Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/99

 the higher by the foot of the ridge. The lower bottoms are about twenty feet higher than the surface of low water; but as the trees on the beach are peeled by ice and drifted wood, to the height of four or five feet above the level of the ground, occasioned by floods; it follows that the lower bottoms are subject to inundation, and that their height must be increased {70} by the earth deposited from every high rising of the waters. Nothing, in the present state of things, seems to offer a solution of the formation of the higher bottoms, which are here about twenty feet higher than the lower ones, and appear to be equally flat, and forming plains parallel to them. I shall hereafter be very attentive to facts with regard to this anomaly.

About six hundred yards above the mouth of Big Beaver Creek, my skiff ran upon the top of a large mass of stone under water, which the ripplings occasioned by a slight breeze of wind, prevented me from seeing. In attempting to push her off, she upset, so as to admit a gush of water all along the lower side. The hoops over her after part, not allowing me to leap directly upon the stone, I plunged into the water and mounted the stone just in time to catch the bark by the after part, and prevent it from being carried down by the stream. By a considerable exertion, I succeeded in keeping the after end close to the stone, while the fore part sunk obliquely to a great depth in the water. Here the cargo must unavoidably have slipped into the bottom of the river, except for a large box, that wedged itself into the narrow forepart of the boat, and the others, resting on it, were kept in their places. Two black men came in a skiff to my relief. They took me in, and rowed toward the shore, while I still retained my hold of the wreck, and succeeded in getting it safely moored. This