IN A FISHING COUNTRY 



his own game, and no stricken fool in the 

 party had the assurance to attempt N 's. 



Sometimes it was hard for N to 



understand that his matter-of-course per- 

 formances were quite beyond the powers 

 of another. A solitary instance where he 

 seemed to lack confidence will appear the 

 stranger when contrasted with this example 

 of his perfect fearlessness. 



A flotilla of canoes was about to descend 

 the lower ten miles of the Murray, but the 

 river was nearly ten feet up and mighty in 

 its wrath, after three days of extraordinary 

 rain. Thirty yards out from the launching- 

 place, and a little below it, a dangerous 

 comber marked the beginning of a rapid so 

 very wild that it could only be run in the 

 easier water at the side. To engage upon 

 the rapid at the right point it was quite 

 clear that you must hold above the breaker, 

 and some of us thought the current too 

 swift for a canoe to make the course. The 

 canoes were actually in hand, to be launch- 

 ed higher up, but N — 's opinion that the 

 breaker could be weathered was allowed to 

 prevail. With two passengers in the larg- 

 est birch-bark, he crossed and gained the 

 fairway without appearing to exert him- 

 self The second canoe had but one pas- 

 206 



