This river’d always feed you if you needed.
-- Hiram Loggins (chapter 3)

Importance: Hunter recalls his father saying this to him years prior. This quotation helps to establish Hiram's sense of reverence and respect for the river. This sense of respect is eventually subverted when Hiram decides to illegally hunt sturgeon in order to make money.

The word is upon every man’s lips, whispered like the name of a god.
-- Narration (chapter 9)

Importance: This quotation helps to establish the sense of avarice that characterizes much of the French expedition. This desire for gold and wealth causes the Frenchmen to bungle their political relationships in their new environment, thus contributing to their later hardships.

The ice caps are melting, the heat of hell unbound. A coming flood. Whosoever is unprepared shall be drownt.
-- Uncle King (chapter 9)

Importance: Uncle King makes this statement like a religious prophecy of doom to the Loggins brothers. In the years following the deaths of his children...