nks being low
enough, however, to admit of the tracking-line being used, the men
landed and towed the canoe till they came to the foot of the most rapid
cascade they had yet seen. To ascend being impossible, they unloaded
and carried everything over a rocky point; relaunched, reloaded, and
continued to track with the line: but the dangers attending this
operation had now seriously increased, for stones both small and great
came continually rolling down the bank, and the steepness of the ground
was such that the risk of the men slipping and falling into the water
became imminent; besides which they had frequently to pass outside of
trees which overhung the precipices; at such times a false step or a
slip might have proved fatal. Presently they came to a sheer impassable
precipice, where the men had to embark and take to poling up the stream;
but ere long they got into water too deep for the poles, and recourse
was again had to the tracking-line. Coming to another precipice, they
were again checked; but Mackenzie, finding that the rock was soft, cut
steps in it for the distance of about twenty feet, and thus passing
along, leaped, at the risk of his life, on a small rock below, where he
received those who followed him on his shoulders. Thus four of them
passed, and managed to drag up the canoe, though they damaged her in
doing so. They had now reached a spot where the canoe could be
repaired, and fortunately found a dead tree which had fallen from the
cliffs above. But for this, fire could not have been kindled there, as
no wood was to be procured within a mile of the place; in which case the
repairs could not have been accomplished.

Thus yard by yard these hardy pioneers advanced by means of the line,
the paddle, or the pole, sometimes carrying the lading, sometimes the
canoe as well, and often within a hairbreadth of destruction. Indeed,
nothing but the coolness, courage, and skill of all concerned could,
under God, have brought them safely through the fatigues and dangers of
that tremendous day.

But they had not yet done with it. Having surmounted these and many
other difficulties, they reached a place where it became absolutely
necessary to make a traverse across an unusually strong current. Here
the men silently showed their estimate of the danger by stripping
themselves to their shirts, that they might be the better prepared to
swim for their lives, in case of accident to the canoe! Fortunately the
tra