Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1836 edition. Excerpt: ... us to see. A little more than an hour's pulling, however, took us to the end of it; and we found that a reef of large stones, cased in ice, divided it from another lane. This ice being in shallow water, was porous and rotten, so that it yielded to the united effect of the axe and the weight of the men; and, at the expiration of an hour and a half, the boat was got through, though not without some awkward scrapings. An easy rapid, and the shelving shore of a sand-hill, rather encouraged the hope that the river would turn out favourably; but that illusion was soon dispelled by a very long rapid immediately succeeding, where the boat was only saved by all hands jumping into the breakers, and keeping her stern up the stream until she was cleared from a rock that had brought her up. We had hardly time to get into our places again, when we were carried with considerable velocity past a river which joined from the westward; a rapid then followed; after which another tributary was observed coming from the same quarter. The hills in that direction did not exceed three hundred feet in height, and often not fifty; but they had the same sterile appearance, and were spotted with the same dark fragments of rocks or stones as those already passed. On the eastern side sandy banks were frequently met with, which gradually rose into acclivities, or gently sloping mounds, with small streamlets winding round their bases, affording pasturage A SERIES OF RAPIDS. to musk oxen and deer. The latter scampered away as we approached, but the former stood stupidly gazing at us: luckily for them, we were not in want of their carcasses. An island, near the centre of the river, with thin columns of mist rising suspiciously at quick intervals on each side, made it...
