ves below. My rowing had no effect
whatever, but the boat was grabbed by the returning wave and shot, as
if from a catapult, back and around to the right, through the sloping
narrow channel,--my returning course describing a half circle. Instead
of rising, the pointed bow cut down into the waves until the water was
on my shoulders. Emery turned his head for an instant to see what
success I was having, and his boat was thrown on to a rock close to
the shore. I passed him and landed, just before going into the next
rapid. I then went back and helped him off the rock, and he continued
his course over the leaping waves. He broke a rowlock before he
landed, and had to use the substitute we had hung beside it.

We found a good spot for a camp just above the next rapid. Our tent
was stretched in front of a large boulder. A large pile of driftwood
gave us all the fuel needed, and we soon had a big fire going and our
wet clothes steaming on the line.

CHAPTER XIV

A PATIENT AMID THE CATARACTS

An hour or so after making our camp, we began to doubt the wisdom of
our choice of a location, for a downpour of rain threatened to send a
stream of water under the tent. The stream was easily turned aside,
while a door and numerous boards found in the drift pile, made a very
good floor for the tent and lifted our sleeping bags off the wet sand.
We had little trouble in this section to find sufficient driftwood for
fires. The pile at this camp was enormous, and had evidently been
gathering for years. Some of it, we could be sure, was recent, for a
large pumpkin was found deposited in the drift pile twenty-five feet
above the low-water stage on which we were travelling. This pumpkin,
of course, could only have come down on the flood that had preceded
us.

What a mixture of curios some of those drift piles were, and what a
great stretch of country they represented! The rivers, unsatisfied
with washing away the fertile soil of the upper country, had levied a
greedy toll on the homes along their banks, as well. Almost everything
that would float, belonging to a home, could be found in some of them.
There were pieces of furniture and toilet articles, children's toys
and harness, several smashed boats had been seen, and bloated cattle
as well. A short distance above this camp we had found two cans of
white paint, carefully placed on top of a big rock above the
high-water mark, by some previous voyager.[5] The boats were beginning