5o8 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS. 



B. Young and D. M. Cole were in one boat ; W. R. 

 Smith and Austin Gary, who was chief of the exploring 

 party, in the other. 



Twenty-five miles from the mouth of the river the first 

 falls were reached. They make a descent of 70 feet in 

 two leaps, and necessitate a portage up a steep ascent of 

 210 feet, then half a mile through woods, and finally a 

 descent to the river of 140 feet. With much labor this 

 portage was accomplished in four hours. A cache of 

 provisions was made below the falls. Then the struggle 

 began. Up to this point the current had been easy and 

 the river about a mile wide ; but above the falls the river 

 narrowed somewhat and the current became swifter, so 

 that tracking was rendered necessary at times. This 

 was no small labor, as the banks are rugged and jagged 

 rocks, bowlders and fallen timber obstructed the way 

 of the trackers. After a struggle of forty miles of this 

 sort the Gull Island Rapids presented a still more serious 

 difficulty in the way of tracking. Here the boats h?id.to 

 be lightened and guided through a short but extremely 

 difficult rapid — a slow and laborious task. For a dis- 

 tance of fifteen miles above, the river flowed very swiftly 

 between high wooded banks, rendering rowing very 

 often impossible and tracking difficult. 



After this the next hard work was in the Horseshoe 

 Rapids. In these a most unfortunate accident happened 

 to one of the boats. While tracking around a turn the 

 boat in charge of Gary and Smith was over-turned, the 

 keel and sharp prow ill adapting it to such rapid water. 

 A large part of the provisions, cooking utensils, the shot- 

 gun, the barometer, and a revolver were lost. But though 

 crippled the party were undismayed and pushed on up 



