Etowah River

“ The natives who frequent the banks of the river, for the salmon fishery, have no other wood but that which they take floating down. We passed several rapids, and a small stream called Utalah, which flows from the southeast. ”

“ This river is a post of trade, containing a population estimated at three hundred and eighty-two souls. The lands are fertile, and afford in connection with Ottawa Lake, and the adjacent country, a good location for a mission and school. The river originates near the head of Long River of the Red Cedar Fork of the Chippewa, to which there is a canoe portage. It expands at unequal distances, beginning at its source, into Lac Vaseux, Rice Lake, and Yellow Lake. Wild rice is one of its productions, and is among the means of subsistence on which the natives rely. ”

“ Pardon this digression.—We are again on the Ottawa; as we advance, the river narrows and becomes studded with little islands covered with wild shrubs and forest trees, from whose stiff unyielding boughs the more pliant shoots droop playfully into the foaming stream below, like the children of Gravity coquetting with the family of Passion. Of course these islands form rapids in every direction: we soon, approach the one selected as the channel in which to try our strength. On we dash boldly—down rushes the stream with a roar of defiance ”

“ The Ottawa is so called not from the fact that the territory through which it runs was the home of the Ottawa tribe, but, because it was by its waters that they came to visit the French. The Ottawa river, that is, the river by which the Ottawas came. On the other hand the French 371river, which discharges into the Georgian Bay, was so called by the Indians, because it was the river by which the French came to their western domain. The length of French river is about 61 miles, and is a chain of lakes, connected by short rapids. Lake Nippissing is 69 feet above Lake Huron. ”

“ It seems wonderful that after white men have used watercourses for canoe routes for a century or two, and when lumbermen have investigated the country, there are stretches of many miles together which are not indicated on official maps except by white spots. But this is true of over half a million square miles of British-American territory. The two lakes we traversed are called by Indian names which mean "Crosswise Lake" and "Old Man Lake." Out of the latter runs a river which falls into the Grand Lake Victoria. This lake is really an expansion of the Ottawa. ”

“ Many of my men had been portaging on the Ottawa for different lumber firms and all agreed with me, that whilst the Nile river boats would have been of no use on the Ottawa, they could not be improved upon for the Nile service on account of the nature of the river. For the ascents of the river as well as the cataracts, the sailing qualities of the boats were all important, and when towed by line the keel would [Pg 28] give a chance to shoot out into the current to get round rocks, where a flat bottom would have followed the line broadside and fetched up against the rock. ”

“ The long climb is well rewarded by the views from the top, which can hardly be surpassed on the continent. The country for miles around is at one's feet. Here can be seen 20 miles of the Ottawa river, the thread of the Rideau canal, the Gatineau and Rideau rivers, and the Chaudiere Falls, while the majestic scenery to the north and west have a fitting foil in the peaceful and more level land to the east and south. ”

“ Soon after the arrival of the first traders in the Athabasca district, the fame of the Peace River—the Indian "Unjijah," a mighty stream, whose waters empty into the river flowing from Lake Athabasca—rose among the adventurers. An enterprising French Canadian trader, named Boyer, pushed up the stream and near a small tributary—Red River—established the first post of this great artery, which flows from the West, through the Rocky Mountains. ”

“ We traveled at least twenty-five miles to-day and camped a little before sunset, with but little grass for our jaded animals. Our Indian companion, Yeuemah, left us to-day, crossing the river. We passed some rocky rapids to-day in several places, but at our camp the river is beautiful, broad, clear, and placid, but the barrenness of the surrounding country affords but a dreary prospect to a man from the Western States. Were the banks of this noble river studded with fine timber and bordered with anything like good soil, its beauty would be unsurpassed. ”

