Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/338

308 carried us down backwards. In some of the worst places short portages were made; in others, the boats took in much water; and the strain on the lines was often so great, that the trackers, even on all fours, could scarcely maintain their ground. Where bars and shallows occurred, the boats were poled up in ziz-zag fashion; or the men, getting out in the water, handed them over the obstruction. Numerous fragments of rock kept falling from the face of the cliffs as the towing parties passed under them, and one man narrowly escaped getting his leg fractured; their feet were at the same time much galled by the sharp stones which strewed their difficult path. The preceding description is equally applicable to our journey of the 7th, when we surmounted the strong rapid where we were detained on the 23rd and 24th of June. Nothing but the skill and dexterity of guides long practised, like ours, in all the intricacies of river navigation could have overcome so many obstacles: it is not, therefore, surprising that Dr. Richardson's less experienced crews should have found it necessary to relinquish the attempt, even with the "walnut shell." We felt a positive comfort in encamping once more among standing trees, though ever so diminutive.

We were now above all the bad rapids; the