THE BOATMAN'S STOET. 61 



Kound Lake, and right up over the rapids we went. Two 

 or three times I made up my mind that I was a goner, as 

 the water piled up around me along over the falls ; but 

 somehow our very speed made our boat glance upward at 

 such tunes, and skim along the surface like a duck. We 

 went boundin' from hillock to hillock, on the mad waters, 

 till we entered the broad lake and went skiving about again 

 among the islands. 



" All at once he seemed to take a notion to go down to- 

 wards the bottom ; so shortenin' the line some fifty foot or 

 more, he hoisted his great tail straight up towards the sky, 

 and down he went, the boat standing' up on eend, and some- 

 how the waters didn't seem to close above us, so rapid was 

 our descent. It was tight work, as you may guess, to hold on 

 under such circumstances, but I managed to keep my place. 

 How deep we went I wont undertake to say, but this much 

 is quite sartin, we went down so far that I couldn't see out at 

 the hole we went in at. There are some mighty big fish 

 away down in them parts, you may bet your life on that ; 

 trout that it wouldn't be pleasant to handle. 



" By-and-bye we started for daylight again. The fish had 

 to stand out of the way as we rushed like an express train 

 towards the surface ; them that didn't we made a smash of. 

 One bull head, I remember, about twice as long as one of 

 our boats wasn't quick enough ; the bow of the boat struck 

 him about in the middle and cut him in two like a knife. 

 One old trout seemed to have made up his mind for a fight, 



