close, from all I can
learn. Below there, on the twenty-seventh, there was another river
which they passed coming in from the east, and Simon says near its
mouth there was a rapid. He doesn't seem to mention any rapids between
there and here--probably it had to be a pretty big one for him to take
any notice of it. That's two or three days down-stream, according to
his journal, and, as Alex says, it was high water, and they made slow
time coming up--not as fast as Sir Alexander did, in fact."
"Plenty good water," said Moise, looking out over the rapid little
stream with professional approval. "She's easy river."
"Then we ought to make some sort of voyage," said Rob. "You see, Sir
Alexander took thirty-four days coming up to this point from the
place where he started, far east of the Rockies, but going downhill it
only took him six days."
"That was going some," nodded John, emphatically, if not elegantly.
"But not faster than we'll be going," answered Rob. "You see, it took
him a sixth of the time to go east which it needed to come west. Then,
what they did in three days coming up, we ought to run in a half-day
or less going down."
Alex nodded approvingly. "I think it would figure out something like
that way," said he.
"So if we started now, or a little after noon," resumed Rob, "and ran
a full half-day we ought to pass all these rivers which Simon
mentions, and get down to the first big rapid of which he speaks. They
were good and tired coming up-stream, but we won't have to work at all
going down."
"Well, don't we eat any place at all?" began John again, amid general
laughter.
"Sure," said Moise, "we'll stop at the first little beach and make
boil the kettle. I'm hongree, too, me."
They did as Moise said, and spent perhaps an hour, discussing, from
time to time, the features of the country and the probable time it
would take them to make the trip.
"The boat goes very fast on a stream like this," said Alex. "We could
make fifty or sixty miles a day without the least trouble, if we did
not have to portage. I should think the current was four to six miles
an hour, at least, and you know we could add to that speed if we cared
to paddle."
"Well, we don't want to go too fast," said Jesse. "We have all summer
for this trip."
This remark from the youngest of the party caused the old _voyageur_
to look at him approvingly. "That's right," said he, "we'll not
hurry."
Moise was by this time examining the load of the _Mary Ann_, arranging
the packs so that she would trim just to suit his notion when Rob was
in place at the bow. Alex paid similar care to the _Jaybird_. The
boats now ran practically on an even keel, which would give them the
greatest bearing on the water and enable them to travel over the
shallowest water possible.
"_En roulant?_" said Moise, looking at Alex inquiringly.
Alex nodded, and the boys being now in their proper places in the
boats, he himself stepped in and gave a light push from the beach
with his paddle.
"So long, fellows," called out Rob over his shoulder as he put his
paddle to work. "I'm going to beat you all through--if I'm bow paddle
in the first boat I'll be ahead of everybody else. _En roulant, ma
boule!_"
The _Mary Ann_, swinging fully into the current, went off dipping and
gliding down the gentle incline of the stream. "Don't go too fast,
Moise," called out Alex. "We want to keep in sight of the cook-boat."
"All right!" sang out Moise. "We'll go plenty slow."
"Now," said Alex to John and Jess as he paddled along slowly and
steadily; "I want to tell you something about running strange waters
in a canoe. Riding in a canoe is something like riding a horse. You
must keep your balance. Keep your weight over the middle line of the
canoe, which is in the center of the boat when she's going straight,
of course. You'll have to ease off a little if she tilts--you ride her
a little as you would a horse over a jump. Now, look at this little
rough place we're coming to--there, we're through it already--you see,
there's a sort of a long V of smooth water running down into the
rapid. Below that there's a long ridge or series of broken water.
This rapid will do for a model of most of the others, although it's a
tame one.
"In this work the main thing is to keep absolutely cool. Never try a
bad rapid which is strange to you without first going out and getting
the map of it in your mind. Figure out the course you're going to
take, and then hang to it, and don't get scared. When I call to you to
go to the right, Mr. John, pull the boat over by drawing it to your
paddle on that side--don't try to push it over from the left side. You
can haul it over stronger by pulling the paddle against the water. Of
course I do the reverse on the stern. We can make her travel sidewise,
or straight ahead, or backward, about as we please. All of us canoemen
must keep cool and not lose our nerve.
