Volume 1

CROOKED LAKE AND PORTAGES. 15
they finally fell asleep. The women brought me plenty of
fine large hurtleberries
[whortleberries or huckleberries], of
which there is an abundance on the rocks around this lake.
Toward evening the Indians awoke and -insisted upon my
giving them liquor, otherwise I should have no canoe
; and
they threatened to break my old one. However, I persisted
in refusing. We came to high words, and, in our
turn, menaced them with a good beating if they misbehaved.
This had the desired effect, and about midnight we
got rid of them.
July 28th.
This morning the scoundrels refused to work,
and I was obliged to set my own men to finish the canoe.
She was completed at ten o'clock, when we loaded and
embarked, giving the fellows a receipt for the canoe—60
skins, payable at Lac la Pluie. At twelve o'clock we came
to the end of [Basswood] lake, and thus to Petit Portage
des Bois Blancs,'" which is about 200 paces over. Thence
we went down several ugly rapids to Portage des Grands
Pins, about 400 paces long, and then to Portage de la Pointe
des Bois, over which we carried about 300 paces. We proceeded
to Petit Rocher du Lac Croche, a portage of about
100 paces over a rock, to Lac la Croche." At the Rock in
'* Little Basswood, or Lesser Whitewood portage—the qualifying term referring
not to the trees, but to the length of this carrying-place, in comparison
with that one by which Basswood 1. is entered from the E. It is 140 yards,
with good carriage on the left hand. The next one, Great Pines portage, which
occurs within a mile or two, is 330 yards long, and is carried also on the left.
Point of Woods portage soon succeeds, 128 yards long, carried S. by E., on the
right. The next obstruction, which blocks the entrance to Lac la Croche, was
formerly known as Petit Rocher or Little Stone portage, but is now usually
called Portage la Croche; the carriage is 75 yards, on the left, and there are
steep, smooth rocks on one side; the descent of water through the place is about
12 feet, in two inclines.
" Or Crooked 1., whose shape is implied in the name; for, besides being
extremely irregular in details of contour, it is bent upon itself about midway, so
that the traverse is for nearly the first half due N., with many minor windings,
and then turns W. The term covers the whole body of waters from the portage
last named to Rideau or Curtain portage, a distance, as traveled, of about 18 m.
There appear to
be no obstructions in this course, but various points about the
lake are known by name. Among them is Henry's " Rock in Arrows," about