FIREARMS, USE AND ABUSE OF THEM. 131 



a mill race to be drowned. My companion went 

 down one arch, and I went down the other ; and 

 luckily, as we were being carried along by the 

 torrent, for it might fairly bear that name, up came 

 the bottom of the boat, within a yard or two of us. 

 I stuck my nails into the bottom of it, and hung on, 

 whilst he and his old pointer got on to it. And thus 

 we, like the pig in The Devil 's Walk, down the river 

 did glide with vast celerity. I had my fishing or 

 wading boots on, and a thick mackintosh, and 

 between the buttons in the front one of the fixed 

 iron tholl pins had got fast, so that, till I let myself 

 down in the water, and managed to get it loose, I 

 was a fixture to the boat. Having done this, and 

 hanging on to the punt with my finger nails, we 

 were carried along fairly comfortably by the stream 

 for quite a quarter of a mile, till we got into slacker 

 water where the river was pretty broad. My servant, 

 and my friend's jager, who had got almost into the 

 lake, had seen the sail that was round the mast 

 disappear all of a sudden ; and as I had hailed them 

 as soon as I could, for they said they fancied they 

 heard some one holloa, they came to the rescue. 

 And glad enough I was to see the boat coming, for 

 I had had for some time my pockets pretty full of 



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