48 SAGUENAY RIVER. 



point on the northeast, and Lark point composed of low clay cliffs 

 on the southwestern side, from each of which dangerous reefs pro- 

 ject into the St. Lawrence. These reefs leave an entrance into the 

 Saguenay only three-quarters of a mile wide, though nowhere less 

 than ten or eleven fathoms deep." 



He then goes on to say, "That this extraordinary river, which was 

 imperfectly known until the late surveys, is as remarkable for the great 

 volume of water whicli it brings down to the St. Lawrence, as for 

 the enormous depth of its bed, which is fully one hundred fathoms 

 lower than that of the St. Lawrence. It comes from the lake St. 

 John, and at Cliicoutimi, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, which is sixty-five miles above its mouth, it becomes naviga- 

 ble, and six miles above which, to the rapids, the tide ascends. To 

 point Roches, fifty-seven miles from the St. Lawrence, and eight 

 miles below Chicoutimi, it is navigable for the largest ships, and up 

 to this part there is no danger in the river ; the shores consist of 

 steep precipices, some of the headlands rising more than a thou- 

 sand feet in height. 



"The current runs down with great force, the ebb tide varying from 

 three to five knots according to the breadth of the river, which is 

 from two-thirds of a mile to two miles. Tadousac, which is on 

 the eastern shore, is about one and one-half miles, within the 

 entrance of the river, and was formerly the principal post of the 

 French for trading with the Indians. It now belongs to the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company. The harbor is abreast the settlement, and is 

 well sheltered :" but for the scientific value of the facts it would 

 be needless to add that "a heavy anchor should be cast close in 

 shore on account of the eddies which sometimes set into it from 

 the river. 



"Fronting the mouth of the river there is a kind of bar upon 

 which are twelve, twenty, and twenty-eight fathoms, but immedi- 

 ately within the depth increases to above one hundred, and a little 

 farther up to one hundred and fifty fathoms. The current setting 

 strongly over the bar, meeting with the spring ebbs of the St. Law- 

 rence, causes breaking and whirling eddies and ripplings ; and these 



