126 



is contracted to about half a mile; from thig 

 spot to the lower extremity of what is termed 

 the Sault or Rapide St. Louis, a distance of 

 nearly four miles, there is a gradual shelving 

 descent of its rocky bed. In passing through this 

 channel the stream acquires an irresistible im- 

 petus, and towards the lower part moves with 

 a velocity of 18 miles an hour, until it is sepa- 

 rated by some small islands below into several 

 channels. The incessant roar of the torrent, the 

 inconceivable rapidity with which unwieldy 

 bodies are hurried on as it were to inevitable 

 ruin, and the agitated surface of the water, 

 present a scene at once extraordinary, appal- 

 ling, and terrific. Boats and rafts coming down 

 the river are compelled to run through this tre- 

 mendous pass, that is never free from difficulty 

 and imminent hazard, although guided by ex- 

 perienced persons, who are always employed as 

 pilots, to whose skill may be attributed the sin- 

 gular good fortune that an accident has very 

 rarely occurred ; they are constrained to keep 

 as dose as possible to the southern shore, and 

 should anj mismanagement or error in steerage 

 unhappily take place, certain destruction would 

 ensue. 



La Salle (the seigniory of) consists of two 

 portions of land adjoining the rear boundaries 

 of the seigniories of Chateauguay and Sault St. 



