OF NORTH  AMERICA.                                21Ù
Immediately after passing the last of Courcy Islands,
We steered to the left, in order to avoid a very dangerous
sand-rbank; there is a passage on the right, but the current
is so strong, that it is practicable only ia descending th©
river,
In crossing over, we met witji a disagreeable accident ?
our boatmen, exhausted in striving to master the current,
stopped on a sudden, when the boat drove with such*-
violence and with so much force on a stump, which broke
in its ribs, that wê had only time to throw ourselves
on the nearest of one of the islands, where we passed the
rest of the day to repair the damage,
We learned with certainty, on leaving the Ohio, that *
from thence to the Missouri, we could never proceed faster
than three leagues in a day, and Sometimes only two*
Although our boat had twenty oars, the rapidity of the
current, the immense quantity of tree$ heaped together
on both sides the river, and which sometimes filled half
its bed; the transversal position of these trees, Which
changes the current of the river, and increases its rapidity,
render this navigation yery difficult-and dangerous? we
Were continually in jhe alternative Of breaking pn the
trees, or striking on the sand-banks,
\Ve estimated the current pf the river in this ^pface
at six or seven miles an hour, and often nine ia channels