"Well, I'll go on--usually we follow the V down into the head of a
rapid. Below that the highest wave is apt to roll back. If it is too
high, and curls over too far up-stream, it would swamp our boat to
head straight into it. Where should we go then? Of course, we would
have to get a little to one side of that long, rolling ridge of white
water. But not too far. Sometimes it may be safer to take that big
wave, and all the other waves, right down the white ridge of the
stream, than it is to go to one side."
"I don't see why that would be," said Jesse. "I should think there
would be the most dangerous place for a canoe."
"It is, in one way," said Alex. "Or at least you're surer to ship
water there. But suppose you are in a very heavy stream like the
Fraser or the Columbia. At the foot of the chute there is very apt to
be some deep swells, or rolls, coming up from far down below. Besides
that, there's very apt to be a strong eddy setting up-stream just
below the chute, if the walls are narrow and rocky. Now, that sort of
water is very dangerous. One of those big swells will come up under a
boat, and you'd think a sledge-hammer had hit her. Nothing can stop
the boat from careening a little bit then. Well, suppose the eddy
catches her bow and swings her up-stream. She goes up far enough, in
spite of all, so that her nose gets under some white water coming
down. Well, then, she swamps, and you're gone!"
"I don't like this sort of talk," said Jesse. "If there's any place
where I could walk I'd get out."
"I'm telling you now about bad water," said Alex, "and telling you how
to take care of yourself in case you find yourself there. One thing
you must remember, you must travel a little faster than the current to
get steerageway, and you must never try to go against your current in
a rapid--the water is stronger than all the horses you ever saw. The
main thing is to keep cool, to keep your balance, and sometimes not to
be afraid of taking a little water into the boat. It's the business of
the captain to tell whether it's best to take the ridge of water at
the foot of the chute or to edge off from it to one side. That last is
what he will do when there are no eddies. All rapids differ, and of
course in a big river there may be a dozen different chutes. We always
go ashore and look at a rapid if we think it's dangerous.
"Now, you hear that noise below us," he added, "but don't be alarmed.
Don't you see, Moise and Rob are already past it? I'll show you now
how we take it. Be steady, John, and don't paddle till I tell you. On
your right a little!" he called out an instant later. "That's it! So.
Well, we're through already!"
"Why, that was nothing," said Jesse. "It was just as smooth!"
"Exactly. There is no pleasanter motion in the world than running a
bit of fast water. Now, there was no danger in this, and the only
trouble we had was just to get an inch or so out of the way of that
big rock which might have wrecked us. We always pick a course in a
rapid which gives us time to turn, so that we can dodge another rock
if there's one on ahead. It usually happens pretty fast. You'll soon
learn confidence after running a few pieces of white water, and you'll
learn to like it, I'm sure."
Moise had turned his boat ashore to see the second boat come through,
and after a moment Alex joined him at the beach, the canoes being held
afloat by the paddles as they sat.
"She comes down fast, doesn't she, fellows?" asked Rob.
"I should say so!" called John. "I don't see how they ever got a big
boat up here at all."
"Well, Sir Alexander says that this was part of the worst water they
found," said Rob. "Sometimes they had to pull the boat up by hanging
on to the overhanging trees--they couldn't go ashore to track her,
they couldn't get bottom with their setting-poles, and of course they
couldn't paddle. Yet we came down like a bird!"
The boats dropped on down pleasantly and swiftly now for some time,
until the sun began to sink toward the west. A continually changing
panorama of mountain and foothill shifted before them. They passed one
little stream after another making down from the forest slopes, but so
rapid and exhilarating was their movement that they hardly kept track
of all the rivers and creeks which came in. It was late in the evening
when they heard the low roar of a rapid far on ahead. The men in the
rear boat saw the _Mary Ann_ slacken, pause, and pull off to one side
of the stream.
"That must be the big rapid which Fraser mentions," commented John.
"Very likely," said Alex. "Well, anyhow, we might as well pull in here
and make our camp for the night. We've made a good day's work for a
start at least."