miles east of the mouth of the Parle Pas rapids, and they had made
perhaps a dozen miles more that evening when they began to come to a
place where again the mountains approached the stream closely. Here
they could not see out at all from their place at the foot of the high
banks which hedged them in. At nightfall they encamped in a wild
region which seemingly never had known the foot of man. The continuous
rush of the waters and the gloom of the overhanging forests now had
once more that depressing effect which sometimes is not unknown even
to seasoned _voyageurs_. Had they been asked, the young travelers must
truthfully have replied that they would be glad when at last the
mountains were passed and the prairie country to the eastward reached.
On the next day they continued among the high hills for several hours,
although at length the river expanded into a wide reach which gave
them a little free paddling. In such contractions of the stream as
they met it seemed to them that the rocks were larger, the water
deeper, and each hour becoming more powerful than it had been.
Advancing cautiously, they perhaps had covered thirty miles when they
came to a part of the stream not more than three hundred yards wide,
where the current was very smooth but of considerable velocity. Below
this the mountains crowded still closer in to the stream, seeming to
rise almost directly from the edge of the banks and to tower nearly
two thousand feet in height.
"We must be getting close to the big portage now," said Rob to Moise,
as they reached this part of the river.
"Yes," said Moise, "pretty soon no more water we'll could ron."
Moise's speech was almost prophetic. In less than half an hour after
that moment they met with the first really serious accident of the
entire journey, and one which easily might have resulted disastrously
to life as well as to property.
They were running a piece of water where a flat rapid dropped down
without much disturbance toward a deep bend where the current swung
sharply to the right. A little island was at one side, on which there
had been imbedded the roots of a big tree, which had come down as
driftwood. The submerged branch of this tree, swinging up and down in
the violent current, made one of the dangerous "sweepers" which
canoemen dread. Both Rob and Moise thought there was plenty of room to
get by, but just as they cleared the basin-like foot of the rapid the
_Mary Ann_ suddenly came to a stop, hard and fast amidships, on a
naked limb of the tree which had been hidden in the discolored waters
at the time.
As is usual in all such accidents, matters happened very quickly. The
first thing they knew the boat was lifted almost bodily from the
water. There was the cracking noise of splintering wood, and an
instant later, even as the white arm of the tree sunk once more into
the water, the _Mary Ann_ sunk down, weak and shattered, her back
broken square across, although she still was afloat and free.
Rob gave a sudden shout of excitement and began to paddle swiftly to
the left, where the bank was not far away. Moise joined him, and they
reached the shore none too soon, their craft half full of water, for
not only had the keel to the lower ribs of the boat been shattered by
the weight thus suspended amidships, but the sheathing had been
ripped and torn across, so that when they dragged the poor _Mary Ann_
up the beach she was little more than the remnant of herself.
The others, coming down the head of the rapid a couple of hundred
yards to the rear, saw this accident, and now paddled swiftly over to
join the shipwrecked mariners, who luckily had made the shore.
"It's bad, boys," said Rob, hurrying down to catch the prow of the
_Jaybird_ as she came alongside. "Just look at that!"
They all got out now and discharged the cargo of the _Mary Ann_,
including the heavy grizzly hide, which very likely was the main cause
of the accident, its weight having served to fracture the stout fabric
of the plucky little boat. When they turned her over the case looked
rather hopeless.
"She's smashed almost to her rail," said Rob, "and we've broken that
already. It's that old grizzly hide that did it, I'm sure. We lit fair
on top of that 'sweeper,' and our whole weight was almost out of the
water when it came up below us. Talk about the power of water, I
should say you could see it there, all right--it's ripped our whole
ship almost in two! I don't see how we can fix it up this time."
Moise by this time had lighted his pipe, yet he did not laugh, as he
usually did, but, on the contrary, shook his head at Alex.
"Maybe so we'll could fix heem," was all he would venture.
"Well, one thing certain," said Rob, "we'll have to go into camp right
here, even if it isn't late."
"Did you have any fun in the other rapids above here?" asked John of
Rob.
"No," said Rob; "it was all easy. We've run a dozen or twenty a lot
worse than this one. Not even the Parle Pas hurt us. Then I come in
here, head paddler, and I run my boat on a 'sweeper' in a little bit
of an easy drop like this. It makes me feel pretty bad, I'll tell you
that!"
