The Algonquin-Iroquois took up the journey at Bear Lake and its tributaries, and by means of paddling and portages traversed the area of middle and eastern Canada, including the entire St Lawrence drainage.
These portages could not be avoided, the cliffs rising perpendicularly on either side of the river, sometimes to a height of fifty or sixty feet, affording not the slightest footpath on which to tow.
Numerous portages were made--one of them, the last, being four miles long.
I doubt if we could have carried out any of the meat if we had tried, for we had to throw away everything not absolutely necessary on the long portagesthat followed.
This lack of fresh water caused us considerable suffering, as the lake water is supposed to be dangerous, and a pail of spring water, which we got at the start, was carried for days over portages as our most precious baggage.
These portages are among the troublesome delights of a journey in the wilderness.
The important military points on the route were the portages from the Hudson to Lake George, from Lake George to Lake Champlain, the narrows at Crown Point, and the portage from Chambly to La Prairie on the St. Lawrence.
As we have had occasion to notice, straits and portages were famous meeting places.
Many portages joined the lesser lakes; for example, such as Lake Simcoe, lying between Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay, or Lake Chautauqua lying between Lake Erie and the Allegheny River.
A plea for the study of the subject of portages and the marking of historic sites occupies the concluding pages.
The labour of crossing the portages was always severe, but the Indians took, and take, it philosophically, as they do everything that cannot be helped.
In the preceding pages this matter of the fur trade on portages has not been sufficiently suggested; it is, however, a subject on which important and exhaustive histories should be written.
Portages are found wherever lakes or rivers lie, and our subject is therefore as broad as the continent.
The keys of this route were the portage paths between the St. Lawrence and the Richelieu in the north; and the portages between Lakes Champlain and George, and Lake George and the Hudson River in the south.
In the cases of such important works as the Erie Canal and the Ohio Canal the portages between the Mohawk and Wood Creek in New York and between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas in Ohio were of vital importance.
All portages known to me are marked upon the map of New Brunswick, in the Pre-historic or Indian period accompanying this paper, and their routes of travel are in red on the same map.
Further west, the Maumee Valley was of early importance to the French because of the twoportages which gave them access to the Miami River on the south and the Wabash on the southwest.
But by battening with our provision sack, we managed to keep it afloat until we had accomplished the round trip to the lake first mentioned, by making several portages over log jambs, shoals and rapids.
The following day, accompanied by a single Massett Indian, I ascended the river for several miles, by means of two very small canoes, making several portages around log jambs over rapids and shallow places.
True enough, there were a number of lift-outs and two rather long portages that made the going up pretty stiff, but if a man had skill with the paddle and knew the water he might avoid these by running the rapids.
At one of these portages called the Pin Portage is a rapid about ten yards in length with a descent of ten or twelve feet and beset with rocks.
We began the ascent of Trout River early in the morning of the 27th and in the course of the day passed three portages and several rapids.
We had passed a portage above it and after two long portages below it we encamped.
On the 20th we passed Upper Burntwood and Rocky Ledge Portages besides several strong spouts; and in the evening arrived at Smooth Rock Portage where we encamped, having come three miles and a half.
On the 4th we crossed a small lake and passed in succession over the Blueberry Cascade and Double Fall Portages where the river falls over ridges of rocks that completely obstruct the passages for canoes.
The soil from Isle a la Crosse to this place is sandy with some portion of clay and the trees numerous; but the Methye River is stony and so shallow that, to lighten the canoes, we made two portages of five and two miles.
We embarked at the usual hour and in the course of the day crossed the Point of Rocks and Brassa Portages and dragged the boats through several minor rapids.
We had emerged from the muddy channels through an alluvial soil, and the primitive rocks interrupted our way with frequent portages through the whole route to Isle a la Crosse Lake.
The rest of the party set off afterwards and kept along the river until ten when we branched off by portages into the Embarras River, the usual channel of communication in canoes with the lake.
On the 22nd we crossed three small portages and encamped at the fourth.
The Birch and Poplar Portages next followed, and beyond these we came to a part where the river takes a great circuit and its course is interrupted by several heavy falls.
The immense loads too which they carry over the portages is not more a matter of surprise than the alacrity with which they perform these laborious duties.
An intricate channel with four small portages conducted us to the Woody Lake.
Five portages were crossed, then the Rocky Lake, and we finished our labours at the end of the sixth portage.
The connecting links between the Maritime provinces and Quebec were the portages between the waters running into the St. Lawrence and those running into the St. John river.
You'll need all the food you get when you're carrying a canoe across some of the portages we'll be on this summer.
They found this river one of great volume, and they had many long portages to make and much fast water to pole up.
The three portageson that river were surveyed by chain and compass.
Or they may have proceeded by an even shorter route, though with longer portages for canoes, through Lake Nipigon to the Albany.
By means of canoe travel and portages he reached Oxford Lake.
With shortportages you can get in canoes from Montreal to the waters of Hudson Bay, or to Lake Winnipeg and the base of the Rocky Mountains.
Sometimes the portages were made still easier for loaded canoes by a road being cleared through the scrub and over the rocks, and wooden rollers placed across it.
Often these portages were made to circumvent dangerous rapids or waterfalls.
Below, the succession of falls and rapids is constant, so that we made no fewer than thirty-six portages in the course of the day.
When he wished to convince Governor Abernethy that Mr. Ogden had done right in giving powder and ball for making the portages at Des Chutes, he said, "These Indians have no fellow-feeling with the Cayuses.
On we go; make the portages at La Chute; reach John Day's River; Pambrun leaves boats in charge of Whitman and Gray, and goes to Wallawalla on horseback.
As he could not carry his boats over the portagesof the falls without the assistance of the Indians, it would have been an act of great indiscretion on his part to have excited alarm and created suspicion in their minds.
Through the portages and over the frozen ice expanses they hurried, and some time before midnight they reached a splendid camp already prepared for them by Paulette and Mustagan.
On two occasions, when the falls were sheer, they had to disembark and walk along little portages through the green raspberry bushes.
One day, when the waters were high, and the portages could be dispensed with, they made an excursion through the Riviere des Peres to the lake of that name, the next in the chain above.
What mattered more was that the portages were frequent, and carrying the canoe over rock coated with frozen spray became dangerous as well as difficult, and Nasmyth working on short rations began to feel the strain.
There are two awkwardportages to be tackled to-morrow.
His outline was discernible on the shore, rigid and motionless, an hour later, when Hyde's canoe turned the corner of the lake three miles away, and landed to make the portages up the first rapid of his homeward stream.
Travelling light, the portages did not trouble him; the water was swift and easy, the rapids negotiable; everything came his way, as the saying is.
The brigades would run almost all the rapids from Death Rapids to the sea, makingportages at Kettle Falls, Tumwater or Celilo Falls, and the Cascades, though at some stages of the water they could run down even them.
The portages at the Cascades on both sides of the River were made by very inadequate wooden tramways.
These steamers connected with boats on the Cascades-Dalles section by means of portages five miles long around the rapids.
In 1863, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was running boats from Portland to Lewiston, over four hundred miles, having short railroad portages at the Cascades and The Dalles.
After the building of the railroads along the River and into interior valleys and eastward, it became apparent that the heavy handicap of rehandling freight at two portages would forbid the steamers from competing with the railroads.
The portages were not acquired by the company with the steamboat property, and as a result the portage owners reaped the larger share of the profits.
Water was utilised to the greatest possible extent, while at the portages and across the mountains horse-power and man-power were employed.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "portages" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
