FIREARMS, USE AND ABUSE OF THEM. 129 



dropped, and having tied our little sails round the 

 masts, we took to our sculls. My friend proposed 

 that I should get into his boat, and that the two ser- 

 vants should pull home in the other. Accordingly, 

 we, what is called " went in company " till we got to 

 the bridge. When close to the said bridge, the two 

 servants, as is usually, or I may say always, the custom, 

 got hold of some ropes that were stretched along a 

 wall for the purpose of pulling boats up under one 

 of the arches into the lake above, or to where the 

 water was slack, for under the bridge the water ran 

 like a mill-race, and was, at the time I am speaking of, 

 so high, and the stream' so strong, that the small 

 steamer that usually ran between Constance and 

 SchafThausen had ceased to ply, from the fact that 

 there was not room overhead, and that from the 

 swiftness of the stream she would not answer her 

 helm. 



" Now then," said my friend, who was as strong 

 as a horse, and a first-rate hand at sculling, " I'll pull 

 through the middle arch." I tried to persuade him 

 that such a performance, in such a state as the stream 

 was from the melted snow that was coming through 

 the lake, which was thirty or forty miles long, was 

 out of the question. I tried to persuade him that it 



K 



