varying somewhat in their individual features, they bear a general similarity, and result from the same causes a great contraction and sudden descent in

my sinews, that I was quite incapable of swimming any distance, and I was then two miles from shore. I was now going, with wind and current to destruction; and cold, hungry, and fatigued, was obliged again to sit down in the water to rest, when an extraordinary circumstance greatly relieved me. On examining the wreck, to see if it was possible to detach any part of it to steer by, I perceived something loose, entangled in a fork of the wreck, and so carried along. This I found to be a small trunk, bottom upwards, which with some difficulty I dragged up upon the barge. After near an hour's work, in which I broke my penknife, trying to cut out the lock, I made a hole in the top, and to my great satisfaction, drew out a bottle of rum, a cold tongue, some cheese, and a bag full of bread, cakes, &c. all wet. Of these I made a seasonable, though very moderate use, and the trunk answered the purpose of a chair to sit upon, elevated above the surface of the water.

"After in vain endeavouring to steer the wreck, or direct its course to the shore, and having made every signal (with my waistcoat, &c.) in my power, to the several headlands which I had passed, I fancied I was driving into a bay, which, however, soon proved to be the termination of the lake, and the opening of the river, the current of which was carrying me rapidly along. I passed several small uninhabited islands, but the banks of the river appearing to be covered with houses, I again renewed my signals with my waistcoat and a shirt, which I took out of the trunk, hoping as the river narrowed, they might be perceived; the distance was too great. The velocity with which I was going, convinced me of my near approach to the dreadful rapids of La Chine. Night was drawing on, my destruction appeared certain, but did not disturb me very much, the idea of death had lost its novelty, and become quite familiar. Finding signals in vain, I now set up a cry or howl, such as I thought best calculated to carry to a distance, and being favoured by the wind, it did, although at above a mile distance, reach the ears of some people on shore. At last I perceived a boat rowing towards

the bed of the river, accompanied in general with numerous islands and rocks in the middle of the stream. The flood thus chafed and pent up, within

me, which being very small and white bottomed, I had for some time taken for a fowl with a white breast; and I was taken off the barge by Captain Johnstone, after being ten hours on the water. I found myself at the village of La Chine, 21 miles below where the accident happened, and having been driven by the winding of the current a much greater distance. I received no other injury than bruised knees and breast, with a slight cold; the accident took some hold of my imagination, and for seven or eight succeeding nights, in my dreams, I was engaged in the dangers of the cascades, and surrounded by drowning men.

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My escape was owing to a concurrence of fortunate circumstances, which appear almost providential. I happened to catch hold of various articles of support, and to exchange each article for another just at the right time. Nothing but the boom could have carried me down the Cascades without injury; and nothing but the barge could have saved me below them. I was also fortunate in having the whole day; had the accident happened one hour later, I should have arrived opposite the village of La Chine after dark, and of course, would have been destroyed in the rapids below, to which I was rapidly advancing. The trunk which furnished me with provisions and a resting place above the water, I have every reason to think was necessary to save my life; without it I must have passed the whole time in the water, and been exhausted with cold and hunger. When the people on shore saw our boat take the wrong channel, they predicted our destruction: the floating luggage, by supporting us for a time; enabled them to make an exertion to save us; but as it was not supposed possible to survive the passage of the Cascades, no farther exertions were thought of, nor indeed could they well have been made.

"It was at this very place that General Ambert's brigade of 300 men, coming to attack Canada were lost; the French at Montreal received the first intelligence of the invasion, by the dead bodies floating past the town. The pilot who conducted their first bat

narrow and obstructed passages, rages through them with prodigious violence; dashing furiously over the rocks, sweeping round insulated frag

teaux committing the same error that we did, ran for the wrong channel, and the other batteaux following close, all were involved in the same destruction. The whole party with which I was, escaped; four left the barge at the Cedar village, above the rapids, and went to Montreal by land; two more were saved by the canoe ; the barge's crew all accustomed to labour, were lost; of the eight men who passed down the Cascades, none but myself escaped, or were seen again; nor indeed was it possible for any one without my extraordinary luck, and the aid of the barge, to which they must have been very close, to have escaped; the other men must have been drowned immediately on entering the cascades. The trunks, &c. to which they adhered, and the heavy great coats which they had on, very probably helped to overwhelm them; but they must have gone at all events; swimming in such a current of broken stormy waves was impossible; still I think my knowing how to swim kept me more collected, and rendered me more willing to part with one article of support to gain a better; those who could not swim would naturally cling to whatever hold they first got, and of course, many had very bad ones. The Captain passed me above the Cascades, on a sack of woollen clothes, which were doubtless soon saturated and sunk.

"The trunk which I picked up, belonged to a young man from Upper Canada, who was one of those drowned; it contained clothes, and about £70 in gold, which was restored to his friends. My own trunk contained, besides clothes, about £200 in gold and bank notes. On my arrival at La Chine, I offered a reward of 100 dollars, which induced a Canadian to go in search of it. He found it some days after, on the shore of an island on which it had been driven, and brought it to La Chine, where I happened to be at the time. I paid him his reward, and understood that above onethird of it was to be immediately applied to the purchase of a certain number of masses which he had vowed, in the event of success, previous to his setting out on the search." Edinburgh Magazine, February, 1819.

ments with the velocity of a whirlpool, and heaving even in the less agitated spots with a broken and fearful commotion, such as the sea presents after a tempest of contrary winds, which have successively contended for the mastery of the deep.

An inexperienced spectator would think it impossible that a vessel could venture among these rapids, without being instantly engulphed, or dashed to pieces; and I have often wondered who was the first to adventure his life in the daring experiment. In some of the channels certain destruction awaits all who enter;-how many lives were lost, ere the practicable channels were ascertained? The name of the first adventurer is for ever lost, but there is scarcely a deed of daring, in the history of our species, of which it could be said that it surpassed his.

"Illi robur, et æs triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci

Commisit pelago ratem

Primus."

Some travellers have said, that the rapids are as sublime objects as the falls of Niagara. I do not think that they can be well compared with each other; but if the sublimity of an object is to be estimated by the intensity of emotion which it produces, I doubt not that many will award the palm to the rapids. We only look at the falls; but we shoot the rapids. In the one case the spectator is in perfect safety; in the other his life is staked on

RAPIDS OF COTEAU DU LAC.

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the result. He is tossed on the tops of the foaming waves, and hurried with irresistible fury past rocks, and shoals, and breakers;-were a nail to start in the slender bark which carries him, or the paddle to be forced out of the hand of the pilot, in all probability his life would be the forfeit. When the traveller only looks at the rapids from the bank, he knows nothing of their grandeur, and cannot possibly put them on a footing with the falls.

From Coteau du Lac to the bottom of the Cascades is about eleven miles, and the intervening portions of smooth water do not exceed about a third of that distance. The largest interval is between Coteau du Lac and the Cedars; the others are so short that if the wind is fair, as it was to us, they scarcely afford breathing time between one struggle and the next.

Grand Isle, about four miles in length, separating the river into two principal channels, extends nearly the whole way from Coteau du Lac to the Cedars; between the bend of its upper extremity and the left hand shore is a cluster of eight or ten small islands, which greatly increases the danger of passage. A canal has been cut along the shore nearly opposite to the lowest of these isles, through which boats are taken up the river; for to stem the torrent is impossible. Some military works are erected so as to command the passage.

The pilot which we at last obtained was an active but cautious man, and showed so much dexterity in