g the river so as to hide most
part of it from the view of the observer. Trees and timber, which are
carried down the falls, are sometimes whirled round in the bason below
the precipice till they are ground to pieces; sometimes their ends are
tapered to a point, and at other times broken or crushed in different
places. Below the falls there is another small bay with a good depth of
still water, very convenient for collecting timber, &c. after it has
escaped through the falls. Here the canoes and boats from Fredericton
and different parts of the river land, and if bound for Madawaska they
are taken out of the water and carried or drawn, as well as their
loads, across the isthmus to the small bay above the falls before
mentioned, where they are again put in the water, and proceed without
any farther interruption to the upper settlements and the Canada line.
The distance of the portage, including the windings of the road up the
hill is about 100 rods from water to water. Flat bottomed boats, from
fifteen to twenty tons burthen, can come from St. John to this place,
which is a distance of about two hundred and twenty-three miles. No
larger craft than canoes have as yet been used above the falls. This
has not arisen from any defect in the river, which above the falls is
smooth and of sufficient depth for large vessels; but from the habits
of the French settlers, who are partial to canoes, which they set
through the rapids with poles at a great rate, and with which they
shoot the cataracts and rapids with great address.

About a mile below the landing place a succession of rapids commence.
The first from their appearance are called the white rapids. The banks
are here every high, and the water being pent up by a narrow channel,
rushes through the beds of rocks which nearly cross the river, and
whirling about in their passage are forced over and around the crags in
sheets of foam. A few miles below the falls the river is increased by
the junction of the Salmon, Restook, and Tobique rivers, which will be
noticed hereafter. It then continues its course without interruption,
receiving every few miles some considerable streams, till it reaches
the Maductic Falls. Its course is nearly south, and its width about a
quarter of a mile, occasionally widening and contracting from the Grand
Falls to Woodstock, where it widens to near a mile and forms several
fine Islands. It afterwards diminishes, and strips of intervale narrow
its bed.