168 Thirty Years 
canoes ; and we were also in danger of breaking them, 
from the want of the long poles which lie along their 
“bottoms and equalize their cargoes, as they plunged 
very much, and on one occasion the first canoe was 
almost filled with the waves. But there was no re- 
ceding after we had once launched into the stream, 
and our safety depended on the skill and dexterity 
of the bowmen and steersmen. The banks of the 
river here are rocky, and the scenery beautiful ; con- 
sisting of gentle elevations and dales- wooded to the 
edge of the stream, and flanked on both sides at the 
distance of three or four miles by a range of round- 
backed barren hills, upwards of six hundred feet high. 
At the foot of the rapids the high lands receded to a 
greater distance, and the river flowed with a more_ 
gentle current, in a wider channel, through a level 
and open country consisting of alluvial sand. In one 
place the passage was blocked up by drift ice, still 
covered to some depth with snow. A channel for the 
canoes was made for some way with the hatchets and 
poles ; but on reaching the more compact part we 
were under the necessity of transporting the canoes 
and cargoes across it; an operation of much hazard, 
as the snow concealed the numerous holes which the 
water had made in the ice. This expansion of the 
river being mistaken by the guide for a lake, which 
he spoke of as the last on our route to the sea, we 
