and. Too well they
knew what that sort of thing was the prelude to. There were rapids
ahead, almost to a dead certainty, and they had missed their chance of
inspecting before attempting to shoot them, for there was no landing on
either of those vertical banks; while as for returning to a point where
landing was possible, they might as well have attempted to fly! Well,
there was but one thing for it; if there were indeed rapids ahead they
must do their best to shoot them without the usual preliminary
inspection; they were growing quite accustomed to that kind of work now,
and it ought not to be so very difficult.

Accordingly Dick placed himself in the bow of the canoe and Phil
stationed himself amidships, each armed with the long pole which they
used to bear the canoe off the rocks when shooting rapids, while the
Peruvian perched himself up in the stern with the short steering paddle
in his hand. Presently the expected rapids swung into view ahead, and a
sufficiently formidable sight they presented. It was difficult, nay
impossible, to tell how far they extended, for a bend of the river shut
out the view; but there was at least half a mile of them in plain sight,
a narrow channel of foaming, leaping water, with the black head of a
rock showing occasionally here and there amid the foam. Dick drew his
feet up under him and raised himself to his full height in the crank
cockleshell of a canoe, in order that he might obtain as extended a view
as possible of what lay before him: he was admittedly far the more
expert canoeist of the two, especially when it came to shooting rapids,
therefore on such occasions his post was always in the bow, which then
becomes the post of honour--and of responsibility.

What he saw was by no means reassuring; there was far too much spouting
and foaming water for his taste, for such appearances invariably
indicated rocks submerged to the extent of a few inches at the utmost,
contact with any of which meant at least the destruction of the canoe,
if no worse mishap. True, in almost every stretch of rapids there
exists what may be termed by courtesy a channel, that is to say, there
is a passage, more or less tortuous, between the rocks where the water
is deep enough to float a canoe if one can but hit it off in time. This
channel or passage is usually distinguishable by the comparative
smoothness of the water in it; so that if the navigator can guide his
canoe fairly into it by the time th