450 OUR PROGRESS ARRESTED BY THE FALLS. 



vious examination, without which precaution 

 we dared not stir a yard ; still the rapids in- 

 creased in number and difficulty, until at last 

 a deep and perpendicular fall, (which I have 

 named after Capt. Anderson, R. A.), rushing 

 between mountainous rocks into a vast chasm, 

 stopped all further progress. The steersmen, 

 unwilling to be arrested even by such obstacles, 

 went some distance farther, but soon returned 

 with an account of more falls and cascades. To 

 convey the boat over so rugged and mountain- 

 ous a country, most of the declivities of which 

 were coated with thin ice, and the whole hidden 

 by snow, so as to render mere walking difficult 

 enough, was obviously impossible ; and though 

 it was annoying to be forced to leave her, yet, as 

 there was no alternative, she was safely hauled 

 up among some willows and secured, until she 

 could be brought away on sledges in the fol- 

 lowing spring. A cache was also made of the 

 sails, meat, &c, a great part of which, as was 

 afterwards found, was destroyed by the wolve- 

 reens, which, apparently out of mischief, cut 

 the towing line into short lengths of from one 

 to two feet, tore the sails and covering into 

 rags, and so gnawed a bag that the two hun- 

 dred balls it contained were strewed about, and 

 most of them lost. There is, in fact, no guard- 

 ing against these animals; their strength, as 