“ There were only six white men in the party, with a few Indians. They left Athabasca Lake—here it is on the map—on June third, and they got to the mouth of the great river in forty days. That certainly must have been traveling pretty fast! It was more than fifteen hundred miles—almost sixteen hundred. But they got back to Athabasca Lake in one hundred and two days, covering over three thousand miles down-stream and up-stream. [Pg 7] Well, we’ve all traveled enough in these strong rivers to know how hard it is to go back up-stream, whether with the tracking-line or the paddle or the sail. ”

“ Over beyond this lake comes in the main channel of Ottawa River, with the rapids of St. Anne flowing down from another inland sea made by its prolonged enlargement, the "Lake of the Two Mountains." A canal flanks these rapids, and the village of St. Anne has grown around its ancient church, which is deeply reverenced by the Canadian boatmen and voyageurs on these waters as their special shrine, for in the early days all the fur-trading with the great Canadian northwest was by canoes and bateaux on the Ottawa and Lake Nipissing, and thence by portage to Lake Huron. ”

“ The river was first called by the early French explorers the Rivière des Algoumequins, or river of the Algonquins, but was afterwards known as the Rivière des Outaouais, from the tribe that lived on its banks. ”

“ The explored chain of passages is of great interest to men, it is true, but of minor importance compared to others yet unknown, being in fact, the result of mere surface erosion. The river that bisects the cave, just beneath the surface of the earth, and known as Echo River, is a miniature stream: there are others more magnificent that flow majestically far, far beneath it. As we descend into the earth in that locality, caverns multiply in number and increase in size, retaining the general configuration of those I have described. The layers of rock are thicker, the intervening spaces broader ”

“ Maurice or the Richelieu, the Lièvre or the Saguenay, the Ottawa or portions of the St. Lawrence, with the grim Azoic rocks, the turbulent rapids and the somber pines. What a superb river system it is! Tell them off on your fingers and you'll have to go on borrowing from them afterwards and then all over again. Think of all those rivers that cluster in the French Canada and feed the mighty Gulf of St. Lawrence. There are the Ottawa, the Gatineau, the Rideau, the Richelieu, the Lièvre, the Matanne, the Metapedia, the Métis, the Saguenay. Those are the ones we know. ”

“ Nothing, indeed, can be imagined more arduous than this tracking up a swift river, against constant head winds in bad weather. Much of it is in the water, wading up "snies," or tortuous shallow channels, plunging into numberless creeks, clambering up slimy banks, creeping under or passing the line over fallen trees, wading out in the stream to round long spits of sand or boulders, floundering in gumbo slides, tripping, crawling, plunging, and, finally, tottering to the camping-place sweating like horses, and mud to the eyes—but never grumbling. ”

“ The place was in the immediate vicinity, and somehow, although he had been here often since, the predominant impression in his mind, when he reached the jutting promontory of rock and gazed down at the sea of foliage in the Cove, that surely had once known the ebb and flow of tides other than the spring bourgeonings and the autumn desiccations, was the reminiscence of that early time in Etowah Cove when he had stood here in the white glare from the lime-kiln and watched that strange anamorphosis of the lime-burner’s [359] face through the shimmering medium of the uprising heat. ”

“ We resumed the ascent at five o’clock in the morning, (12th.) The course of this branch of the river, above the Kubbakunna Lake, resembles a thread wound across a savannah valley. A species of coarse marsh-land grass, covers the valley. Clumps of willow fringe this stream. Rushes and Indian reed are gathered in spots most favorable to their growth. The eye searches in vain, for much novelty in the vegetation. Wherever the stream touches the solid land, grey pine, and tamarack are conspicuous, and clumps of alder here take the place of willow. Moss attaches itself to almost every thing. ”

“ Woe to him who passed his manhood without ornamenting the door of his lodge with the scalps of his enemies!
This valley is still frequented by some of these tribes as a summer haunt, when the heat of the plains renders them uncomfortable. The Eutaws were scouring it when we {250} passed. We therefore crossed the river to its northern bank, and followed up its northern branch eight miles, [129] with every eye keenly searching for the appearance of foes; and made our encampment for the night in a deep chasm, overhung by the long branches of a grove of white pines. ”

