The Young Alaskans on the Trail Part 18

XV

IN THE BIG WATERS

The sound and sight of the Finlay rapids, at the head of which the leading boat now paused, gave Rob his first real idea of how wicked a great mountain river can be. He looked back to see whether the _Jaybird_ and her crew were well warned of the danger. But Alex soon brought the other boat alongside at the landing place, on the south side of the stream, above the rapids.

"Well, here we are," said he. "Now you may see what some real rapids are. Those little ripples up above didn't amount to much."

"She looks pretty bad," said Rob. "Could anybody run a boat through there?"

"Old Sir Alexander probably did it, but he had a big birch-bark. I'd take it on with a good man and a good boat. We could very possibly even get one of these boats through if we were obliged to, but there is no use taking any risk. We can line down through the worst of it, or even run the boat ash.o.r.e if we like."

"Me, I'll rather ron the rapeed than walk on the bank with boat," said Moise.

"Never mind, Moise," said Alex, "we'll not have to walk far with her.

We'll camp here to-night and look it over in the morning. It's always better to tackle rough work in the morning rather than in the evening."

The young travelers slept none too well that night. The sound of the rapids coming through the dark and the feeling of remoteness here in this wild mountain region proved depressing to their spirits. They were glad enough when at length toward dawn they heard Moise stirring about the camp. By the time they had their breakfast finished and camp broken Alex had already returned from a trip along the side of the rapids.

"It's not so very bad," said he, "although the river has come up an inch or so during the night. The whole rapid is about a quarter of a mile long, but the worst place is only a couple of hundred yards or so. We'll drop down to the head of that strip on the line and portage around there."

They followed this plan, loading the boats and dropping down for a short time, saving themselves all the portage work they could. In places the water seemed very wild, tossing over the rocks in long, rolling waves or breaking in foam and spray. The boys scrambled alongsh.o.r.e, allowing Alex and Moise to care for the first boat when it became necessary for them to double up on each trip over the worst water. Part of the time they bore a hand on the line, and were surprised to see the strength of the current even on a boat without a load.

"You see," said Alex, when at length they came to a place where the water seemed still more powerful and rough, and where it seemed necessary to haul the boat entirely from the water for a carry of some distance over the rocks, "it's better to take a little trouble and go slow rather than to lose a boat in here. If she broke away from us we'd feel a long way from home!"

After they got the _Mary Ann_ again in the water and at the foot of the rapids, the men went up after the _Jaybird_, while the boys did what they could toward advancing the cargo of the _Mary Ann_. In less than an hour they had everything below the rapids and saw plain sailing once more ahead of them. Moise expressed his disappointment at not being allowed to run the Finlay rapids.

"My onkle, she'll always ron those rapeed," said he. "S'pose I'll tell heem I'll walk aroun', he'll laugh on me, yes!"

"That's all right, Moise," said Rob; "your uncle isn't here, and for one, I'm glad we took it easy coming through here. That's rough water either way you look at it, up-stream or down. But now," he continued, once more consulting his maps and notes, "we ought to have a couple of days of good, straightaway running, with almost no bad water. It's about seventy miles from here to the Parle Pas rapids. And speaking of _rapids_, they tell me that's the worst place on the whole river."

"That's a funny name--why do they call them the Parle Pas rapids?"

asked Jesse.

"Those were Frenchman words," said Moise. "Parle Pas means 'no speak.'

He's a quiet rapeed. S'pose you'll ron on the river there, an' smoke a pipe, an' talk, an' not think of nothing. All at once, _Boum_! You'll been in those rapeed, an' he'll not said a word to you!"

"Well," said Rob, "the traders used to run them somehow, didn't they?"

"Yes, my onkle he'll ron them in beeg boat many tam, but not with leetle boat. She'll jump down five, three feet sometams. Leetle boat she'll stick his nose under, yes. My onkle he'll tol' me, when you come on the Parle Pas take the north side, an' find some chute there for leetle boat. Leetle boat could ron the Parle Pas, maybe so, but I suppose, us, we'll let those boat down on the line because we'll got some scares, _hein_?"

"It's just as well to have some scares on these mountain rivers, Moise," said Alex, reprovingly. "This water is icy cold, and if even a man got out into the rapids he couldn't swim at all, it would tumble him over so. We'll line down on the Parle Pas, yes, depend on that.

But that's down-stream a couple of days if we go slow."

"When do we get that bear hunt, Alex?" asked John, who loved excitement almost as much as Moise.

"Almost anywhere in here," answered Alex; "but I think we'd better put off the hunt until we get below all the worst water. No use portaging bear hides."

"It looks like good bear country here," said Rob. "We must be in the real Rockies now, because the mountains come right down to the river."

"Good bear country clear to Hudson's Hope, or beyond that," a.s.sented Alex.

"All right," said Rob; "we'll have a good hunt somewhere when we get below the Parle Pas. If we have to do any more portaging, we don't want to carry any more than we can help, that's true. And, of course, we're going to get that grizzly."

