156 THE RAPIDS. 



canoes, a great many slaves, and scalp and plun- 

 der all they can lay hands on. 



For a distance of fourteen miles Discovery 

 Passage is much the same width, until reaching 

 Menzies Bay, where the rapids commence. At 

 the base of these rapids, the channel, barely a 

 quarter of a mile wide, suddenly opens out into 

 a large pond-like space. The tide rushes down 

 the narrow passage at the rate of ten knots an 

 hour, and to get up through it was as much 

 as our little steamer could accomplish. Panting 

 and struggling, and sometimes hardly moving, 

 at others she was carried violently against the 

 shore, until by slow degrees she breasted the 

 current and got safely through. I could not help 

 wondering how Captain Vancouver ever managed 

 to get his ship up this terrible place, so difficult 

 even when aided by the power of steam. 



Above the rapids the passage again widens to 

 Point Chatham, the north-west termination of 

 Discovery Passsge. We puff by Thurlow Island, 

 divided from Valdes Island by the Nodales 

 Canal, and anchor in a snus; harbour named 



' O 



Blenkinsop's Anchorage. We start again at sun- 

 up, the fifth morning since leaving Victoria. 

 As we steamed steadily along through John- 

 ston's Straits, I could recall to my remembrance 



