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124 THROUGH T H E MACKENZIE BASIN
was hard to tear one's self away from such a wonderful
structure as this, the most striking feature of its kind on
the whole river. - •
Farther on, escarped banks, consisting of boulders and
pebbles imbedded in tenacious clay, rose to a great height,
their tops clothed with rich moss, and wooded with a <& a »
growth of pine, the hollows being full of delicious raagM.,
berries, now dead ripe.
By and by we encountered the Long Rapids— Kafikinwauk
Powestik— and, some hours afterwards, entered the Middle
Rapid— Tuwao Powestik— the worst we had yet come to,
full of boulders and sharp rocks, with a strong current.
Very dexterous management was required here on the part
of steersman and bowman; a snapt line or a moment's
neglect, and a swing to broadside would have followed, and
spelled ruin.
It was evening before this rapid was surmounted, and all
hands, dog- tired with the long day's pull, were glad to camp
at the foot of the Boiler Rapid, the next in our ascent, and.
so called from the wrecking of a scow containing a boiler
for one of the Hudson's Bay Company's steamers. It was
the most uncomfortable of camps, the night being close, and
filled with the small and bloodthirsty Athabasca mosquito,
by all odds the most vicious of its kind. This rapid is
strewn with boulders which show above water, making it
a very " nice " and toilsome thing to steer and track a boat
safely over it, but the tracking path itself is stony and firm,
a fortunate thing at such a place. There are no exposures
of rock at the foot of this rapid; but along its upper part
runs a ledge of asphalt- like rock as smooth as a street pavement,
with an outer edge as neatly rounded as if done with
a chisel. This was the finest bit of tracking path on the'
river, excepting, perhaps, the great pavement beneath the .
cliff at the Long Rapids.
In this region the river scenery changes to a succession
of cut- banks, exposed in all directions, and in almost all'
Object Description
Description
| Title | Page 141 |
| OCR | 124 THROUGH T H E MACKENZIE BASIN was hard to tear one's self away from such a wonderful structure as this, the most striking feature of its kind on the whole river. - • Farther on, escarped banks, consisting of boulders and pebbles imbedded in tenacious clay, rose to a great height, their tops clothed with rich moss, and wooded with a <& a » growth of pine, the hollows being full of delicious raagM., berries, now dead ripe. By and by we encountered the Long Rapids— Kafikinwauk Powestik— and, some hours afterwards, entered the Middle Rapid— Tuwao Powestik— the worst we had yet come to, full of boulders and sharp rocks, with a strong current. Very dexterous management was required here on the part of steersman and bowman; a snapt line or a moment's neglect, and a swing to broadside would have followed, and spelled ruin. It was evening before this rapid was surmounted, and all hands, dog- tired with the long day's pull, were glad to camp at the foot of the Boiler Rapid, the next in our ascent, and. so called from the wrecking of a scow containing a boiler for one of the Hudson's Bay Company's steamers. It was the most uncomfortable of camps, the night being close, and filled with the small and bloodthirsty Athabasca mosquito, by all odds the most vicious of its kind. This rapid is strewn with boulders which show above water, making it a very " nice " and toilsome thing to steer and track a boat safely over it, but the tracking path itself is stony and firm, a fortunate thing at such a place. There are no exposures of rock at the foot of this rapid; but along its upper part runs a ledge of asphalt- like rock as smooth as a street pavement, with an outer edge as neatly rounded as if done with a chisel. This was the finest bit of tracking path on the' river, excepting, perhaps, the great pavement beneath the . cliff at the Long Rapids. In this region the river scenery changes to a succession of cut- banks, exposed in all directions, and in almost all' |
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