bow headed downstream, for the boat had
"swapped ends" in the interval, and was heavy with about three barrels
of water in the cockpit. I bailed out with a grocery box, kept under
the seat for that purpose. It had been growing quite cold, and Emery's
indisposition--or what was really acute indigestion--had weakened him
for the past two days, but he pluckily declined to stop. I was soaked
with my last immersion and chilled with the wind, so concluded there
was no use having him go through the same experience and I ran his
boat while he made a picture. We were both ready to camp then, but
there was no suitable place and we had to push on to the next rapid.
On looking it over we almost gave up our intention of running it. It
was about a fourth of a mile long; a mass of submerged rocks extended
entirely across the river; the entire rapid seemed impossible. We
finally concluded it might be run by shooting up, stern first, on a
sloping rock near the shore, then return as the current recoiled and
ran back, dividing on either side of the rock. The only clear channel
was one about twelve feet wide, between this rock and the shore. A
projecting shore above prevented a direct entrance to this channel.

We threw logs in and watched their action. In each case they paused
when within five or six feet of the top of the slope, then returned
with the current, whirled back to the side and shot through close to
the shore. We planned to go through as close together as possible.
Emery was ready first, I held back in a protecting pool, waiting for
him to get out of the way. He got his position, facing stern
downstream, gave the slightest shove forward, and the released boat
whizzed down for fifty feet and ran up on the rock. She paused a
moment, as the water prepared to return. He gave two quick pulls,
shooting back again, slightly to the right, until he struck the narrow
channel, then reversed his course and went through stern first exactly
as we had planned it. The square stern, buoyed up by the air-chamber,
lifted the boat out of the resulting wave as he struck the bottom of
the descent. This much of the rapid had only taken a few seconds.

I followed at once, but was not so fortunate. The _Defiance_ was
carried to the left side, where some water dropped over the side of
the rock, instead of reversing. I pulled frantically, seeing visions,
meanwhile, of the boat and myself being toppled off the side of the
rock, into the boulders and wa