They walked about the boat with hands in pockets, looking gloomy, for
they were a little bit doubtful, since Moise did not know, whether
they could repair the _Mary Ann_ into anything like working shape
again.
Alex, as usual, made little comment and took things quietly. They
noticed him standing and looking intently down the river across the
near-by bend.
"I see it too," said Rob. "Smoke!"
The old hunter nodded, and presently walked on down the beach to have
a look at the country below, leaving Moise to do what he could with
the broken boat. The boys joined Alex.
Presently they saw, not far around the bend, a long dugout canoe
pulled up on the beach. Near by was a little fire, at which sat two
persons, an old man and a younger one. They did not rise as the
visitors approached, but answered quietly when Alex spoke to them in
Cree.
XIX
NEW PLANS
"These men say," interpreted Alex, as he turned to the boys, "that
it's sixteen to twenty miles from here to the end of the portage out
of the hills, across the north bank, which cuts off the thirty miles
of canyon that nobody ever tries to run. They say for a little way the
river is wide, with many islands, but below that it narrows down and
gets very bad. They're tracking stuff up-stream from the portage to a
surveyors' camp which depends on their supplies. They say they will
not sell their canoe, because they couldn't get up-stream, but that if
we can get east of the portage there's a man, a sort of farmer,
somewhere below there, who has a boat which perhaps he would sell."
"What good would that do us?" demanded John. "A boat twenty or thirty
miles east of here across the mountains isn't going to help us very
much. What we want is a boat now, and I don't see how we can get along
without it. Won't they sell their canoe?"
"No, they don't want to sell it," said Alex; "they say they're under
employment, and must get through to the camp from Hudson's Hope on
time. We couldn't portage a dugout, anyhow. But they say that we can
go on up there with them if we like, and then come back and go around
by the portage. What do you say, Mr. Rob?"
Rob answered really by his silence and his tight-shut jaw. "Well,"
said he, "at least I don't much care about turning back on a trail.
But we'll have to split here, I think, unless we all go into camp. But
part of us can go on through by the river, and the rest come on later.
Maybe we can _cache_ some of our luggage here, and have it brought on
across by these men, if they're going back to Hudson's Hope."
"That sounds reasonable," said Alex, nodding. "I believe we can work
it out."
He turned and spoke rapidly in Cree to the two travelers, with many
gestures, pointing both up and down the stream, all of them talking
eagerly and at times vehemently.
"They say," said Alex at last, "there's a place at the foot of the
high bank above the canyon head where two or three men might be able to
get a boat up to the carrying trail, although the landing is little
used to-day. But they say if we could get across to the east end of
the canyon they could send men down by the trail after that other boat.
They don't think we can get our boat across. They say they'll find us
in a few days, they think, somewhere on the portage. They ask us if
they can have what's left of our canoe. They say they'll take two
dollars a day and grub if we want them to work for us. They don't say
that no man could make the portage below here, but don't think we
could do it with our crew. Well, what do you say now, Mr. Rob?"
"Why, it's all as easy as a fiddle-string," said Rob. "I'll tell you
how we'll fix it. Jess, you and Moise go with these men on up to the
surveyors' camp, and back down to Hudson's Hope--you can take enough
grub to last you around, and you know that water is easy now. Alex and
John and I will still have enough grub to last us through to the east
side of the Rockies--we're almost through now. It might be rather hard
work for Jess. The best way for him is to keep with Moise, who'll take
good care of him, and it's more fun to travel than to loaf in camp.
For the rest of us, I say we ought to go through, because we started
to go through. We all know where we are now. Moise will bring the men
and supplies around to meet us at the east side. Even if we didn't
meet," he said to Jesse, "and if you and Moise got left alone, it
would be perfectly simple for you to go on through to Peace River
Landing, two or three hundred miles, to where you will get word of
Uncle Dick. There are wagon-trails and steamboats and all sorts of
things when you once get east of the mountains, so there's no danger
at all. In fact, our trip is almost done right where we stand
here--the hardest part is behind us. Now, Jess, if you don't feel hard
about being asked to go back up the river, or to stay here till these
men come back down-stream, that's the way it seems best to me."
