noon
But they had not yet done with it . Having surmounted these and many other difficulties , they reached a place where it became absolutely necessary to make a traverse across an unusually strong current . Here the men silently showed their estimate of the danger by stripping themselves to their shirts , that they might be the better prepared to swim for their lives , in case of accident to the canoe ! Fortunately the traverse was made successfully , and then at noon Mackenzie stopped and went ashore to take an altitude . While he was thus engaged , the men fastened the canoe and left it ; but so insecure was the fastening that the current sheered her off , and if it had not happened that one of the men had remained in her and held on to the line , they would then and there have been deprived of every means of advancing or returning , as well as of present subsistence ! Despite the alarming nature of this incident , and the interference of a cloud that sought to neutralise the sun , our persevering traveller completed his observations , and proved the luckless spot to be situated in 56 degrees north latitude . The rapidity of the current increased so much here , that in the distance of two miles they were compelled to unload four times and carry everything except the canoe ; and even when thus light they found it difficult to prevent her being dashed to pieces against the rocks by the violence of the eddies .