102 Up the Ottawa. 



of many second only to the Falls of Niagara. They are 

 forty feet in height and over two hundred in width, they are 

 situated near the centre of the river, and the waters that 

 flow over them are strongly compressed by rocks that stretch 

 out and impede tljem. In the great Chaudiere (or Caldron) 

 the sounding line has not found bottom at 300 feet. It is 

 supposed that similarly as at Niagara, there are subterranean 

 currents, which convey the immense mass of waters beneath 

 the river. In fact half a mile lower down it comes boiling 

 up again from the Kettles, which never freezes in the coldest 

 weather. Immediately below the falls the river is spanned 

 by an elegant and durable suspension bridge, which con- 

 nects Upper and Lower Canada, and from which a splendid 

 view of the foaming chasm is obtained. At the north-east 

 end of the city, are two other falls, over which the waters 

 of the Rideau River pour themselves with wild impetuosity 

 into the bosom of the Ottawa ; and although inferior to 

 the Chaudiere in point of sublimity and grandeur, they are 

 not without many attractions to the admirer of Nature's 

 works. Altogether the scenery round the city is of unsur- 

 passed beauty — wild, romantic, and picturesque, presenting 

 a variety rarely to be met with in any other part of the 

 Province. The commerce of Ottawa is constituted almost 

 wholly of lumber, both square and sawn, which passes 

 through the city from the forests in the rear. At this point 

 are the great timber slides, invented by the late Ruggles 

 Wright, Esq., of which we append the following description : 

 When a quantity of lumber is brought down to the falls, 

 a special contrivance called a "slide" or "shoot" is necessary 

 to get it past them, as the result of getting it over the falls 

 themselves would be simply to destroy the logs. For this 

 purpose then, a certain portion of the river is dammed off, 

 and turned into a broad wide channel of timber, and down 

 which artificial but most rapid of all rapids in America the 

 waters of the Ottawa rush at terrific speed. The head of 



