were passed over by hand or on sled; next Nequaquon Lake seventeen
miles long although owing to the sinuosities of the channel it was really
twenty. Here was a very good launch, but the barge had an open exposed
deck; then Nequaquon portage three miles and a quarter long, which
seems to have been a stopping place, for here were small wharves, with
sheds for goods, and a house for emigrants; then fifteen miles nominally,
twenty-one really, then Lake Namekan, and Kettle Falls at the head of
Rainy Lake was reached. This was another station with an emigrant
house, a small store house, two log houses and a wharf, and to protect
it from being destroyed by a forest fire several acres of bush had been
cleared around it. The portage from Kettle Falls to the Lake proper
was only twenty chains in length.

Long and narrow Rainy 'Lake presented a run of forty-five miles and
was by no means an easy proposition as at its foot there were two rapids
in close succession. The steam launch here was a good one, being a
hundred feet keel and nineteen feet beam, but in one of the rapids she
had constant difficulty as it took all her power to enable her to breast
the rough current. Sometimes the rapid would be the victor and the
launch would be swept back, to get up a little more steam and make a
fresh start. To avoid this trouble row boats were at last used.

The next station was Fort Frances. Here the carrying place, or
portage, was again quite short. The buildings in 1874 were mere huts,
stable. but these contained a large amount of stock and plant consisting of tools
for blacksmiths and mechanical engineers, carpenters, boat-builders, etc.,
together with a stock of irons, chains, anchors and ropes.

From Fort Frances to Hungry Hall at the entrance to Lake of the
Woods, runs Rainy River, and the distance was 75 miles. About midway
was a bad rapid, not so much on account of the strength of the current
as of the boulders which lay thick in the stream. It was too dangerous
to attempt to run this rapid-the Long Sault-and the plan was adopted
of having a steamer at each end. The one from the Lake of the Woods
end came from what was known as the North West Angle, a distance of
fifty miles, to the Long Sault. Here was a whart and passengers were
put ashore, and made their way past the rapid to the other steamer. At
Fort Frances the big steamer, owing to shallow water, could not get
within two miles of the station, and so a small tug and a barge were
kept in readiness to land passengers and freight.

Here the water carriage and portaging ended. A wagon road 95 miles
long led to St. Boniface; opposite Winnipeg, on the Red River. On the
way there were stopping places, with good buildings and stables at Birch
River, Whitemouth River and Oak Point settlement, where the Manitoba
settler proper was first encountered.

It must be left to the reader's imagination to picture the exasperation
and hardship of a route like this, especially to the woman emigrant, if
only for the constant anxiety caused by the continued transfer of bag-
gage and household belongings, to say nothing of the worry about