Omenica
above the
Black Caion.

Rapid char-
acter of
Omenica.

8c FINLAY AND OMENICA RIVERS.

one to two hundred feet. Its walls are usually nearly vertical and in
places exceed 150 feet in height. In low water, the navigation of the
Caiion is reported to be easy, but in seasons of flood the swoollen
stream is partly dammed back, and its effort to force a way through
the narrow channel is attended with the production of such whirl-
pools and billows that its passage with large boats is exceedingly difti-
cult and with small boats is impossible. The Omenica was still high
when we reached the Cajion, and after an examination it was decided
to make a portage. A trail was cut along the north bank, and the
portage wes made in less than a day. The ridge through which the
Omenica cuts at the Caiion increases rapidly in height to the north,
and develops into a mountain range the peaks of which exceed 5000
feet in height. Southward the ridge soon dies away.

Above the Black Cation the valley is closed in for a mile or more by
steep cliffs of sandstones, clays and conglomerates between which the
stream rushes with torrential speed. Further up the stream bends to the
north-west and follows parallel to the direction of the mountain ranges
of the district, the rocky walls disappear, and the river, freed from
confinement, enlarges to twice its former width. Above the bend the
river follows a wide valley between the mountains as far the mouth of
Tchutetzeca, a distance of ten miles. The Omenica in this reach
is wide and swift; no rapids were met with, but short and strong
“‘viffles,” exceedingly difficult to ascend, occur every few hundred
yards. A notable feature of the river here is the great drift-piles of
logs which have been heaped up by the rapid current at all the bends,
and on the heads of the numerous gravel-bars and islands around
which the stream divides. The Tchutetzeca, a rapid stream about
150 feet wide, comes in from the north-west down the same valley
occupied by the Omenica above the Cafion. It has not yet been
explored.

Above the mouth of the Tchutetzeca the Omenica leaves the lon-
gitudinal valley followed below, and bends to the west. The declivity
and current increase, and for some miles the river is simply a wild tor-
rent plunging in a succession of rapids from bar to bar. The ascent of
this portion of the river proved a matter of no ordinary difficulty.
The tracking-line could not be used owing to the beaches being
covered by high water, and the strength of the current rendered
poling in many places equally impracticable. At the worst places
wading in the ice cold water and pulling the canoes up foot by foot
against the foaming stream, at the risk of stumbling on hidden and
slippery boulders paving the channel, proved the only practicable
means of ascent. Our progress here was very slow, and for some days