tain Paul Boyton. Captain Boyton, who is as brave as he is
modest, is the man who has paddled over twenty five thousand miles on
the principal rivers of the world in a peculiarly constructed rubber
suit, over great falls, and through dark canyons, in Europe, Africa, and
America; who has fought sharks and seals, and has had all sorts of
strange adventures. The idea of the "chute" first came to him, he says,
while shooting down the raging Tagus in Spain. In his book he says:

"The thought struck me as I was going into some subterranean passage,
the perpendicular walls seeming to close in and swallow up the entire
river. I was swept down by the mighty current, and was beginning to feel
sure that I was being carried into some underground rapids, when I was
suddenly dumped into a deep pool, where the course of the river was
running smooth and placidly along."

The first chute in America was built in Chicago, and opened for business
on July 4, 1894. It is nothing more nor less than an inclined roadway of
wood or iron, starting at a height of from 60 to 75 feet, which, with a
run of about 250 feet, descends to the surface of the water. On this
roadway there are tracks upon which boats, each holding eight
passengers, glide rapidly down. When the boat strikes the water, the
impetus acquired in the descent causes it to "skim" over the water in a
series of bounds, like a stone thrown by a boy in "ducks and drakes,"
some 300 feet to a landing-stage, where the passengers are disembarked.

But such a brief description doesn't even suggest the fun and the
excitement of "shooting the chute." It is a sport where old and young
can meet on common ground. In fact one poet has recently told how

"Little Jimmy was a scholar,
And his aptitude was such
That his parents and his teacher
Were afraid he'd know too much.
So his grandmamma said, 'Bless him,
I will take him into town,
And we'll go to Captain Boyton's,
Where they'll water-shoot us down.'"

[Illustration: YOU SEE THE BOAT LEAP FORTY FEET AT A JUMP.]

Suppose you were to go down to the chute--for there are four chutes in
different parts of the country now, in Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, and
at Coney Island--you would see something like this: There is a big
enclosure, with a high board fence around it, from which a huge incline
stretches up. It looks like a toboggan slide, only far bigger than most.
The man at the stile-gate says, "Tickets, please." So yo