OF THE POLAR SEA. 157 



upon the Bear Lake Portage. They promised, 

 however, to get it conveyed to the banks of this 

 river before we could return, and we rewarded 

 them with a present of knives and files. 



After re-embarking we continued to descend 

 the river, which was now contracted between lofty 

 banks to about one hundred and twenty yards 

 wide ; the current was very strong. At eleven we 

 came to a rapid, which had been the theme of dis- 

 course with the Indians for many days, and which 

 they had described to us as impassable in canoes. 

 The river here descends for three quarters of a 

 mile, in a deep, but narrow and crooked, channel, 

 which it has cut through the foot of a hill of five 

 hundred or six hundred feet high. It is confined 

 between perpendicular cUffs resembling stone 

 walls, varying in height from eighty to one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet, on which lies a mass of fine 

 sand. The body of the river pent within this 

 narrow chasm, dashed furiously round the pro- 

 jecting rocky columns, and discharged itself at the 

 northern extremity in a sheet of foam. The 

 canoes, after discharging part of their cargoes, 

 ran through this defile without sustaining any in- 

 jury. Accurate sketches of this interesting scene 

 Were taken by Messrs. Back and Hood. Soon 

 after passing this rapid, we perceived the hun- 

 ters running up the east side of the river, to pre- 