Having by this time reloaded the boats, they re-embarked, and pa.s.sed merrily on down the river, which now seemed wholly peaceful and pleasant. The mountains now indeed were all about them, in places rising up in almost perpendicular rock faces, and the valley was very much narrower. They were at last entering the arms of the great range through which they later were to pa.s.s.

The character of the river changed from time to time. Sometimes they were in wide, quiet reaches, where they needed the paddles to make much headway. Again there would be drops of faster water, although nothing very dangerous. Relieved as they were now of any thought of danger for the next sixty or seventy miles ahead, this part of their journey seemed delightful in every way. They did not pause to hunt, and saw no game excepting one band of four timber wolves, upon which they came as they swept around a bend, but which hastened under cover before any one could get a shot. Once in a while they stopped at little beaches or bars, and almost always saw the trails of large game in the sand or mud. Always they felt that now they were deep in the wilderness, and every moment was a pleasure to them.

They did not really know how far below the Finlay rapids they traveled that day, for continually they discovered that it is difficult to apply map readings to the actual face of a new country. They made no great attempt at speed, but sometimes drifted down-stream, the boats close together. Sometimes when the wind was fair Rob or John would raise the corner of a tent or blanket to act as a sail. Thus, idling and chatting along, they made perhaps forty miles down-stream before they made their next evening camp. The country seemed to them wilder now, since the bold hills were so close in upon them, though of course they knew that each day was bringing them closer to the settlements on the eastern side of the range.

That night was cold, and they had no trouble with mosquitoes. Feeling no need of hurry, they made a late start and idled on down the river through a very interesting mountain region, until the afternoon.

Toward evening they began to feel that they might perhaps be near the dreaded Parle Pas rapids, and they approached each bend with care, sometimes going ash.o.r.e for a prospecting trip which proved to be made only on a false alarm. They had, however, now begun to learn the "feel of the water," as the _voyageurs_ called it. Rob, who was ahead, at length noted the gla.s.sy look of the river, and called back to Moise that he believed there were rapids ahead.

"Parle Pas!" cried Moise. "On sh.o.r.e, queek!"

Swiftly they paddled across, to the north side of the river, where presently they were joined by the other boat.

"She's the Parle Pas, all right," laughed Moise; "look at heem!"

From their place of observation they could see a long ridge, or rim, the water falling in a sort of cascade well out across the stream.

There seemed to be a chute, or channel, in midstream, but the back-combing rollers below it looked ominously large for a boat the size of theirs, so that they were glad enough to be where they were, on dry land.

Moise was once more for running the boats through the chute on the north sh.o.r.e, but Alex's cautious counsel prevailed. There was not more than thirty or forty feet of the very worst water, rather a cascade than a long rapid, but they discharged the cargo and lined both boats through light. This sort of work proved highly interesting and exciting to all hands, and, of course, when superintended by such men as Alex and Moise had no great danger, although all of them were pretty wet when at length they had their boats reloaded at the foot of the rapids.

"I know how Sir Alexander got across the mountains," said John. "He had good _voyageurs_ to do the work! About all he had to do was to write the story each night, and he didn't do that any too well, it seems to me--anyhow, when you come to read his story backward you can't tell where you are very well."

"That's right," said Rob. "I don't much blame Simon Fraser for finding fault with Mackenzie's narrative. But maybe if we had written the story they'd have found fault with us the same way. The same country doesn't look alike to different people, and what is a mile to one man may be two miles to another when both are guessing. But anyhow, here we are below the 'Polly' rapids--as the traders call them to-day--and jolly glad we ought to be we're safe, too."

"Plain sailing again now for a while," said Jesse. "Let's see the map."

They all bent over the different maps they had, especially one which Rob had made up from all the sources of information he had.

"Yes," said Rob, "it ought to be about sixty miles of pretty good water now until we get to the one place on this river which the boldest _voyageur_ never tried to run--the Canon of the Rocky Mountains, as the very first travelers called it."

"Those map she'll not been much good," said Moise, pointing to the government maps of which Rob had a store. "The only good map she'll been made by the Injun with a stick, s'pose on the sand, or maybe so on a piece of bark. My onkle she'll made me a map of the Parle Pas.

He'll show the place where to go through the middle on the Parle Pas.

S'pose you'll tell my onkle, Moise he'll walk down the Parle Pas an'

not ron on heem, he'll laugh on me, heem! All right, when you get to the Grand Portage sixty miles below, you'll get all the walk you want, Alex, _hein_?"

Alex answered him with a pleasant smile, not in the least disposed to be laughed into taking any risks he did not think necessary.

"We'd better drop down a few miles farther before we make camp," said he. "_En avant, Moise. En roulant, ma boule!_"

Moise turned to his paddle and broke into song gaily as they once more headed down the stream. They did not tarry again until the sun was behind the western ridges. The mountain shadows were heavy when at last their little fire lighted up the black forest which crowded close in all around them.

"I think this is fine," said Jesse, quietly, as they sat about the camp-fire that night.

"I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world," said John; and Rob gave his a.s.sent by a quiet nod of satisfaction.