With Gun & Rod in Canada 



the current. I was standing up and using my pole on 

 the right side of the boat. 



It flashed across my mind that I had to turn half-way 

 round and use the pole on the left-hand side of the boat, 

 in order to shove the stern toward the right. I gave 

 a quick little shove ahead to keep the headway on the 

 canoe, which was a mistake, as the canoe was not heading 

 fair upstream. I then tried to turn and shift the pole, 

 which was a mistake, as I found that I was too late, the 

 canoe being headed almost across the stream and shooting 

 toward the bank. So I shifted the pole back to the 

 right-hand side and shoved it toward the bottom as far 

 ahead as I could reach, with the idea of snubbing the 

 canoe and turning her head upstream. This also was 

 a mistake. This brought the canoe with the full force 

 of the current behind it up against the pole amidships, 

 and I did the prettiest little pole vault out among the 

 festive trout that was ever seen ! The water was only 

 up to my knees, so I turned and grabbed the canoe and 

 waded ashore right there, being now tired of swimming 

 around with the canoe in the eddy at the foot of the 

 falls. 



After I got ashore and thought the matter over, I 

 realized that I had never seen a guide shift his pole from 

 one side of the canoe to the other, no matter which way 

 he desired to throw his boat's head. If he was poling 

 on the right-hand side of his canoe and wanted to throw 

 his boat's head to the right, he would shove the stern 

 to the left. If he wished to throw his boat's head to the 

 left, he would reach out with his pole as far as he could 

 and a little ahead, and pull the stern towards the pole 

 to the right. 



When I got to thinking over the pole-vaulting stunt, 

 I realized that I should have dropped to my knees, 

 shoved the pole to bottom on the upstream side, and 



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