"I'm not so anxious as all that to go on down this river," grinned
Jesse. "It isn't getting any better. Look at what it did to the old
_Mary Ann_ up there."
"Well, the main thing is not to get lonesome," said Rob, "and to be
sure there's no danger. We'll get through, some time or somewhere.
Only don't get uneasy, that's all. You ought to get around to us in a
couple of days after you start on the back trail. How does it look to
you, Alex?"
The old hunter nodded his approval. "Yes," said he; "I think the
three of us will take the _Jaybird_ loaded light and run down
to the head of the mountain without much trouble. I don't hear of
anything particularly nasty down below here until you get nearly to
the gorge. I think we had better hire these two breeds for a time,
put them on pay from the time they start up the river with Moise and
Mr. Jess. They say they would like to go with Mr. Jess for their
'bourgeois'--that's 'boss,' you know. They also say," he added,
smiling, "that they would very much like to have some sugar and tea."
After a time Alex rose, beckoned to the two breeds, and they all went
back up the beach to the place where Moise by this time was building
his camp-fire and spreading out the cargo of the _Mary Ann_ to dry.
The two breeds expressed wonder at the lightness of the boats which
they now saw, and rapidly asked in their language how the party had
managed to get so far across the mountains with such little craft. But
they alternately laughed and expressed surprise when they lifted the
fragments of the _Mary Ann_ and pointed out the nature of the injury
she had sustained.
"Those man'll been my cousin, too," said Moise, pointing to the
new-comers. "She'll been glad to see us, both of her. Her name is
Billy and Richard. Ole Richard, his Injun name was been At-tick--'The
Reindeer.' Also she'll say," he added, "she'll ain't got some tea nor
sugar. _Allons!_ I think maybe we'll eat some dish of tea."
Soon they were seated on the ground, once more eating tea and bannock,
piecing out their meal, which, by the way, was the third during the
day, with some of the dried caribou meat which they had brought from
far above.
"They'll ask me, my cousin," said Moise at last, his mouth full, "what
we'll take for those busted canoe."
"What do you say, Mr. Rob?" asked Alex.
"I don't see how it's going to be worth anything to us," said Rob,
"and it will take us a long time to patch her up at best. Tell them
we'll give them what there is left of the _Mary Ann_ if they'll take
good care of Jess on the way around on the trail. And we'll pay them
two dollars a day each besides."
When Moise had interpreted this speech, the older of the two breeds,
who did not speak any English, rose and gravely shook each of the
boys by the hand, then not saying anything further, he rose, took
his big buffalo knife from its sheath, and proceeded to finish
the distribution of the unfortunate _Mary Ann_, it being his plan
evidently not to float her again, but to reduce her to a portable
package which could be taken away in their other canoe, the dugout,
on the beach below.
"Well, there goes the _Mary Ann_," said John, sadly. "He is evidently
going to make some kindling wood for himself."
"My cousin she'll say this boat must be took up to camp, where womans
can work on heem," explained Moise. "He'll say he'll patch up those
boat fine, for all the ribs she'll be bent all right an' not bust, and
he'll make new keel an' new side rails--oh, you wait! Maybe so nex'
year you'll come here you'll see those boat _Marie H'Ann_ just so fine
like she never was."
Whatever might have been the future plans for the _Mary Ann_, she soon
resembled nothing so little as a Peterborough canoe. The old man
calmly proceeded to separate the framework at bow and stern, so that
he could crush the two sides of the canoe together after removing the
ribs, which also he proceeded to do, one by one. Finally he had a pile
of ribs and some broken splints which he laid carefully on the beach.
Then he doubled back the splintered skin of the canoe, throwing away
very little indeed of the fractured woodwork. At last he grunted some
rapid words to the younger man, who seemed to be his son or a member
of his family.
"My cousin she'll say he can took those boat in dugout all right down
the river," said Moise. "She'll said to me also we'll go on Hudson's
Hope with heem." Moise pointed to Jesse. Alex nodded and explained
further the plan which had roughly been sketched out before that time
by Rob and himself. In a little time the younger Cree had returned and
poled the big dugout around the bend up to the place where they were
now in camp. With some excited talk on the part of both, they now took
the wreck of the _Mary Ann_ and carried it up the bank to await their
return. In different places along the great cottonwood dugout they
added such supplies as Moise thought was right. The other supplies
they then _cached_, and put over all the robe of the big grizzly,
flesh side out, and heavily salted, weighting the edges down with
heavy stones.
