AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



from the island shore gradually to a depth of 

 sixty-three feet and then rising a little more 

 abruptly to the main shore. Our pipe was of 

 galvanized iron, i % inches in diameter, and came 

 in lengths of about sixteen feet. The ends 

 had to be screwed together, and I felt that 

 this could not be done successfully on a boat 

 constantly kept in motion by the waves, and 

 you never can be sure of calm water on the 

 lake for more than a couple of hours at a time. 

 In the end we put the pipe together in four 

 sections, each about 700 feet long, and these 

 were laid up the hill on the farm shore. They 

 were kept off the ground by poles, pegged down 

 solid, so that they would not move when we 

 started to drag the pipe down the hill. One 

 danger which we did not dare to risk was getting 

 the pipe jammed between rocks on the bottom ; 

 and to avoid the possibility of this, we decided 

 to float the pipe over near the surface. We 

 therefore borrowed all the empty oil barrels 

 we could find in the village, carried them to the 

 farm shore, and tying a piece of rope around 

 each, left three or four feet of it hanging. Then 

 we put a plug in the end of the first section of 

 pipe and waited for a calm day. When it came 



22 



