only really wild one on the
continent, will soon be extinct.

We were now on our boats again, and heading for the Chutes, as they
are called, the one obstruction to the navigation of Peace River
for over six hundred miles. We debarked at the head of the rapids
above the Grand Fall, and walked to their foot along a shelving
and slippery portage, skirting the very edge of the torrent. The
Crees call this Meatina Powistik--"The Real Rapid"--the cataract
farther on being the Nepegabaketik--"Where the Water Falls."

Returning to the "Decharge," I ran the rapids with Cyr and Baptiste
in one of the boats, a glorious sensation, reminding one, though
shorter, of the Grand Rapids of the Saskatchewan, the waves being
great, and the danger spiced by the tremendous vortex ahead. The
rapids are about four hundred yards in length, and extend quite
across the river, which is here of an immense width. A heavy but
brief rainstorm had set in, and it was some time before we could
reload and drop down to the head of the "Chaudiere," if I may call
it so, for the vortex much resembles the "Big Kettle" at Ottawa.
That night we spent in the York boat, its keel on the rocks and
painter tied to a tree, and, lulled by the roar of the cataract,
slept soundly until morning.

These falls cut somewhat diagonally across the river, the vortex
being at the right bank, and close in-shore, concentred by a limestone
shelf extending to the bank, flanked on the left, and at an acute
angle, by a deeply-indented reef of rock. Looking up the river,
the view to the west seems inclosed by a long line of trees, which,
in the distance, appear to stand in the water. Thence the vast
stream sweeps boldly into the south, and with a rush discharges
down the rapids, and straight over the line of precipice, in a
vast tumultuous greyish-drab torrent which speedily emerges into
comparatively still water below. The rock here is an exceedingly
hard, mottled limestone, resembling the stone at St. Andrew's
Rapids on Red River. Where exposed it is pitted or bitten into
by the endless action of wind and water, and lies in thick layers,
forming an irregular dyke all along the shore, over the surface
of which passes the portage, some forty yards in length. Though
short, it is a nasty one, running along a shelf of rock into which
great gaps have been gored by the torrent. Large quantities of
driftwood were stuck in the rapids above, and a big pile of it
had lodged at the south a