Portage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Portage (disambiguation).

Portage refers to the practice of carrying a canoe or other boat over land to avoid an obstacle on the water route (such as rapids in a river), or between two water routes. Places where this carring occurs are also called portage.

Over time, depending on the importance of the portages, they were sometimes upgraded to canals with locks, and even portage railways. Portaging generally required unloading the vessel and carrying vessel and contents across the portage in multiple trips. Voyageurs would often employ a tump line on their forehead to carry a load armfree on their back. Small canoes can be portaged by carrying them inverted over one's shoulders and the center brace may be designed in the style of a yoke to facilitate this.

Places where portaging occurred often became temporary and then permanent settlements and the settlements sometimes were named for being on a portage, particularly in North America. Some places so named are:

There is also the settlement of Volokolamsk in Russia, whose name is derived from "portage on Lama River.

See also

Personal tools
In other languages