We were now on our boats again, and heading for the Chutes, as they are called, the one obstruction to the navigation of Peace River for over six hundred miles.  We debarked at the head of the rapids above the Grand Fall, and walked to their foot along a shelving and slippery portage, skirting the very edge of the torrent.  The Crees call this Meatina Powistik—­“The Real Rapid”—­the cataract farther on being the Nepegabaketik—­“Where the Water Falls.”

Returning to the “Decharge,” I ran the rapids with Cyr and Baptiste in one of the boats, a glorious sensation, reminding one, though shorter, of the Grand Rapids of the Saskatchewan, the waves being great, and the danger spiced by the tremendous vortex ahead.  The rapids are about four hundred yards in length, and extend quite across the river, which is here of an immense width.  A heavy but brief rainstorm had set in, and it was some time before we could reload and drop down to the head of the “Chaudiere,” if I may call it so, for the vortex much resembles the “Big Kettle” at Ottawa.  That night we spent in the York boat, its keel on the rocks and painter tied to a tree, and, lulled by the roar of the cataract, slept soundly until morning.

These falls cut somewhat diagonally across the river, the vortex being at the right bank, and close in-shore, concentred by a limestone shelf extending to the bank, flanked on the left, and at an acute angle, by a deeply-indented reef of rock.  Looking up the river, the view to the west seems inclosed by a long line of trees, which, in the distance, appear to stand in the water.  Thence the vast stream sweeps boldly into the south, and with a rush discharges down the rapids, and straight over the line of precipice, in a vast tumultuous greyish-drab torrent which speedily emerges into comparatively still water below.  The rock here is an exceedingly hard, mottled limestone, resembling the stone at St. Andrew’s Rapids on Red River.  Where exposed it is pitted or bitten into by the endless action of wind and water, and lies in thick layers, forming an irregular dyke all along the shore, over the surface of which passes the portage, some forty yards in length.  Though short, it is a nasty one, running along a shelf of rock into which great gaps have been gored by the torrent.  Large quantities of driftwood were stuck in the rapids above, and a big pile of it had lodged at the south angle of the cataract, over which our boats had to be drawn, and dropped down, with great care and difficulty.  A rounded, tall island lies, or rather stands, below the falls, towards the north shore, whose sheer escarpments and densely wooded top are very curious and striking.  Two sister islands and another above the falls, all four being about a mile apart, stand in line with each other, as if they had once formed parts of an ancient marge, and, below the falls, the torrent has wrought out a sort of bay from the rock, the bank, which is high here, giving that night upon its grassy slope, overhung