THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 151 
lakes connected by as many portages, and ends in an ex- 
pansion of the river immediately above the rapids leading 
to the falls. This route is over twenty miles in length, 
and more than one-fourth is on portages. To obtain a view 
of the falls, the river must be crossed at the end of the 
portages and the far bank descended past the rapids, where 
an excellent view may be obtained, from the top-of the wall 
enclosing the circular basin, into which the river falls. 
A descent may here be made into the canyon, with less 
difficulty and risk than are incurred in descents from the 
near bank. Our party, from what I can learn, was the 
only one to view the falls from that side. It must have 
been a great disappointment to the others, after their long 
trip, to have seen the falls only from the east side, where 
no adequate view can be obtained. This warning is in- 
tended especially for the visitor who might decide, owing 
to the difficulty of the portages, to leave his canoes at the 
lower end of the portages and tramp overland to the falls. 
The distance, between the lake expansion at the upper 
end of the portage route and the mouth of Bowdoin Canyon, 
is eight miles in a straight line running south-southeast. 
The river at the upper end of this line has an elevation of 
sixteen hundred and sixty feet above sea-level, a little 
below the general level of the surrounding country. Where 
it issues from the canyon into the main valley, it is nine 
hundred feet above the sea; there is thus a drop of seven 
hundred and sixty feet in a distance, by the river, of less 
than twelve miles. Considering the volume of the stream, 
estimated at fifty thousand cubic feet per second, this is a 
phenomenal descent. If the energy developed by the fall 
could be turned into work, it would produce the enormous 
