FOUR MEN IN A BOAT. 129 



little more than encourage the young ones to work ; 

 I sat at mine ease on a cushioned seat and shouted. 

 The river was exceptionally low, and our boat very 

 heavy. At every bend in the river we came upon a 

 shallow, or a rapid and a fall there must have been 

 forty of them and at every one our youngsters had 

 to take off their boots and stockings, and, unprovided 

 with water shoes, go in with their naked feet on the 

 rocky bed of the river, to haul and crunch the boat 

 over the stones and sunken rocks. How they shouted 

 and screamed as they strained every nerve, and the 

 sharp stones grazed their feet ! Constantly they got 

 into a wrong current which led nowhere, or to fearful 

 rocks ahead ; then they had to hark back to find 

 another road, for neither of them knew anything 

 whatever of the treacherous ways of this lovely river ; 

 but they were all young and vigorous, and they had 

 to perform by sheer pluck and strength what could 

 have been performed far more easily by anyone well 

 acquainted with the trend of the currents. No serious 

 accident befell them, but they had many narrow 

 escapes from a ducking, as the boat shot suddenly off 

 a shallow into a ten or perhaps twenty feet pool. 

 Before starting we were cautioned to beware of certain 

 ticklish places, such as Monington Rocks. Here the 

 stream is divided by a small island. On the left the 

 main force of it rushes in a deep and narrow current 

 over a sheer fall of about six feet into a deep pool. 

 That side we were told to avoid, and follow the 

 milder currents on the right. Here the river was 

 wide, running over gravel in little rippling streams, 

 not one of which could carry the boat. So here we 

 K 



