168 RIVER LIFE. 



clean sweep of this immense jam without accident. A short 

 distance below are Gordon Falls, at which place there is a con- 

 traction of the channel, with high ledges on either hand, a straight 

 but rapid run, with a very rough bottom, at once difficult and 

 dangerous to navigate or drive. Here logs to a greater or less 

 extent always jam, the number varying according to the height 

 of the freshet. This place we soon passed successfully. Logs, 

 ' wangun' and all, were soon over, excepting one empty boat, 

 which two brothers, our best men, in attempting to run, ' swamp- 

 ed' and capsized ; in a moment they both mounted upon her bot- 

 tom, and were swiftly passing along the dashing river, when the 

 boat struck a hidden rock, and the foremost one plunged head- 

 long into the boiling waves. Being an active man, and an ex- 

 pert swimmer, we expected to see him rise and struggle with 

 the tide which bore them onward ; but, to our amazement and 

 sorrow, we saw no more of him until four days after, when his 

 corpse was discovered some distance below the place of this sad 

 accident. At the foot of the falls a small jam of logs made out 

 into the channel ; several of the men ran out upon this to rescue 

 the other, who had also lost his footing on the boat. He passed 

 close to the jam under water, when one of the crew suddenly 

 thrust his arm down and seized him by the hair of his head, and 

 drew him to land. On recovering from the shock which he had 

 sustained in his perilous passage, and learning that his brother 

 was drowned, he blamed the crew for not permitting him to share 

 the same fate, and attempted to plunge again into the river, but 

 was restrained by force till reason once more resumed her svi^ay. 

 The body of the other received the humble attentions usual upon 

 such interments, as soon as a coffin could be procured. Not two 

 hours previous to this accident, this individual, taking one of the 

 crew with him, visited the grave of a fellow-laborer near by ; left 

 the spot, launched his frail boat, and lay down the next hour in 

 a rlvor-driver'i^ s'rave." 



