34 A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



surprise than the alacrity with which they perform these laborious 

 duties. 



At six on the morning of the 21st, we left our encampment, and 

 soon after arrived at the Mossy Portage, where the cargoes were 

 carried through a deep bog for a quarter of a mile. The river swells 

 out, above this portage, to the breadth of several miles, and as the 

 islands are numerous there are a great variety of channels. Night 

 overtook us before we arrived at the Second Portage, so named from 

 its being the second in the passage down the river. Our whole 

 distance this day was one mile and a quarter. 



On the 2 2d our route led us amongst many wooded islands, which 



we sue- 



lying in long vistas, produced scenes of much beauty. In the 

 of the day we crossed the Upper Portage, surmounted the Devil's 

 Landing Place, and urged the boat with poles through Groundwater 

 Creek. At the upper end of this creek, our bowman having given 

 the boat too broad a sheer, to avoid the rock, it was caught on the 

 broadside by the current, and, in defiance of our utmost exertions, 

 hurried down the rapid. Fortunately, however, it grounded against 

 a rock high enough to prevent the current from oversetting it, and 

 the crews of the other boats having come to our assistance 

 ceeded, after several trials, in throwing a rope to them, with which 

 they dragged our almost sinking vessel stern foremost up the stream, 

 and rescued us from our perilous situation. We encamped in the 

 dusk of the evening amidst a heavy thunder-storm, having advanced 

 two miles and three quarters. 



About ten in the morning of the 23d we arrived at the Dram- 

 stone, which is hailed with pleasure by the boats' crews, as marking 

 the termination of the laborious ascent of Hill River. We complied 

 with the custom from whence it derives its name, and soon after land- 

 ing upon Sail Island prepared breakfast. In the mean time our boat- 

 men cut down and rigged a new mast, the old one having been 

 thrown overboard at the mouth of Steel River, where it ceased to be 



