THE SAGUENAY. 173 



moment it would fall and overwhelm the deep black stream 

 which flows so cold, so deep and motionless down below. 

 High up, on its rough gray brows, a few stunted pines show 

 like bristles their scathed white arms, giving an awful weird 

 aspect to the mass, blanched here and there by the tempests 

 of ages, stained and discolored by little waterfalls in blotchy 

 and decaying spots. Unlike Niagara, and all other of God's 

 great works in nature, one does not wish for silence or soli- 

 tude here. Companionship becomes doubly necessary in an 

 awful solitude like this, and though you involuntarily talk 

 in subdued tones, still talk you must, if only to relieve your 

 mind of the feeling of loneliness and desolation which seems to 

 weigh on all who venture up this stern, grim, watery chasm. 



"The 'Flying Fish' passed under this cape with her 

 yards almost touching the rock, though with more than a 

 thousand feet of water under her. In a minute after, one of 

 the largest 68-pounders was cast loose and trained aft to face 

 the cliff. From under its overhanging mass the ' Flying 

 Fish' was moved with care lest any loose crag should be 

 sufficiently disturbed by the concussion to come down bodily 

 upon her decks. A safe distance thus gained, the gun was 

 fired ! For the space of half a minute or so after the dis- 

 charge there was ' a dead silence, and then, as if the report 

 and concussion were hurled back upon the decks, the echoes 

 came down crash upon crash. It seemed as if the rocks and 

 crags had all sprung into life under the tremendous din, and 

 as if each was firing 68-pounders full upon us, in sharp, 

 crushing volleys, till at last they grew hoarser and hoarser in 

 their anger, and retreated bellowing slowly, carrying the tale 

 of invaded solitude from hill to hill, till all the distant moun- 

 tains seemed to roar and groan at the intrusion. 



" A few miles further on is Statue Point, where, at about 

 1000 feet above the water, a huge, rough, Gothic arch gives 

 entrance to a cave in which, as yet, the foot of man has never 

 trodden. Before the entrance to this black aperture a gigantic 

 rock, like the statue of some dead Titan, once stood. A few 



