Two of the officers and a party of men walked on the shore to lighten the canoes.

The river in this part flows between high and stony cliffs, reddish slate clay rocks, and shelving banks of white clay, and is full of shoals and dangerous rapids.

One of these was termed Escape Rapid, both the canoes having narrowly escaped foundering in its high waves.

We had entered the rapid before we were aware and, the steepness of the cliffs preventing us from landing, we were indebted to the swiftness of our descent for preservation.

Two waves made a complete breach over the canoes; a third would in all probability have filled and overset them, which must have proved fatal to everyone in them.