The freeboard of the dugout was very slight when Jesse took his place,
but seemed quite enough to satisfy the requirements of these
_voyageurs_. The old man sprang into the stern of the dugout and
motioned to Jesse to find a seat amidships. Meantime Moise was fixing
up a towing collar, which he attached to the line. It became apparent
that the plan was for him and the younger breed to double on the
tracking line, the old man remaining astern to do the steering.
"That's the way we get up a river in this country," said Alex to Rob,
who was watching all this with interest. "I would bet they would do
twenty-five miles a day with that rig they've got there--they go
almost at a trot whenever there's an open bit of beach. When there is
none, they pole or paddle."
"I don't see how they do it," said Rob. "None of them have got
anything on their feet but moccasins, and those men there have only
pieces of moccasins at that. I should think the rocks would cut their
feet in bits!"
"Well, you know, Moise and his 'cousins' are all 'same like dog,' as
he would say," smiled Alex. "Your feet get used to it in time. These
men have never known anything better, so they have got adjusted to the
way they have to make their living. I doubt if they would wear
hard-soled shoes if they had them, because they would say the soles
would slip on the rocks. They're in the water about as much as they
are out of it when they are tracking a boat up-stream. That's the way
this country was conquered for the white men--by the paddle, pole, and
tracking line."
"You forget Uncle Dick's way," chimed in John.
"How do you mean?"
"Railroads."
"Yes," said Alex, sighing, "they're coming some day, that's sure. But
even the surveyors and engineers had to travel this way, and I think
you will find even in the country where the wagons are it's quite a
way from here to home."
"Well, here we go," said Rob, after a time. "We mustn't waste
daylight, you know."
By this time Jesse was looking very serious. Naturally he relied very
much upon Moise, but he disliked to leave his friends, and especially
to say good-by to Alex, on whom they all seemed to depend very much.
"It's the right thing to do, Jess," said John, after a time. "So far
as that is concerned, you'll have it just as safe and a good deal
easier than we will, in all probability. We'll meet you in a week or
so at most."
"So long, then!" said Jesse, bravely waving his hand.
"So long!" said Rob and John. They waved their caps to one another, as
each boat now began its way, the _Jaybird_ carrying three passengers,
and the long dugout, under the tracking line, taking what remained of
the expedition of our _voyageurs_, who now separated for the time to
take different directions on the stream they had followed thus far.
XX
THE GORGE OF THE MOUNTAINS
For a time after the boats parted the crew of the _Jaybird_ said very
little as they pursued their way down-stream. The accident to the
_Mary Ann_ made them all thoughtful, and Rob was very careful in his
position as bow paddler for the remaining boat. As the craft was
pretty well loaded, Alex also was cautious. They took their time when
they struck the head of any fast water, went ashore and prospected,
and once in awhile lined down the boat instead of undertaking to run a
fast chute. In spite of their additional caution, they ran mile after
mile of the great river, until finally they felt themselves
approaching the great eastern gate of the Rockies, whence there breaks
out upon the lower country of the great Peace River the Unjingah, or
Unjigab, as the natives formerly called it.
"Now," said Alex, at last, as he steered in along shore, "I think
we'll stop and take a look around."
They had been expecting the entrance to the actual gorge of the river
now for the last three or four miles, for they had passed into the
wide space, six or eight hundred yards in extent, described as lying
above the canyon entrance, where the river, falling through a narrow
passageway in the rocks, is condensed to a quarter of its average
width.
The fatigue of the steady travel of the trip now began to show its
effect upon them all, and the boys were quite ready to go into camp.
Rob and John undertook to prepare the supper, and soon were busy
arranging a little fireplace of stone, while Alex climbed up the bank
to do some prospecting farther on.
"How does it look, Alex?" inquired Rob, when he finally returned. Alex
waved a hand as a sign of his ignorance. "Hills and woods," said he.
"Not so much spruce, but some pine and poplars, and plenty of 'bois
picard'--what you call 'devil's club' on your side of the Rockies. I
didn't know it grew this far east. I don't see how Mackenzie's men got
up from below with a thirty-foot birch-bark," he added, after a time.
