122 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



We had arranged to shoot the Rapids, instead of landing above. 

 The men did not seem to think it much of an exploit, and made no 

 change in the stowage of the canoe. The oars were taken in ; the 

 steersman and bowman furnished with paddles instead. We glided 

 quietly down, the paddles just touching occasionally, with a few rapid 

 and vigorous strokes at certain points. 



The water is so little broken that we seemed not to be moving 

 very fast, and it was startling on looking down over the side to see 

 the bowlders on the bottom twitched by so quickly that it was impos- 

 sible to see their forms. It was like looking down from a railway 

 car upon the sleepers. Whether from bravado on the part of our 

 men, or from the necessity of the case, we several times passed with- 

 in a foot or less of rocks apparently just under the surface. We 

 were not more than three or four minutes going down, though the 

 distance is nearly three quarters of a mile. 



