But the paths across
it--those connecting the streams that flow in opposite directions from the
continental watersheds--are like isthmian paths between great oceans--
great dry oceans with watercourses through them.
There were, to be sure, still other portage paths than those across
watersheds, and the most common were those that led around waterfalls or
impassable rapids, such as Champlain and the Jesuits followed on their
journeys up the Ottawa to the Nipissing. It was of such portages that
Father Brebeuf wrote--portage paths passing almost continually by
torrents, by precipices, and by places that were horrible in every way. In
less than five days they made more than thirty-five portages, some of
which were three leagues long. This means that on these occasions the
traveller had to carry on his shoulders his canoe and all his baggage,
with so little food that he was continually hungry and almost without
strength and vigor. [Footnote: "Jesuit Relations" (Thwaites), 8:75-77.]
Another priest tells of a portage occupying an entire day, during which he
climbed mountains and pierced forests and carried, the while, his chapel
and his little store of provisions.
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