THE ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH. 
265 
ing, climbing over or about the rocks. I hastened along, 
hallooing and searching for him, thinking he might be 
concealed behind a rock, yet doubting if he had not taken 
the other side of the precipice, but the Indian had got 
along still faster in his canoe, till he was arrested by the 
falls, about a quarter of a mile below. He then landed, 
and said that we could go no farther that night. The 
sun was setting, and on account of falls and rapids we 
should be obliged to leave this river and carry a good 
wav into another farther east. The first thing then was 
to find my companion, for I was now very much alarmed 
about him, and I sent the Indian along the shore down 
stream, which began to be covered with unburnt wood 
again just below the falls, while I searched backward 
about the precipice which we had passed. The Indian 
showed some unwillingness to exert himself, complaining 
that he was very tired, in consequence of his day’s work, 
that it had strained him very much getting down so 
many rapids alone; but he went off calling somewhat like 
an owl. I remembered that my companion was near¬ 
sighted, and I feared that he had either fallen from the 
precipice, or fainted and sunk down amid the rocks be¬ 
neath it. I shouted and searched above and below this 
precipice in the twilight till I could not see, expecting 
nothing less than to find his body beneath it. For half 
an hour I anticipated and believed only the worst. I 
thought what I should do the next day, if I did not 
find him, what I could do in such a wilderness, and how 
his relatives would feel, if I should return without him. 
I felt that if he were really lost away from the river 
there, it would be a desperate undertaking to find him; 
and where were they who could help you ? "What would 
it be to raise the country, where there were only two 
12 
