I 



OF THE POLAR SEA. 39 



whose rocky walls rising perpendicularly to the height of sixty or 

 eighty feet, hem in the stream for three quarters of a mile, in many 

 places so narrowly, that there is a want of room to ply the oars. In 

 passing through this chasm we were naturally led to contemplate the 

 mighty but, probably, slow and gradual effects of the water in wearing 

 down such vast masses of rock ; but in the midst of our speculations, 

 the attention was excited anew to a grand and picturesque rapid, 

 which, surrounded by the most wild and majestic scenery, terminated 

 the defile. The brown fishing-eagle had built its nest on one of the 

 projecting cliffs. In the course of the day we surmounted this and 

 another dangerous portage, called the Upper and Lower Hill Gate 

 Portages, crossed a small sheet of water, termed the White-Fall 

 Lake, and entering the river of the same name, arrived at the White 

 Fall about an hour after sunset, have come fourteen miles on a 

 S.W. course. 



The whole of the 2d of October was spent in carrying the cargoes 

 over a portage of thirteen hundred yards in length, and in launching 

 the empty boats over three several ridges of rock which obstruct the 

 channel and produce as many cascades. I shall long remember the 

 rude and characteristic wildness of the scenery which surrounded 

 these falls ; rocks piled on rocks hung in rude and shapeless masses 

 over the agitated torrents which swept their bases, whilst the bright 

 and variegated tints of the mosses and lichens, that covered the face 

 of the cliffs, contrasting with the dark green of thp pines, which 

 crowned their summits, added both beauty and grandeur to the ge- 

 neral effect of the scene. Our two companions, Back and Hood, 

 made accurate sketches of these falls. At this place we observed a 

 conspicuous lop-stick, a kind of land-mark, which I have not hitherto 

 noticed, notwithstanding its great use in pointing out the frequented 

 routes. It is a pine-tree divested of its lower branches, and having 

 only a small tuft at the top remaining. This operation is usually 

 performed at the instance of some individual emulous of fame. He 



