[ELLS & BARLOW | PROPOSED OTTAWA CANAL 167 
tinuous navigation. Ten miles above the Capitaine the three rapids 
known as the Trou, the Deux Riviéres and L’Eveillé occur, extending 
for three miles, with a total descent of thirty-two feet. Between this 
and the junction with the Mattawa River three obstructions occur, viz., 
the Rocky Farm Rapid, with a rise of eight feet in five miles ; Johnson’s 
Rapid, with a rise of four feet in half a mile, and the Mattawa Rapids, 
with a rise of three feet, the latter just below the confluence of the Mat- 
tawa and Ottawa. 
The Mattawa River though perhaps not the largest tributary of the 
Ottawa is nevertheless the most important and widely known. It may 
perhaps be best described as a succession of large deep lakes, united by 
comparatively narrow and shallow rocky streams. The total length from 
its junction with the Ottawa to the western end of Trout Lake which 
forms its head waters, in a straight line is about thirty-six miles, while 
following the course of the river this distance is increased to forty miles. 
The course is in general nearly east and west, following very much the 
same valley occupied by the Ottawa below the confluence of the two 
streams. At the junction, the Ottawa which above this has pursued an 
almost due southerly course turns abruptly to one not many degrees south 
of east, which course is maintained for a considerable distance below this 
point. The streams come together at the elbow thus formed, the Mattawa 
curving sharply northward at its immediate junction with the main 
stream. The mouth of the Mattawa comes out on a low flat point com- 
posed of sand, gravel and boulders. The southern bank of the river pro- 
jects in a long narrow point which at low water stretches almost completely 
across the Ottawa leaving only a narrow though deep channel close to 
the base of the almost perpendicular cliffs of the northeastern shore. The 
position of this bar and the size and character of the material composing 
it, as well as its resemblance to other ridges of boulders which cross the 
Ottawa in many places throughout its course, would seem to indicate 
rather clearly its “ morainic ” origin. 
This obstruction causes a considerable rapid. which, with an accom- 
panying swift current below, gives a fall of about five feet. The loose 
material causing the rapid next mentioned has doubtless been consider- 
ably modified, since its deposition, by alluvial action ; and a rather well 
defined channel, which must formerly have served as an outlet for the 
water coming down from the west, runs through the flat point on which 
the village of Mattawa is built, reaching the Ottawa at the foot of the 
‘apid just mentioned and about a mile below its present mouth. 
Ascending the Mattawa, rapid water is encountered almost at once, 
the stream here flowing over a shallow bouldery bed. This, together with 
a small rapid a little over a mile above at the outlet of Boom Lake, gives 
a fall in the river of about two feet. 
Boom Lake, the first expansion reached, is only about a mile and a 
