The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-18 00:00:00

ing to decay—as if a river had been turned over the
ruins of some gigantic building, and left to fret and
fame itself away amid its shattered walls, great
porticoes, and ruined columns. Such a ruined aspect
as nature here puts on is seen at no other cataract in
America ; and beneath the mass of dark brown water
the eye can trace out such a regularity of disarray,
such chambers, such nooks, such passages and pillars

as scarcely seem the freak of nature, but more re-
semble the stately vestiges of the old rock-hewn
temples of Egypt. At one corner of the falls, re-
moved from the turbulent mass of foam and mist

Irth-C-CenTre,l; called ili;losißiverf"

where a part of the Ottawa drops over the columns
of rocks and disappears in a deep unfathomable
hole at the base. The Prince and his suite stayed
for a long time inspecting these ruins of cataracts,
and then returned under the Lumber-arch.
This arch, one of the finest and most characteristic
of the country the Prince has ever seen or is likely
to see here again, was erected by the lumber-men.
It was a broad and lofty structure, in form like the
Marble-arch of Hyde-park, but built entirely of
planks of raw deal laid transversely one over the
other, without a nail or fastening of any kind from
first to last. Light as it seemed, there were nearly
200,000 lineal feet of plank used in its construction.
The Prince, as, indeed, every one who saw it, was
astonished, for its effect, though not easy to describe
was really wonderful to look at. It was the arch
of all the arches the Prince has had erected to his
honour; and it is almost a pity that a monument so
strong, so beautiful, and so characteristic of the
country, should ever be removed.
From this arch the Prince went down the banks
of the stream to the head of one of the longest tim-
ber shoots, where a raft had been prepared for him
to run down these artificial but most rapid of all
rapids in this part of America. A few words will
suffice to explain what a timber shoot is. When
the great mass of lumber is brought down to the
Falls of the Ottawa, a special contrivance is- of
course necessary to get it past them, as the result
of letting it over the falls themselves would be
simply to destroy the logs. For this purpose,
then, a certain portion of the river is dammed off,
and turned into a broad wide channel of timber,
which is taken at a sharp incline along the banks
of the river, and down which, of course, the waters
of the Ottawa rush at terrific speed. The head of
this shoot is placed some 300 yards above the falls,
and terminates, after a run of about three-quarters
of a mile, in the still waters of the river below their
base. As, however, a raft on such a steep incline,
and hurried along by such a mass of water, would
attain a speed which would destroy itself and all
upon it, the fall of the shoot is broken at intervals
by straight runs, along which it glides at compara-
tively reduced speed, till it again drops over, and
commences another headlong rush. Some of these
runs also terminate with a perpendicular drop of
some four or five feet, over which the raft goes
smash, and wallows in the boiling water beneath,
till the current again gets the mastery, and forces
it on faster and more furiously than before. More
than 20,000,000 cubic feet of timber come down
the shoots of the Ottawa in this manner each year.
The rafts are generally made of from 15 to 20
trees, with two transverse ones to secure them at
each end, and a kind of raised bridge for the
lumberers to stand on, who without such aid would
be washed off it, as the mass drops from shoot to
shoot down these Rapids and disappears some few
feet under water with each plunge. The same
risk attends these shoots as attends the rafts on
natural Rapids, and if not carefully secured the
mass of timber may break up, when all on it would
have but a poor chance of escape ; or else the raft
may get " stubbed"—that is twist and.jam itself
so as to come to a dead stop, when the men are
hurled headlong off it, as if thrown from an express
train. With well-made rafts and careful raftsmen,
however, these accidents are unknown, and for all
practical purposes running a timber-shoot on a raft
is safe enough, or with only just enough of danger
to give zest to the feat.
Of course every possible precaution was taken to
insure strength and careful guides for the raft on
which the Prince was to rush down the shoot.
Only the immediate members of the suite and a few
gentlemen, in all about 20, were allowed to be on it.
When these were fairly settled down, the Prince sit-
ting on a raised plank, between the Duke of New-
castle and the Governor-General, the rope which
held the mass of timber against the current was.
cut, and instantly the raft began to move. At first
it went with a slow, stately motion, but gradually
as it entered the narrower parts of the shoot, where
the incline began, the speed quickened, and every
one hold fast as the first jump and steep descent
drew nearer. Before you could well say it was com-
ing the mass slid over the edge with an uneasy
kind of gliding leap, and went rushing down faster
and faster till there was another jump, and then a
straight run which plunged the beams under water,
wetting some of the suite to the knees. Quicker
and quicker the banks flew by, all thronged with
people cheering and waving handkerchiefs, and
faster and faster the raft plunged down groaning
and creaking, now half hidden by the boiling water,
into whiCh it dashed at the end of each shoot, glid-
ing rapidly along the logs of the strait runs with
jerks and thumps as if it was being forced over rocks
till it came to another jump and another steep
incline, taking each one faster than the others
in one grand headlong sort:of flying whirl which
gave a notion of irresistible force, and made
each passenger, as it were, a component part of raft
and Rapids both. To go down the Rapids of the
St. Lawrence is nothing, but to go down the Rapids
of a timber shoot, to keep pace with the flying
waters, and see them hissing and rushing up over
the raft beneath your feet, is the most exhilarating
adventure in all the repertoire of American travel.
It is something which partakes of flying and swim-
ming ; the immense speed of the whole mass—the
rush of the water, the succession of shoots stretching
out before you like sloping steps of stairs, the de-
light of flying over these with the easy,skim of a
bird—the rough long straights in which the raft
seems to dive and founder, letting the water up
beneath and over it behind till it is again urged
forward, and then comes another incline of water
which you whirl madly down as if you were in a
' swing. To steady yourself on the narrow plank
amidships, and hold on with might and main as
the timber snaps and works like a bundle of reeds,
getting a momentary rest with each quick incline,
and again thumping over the straights with sharp,
uneasy struggles, is to experience such a heap of
new sensations as neither balloons nor diving bells
afford, such a whirl as only three-quarters of a mile
down the great timber shoots of the Ottawa can
ever give. All on the raft with the Prince, to whom
(excepting the Governor-General) the sensation was
as novel as it seemed beautiful and terrible, were
delighted, and the only regret which his Royal
Highness expressed when the raft at last did con-
descend to stop in the centre of the river, below
the Falls, was that the shoot was not at least a mile
longer.
From off this raft his Royal Highness went in a
canoe to witness canoe races, which were exciting
and closely contested, and in which everybody, if
they did not win, at least said and thought they
did, which is much the same. Six Indians of the
Allejonquins tribe, however, distanced the best
crews and canoes of the lumbermen beyond all
chance of doubt.
These sports were still at the highest when his
Royal Highness left, as the sun set over the pic-
turesque headland of Ottawa in such a flood of
purple grandeur as seemed to impress into admi-
ration of the scene even the rough natures of the
lumbermen. On that night there was a banquet at
the Victoria-house, and the village of Ottawa was
illuminated with candles. There was also an at-
tempt at a torchlight procession, the only very bad
one the Prince has met with.
Yesterday being Sunday of course nothing was
done, and to-day (that is to say, in an hour hence)
the Prince leaves for the furthermost wilds of the
Ottawa river, and takes a route to Kingston about
as direct as a man would take who should start
from London-bridge to reach Islington via Peckham
and Battersea. This route, however, will best show
the features of the country, and as the Hon. John
Rose is in charge of all relating to his tour, it may
be considered as certain that there will be much
worth seeing, and that his Royal Highness will be
as well provided for at Brockville as Mr. Rose has
provided for him throughout all Canada.

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