230 STRENUOUS, BUT UNFORTUNATE. 



this manner you may thrust your little craft where no 

 oars could take hold of the water. 



To perform this requires vast practice, and accordingly 

 it was a considerable time before I mastered it com- 

 pletely, although I had been accustomed to punting on 

 the Isis in my younger days. The rapids had it all 

 their own way for months, or more. As you use the 

 canting pole, which is shod with a heavy iron spike, so 

 you must use the leister ; only with more caution, lest 

 you should injure the prongs. 



As a proof of the difficulty of this operation, I will 

 mention that I once put the canting pole into the hands 

 of an English gentleman, who was a good rower, and, 

 as he asserted, a good punter also. We were sunning a 

 strong stream called the Carrywheel, and I had placed 

 Charles Purdie at its gorge, to leister such fish as might 

 attempt to pass up it from the fright given by the dis- 

 turbance below. In a few seconds the head of the boat, 

 not being held straight up the stream, went round like 

 a shot, and so down the river. My friend was perfectly 

 confused, and did not know what on earth should be 

 done; so, as we were losing way rapidly, I took the 

 pole and brought her head up again. Still he would 

 not give in, and was determined to have another trial. 

 Well, he pushed here, and he pushed there, and with 

 these strenuous efforts succeeded in describing pretty 

 accurately in his course what in Gothic architecture is 

 called the zigzag moulding, losing way, however, at 

 every angle. 



Not having taken any notice of the objects on the 

 banks, he did not precisely know whereabouts he was ; 



