PERILS OF PIONEERING. 181 



hat and Mr. Macfarlane's waistcoat were floating on 

 the stream about one hundred yards down, so my 

 brother said, " Here, put this belt on and get your 

 hat." " No fear," said I ; " I'm not going in there any 

 more." " Why, you must have a hat," said he, and 

 remembering the heat of the sun, I thought better of 

 it, so hastily putting on the life-belt, ran along the 

 river side till I got beyond the hat, and plunging in 

 swam into the centre of the current and easily secured 

 both articles as they came along. 



It was rather disappointing to find that the little 

 blocks that kept the ventilator in place, were gone : 

 having been only glued in so that the hat, under 

 these circumstances, acted too much like an extin- 

 guisher, but it could not be helped, and having escaped 

 with our lives amidst such danger made us look beyond 

 such trifles as these. It need hardly be said that my 

 brother determined to cross his wife over in the canoe 

 in which he had come, so that while Mr. Macfarlane 

 and I went back to the public-house to change our 

 clothes, he returned to her and said he thought she had 

 better come over in the bark canoe, stating (and pos- 

 sibly with a good deal of truth) that it was the better 

 of the two. In a short time she was safely ferried 

 across, and as they walked up to the hotel she was 

 told of our mishap. 



