OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



265 



vertical line, the width of the stream is still narrowed to about forty yards, 1 822 - 

 and then, as if mustering its whole force previous to its final descent, is pre- ^^s. 

 cipitated in one vast continuous sheet of water almost perpendicular for 

 ninety feet more. So nearly, indeed, is the rock perpendicular, that we were 

 enabled to let down a sounding lead and line, for the purpose of measuring 

 its actual height, while a man descended from crag to crag with a second line 

 attached to him, to see when the lead touched the water below. The dashing 

 of the water from such a height, produced the usual accompaniment of a cloud 

 of spray, broad columns of which were constantly forced up, like the suc- 

 cessive rushes of smoke from a vast furnace, and on this, near the top, a vivid 

 iris or rainbow was occasionally formed by the bright rays of an unclouded 

 sun. " The roaring of the mountain-cataract," which constitutes a principal 

 feature of the sublime in scenery of this magnificent nature, was here almost 

 deafening, and as we were able to approach the head of the fall, even as 

 close as a single yard, the very rock seemed to suffer a concussion under our 

 feet. The basin that receives the water at the foot of the fall is nearly of a 

 circular form, and about four hundred yards in diameter, being rather wider 

 than the river immediately below it. The fall is about three-quarters of a 

 mile above our landing-place, or two miles and a quarter from the entrance of 

 the river. 



After remaining nearly an hour, fixed as it were to the spot by the no- 

 velty and magnificence of the scene before us, we continued our walk up- 

 wards along the banks ; and after passing the two smaller cataracts, found the 

 river again increased in width to above two hundred yards, winding in the most 

 romantic manner imaginable among the hills, and preserving a smooth and un- 

 ruffled surface for a distance of three or four miles that we traced it to the 

 south-west above the fall. What added extremely to the beauty of this 

 picturesque river, which Captain Lyon and myself named after our mutual 

 friend, Mr. Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, was the richness of the 

 vegetation on its banks, the enlivening brilliancy of a cloudless sky, and 

 the animation given to the scene by several rein-deer that were grazing 

 beside the stream. Our sportsmen were fortunate in obtaining four of these 

 animals; but we had no success with the seines, the ground proving alto- 

 gether too rocky to use them with advantage or safety. The eider-ducks 

 were here tolerably numerous, and we also met with some black-throated 

 divers, golden plovers, and snow-buntings. On first entering the river two 



2 m 



