Next morning, crossing the right bank of the river, and leaving
the boat, we walked to the foot of Grand Rapids. Our path, if
it could be called such, lay over a toilsome jumble of huge,
sharp-edged rocks, overhung by a beetling cliff of reddish-yellow
sandstone, much of which seemed on the point of falling. This whole
bank, like so much of this part of the river, is planted, almost at
regular intervals, with the great circular rocks already referred
to. These globular or circular masses are a curious feature of this
region. They have been shaped, no doubt, by the action of eddying
water, yet are so numerous, and so much alike, as to bespeak some
abnormally uniform conditions in the past.
The Grand Rapids--Kitchi Po???estik--the most formidable on the river,
are divided by a narrow, wooded island, over a quarter of a mile
in length, upon which the Hudson's Bay Company have a wooden
tramway, the cars being pushed along by hand. Towards the foot of
the island is a smaller one near the left shore, and here is the
larger cascade, a very violent rapid, with a fall from the crest
to the foot of the island of thirty feet, more or less. The
narrower passage is to the right of the island, and is called
the "Free Traders' Channel." The river, in full freshet, was
very muddy-looking, detracting much from the beauty of the rapids.
The Hudson's Bay Company have storehouses at each end of the
tramway, but for their own use only.
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