The mountainous and strong elevations receded from the bank and the woods crept through their openings to the valleys behind, the adventurous pine alone ascending their bases and braving storms unfelt below.
At noon we landed at the Otter Portage where the river ran with great velocity for half a mile among large stones.

Having carried across the principal part of the cargo the people attempted to track the canoes along the edge of the rapid.

With the first they succeeded but the other, in which were the foreman and steersman, was overset and swept away by the current.

An account of this misfortune was speedily conveyed to the upper end of the portage and the men launched the remaining canoe into the rapid, though wholly unacquainted with the dangers of it.

The descent was quickly accomplished and they perceived the bottom of the lost canoe above water in a little bay whither it had been whirled by the eddy.