﻿1848. CHEST PORTAGE. 141 



half or two miles ; its bed is every where rocky, 

 and the rocks are apparently all primitive ; but as 

 the boat-route lies wholly through the eastern 

 channels, we had no opportunity of inspecting 

 the op230site shore closely. The islands are well 

 wooded, and the scenery picturesque. Some of 

 the narrower channels, which would be convenient 

 for the descent of boats, are blocked up by im- 

 mense rafts of drift timber, which have been ac- 

 cumulating for many years, and which could not 

 be set free without very great and long-continued 

 labour. Large flocks of pelicans have made their 

 nests on the more inaccessible rocks risino^ from 

 the brows of the cascades. In the evenins: we ran 

 down the Dog Rapid after lightening the boats, 

 and afterwards descended a second rapid, and then 

 encamped on a smooth granite rock early in the 

 evening, there not being time to complete the 

 Chest Portage before dark. 



Embarking at 3 a.m. on the 22d of July, we 

 descended a narrow channel to the Chest Portao^e 

 (^Portage de Cassette)^ where our five boats were 

 hauled over a pathway of four hundred and sixty- 

 five paces, and their cargoes carried. A rocky 

 chasm at this place, being one of the numerous 

 channels through which the water flows, encloses 

 a perpendicular cascade upwards of twenty feet 

 high ; beneath which an isolated column of rock 



