RAPIDS. 
carried into them. Some of these Rapids are many miles in length, and 
the sensation of sailing doivn hill is said to be most singular. The boat 
moves with such fearful rapidity that no one can look at it from the shore 
without shuddering, and yet the danger is more apparent than real, for 
accidents seldom occur, and even by ladies the descent of the Rapids is 
regarded as one of the common modes of travelling. 
In ascending the Rapids on the river St. Lawrence, flat-bottomed 
boats made of pine boards are used : they are narrow at the bow and stern, 
and are about forty feet long, and six feet across the centre. Each boat 
carries about five tons, and is navigated by four men and a pilot. Four 
or five such boats generally form a party, and in them all the merchan- 
dize destined for Upper Canada is conveyed. When the current is very 
strong, the men propel the boat by means of poles about nine feet long, 
shod with iron, which they press against the bed of the river. This is 
extremely hard work, and often has to be continued for hours together. 
But in some parts the Rapids are too strong to allow them to proceed in 
this way, and almost every hour, when melting with heat and fainting 
with fatigue, the boatmen are compelled to jump into the water, fre- 
quently up to their shoulders, and tow the boat along by main strength, 
leaving only the helmsman on board. In this way they are about ten 
days in performing a journey of one hundred and twenty miles. There 
are several Rapids between Montreal and Prescott, some of which are 
about nine miles in length, and though they are seldom ascended in less 
than a day, boats have been known to descend through their whole length 
in fifteen minutes. 
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Large rivers are usually divided by geographers into three portions, 
which are called their upper, middle, and lower courses. The upper 
course of a river is often situated among mountains at a great height 
above the level of the sea. When the elevation of the mountain region 
rapidly decreases, the current of the river moves with great swiftness, 
forming either rapids or cataracts ; the former occurring when the bed 
of the river is continuous, though steep ; and the latter when it is broken 
by sudden and precipitous rocks, over which the water descends by a 
leap. The middle course of a river generally lies among hills, and the 
lower course through a plain, where a very gentle slope conveys the waters 
to the ocean. 
The Rapids and Cataracts of the upper course of a river generally pre- 
vent all navigation ; and when Rapids occur, as is sometimes the case, 
in the middle course, they occasion great inconvenience. In some of the 
rivers of America, Rapids are seen from a great distance by the dashing 
of white foam, resembling the tossing of the ocean. People descend 
the Rapids in long boats made for the purpose. On approaching them 
the boat gradually increases in speed, until it is hurried away by the wa- 
ters at a fearful rate. When the bottom is very rocky, the speed is some- 
what checked by eddies ; but the waves frequently strike the boat with 
such violence as to threaten its immediate destruction. When the water 
is very transparent, the pointed rocks have an alarming appearance; 
for they seem to be close to the surface. In some Rapids there are 
channels called " lost channels," from the accidents which have happened 
in them, and it often requires great skill to prevent the boat being 
