84 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



0, royal sport, to see them glide like arrows down 

 tlie steep, at an angle so sharp that I could see the 

 bottom board in each boat, ■ from stem to stern ! 

 0, noble siglit to see them enter in between the 

 mighty rocks, — the chasm shutting them from 

 view a moment, — from which, emerging in 

 quick succession, with mighty leaps, quivering 

 like s;^rting fish, they shot the falls triumph- 

 antly n 



Wha^ sports have we in house and city like 

 those which the children of wood and stream 

 enjoy ? — heroic sports which make heroic men. 

 Sure I am, that never until we four have done 

 with boats and boating, and, under other pilotage, 

 have entered into and passed through the waters 

 of a colder stream, shall we forget the running of 

 the Eacquette Eapids, on that bright summer day. 

 And often, as we pause a moment from work, 

 above the harsh rumble of car and cart, the sound 

 of file and hammer, rises the roar of the rapids. 

 And often, through the hot, smoky air of town 

 and city, to cool and refresh us, will drift, from 

 the far north, the breeze that blows forever on the 

 Eacquette, rich with the odors of balsam and of 

 pine. 



That night I slept upon the floor at Palmer's, 

 proud to feel that I was the first " gentleman " — 

 in the language of the guides — " that ever ran 

 the rapids " ; prouder of that than of deeds, at- 



