78 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



a Yurk, on the bottom of the boat, holding on to 

 either side with his hands to steady himself 

 (whether John had strapped him down or not i 

 can't surely say), pushed from shore, and, taking 

 the current above, brushed swiftly by, with the 

 injunction to " follow." I obeyed. Down we 

 glided, past rock and ledge, swerving now this 

 side, now that, sweeping round giant boulders and 

 jutting banks, down under the dark balsams and 

 overhanging pines, the suction growing stronger 

 and stronger, the flight swifter, until the boats, 

 like eagles swooping on one prey, took the last 

 utretch almost side by side, and, lifted high up on 

 the verge of the first falls, made the wild leaj) 

 together, and disappeared into the yeasty foam^ 

 whence, rising buoyantly, uplifted by the swelling 

 water, shot out of the foam and mist, and, like 

 birds fresh from sport, floated cork-like on the 

 pool below. 



We paused a moment to breathe, when, looking 

 up, the two remaining boats, guided by Jerry and 

 the younger Eobinson, bearing Southwick and 

 Everitt as passengers, came sweeping round the 

 curve, and rushing, as from the roof of a house, 

 to the brink of the fall, flung themselves into the 

 abyss, and in a moment lay along our side. The 

 excitement was intense. No words can describe 

 the exhilaration of such a fliglit. It was thought, 

 after mature delil)erati()n by the company, that 



