ith a feathering of wind clouds, and the canoe between
like a bird at poise. Sometimes a fair wind livens the pace; for the
_voyageurs_ hoist a blanket sail, and the canoe skims before the breeze
like a seagull.

Where the stream gathers force and whirls forward in sharp eddies and
racing leaps each _voyageur_ knows what to expect. No man asks
questions. The bowman stands up with his eyes to the fore and steel-shod
pole ready. Every eye is on that pole. Presently comes a roar, and the
green banks begin to race. The canoe no longer glides. It
vaults--springs--bounds, with a shiver of live waters under the keel and
a buoyant rise to her prow that mounts the crest of each wave fast as
wave pursues wave. A fanged rock thrusts up in mid-stream. One deft push
of the pole. Each paddler takes the cue; and the canoe shoots past the
danger straight as an arrow, righting herself to a new course by another
lightning sweep of the pole and paddles.

[Illustration: Traders running a mackinaw or keel-boat down the rapids
of Slave River without unloading.]

But the waters gather as if to throw themselves forward. The roar
becomes a crash. As if moved by one mind the paddlers brace back. The
lightened bow lifts. A white dash of spray. She mounts as she plunges;
and the _voyageurs_ are whirling down-stream below a small waterfall.
Not a word is spoken to indicate that it is anything unusual to _sauter
les rapides_, as the _voyageurs_ say. The men are soaked. Now, perhaps,
some one laughs; for Jean, or Ba'tiste, or the dandy of the crew, got
his moccasins wet when the canoe took water. They all settle forward.
One paddler pauses to bail out water with his hat.

Thus the lowest waterfalls are run without a _portage_. Coming back this
way with canoes loaded to the water-line, there must be a disembarking.
If the rapids be short, with water enough to carry the loaded canoe high
above rocks that might graze the bark, all hands spring out in the
water, but one man who remains to steady the craft; and the canoe is
"tracked" up-stream, hauled along by ropes. If the rapids be at all
dangerous, each _voyageur_ lands, with pack on his back and pack-straps
across his forehead, and runs along the shore. A long _portage_ is
measured by the number of pipes the _voyageur_ smokes, each lighting up
meaning a brief rest; and a _portage_ of many "pipes" will be taken at a
running gait on the hottest days without one word of complaint. Nine
miles is the l