up the Ottawa. 103 



this slide is placed some 300 yards above the falls^ and ter- 

 minates after a run of about three-quarters of a mile, in the 

 still waters of the river below. As, however, a raft on sup h 

 a steep incline, and hurried along by such a mass of water, 

 would attain a speed which would destroy itself and all upon 

 it, the fall of the shoot is broken at intervals by straight 

 runs, along which it glides at comparatively reduced speed, 

 till it again drops over, and commences another headlong 

 rush. Some of these runs terminate with a perpendicular 

 drop of some four or five feet, over which the raft goes head- 

 long and wallows in the boiling water beneath, till the current 

 again gets the mastery, and forces it on faster and more 

 furiously than before. More than 20,000,000 cubic feet of 

 timber come down the shoots of the Ottawa in this manner 

 each year. The rafts are generally made of from fifteen to 

 twenty trees, with two transverse ones to secure them at 

 each end, and a kind of raised bridge for the lumberers to 

 stand upon, who without such aid would be washed off it, 

 as the mass drops from shoot to shoot down these rapids 

 and disappears some few feet under water each plunge. 



To go down the rapids of the St. Lawrence is compara- 

 tively nothing ; but to go down the rapids of a timber shoot? 

 to keep pace with the flying waters, and to see them hissing 

 and rushing up over the raft beneath your feet, is the most 

 exhilarating adventure in all the repertoire of American 

 travels. It is something which partakes of flying and swim- 

 ming ; the immense speed of the whole mass, — the rush of 

 the water, — the succession of shoots stretching out before 

 you like sloping steps of stairs, — the delight of flying over 

 these with the easy skim of a bird, — the rough long straights 

 in which the raft seems to dive and founder, letting the 

 water up beneath, and over it behind, till it is again urged 

 forward; and then comes another incline of water, which 

 you whirl madly down as if you were in a swing. To steady 

 yourself on the narrow plank amidships, and hold on with 



