Ixxvili A GENERAL HISTORY

Weft, five miles, and Weft four miles and an half. There is then a fuc- ceffion of {mall lakes, rapids, and falls, producing the Portage des Ecors, Portage du Galet, and Portage des Morts, the whole comprehending a diftance of fix miles, to the lake of the latter name. On the left fide is a point covered with human bones, the relics of the fmall pox; which circumftance gave the Portage and the lake this melancholy denomina- tion. Its courfe is South-Weft fifteen miles, while its breadth does not exceed three miles. From thence a rapid river leads to Portage de Hallier, which is followed by Lake de L’Ile d’Ours: it is, however, im- properly called a lake, as it contains frequent impediments amongft its iflands, from rapids. There is a very dangerous one about the centre of it, which is named the Rapid qui ne parle point, or that never fpeaks, from its filent whirlpool-motion. In fome of the whirlpools the fu€tion is fo powerful, that they are carefully avoided. At fome dif- tance from the filent rapid, is a narrow ftrait, where the Indians have painted red figures on the face of a rock, and where it was their cuftom formerly to make an offering of fome of the articles which they had with them, in their way to and from Churchill. The courfe in this lake, which is very meandering, may be eftimated at thirty-eight miles, and is terminated by the Portage du Canot Tourner, from the danger to which thofe are fubje&t who venture to run this rapid. From thence a river of one mile and an half North-Weft courfe leads to the Portage de Bouleau, and in about half a mile to Portage des Epingles, fo called from the fharpnefs of its ftones. Then follows the Lake des Souris, the direc- tion acrofs which is amongft iflands, North-Weft by Weft fx miles. In this traverfe is an ifland, which is remarkable for a very large ftone, in

the form of a bear, on which the natives have painted the head and

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