86 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



where they project. On the other side, where the descending sheet 

 is less broken, the rich umber color of the stream tinges the foam 

 half-way down. 



The niime Kakabeka was explained by some of the men to mean 

 " straight down :" i. e., falls par excellence, it being the most consid- 

 erable waterfall in this region. 



In the afternoon our friends of the " Dancing Feather," who had 

 determined to return to the Sault by way of the south shore, made 

 haste to depart, as we had appointed the loth of August to meet at 

 the Sault, and they had much the longer way to go. Mr. Macken- 

 zie left us at the same time. 



The Professor this afternoon invited some of us to make the at- 

 tempt with him to push up the stream as far as a small island at the 

 foot of the Falls, in order to see them from below. For a short dis- 

 tance we got along very well, taking advantage of a counter-current 

 near the opposite bank. Soon, however, this assistance failed us, 

 and we were exposed to the full strength of the stream. For a 

 moment or so with all the men could do we could only hold our 

 own, and then began to go astern, but Jean Ba'tiste caught the 

 branch of a tree and checked the boat, and then jumping into the water 

 actually dragged her along, the rest straining their utmost with the 

 setting poles. The stream here was shallow, and hurried along with 

 great force, eddying and spouting into the air over the stones with 

 which the bottom is covered. For a moment or two it was a fair 

 struggle between muscle and the force of gravitation ; then we got 

 under the lee of the island, and without farther difficulty landed on 

 the lower end. The island consists merely of a heap of large angu- 

 lar stones, with a tuft of bushes in the middle. 



At the upper end we sat down on the rocks, with the falling hill of 

 water directly in front of us, its outline against the sky. Our posi- 

 tion was a favorable one for feeling the full force of the mass of 

 water, but did not command the whole of the fall, each side being 

 partially hidden by the projecting cliff. Indeed there is no position 

 from which the whole can be taken in at once. 



The distinguishing feature of these falls is variety. In the first 

 place each of the two side-falls has worn out for itself a deep semi- 

 circular chasm, which, with the foot of the cliff' projecting from below, 



