AV THE 1-AR \VEST. r,; 



that was botli deep and rapid. I tried to cross this in several 

 places, as the dogs were yelping in the loudest manner on the 

 opposite side, but I found the water too deep to wade and too 

 turbulent to swim, so I was compelled to make a raft of two 

 small trees which extended far out into the river, and whose 

 branches were so closely entwined that they could not be easily 

 separated. By forcing off the heavy ends with a lever made 

 of a large bough, I got my rude bark afloat, and tried to push 

 it across the stream, but the whirlpools were too numerous 

 and the current too strong to enable me to do this, and it went 

 rushing down the river at a pace almost sufficient to take my 

 breath away. I found it extremely difficult to keep my 

 position, as the eddies whirled the raft around so abruptly at 

 intervals that the base, side, or top was alternately in front, 

 but neither very long. I had ridden floating logs before in 

 the pine forests of Maine, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and 

 thought I was rather dexterous in the exercise, but on no 

 former occasion did I experience such a wild ride. 



Finding I could do nothing with my pole, it being perfectly 

 useless in that mad current, I let the bark go wheresoever the 

 water carried it, and devoted all my attention to retaining my 

 seat. In the course of perhaps a quarter of an hour I reached 

 a straight stretch of the river, and floated steadily down this 

 at a rapid rate, but on rounding a bend I was startled to see 

 before me an immense mass of fallen trees extending across 

 the whole width of the stream. Fearing a collision, I tried 

 to push my unmanageable raft ashore, but my efforts were in 

 vain, and before I could realize my situation the rude craft 

 went crashing into the obstruction with such force that I was 

 hurled into the water with a velocity that sent me almost clean 

 to the bottom atone bound. I came to the surface again in a 

 hurry, however, but only to be caught in a whirlpool that 

 dashed me against a tree with such power as to partially stun 

 me, and cause me to feel as if my head and ribs were broken. 

 In my wild anxiety to keep myself from the collision I threw 

 out my left hand, and, fortunately, caught a strong branch ; 

 and when I recovered from the confusion of the blow I 



