rough already!"

"Why, that was nothing," said Jesse. "It was just as smooth!"

"Exactly. There is no pleasanter motion in the world than running a
bit of fast water. Now, there was no danger in this, and the only
trouble we had was just to get an inch or so out of the way of that
big rock which might have wrecked us. We always pick a course in a
rapid which gives us time to turn, so that we can dodge another rock
if there's one on ahead. It usually happens pretty fast. You'll soon
learn confidence after running a few pieces of white water, and you'll
learn to like it, I'm sure."

Moise had turned his boat ashore to see the second boat come through,
and after a moment Alex joined him at the beach, the canoes being held
afloat by the paddles as they sat.

"She comes down fast, doesn't she, fellows?" asked Rob.

"I should say so!" called John. "I don't see how they ever got a big
boat up here at all."

"Well, Sir Alexander says that this was part of the worst water they
found," said Rob. "Sometimes they had to pull the boat up by hanging
on to the overhanging trees--they couldn't go ashore to track her,
they couldn't get bottom with their setting-poles, and of course they
couldn't paddle. Yet we came down like a bird!"

The boats dropped on down pleasantly and swiftly now for some time,
until the sun began to sink toward the west. A continually changing
panorama of mountain and foothill shifted before them. They passed one
little stream after another making down from the forest slopes, but so
rapid and exhilarating was their movement that they hardly kept track
of all the rivers and creeks which came in. It was late in the evening
when they heard the low roar of a rapid far on ahead. The men in the
rear boat saw the _Mary Ann_ slacken, pause, and pull off to one side
of the stream.

"That must be the big rapid which Fraser mentions," commented John.

"Very likely," said Alex. "Well, anyhow, we might as well pull in here
and make our camp for the night. We've made a good day's work for a
start at least."

"I shouldn't wonder if it was a hundred miles from where we started
down to the outlet of the McLeod River," began Rob again, ever ready
with his maps and books. "I think they call it the Pack River now.
There is a sort of wide place near there, where the Mischinsinclia
River comes in from the east, and above that ten or fifteen miles is
the Misinchinca River, on the same side. I don't know who named those
ri