“ A canal project is already in agitation to connect it with the Huron, and open a water communication from lake Erie, across the peninsula, direct to lake Michigan. Grand river is now navigable for batteaux, 240 miles, and receives in its course, Portage, Red-Cedar, Looking-glass, Maple, Muscota, Flat, Thorn-Apple, and Rouge rivers, besides smaller streams. It enters lake Michigan 245 miles south-westerly from Mackinaw, and 75 north of St. Joseph;—is between 50 and 60 rods wide at its mouth, with 8 feet water over its bar. The Ottawa Indians own the country on its north side, for 60 miles up. ”

“ At about twenty miles below Lake Athabaska, the Slave receives the Peace River, and the former at once becomes an immense stream, averaging perhaps a mile in width. The Peace itself is really a great river: rising on the eastern slope of that great Atlas chain66 of North America, the Rocky Mountains, it flows easterly and northerly for some 800 miles till finally at this junction its waters mingle with those coming from the same watershed via the Athabaska. ”

“ The actual basin of the Nile is included between about the 22 degree and 39 degree East longitude, and from 3 degrees South to 13 degrees North latitude. The drainage of that vast area is monopolized by the Egyptian river. The Victoria and Albert lakes, the two great equatorial reservoirs, are the recipients of all affluents south of the Equator; the Albert lake being the grand reservoir in which are concentrated the entire waters from the south, in addition to tributaries from the Blue Mountains from the north of the Equator. ”

“ The agricultural resources of this region of rocks are certainly meagre compared with those of Peace River. Potatoes, where there is any available soil, grow to a good size; barley was nearly ripe when we were there, and wheat ripens, too. But, of course, it is not a farming region, nor are fish plentiful at the west end of the lake, the Athabasca River, which enters there, giving for over twenty miles eastward a muddy hue to the water. The rest of the lake is crystal clear, and whitefish are plentiful, also lake trout, which are caught up to thirty, and even forty, pounds' weight. ”

“ Ascending by the dry bed of a torrent on the south side of the river, we skirted the eastern end of Jibel Teluet, which forms the southern boundary of the valley, and descended some four miles farther on to the larger stream of the Wad Unila. The ascent and descent we had crossed forms a small watershed for the tributaries of the two rivers, though apparently these mountain torrents only flow in the wet season. At one spot, rather more than half-way, we passed extensive salt-mines, where quite a number of natives were engaged in working rock-salt. ”

“ At the bottoms of steep slopes, temporary streams build alluvial cones or fans. Along its flood-plain portion, a stream deposits more or less sediment on its flats. The part played by deposition in building a river flat has already been alluded to. A depositing stream often wanders about in an apparently aimless way across its flood plain. At the bends in its course, cutting is often taking place on the outside of a curve while deposition is going on in the inside. The valley of the Baraboo illustrates this process of cutting and building. ”

“ The groves are sufficiently numerous to furnish sites for the villages and hamlets required. All the large sakhoo-trees have been cut down and taken away on the ground we have come over, which is too near the river for them to be permitted to attain full size. Not an acre or a foot of the land is oosur, or unfit for tillage. Poknapoor is in the estate of Etowa, which forms part of the pergunnah of Peepareea, to which Bahadur Sing, the person above described, lays claim. ”

“ The backbone of the district is a high and dry tract known as the Ganjí or Bald Bár. The advent of the Lower Bárí Doáb Canal will entirely change the character of this desert. Its south-eastern boundary is a high bank marking the course of the old bed of the Biás. Below this is the wide Sutlej valley. The part beyond the influence of river floods depends largely on the Khánwáh and Sohág Pára inundation Canals. The Ráví valley to the north-west of the Bár is naturally fertile and has good well irrigation. But it has suffered much by the failure of the Ráví floods. ”