128 CANADIAN ENVIRONMENT OF THE OUANANICHE 



large masses of needle-shaped ice-floes which met the 

 canoes. One canoe upset, and two Indians were in 

 the water for nearly half an hour. The great falls of 

 the Hamilton River were reached and explored prior 

 to the going out of the ice, and numbers of beauti- 

 ful photographs obtained from all points, and also of 

 the ice-cones, etc. JSTo previous expedition could have 

 had a full view of the falls, as only when the river 

 is frozen can they be approached. In five miles the 

 river has a total fall of eight hundred feet. In the 

 centre of the drop there is a sheer vertical fall of three 

 hundred feet, and the river is generally as large as the 

 Ottawa. In a quarter of a mile there is a rise of seven 

 hundred feet in the portage leading to the head of the 

 falls. The cataract is confined within walls five hun- 

 dred to eight hundred feet in height and perfectly verti- 

 cal. In places below the falls the canon narrows to 

 some twenty to fifty feet in width, through which the 

 rush of water is indescribably grand. Near the foot of 

 the falls Mr. Low's party found remains of the boat, 

 the burning of which, by the carelessly left embers of 

 a camp-fire, inflicted such misery upon the members 

 of the Bowdoin College exploratory expedition. The 

 records of that expedition were discovered in a bottle 

 above the falls, and Mr. Low added to them those 

 of his party. The canon is gradually eating its way 

 back, and the glacial period of the world's history 

 has left undoubted marks upon the face of the 

 country. 



Exceedingly graphic is Mr. Low's description of the 

 picturesque canons discovered by his party on the 

 Caniapscow River, which is the principal tributary 



