or eighty
feet, hem in the stream for three quarters of a mile, in many places so
narrowly, that there is a want of room to ply the oars. In passing
through this chasm we were naturally led to contemplate the mighty but,
probably, slow and gradual effects of the water in wearing down such
vast masses of rock; but in the midst of our speculations, the attention
was excited anew to a grand and picturesque rapid, which, surrounded by
the most wild and majestic scenery, terminated the defile. The brown
fishing-eagle had built its nest on one of the projecting cliffs. In the
course of the day we surmounted this and another dangerous portage,
called, the Upper and Lower Hill Gate Portages, crossed a small sheet of
water, termed the White Fall Lake, and entering the river of the same
name, arrived at the White Fall about an hour after sunset, having come
fourteen miles on a S.W. course.

The whole of the 2d of October was spent in carrying the cargoes over a
portage of thirteen hundred yards in length, and in launching the empty
boats over three several ridges of rock which obstruct the channel and
produce as many cascades. I shall long remember the rude and
characteristic wildness of the scenery which surrounded these falls;
rocks piled on rocks hung in rude and shapeless masses over the agitated
torrents which swept their bases, whilst the bright and variegated tints
of the mosses and lichens, that covered the face of the cliffs,
contrasting with the dark green of the pines which crowned their
summits, added both beauty and grandeur to the scene. Our two
companions, Back and Hood, made accurate sketches of these falls. At
this place we observed a conspicuous _lop-stick_, a kind of land-mark,
which I have not hitherto noticed, notwithstanding its great use in
pointing out the frequented routes. It is a pine-tree divested of its
lower branches, and having only a small tuft at the top remaining. This
operation is usually performed at the instance of some individual
emulous of fame. He treats his companions with rum, and they in return
strip the tree of its branches, and ever after designate it by his name.

In the afternoon, whilst on my way to superintend the operations of the
men, a stratum of loose moss gave way under my feet, and I had the
misfortune to slip from the summit of a rock into the river betwixt two
of the falls. My attempts to regain the bank were, for a time
ineffectual, owing to the rocks within my reach hav