Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/143

 yards wide; the whole of which is a succession of boiling whirlpools. Above this channel, for four or five miles, the river is one deep rapid, at the upper end of which a large mass of high blade rock stretches across from the north side, and nearly joins a similar mass on the south: they are divided by a strait not exceeding fifty yards wide; and through this narrow channel, for upwards of half a mile, the immense waters of the Columbia are one mass of foam, and force their headlong course with a frightful impetuosity, which cannot at any time be contemplated without producing a painful giddiness. We were obliged to carry all our lading from the lower to the upper narrows, nearly nine miles. The canoes were dragged up part of the space between the narrows. This laborious undertaking occupied two entire days, in consequence of the number of armed men we were obliged to keep as guards to protect those who carried the goods. It was a little above this place where our party had been recently attacked, and we were therefore obliged to be doubly cautious. The chief and several of the Indians kept about us during the portage. We gave them some tobacco and trifling presents to cultivate their friendship, in return for which they brought us