"They must have come through something on this course, because they
could not have taken the water very much below here, that's sure."
"Is there any trail at all, Alex?" asked John.
"We've landed almost at the trail--just enough to call a trail for a
foot man. It isn't used much to-day, that's sure. Pretty steep. Sandy
farther up."
"Could we carry the boat through, do you think?" Rob looked anxiously
up at the lofty bank which rose above them. Perhaps there was a little
trace of stubbornness in Rob's make-up, and certainly he had no wish
to abandon the project at this stage.
"We might edge her up the bank a little at a time," said Alex,
"snubbing her up by the line. I suppose we could pass it from stump to
stump, the same as _voyageurs_ had to with their big birch-barks
sometimes."
"We'll get her up somehow to-morrow," said Rob, "if you say it's
possible."
"Then there'll be some more hills," smiled Alex; "eight or ten or
twelve miles of rough country, I suppose."
"Time enough to trouble about that to-morrow, Alex. Sit down and have
a cup of tea."
They still had one or two of their smoke-dried trout and a bit of the
half-dried caribou which they had brought down with them. On the
whole they made a very fair meal.
"Try some of my biscuits, Alex," suggested John. "I baked them in the
spider--mixed the dough all by myself in the sack, the way Moise does.
Aren't they fine?"
"You're quite a cook, Mr. John. But I'm sorry we're so nearly out of
meat," said Alex. "You can't travel far on flour and tea."
"Won't there be any game in the river below the Rockies?" asked Rob.
"Oh yes, certainly; plenty of bear and moose, and this side of the
Peace River Landing, wherever there are any prairies, plenty of grouse
too; but I don't think we'll get back to the prairies--the valley is
over a thousand feet deep east of the mountains."
"Alex, how many moose have you ever killed in all your life?" asked
Rob, curiously.
"Three hundred and eighty-seven," answered Alex, quietly.
The boys looked at each other in astonishment. "I didn't know anybody
ever killed that many moose in all the world," said John.
"Many people have killed more than I have," replied Alex. "You see, at
times we have to hunt for a living, and if we don't get a moose or
something of the kind we don't eat."
"And how many bear have you ever killed, Alex?"
"Twenty-odd grizzlies I have killed or helped kill," said Alex. "We
rarely hunt them alone. Of black bear I don't know how many--we don't
count them at all, there are so many of them in this country. But now
I suppose pretty soon we will have to go over on the Hay River, or the
Liard, farther north, to get good hunting. The farms are bringing in
mowing-machines and threshing-machines into this country now. The game
can't last forever at this rate."
"Well, I'm glad we made our trip this year," said Rob.
"We haven't made it yet!" smiled Alex. "But I think to-morrow we'll
see what we can do."
They made an early start in the morning, their first task being that
of trying to get the _Jaybird_ up the steep face of the bluff which
rose back of the camp, on top of which the trail, such as it was, made
off through the shoulders of the mountains in a general course toward
the east, the river sweeping in a wide elbow, thirty miles around,
through its wild and impassable gorge, far to the south of them.
Taking a boat, even a little one, overland is no easy task, especially
up so steep an ascent as this. Powerful as was the old hunter, it was
hard enough to make much progress, and at times they seemed to lose as
much as they gained. None the less, Alex was something of a general in
work of this sort, and when they had gained an inch of progress he
usually managed to hold it by means of snubbing the boat's line around
the nearest stump or rock.
"That's awfully strong line, isn't it?" said Rob. "You brought that
over with you--we didn't have that in our country. We use rope. I was
noticing how thin the line was which those two breeds had on their
dugout yesterday."
"That's the sort they use all through the trade in the North,"
answered Alex. "It has to be thin, or it would get too waterlogged and
heavy. You'll see how long it needs to be in order that the men on
shore can get it over all the rocks and stumps and still leave the
steersman headway on the boat. It has been figured out as the right
thing through many years, and I have seen it used without change all
my life."
"Well, it hasn't broken yet," said Rob. "But I think we had better
piece it out by doubling it the best we can. We don't want to break it
up at this work."
Little by little, Alex lifting the main portion of the weight, and
the boys shoving at the stern the best they could, they did edge the
_Jaybird_ at last clear to the top of the bank, where finally she sat
on level keel on a little piece of green among the trees.