At the Maductic Falls its channel is again nearly choked up with rocks.
The navigation, however, is not totally interrupted, for rafts, boats,
and small craft in their descent are run through the falls by persons
well acquainted with the channel; and in their ascent they are towed
through with men or horses, and but few accidents happen, considering
the numbers that navigate the river.

As the bed of the river is frequently encumbered with rocks and
sand-bars, the navigation is very difficult at the dry time of the
year. The current is likewise swift in many places, and rapids are
frequent, till within six miles of Fredericton, where they end.

About nine miles above Fredericton the river suddenly widens and
receives the Madam-Keswick. Here is a group of fertile islands, some of
which are over a mile in length, and nearly as broad. At Fredericton
the river is about three quarters of a mile wide, and flows with a
beautiful unbroken current to the falls near the City of Saint John.--A
number of fine Islands are scattered in different parts of its bed.
These Islands are composed of rich alluvial soil, and produce large
crops of grass and grain. Being formed by the washings of the river,
they are like garden spots scattered through the country. About nine
miles from St. John the river widens into a bay nearly six miles long
and three wide. The river Kennebeckasis falls into this bay. At the
foot of the bay it suddenly contracts, and winds through a crooked
passage called the narrows, and again opens and forms a small bay
directly above the falls. Here the current is again broken by a bed of
rocks, and suddenly contracted by the near approach of the banks which
appear to have been formerly united and forced asunder by some
convulsion of nature. From the appearance of the rocks on each side it
is probable that the water having been pent up in the small bay just
noticed, have in their efforts to escape undermined the land and rocks
at this place, and forced a subterraneous passage, which by wearing,
aided by some violent concussion, has caused the rocks to fall in, when
the earth being washed away by the rapidity of the current, has left
the present passage open, and that the split-rock and the bed of the
channel is part of the former overhanging rocks.

For that the bed of the channel consists of cragged rocks of various
shapes and sizes, is evident from the whirlpools and eddies at that
place. These falls make a tremendo