We commenced ascending the rapid, a task which required all our skill and strength to accomplish. Paddles, poles, hauling lines, and carrying-straps were used in turn, and yet half the day was consumed before we got to the top. At the foot of this rapid, which is a mile in length, the river makes a quick bend to the east for about two miles, then comes gradually round again to the north from the head of the rapid. The channel of the river is studded on both sides with gloomy black rocks, arranged like colonnades, for upwards of twenty miles. Here are some sandy islands also. We camped on one, and a dark and cheerless encampment it was, surrounded and shaded by these gloomy heights.

We left our camp early and in a short time came to the colonnade rocks, which suddenly terminated in two huge bluffs, one on each side of the river, exactly opposite to each other, like monumental columns. The river between these bluffs lies right south and north. The banks of the river then become low with sand and gravel, and the plains open full to view again, particularly on the east side.