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Show [ 174 ] 74 powers, that we would not have hesitate~ to leap a fall ?f ten feet with her. We put to shore for brea}dast at some wt~lows on the n~ht bank, immedi. ately below the mouth oi the cailon ; for 1t wns now _o clock, and we had been working since daylig~1t; an<l w.ere all wet, fatigued, an~ huncrry. Wl 1 ile the men were prrpanng break{ast I went out to recollnottre. The view was very limitod. The course·of the river was !';tllOoth, so far as I could see; on l.hJth ~iu.e~ were broken hills; aud but a mile or two below wa another high ridge. The r JCk at the month of theca ilon wrts still the dccornpo iug gt:a.nite, with great quantities of mica, which made a very glittering sand. \Ve re-cmbarkcu at 9 o'clock, and in about twenty minutes reached the next ca iloll. Landing on a rocky hore at its commencement, we ascended the ridge to recou noitro. Portage was ont of the que tion. Su f~.n a we conlu ·ee, the jag?"•'d rocks poiutcd out tlw course or t be calion, on a wind. ing line of seven or <·i~h t mil s. It was ~ imply a narrow, dark cha m in the rock; allU here the perpt' IH]icular faces were lllllCh higher than in the previous pass, being at this end two to three hundr 'cl all<l further down as we aft erwards ascertained, five hundred feet in v rtical hciu ht. Our pre· vions ~ ucccss had mac1e ns bold, and we determined agai11 to run the caiion. Every tiling was secured as firmly as possible; and having divested onr. selves of the greater part of our clothing, we pnslted into the stream. To s~nre onr cllrouollletur from accident, Mr. Preus took it, aud attempted to proceed along the shore on the masses of rock, which in places wen~ piled l~p on eithe1: ~ ide; but, after he had _wrtlked about fi. vc mi11nt •s, evrry thini hke shore d1sapp ared, aud the vertiCal wall came squa.r •Jy down into the water. lie th erefore waited uutil we came up . An ugly pass la.y before us. We had made fa t to the stern of the boat a strong rope about fifty feet long; and three of the men clambered aloug among the rocks, and with thi rope let her down .lowly through the pass. In several places high rock lay scat· tered about in tbc channel; and in the narrows it required all our trength unci. skill to avoid staving the boat on the sltarp poiuts. In oneol"thcsc,the boat proved a little too broad, and stuck fast Cor an instanr, while the water flew over u ; fortunately, it was but for an instant, ac::: our united trenath forced hc_r immediately through. The water swept ovnboard only a scxt~nt and a patr of saddlebag . I caught the sextallt as it passed by me; but the saddlebags hecame the prey of the whirlpools. We rcacltct.l the place where . 1\ lr. Pren s was tanding, took him on boanl, and, with tlw aid or the boat, put tltc men with the rope on the succeeding pile of rocks. \N e fonnd this pas age much worse tha11 the previous one,and our po::,ition was rather a bad one. To go back, was impossible; before n , the cataract was a sheet of foam; and shut up in the cltasm by the rocks, which, in some places, seemed alr:10st _to meet overheacl, the roar of the water was deafcniug. 'V'e pushed ofi agam ; but, after maki11g a little distance, the force of the current became too gr?at for the men on shore, aud two of th em let go the rope. Lujcuncsse, the thtrd man, hung ou, a11d was jerk d headforemo t iuto the river from a 1:ock a~)Ollt t wclve feet high ; and clown tbe boat hot like all arrow, Basil fo~low1t1g us in t_he rapid cnrr .nt, and exerting all his strc11gth to keep _in m1d channel-hts I:Ci1d 011ly cett occasionally like a black spot in the white foam. How ~ar we WCill, I clo not exactly know; bnt wr snccr.Nlcd in turn· mg tit ~ bo~t mto an .duy b.!low "'Cte /)ieu," !'aid Ba i. L:tjcunc.sc as ·IH~ arnved Ltnm<xliately aCtcr u...; "./e crois .'Ji<>n rur j'ai na,rc tnt demi mile." lie had owed his life to his skiit a3 a swimm~r. 'and J J:tennincd to take .. 