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Se
ee

xl viii A GENERAL HISTORY

and the middle-men obey both; the latter earn only two-thirds of the
wages which are paid the two former. Independent of thefe a conduétor
or pilot is appointed to every four or fix of thefe canoes, whom they
are all obliged to obey; and is, or at leaft is intended to be, a perfon

of fuperior experience, for which he is proportionably paid.

In thefe. canoes, thus loaded, they embark at the North fide of the
portage, on the river Au Tourt, which is very inconfiderable; and
after about two miles of a Weflerly courfe, is obftruéted by the Par-
tridge Portage, fix hundred paces long. In the {pring this makes a con-
fiderable fall, when the water is high, over a perpendicular rock of one
hundred and twenty feet. From thence the river continues to be fhal-
low, and requires great care to prevent the bottom of the canoe from
being injured by fharp rocks, for a diflance of three miles and an half to
the Priarie, or Meadow, when half the lading is taken out, and carried
by part of the crew, while two of them are conduéting the canoe among
the rocks, with the remainder, to the Carreboeuf Portage, three miles
and an half more, when they unload and come back two miles, and
‘embark. what was left for the other hands to carry, which they alfo
land with the former; all of which is carried fix hundred and eighty
paces, and the canoe led up again{l the rapid. | From hence the water 1s
better calculated to, carry canoes, and leads by a winding courfe to the
North of Weft three miles to the Outard Portage, over which the canoe,
and every thing in her, 1s carried for two thoufand: four hundred paces.
At the further end is a very high hill to defeend, over which hangs a
rock upwards of feven hundred feet high. ‘Then fucceeds the Outard
Lake, about fix miles long, lying in a North- Weft courfe, and about two

miles