Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/289

Rh single foot on either side would have been instant destruction. As, guided by Sinclair's consummate skill, the boat shot safely through those jaws of death, an involuntary cheer arose. Our next impulse was to turn round to view the fate of our comrades behind. They had profited by the peril we incurred, and kept without the treacherous rock in time. The waves there were still higher, and for a while we lost sight of our friends. When they emerged, the first object visible was the bowman disgorging part of an intrusive wave which he had swallowed, and looking half-drowned. Mr. Dease afterwards told me that the spray, which completely enveloped them, formed a gorgeous rainbow around the boat. After discharging the water shipped, we continued our descent, till, at 2 P.M., we were arrested, about a mile above the Bloody Fall, by a barrier of ice stretching across the river. Putting about, we were fortunate in finding a safe eddy under some steep white earth cliffs, and encamped on a grassy plain stretching out from their base, and affording the double advantage of drift wood and a brook of clear water. We eagerly climbed the highest hills, and gazed on a wide expanse of sea covered with a dazzling sheet of ice, dotted with dark rocky islands; while far north rose the lofty S 2