52 J GEOLOGICAL STJKVEY OF CANADA. 



feet above the water; these hills are bare on top, with small black- 

 spruce trees growing along their bases on the river bank, and in the 

 small valleys between the hills. The rock surface on the hills is cov- 

 ered with blackish lichens (tripe de roche), which gives it a dark pur- 

 ple color when seen from a distance. Below this gorge are two falls 

 fifteen and eight feet, half a mile apart ; these are passed by portages 

 of twenty-one and two chains respectively. Below these a similar 

 quiet stretch of three miles is passed, when the river suddenly turns 

 round the foot of a hill three hundred feet high, which stands directly 

 in the course. In passing this hill the river contracts and is broken 

 by a fall of thirty feet. The portage here is twenty-two chains long, 

 and passes up a valley between the hill and the highland on the west 

 side. 



Below this fall the river turns N. 60° W., and flows three miles and 

 three-quarters past a small branch from the west, called Ka-min-a- 

 squa-ga-ma-stick Eiver. At the end of this course another small 

 branch from the west also enters. The Indians, when coming from 

 inland by the river, to avoid the rough part immediately below, ascend 

 this branch some distance, then pass by a portage route through sev- 

 eral small lakes, and reach the river again seven miles below. For 

 four miles and three-quarters from the last course the river runs north 

 in a narrow valley between rocky hills, rising abruptly from 200 to 

 Seven portages. 400 feet above the water. In this distance no fewer than seven portages, 

 of fifteen, four, fifty-five, thirty, fifteen, seven and fifteen chains long, 

 are made past falls and rapids of six, five, sixty, thirty, eight, thirty- 

 five and twenty feet fall respectively. 



Immediately below these the river again turns north-west, and is a 

 continuous, shallow rapid for two mile 5 ; and a-half. This is very diffi- 

 cult to descend in canoes, on account of the great number of large 

 boulders which block the channel. 



At the foot of the rapid is the lower end of the Indian canoe route. 

 From here the river, with an average breadth of 100 yards, flows along- 

 at the rate of four miles per hour, between slightly lower hills, for five 

 miles on the same course, to its junction with the main or north 

 branch, which is 400 yards wide, and was seen flowing directly from 

 the west from the base of a range of hills upwards often miles distant. 

 Below the forks the river is over 400 yards wide, and flows to the 

 north for two miles and a-quarter. Here the stream contracts to about 

 fifty yards in width, and passes down through a canon, whose walls 

 rise perpendicularly 400 feet above the water. The total descent in 

 two miles is 230 feet. At the head of the canon are two falls of thirty 

 and sixty feet, with a third one of fifty feet one half mile below. The 

 rest of the descent is gradual, and consequently the pent up water 