75 [ 174 ] him and tl~e two others on boan], and trust to skill nnd fortune to reach the other en~ m safety. W c placed Ot~r elves on our knees, with the short pacl?Jcs t11 our hand. , the m?st lulfnl boatman being at the bow; and aaam we comntellC?d Ol1l" raptd desce11t. vyc cleared rock after lOck, i.lllU shot past fall after fall? om ltttlc boat secmmg to play with the c:1 taract. yv e became !l~1sh ecl wttll succr~s ~11<.1 farniliar with tltc danger; and, yieldmg to the exr~~em_cnt of the occaswn, broke forth togeth r into n Canadian bo~l so1~g. Stn~tug, or rather shouting, we daslwd c.ilOJtg; aml were, [ ~eheve? 111 the tmd t of tile ch?ms, w_ltetl the boat struck a conceulcu rock tmmo<.ltately at the foot of a fall, wluch wltirle(l her over iu an in 't::tnt. Three of my men conlcl.not wim, and my firs t feeling was to assist them, nml save some of our fleets; but a sharp concussion or two ron vi need me that I had uot yet ~~ved_ mysel f. i\. few 5trolcc brought me iuto an cd<ly anJ IJiatulc<l on a l!tlc o{ rocksou the left side. Looking arouml, I saw that Mr. I reuss hac~ gam ~ d tl:e shore 01! th? same sid<.', ahont twenty ynrLls below; and '~ lltt!c elnnb_tng and swtmmmg soon brourrht hirn to my. ide. Ou tl~e oppo tte std , ~gamst tlte wall, lay the boat bottom np; and Lambert was m the act of s:-tvlll_g Descoteaux, whom he had gra~pcd by the hair, and who conld 110~ Wllll; "Luchc pas,' said he, ns 1 afterw:-tru learned, " tache pas, che1·jrl:t·e .. " "Grains pas/' was the rCJlly '' Je m'en ?' ftis • t / ~ ~ I " • 1 mourtr_av~tn . que c e te tM' rLCT. Such was the reply of conrugc anJ gencro~lly 1t1 th_ts danger. For a lmnd rrd yards below, the current was covered WL~h iloatmg book~ :.llld boxes, bales of blankets, n ud scattered artie Ies ?fclotlung; and_ so strong au_d boiling was the stream, that even onrhcavy u!strnments, wh1cll were all tn c~sc , kept on the surface~ anu tlte sextan t, ctrcle, and th ~ lo11g black box o1 the telescope, wcr in view at once. ~"or a moment, I f~lt somewhat _disheartened. ~II our books-almo [ every record_ of the JOlln~ cy-our JOLHnal' and rog1sters of astronomical and bar? melnc:.~l observatious-had been lost in a moment. Bnt it was no time to m?nlge lLl regret~; and I inu:ncdiately s 't about endravoring to save somet~ ung from the :vreck. Malctng o~u selvcs understood as well as possible by stgns, (for notlnng could be lte~ rd 111 the roar of waters,) we commenced. our operatwns. Of every thing on board, the only article that had becu saved w~s my double barrelled gnn, which Drscoteaux had canaht aud cl un o- to wtthdrowning tenacity. The men contiuned down the river:::>on'thc I ~ ft bn~tk. M_r. Preus~ am~ mY:self dc~c~nded on the side we were on; and L:-tjeunesse, Wtth a paddle tn hts hand Jnmped on the boat alone and continued' down t~e~ caiion. . he was n~nv I ight, U!1d _cl?ared every bad' place with much less d1(fi~ulty. [n n. short llr~e, he was JOined by Lambert; and the search wa.s contmue~l for about a. mtlc and a half, which ·was as far n.s the boat could proceed m the pass. Her~ the walls wore about fi.vc hnnclred feet high, and the fragments of rocks (rom above hncl choked the river iuto a hollow pass, hnt one or two feet abov(~ the snrfDce. Through this anu the interstices of the rock, the water found tts way. Favored beyond ,,u r exprctation~, all nf on r reo i ·tl' rS hat] been rccovere_d, :vitlt the c. ccption o( one of my journal~, which ~ontai11c<.l the notes and ll1Ctdc~lts oft ra v!'l <llld topogrn phir,al dcscriptiotts, a number of scattered a~trononucal oh~ervationr..;, principally meridian altitmlc. of the sun~ c.~nd our b ;~romc lr ic~l n'gist~r west of .~ .. ant 111 i . FMt tu 1a t('l y, our other J?mnals _co nta111cd llnpltcate · ol lite most 11nportant barom•~tri ra l ()b'\L~rvatton winch had bccnlaken itt the nJOIIIltnin~. These, with a few scatt ered lloles, were all tltat lwcl been lHcs ·rvcd of o~tr mcl'orological observatio11 ::;. |