he falls to nearly east below. The canon begins at the pool and
extends as has been described, with many turns and windings, for
twenty-five miles through archaic rock. Above the falls in the wide
rapids, the bed was of the same rock, which seems to underlie the
whole plateau. In 1839, the falls were first seen by a white man, John
McLean, an officer of the Hudson Day Co., while on an exploring
expedition in that "great and terrible wilderness" known as Labrador.
His description is very general, but he was greatly impressed with the
stupendous height of the falls, and terms it one of the grandest
spectacles of the world. Twenty years later, one Kennedy, also an
employe of the Hudson Bay Co., persuaded an Iroquois Indian, who did
not share the superstitious dread of them common among the Labrador
Indians, to guide him to the thundering fall and misty chasm. He left
no account of his visit, however, and in fact, though one other man
reached them, and Mr. Holmes, an Englishman, made the attempt and
failed, no full account of the falls has been given to the world,
until Cary and Cole made their report. Above the falls as far as could
be seen, all was white water, indicating a fall of about one hundred
foot per mile. In the course of twenty-five or thirty miles there is a
descent of twelve hundred feet, nearly equal to the altitude of the
"Height of Land," as the interior plateau of Labrador is called, which
has probably been previously overestimated. The next forenoon was
spent in surveying and making what measurements could be made in the
absence of the instruments lost in the upset. At noon, after having
spent just twenty-four hours at Grand Falls, the party turned back.
The very fact of having succeeded, made distance shorter and fatigue
more easily borne, so they travelled along at a rattling pace,
surveying at times and little thinking of the disaster that had
befallen them. Camp was made on the river bank, beneath one of the
terraces which lined both sides.

Saturday Aug. 15th, the march back to the boat cache was resumed.
Towards night, as they approached the place, smoke was seen rising
from the ground, and fearing evil, the men broke into a run during the
last two miles. As Cary's journal puts it: "We arrived at our camp to
find boat and stores burnt and the fire still smoking and spreading.
Cole arrives first, and as I come thrashing through the bushes he sits
on a rock munching some burnt flour. He announces with