38 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLATO. 



for want of a tongue. I had managed to learn to ask for 

 milk, and to count ; so we got a drink, paid our men, and 

 at 10.30 started, shouting Huaste ! (good-bye.) Our new 

 steersman was a very fine man, six feet high at least a 

 straight limbed fellow as one could wish to see ; he was 

 quiet and grave, and reminded me strongly of an old Scot. 



' Half the village, well-dressed, comfortable folk, came 

 down to see us go, and shouted Huastu ! in chorus. 



'No one had warned us of what we were now coming to. 

 The broad placid stream which we had been following 

 changed all at once, and in a few minutes we were in a 

 Torneo rapid. 



' The banks changed their character also, and for some 

 miles there was a constant succession of rocks, and pools, 

 and whirling eddies, that seemed made for fi>hing. 



' Our men seemed to know what they were about so 

 well that there was no reason to fear shipwreck; but to 

 pass some of the places which we now whisked through 

 without good boatmen would be certain destruction. 



' Our first leap was down a regular waterfall, about four 

 feet high ; and then, shooting down at railway speed, the 

 men pulling like racers, we had to thread our way amongst 

 large stones, breakers, and whirling pools that looked 

 impassable. Our quiet steersman was a study. His face 

 lighted up with the excitement, his eyes glared and 

 sparkled, his long hair floated backward, his mouth opened 

 slightly, and then his lips were compressed, and the teeth 

 set when he had taken his line and meant to keep it. He 

 plied his paddle with strength and skill, and every attitude 

 showed off his well-knit frame. The others worked hard 

 and silently, watching the steerer's eye, and ready to help 

 him at the slightest sign. It was evidently no child's play, 

 and they were not children. I sketched the steersman at 

 one place, and we agreed that we were safe in his hands ; 

 so we smoked our pipes and held our tongues to give the 

 men fair play. That rapid alone was worth the journey. 

 That night we were obliged to stop short of our point, for 

 night fell, and we could not shoot the rapids in the dark. 



