Portage la Prairie,

Portage la Prairie, the market-town of a rich agricultural district in Manitoba, on the Assiniboine River, 56 miles by rail W. of Winnipeg. It has flour-mills and grain-elevators, a brewery, a biscuit-factory, a paper-mill, &c. Pop. 3600.—In North America portage (from Fr. porter, 'to carry') means a place where boats or canoes have to be carried past rapids or across between one navigable stream and another.