~Extraordinary Escape from Drowning.~


The following Narrative of an extraordinary escape from drowning, after
being wrecked among the Rapids of the St. Lawrence, first appeared in
the _Liverpool Mercury_, the Editors of which state that they have
published it by permission of the writer, who is a well-known merchant
of great respectability in that city. We have extracted it from the
pages of the _Edinburgh Magazine_, the Editor of which remarks,--"We
have been induced to transfer it into our Miscellany, not merely from
the uncommon interest of the detail, but because we happen to be able to
vouch for its authenticity."

On the 22nd day of April, 1810, our party set sail in a large schooner
from Fort-George, or Niagara Town, and in two days crossed Lake Ontario
to Kingston, at the head of the river St. Lawrence, distant from Niagara
about 200 miles. Here we hired an American barge (a large flat-bottomed
boat) to carry us to Montreal, a further distance of 200 miles; then set
out from Kingston on the 28th of April, and arrived the same evening at
Ogdensburgh, a distance of 75 miles. The following evening we arrived
at Cornwall, and the succeeding night at Pointe du Lac, on Lake St.
Francis. Here our bargemen obtained our permission to return up the
river; and we embarked in another barge, deeply laden with potashes,
passengers, and luggage. Above Montreal, for nearly 100 miles, the river
St. Lawrence is interrupted in its course by rapids, which are
occasioned by the river being confined in comparatively narrow, shallow,
rocky channels;--through these it rushes with great force and noise, and
is agitated like the ocean in a storm. Many people prefer these rapids,
for grandeur of appearance, to the Falls of Niagara. They are from half