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 snug harbour named 
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 
