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toes ; you skin your knuckles and almost break your neck as you stum- 

 ble aloug all the while the roar is sounding in your ears and confusing 

 your senses, and the rush of water is doing its best to carry you off your 

 feet, and finally if you do i't look out you are into a hole and then you 

 have to swim for it. This was just what happened, the man in front 

 took a header, the man behind lost control, the water caught the canoe, 



turned it sideways, poured in and then chaos. * ext morning's sun 



shone serenely on articles of clothing, tea, fishdiooks, rice, matches, 

 sugar, ammunition, oatmeal, blankets, pepper, books, salt, etc., etc., 

 with which the sunounding rocks and liushes in all directions were 

 covered. Memo, ot loss 1 boat, 1 stocking, 1 surveyor's compass, 1 

 pipe, 1 sponge, 1 paddle, 1 set of maps and 2 letters from Mr. Grass well 

 to his daughter at Mattawa. 



The balance of the river between the the Epines Rapids and its 

 junction with the Ottawa, some seven miles, lies for the most part 

 beween high rocky banks and is very pretty, especially in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Boom Ijake, a small expansion a mile long. Well ; 

 anyway, one fine afternoon about five o'clock, we ran the rapids 

 beneath the little wooden bridge that spans the Mattawa 

 at its mouth, much to tlie ahiusement of a crowd of loafers 

 on the bridge, who had seldom, if ever before, seen such dainty little 

 craft on their waters for our Idueand green Peterboroughs, with their 

 flags gaily flying, showed to considerable advantage over the dull 

 colouT'ed and squat birch-barks of those regions, and almost before we 

 were aware of the fact we were swiftly flying down the Flat and the 

 first dip of the Burritt's Rapids, and had camped on the right bank of 

 the " Grand River" just lelow the little village of Mattawa. 



How changed everythini^ was n.ow, and into wliat insignificance tlie 

 little Mattawa had shrunk ! Looking ahead the shining water might 

 be seen for a mile or two, lying in a deep valley that ended abruptly in 

 a towering hill, as the river bed turned south, and was lost to sight. 

 Everything was on a grander and more magnificent scale than any- 

 thing we had yet seen, while aboiit half a mile away a streak of white 

 foam showed where the second dip of the Burritt's Rapids stretched 

 aci-oss the river. 



Did you ever run a rapid 1 No 1 Then you have never experienced 

 the most intense excitement and keenest enjoyment that can be 

 obtained in this ordinary every-day woi'ld. To prove my statement, 

 you know what a stolid unmoveable being the North American Indian 

 is ; how phegmatic, how intlifferont under the most unusual and 

 trying circumstances. Now in a rapid I have seen Indians' eyes dance 

 with excitement, and heard them shout like very children ; and these 

 were men whom no other circumstance could move in the slightest 

 degree. Nor is it to be wondered at, for there is always an uncer- 

 tainty about it that makes the run exciting. You see ahead the white 

 foam extending in a line across the river, marking the beginning of the 

 fall. If you don't know the rapid and are wise you will go ashore and 



