But There Was
No Receding After We Had Once Launched Into The Stream, And Our Safety
Depended On The Skill And Dexterity Of The Bowmen And Steersmen.
The
banks of the river here are rocky and the scenery beautiful, consisting
of gentle elevations and dales wooded
To the edge of the stream and
flanked on both sides at the distance of three or four miles by a range
of round-backed barren hills, upwards of six hundred feet high. At the
foot of the rapids the high lands recede to a greater distance and the
river flows with a more gentle current in a wider channel through a level
and open country consisting of alluvial sand. In one place the passage
was blocked up by drift ice still deeply covered with snow. A channel for
the canoes was made for some distance with the hatchets and poles but, on
reaching the more compact part, we were under the necessity of
transporting the canoes and cargoes across it, an operation of much
hazard as the snow concealed the numerous holes which the water had made
in the ice. This expansion of the river being mistaken by the guide for a
lake which he spoke of as the last on our route to the sea, we supposed
that we should have no more ice to cross, and therefore encamped after
passing through it, to fit the canoes properly for the voyage and to
provide poles, which are not only necessary to strengthen them when
placed in the bottom, but essentially requisite for the safe management
of them in dangerous rapids.
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