From hence upwards, for the distance of forty miles, the current of the river is extremely strong, and numberless rapids are to be encountered, which, though not so tremendous to appearance as those at the Cascades, and “Le Coteau du Lac,” are yet both more dangerous and more difficult to pass. The great danger, however, consists in going down them; it arises from the shallowness of the water and the great number of sharp rocks, in the midst of which the vessels are hurried along with such impetuosity, that if they unfortunately get into a wrong channel, nothing can save them from being dashed to pieces; but so intimately are the people usually employed on this river acquainted with the different channels, that an accident of the sort is scarcely ever heard of. “Le Long Saut,” the Long Fall or Rapid, situated about thirty miles above Lake St. Francis, is the most dangerous of any one in the river, and so difficult a matter is it to pass it, that it requires no less than six men on shore to haul a single bateau against the current. There is a third canal with locks at this place, in order to avoid a point, which it would be wholly impracticable to weather in the ordinary way. These different canals and locks have been made at the expence of government, and the profits arising from the tolls paid by every bateau that passes through them are placed in the public treasury. At these rapids, and at several of the others, there are very extensive flour and saw mills. On the fifth night we arrived at a small farm house, at the top of the “Long Saut,” wet from head to foot, in consequence of our having been obliged to walk past the rapids through woods and bushes still dripping after the heavy rain that had fallen in the morning. The woods in this neighbourhood are far more majestic than on any other part of the St. Lawrence; the pines in particular are uncommonly tall, and seem to wave their tops in the very clouds. In Canada, pines grow on the richest soils; but in the United States they grow mostly on poor ground: a tract of land covered solely with pines is there generally denominated “a pine barren,” on account of its great poverty. [Sidenote: WILD PIGEONS.]