tance of nine hundred
and seventy poles, the descent is much more gradual, not being more than
ten feet, and then succeeds a handsome level plain for the space of one
hundred and seventy-eight poles, with a computed descent of three feet,
the river making a bend towards the north. Thence it descends, for four
hundred and eighty poles, about eighteen and one-half feet, when it
makes a perpendicular fall of two feet, which is ninety poles beyond the
great cataract; in approaching which, it descends thirteen feet within
two hundred yards, and, gathering strength from its confined channel,
which is only two hundred and eighty yards wide, rushes over the fall to
the depth of eighty-seven feet.

"After raging among the rocks, and losing itself in foam, it is
compressed immediately into a bed of ninety-three yards in width: it
continues for three hundred and forty poles to the entrance of a run or
deep ravine, where there is a fall of three feet, which, added to the
decline during that distance, makes the descent six feet. As it goes
on, the descent within the next two hundred and forty poles is only
four feet; from this, passing a run or deep ravine, the descent in four
hundred poles is thirteen feet; within two hundred and forty poles,
another descent of eighteen feet; thence, in one hundred and sixty
poles, a descent of six feet; after which, to the mouth of Portage
Creek, a distance of two hundred and eighty poles, the descent is
ten feet. From this survey and estimate, it results that the river
experiences a descent of three hundred and fifty-two feet in the
distance of two and three quarter miles, from the commencement of the
rapids to the mouth of Portage Creek, exclusive of the almost impassable
rapids which extend for a mile below its entrance."

On the twenty-first of the month, all the needed preparations having
been finished, the arduous work of making the portage, or carry, was
begun. All the members of the expedition were now together, and the two
captains divided with their men the labor of hunting, carrying luggage,
boat-building, exploring, and so on. They made three camps, the lower
one on Portage Creek, the next at Willow Run (see map), and a third at
a point opposite White Bear Islands. The portage was not completed until
July second. They were often delayed by the breaking down of their rude
carriages, and during the last stage of their journey much of their
luggage was carried on the backs of the men. Th