t TH£ RAPIDS. 
'hut after proceeding- in them for about two 
miles, we again landed to escape the tedious 
process of ascending fresh rapids. These are 
called .the rapids f<r du Coteau du Lac St. 
Francois ft’ they are several miles in length,, 
and though not the most dangerous; are yet the 
most tremendous to appearance of any in the 
whole river, the white breakers being distinctly 
visible at the distance of four miles/; some tra¬ 
vellers have gone so far as to represent them as 
even more terrible to the beholder than the 
falls of Niagara,’ but this is a very exaggerated 
account. Boats are. here carried down-with 
( 
the stream at the rate of fourteen or fifteen 
miles an hour, according to the best infor¬ 
mation I could procure on the subject; though 
the Canadian boatmen and others declare that 
they are carried down at toe rate of twenty 
Hides in the hour. At some of the rai 
higher up the river, the current is con si* 
swifter than at this place. 
In descending these rapids they pass through 
the breakers in the middle of thevriver, but in 
going up they keep close in to the shore, on 
the north-west side, and being here 
b j a numerous duster .of if 
the force, of the-current and' having the ■be¬ 
nefit, of a short canal and locks, they get past 
the'rapids with .less difficulty even than they 
pass the cascades. One'of the islands- here, 
b 2 
