St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-03-24
THE SAGUENAY RIVER.
Some of the Beauties of the Worlds
Deepest Stream.

Some of the Beauties of the Worlds
Deepest Stream.
The river is probably the deepest
stream in the world; excepting IN a
few places the general depth is from
600 to 900 feet; and the bottom OF the
Saguenay> at its mouth is 6Oo feet be-
low the bottom of the St. Lawrence.
Thus a low point of rock at the shore
or an island is really the top of agreat
hill springing up steeply from the bot
tom, and many of the cliffs are not
half out of water AS the spring tides
rise about eighteen feet, the currents OF
the river are violent and eccentric; IN
some places the ebb stream runs from
four to six miles an hour; the eddles
along the shores are like those on q
rapid; and the undercurrents some
times lay hold of vessel and turn her
about or hold her still in spite of tow
boat. Before the use of tow-boats, a
vessel left helpless by calm sometimes
drifted against the rocks.
lodged on ledge, and
when the tide fell capsized in deep
water. AS anchorage is very rarely
found. large iron rings were let into
the rocks, and vessels even now some-
times tie up to the cliffs and await
fair wind. The tide, for some uneN-
planned reason, advances with extra
ordinary rapidity in the Saguenay;
thus, Notwithstanding the fact that the
ebb current very rarely ceases to flow
out of the river, yet high tide arrives ut
Chicoutimi only forty-fve minutes later
than Enthusiastically miles. On
the St. Lawrence the tide advances in
the same time only from Tadousae to
Murray Bay-about thirty-tive miles.
The source of the Saguenay, Lake st.
John, seems like Northern sea- The
pale twilight lasts far into the night
until the aurora borealis hangs its
mystic veil across the sky. The beaches,
a mile or mere wide in summer, the
sharp waves raised by wind on this
very shallow basin, the screaming gulls
all make you look for a tide and for
white-winged ships But only a bark
canoe now and then comes along from
one of the thirteen rivers descending
by many falls and cascades from the
fcrest-covered mountains; and the
pinched-up farms scattered along the
shores add to the arctic sentiment. felt
even on summers day. The Sagu-
enay comes into being as lusty twins,
the Little and the Grand Discharge
deep narrow channels worn in the
rock. They run on separately for some
miles through rapids and pools, and
finally come together at the foot of
Alma Island, at the Vache Caille.
There begin the Gervais Rapids, three
or four miles long; at their foot the
river enters smooth, quiet stretch of
fifteen miles to the Grand Remous-
the most furious cascade and the most
turbulent eddy of the river; and then,
after a few more miles of falls and
cascades, the Saguenay ends its rapid
career, where it meets the tide near
Chicoutimi. With the exception of
few clearings, the forest still covers
the abrupt hills crowding upon the
river. The Grand Discharge is a beau
tiful region; the stream is filled with an
archipelago of small islands, some
black, bare rocks, others tree-crowned
or decked with rich MOSES; it has all
the virgin seclusion and quiet of a
lake, enclosed by shore of bold. pic
turesque bastions and walls of rock,
surmounted by stately balsams that rise
like sentinels above the birches, pop
lars, cedars, and hooks full of tender
green grass. But this quietness is full
of life; the islands divide the river
into labyrinth of streams, the
water runs silently and swiftly
/. in many opposite directions-down,
across, even up the general course of
the river; one is piqued, surprised. at
its coquetry and shyness And farther
down it leaps away in the furious
rapids of lie Maine. The Little Dis
charge is so rapid that it destroys logs
in its fall and cascades; the Govern
ment therefore built an aqueduct, ''the
Slide," for running the timber over
these dangerous places. After fishing
few days for the active wannoniche
said to be the landlocked salmon
and exploring the waters of these twin
Discharges, joined the men driving
logs at the Vache Caille, and began my
acquaintance with the voyagers. C Fl
Farashana, IN Harper's Magazine.