254 Topographical Notices. 



proportionate wheel and pinion, would be sufficient to tow 

 up any vessel likely to be used on the river. To prevent 

 delays from repairs^ two A'* heels could be made use of, 

 which might both be placed on the same race. 



Above the Chenmuv, the navigation is good, though with 

 considerable current, for five or six miles, to the Portage 

 du Fort, at which is the commencement of a chain of 

 rapids, forming the principal obstacle to be overcome in 

 the improvement of the Ottawa. First at this portage is a 

 heavy, though not a continued rapid, for about a mile; a 

 league, or so, more of hard paddling, brings us to the des 

 Sables Portage, only a few hundred feet in length, ])ast a 

 short rapid, easily run down by canoes. Below this, the 

 river forms two channels, enclosing the Grand Calumet 

 island, — the south, and by all accounts, the largest division, 

 is called the Rocher Fendu. It is seldom followed by 

 canoes, on account of its rapids being spread over a much 

 greater space than on the north channel On the latter 

 about a mile above the Sables, is the mountain! fall, about 

 ten feet high and two hundred feet in breadth, a heavy body 

 of water descending in a smooth unbroken sheet, with a 

 short rapid below. The portage is hardly a quarter of a 

 mile, and notwithstanding the name, there is no eminence 

 of any consequence near it. A mile farther, with a mode- 

 rate current, is the Derange rapid, a strong rush of water 

 for rather more than a furlong, which, however, canoes 

 rundown. Beyond this, about three quarters of a mile, is 

 the Grand Calumet rapid, the least and longest in the 

 range, and in which are several falls. The portage is a 

 full mile in length, uneven and rocky. The extent of all 

 these rapids, by the course of the river, which is very 

 circuitous, appears to be about eight miles. I could form 



