“36 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 
for want of a tongue. I had managed to learn to ask for 
milk, and to count; so we got a drink, paid our men, and 
“at 10.30 started, shouting Huaste ! (good-bye.) Our new 
steersman was a very fine man, six feet high at least—a 
straight limbed fellow as one could wish to’see; he was 
‘quiet and grave, and reminded me strongly of an old Scot, 
‘Half the village, well-dressed, comfortable folk, came 
down to see us go, and shouted ‘Huaste! in chorus. _ 
‘No one had warned us of what we were now coming to. 
The broad placid stream which we had been following 
changed all at once, and in a few minutes we were ina 
Torneo rapid. 
‘The banks changed their character also, and for some 
miles there was a constant succession of rocks, and pools, 
and whirling eddies, that seemed made for fishing. 
‘Our men seemed to know what they were about: so 
well that there was no reason to fear shipwreck; but to 
pass some ‘of the places which we now whisked through 
without good boatmen would be certain destruction. 
‘Our first leap was down’a regular waterfall, about four 
feet high; and then, shooting down at railway speed, the 
men pulling like racers, we had to thread our way amongst 
large stones, breakers, and whirling pools that looked. 
‘impassable. Our quiet steersman was a study. His face 
‘lighted up with the excitement, his eyes glared and 
‘sparkled, his long hair floated backward, his mouth opened! 
‘ slightly, and then his lips were compressed, and the teeth 
‘ set when he had taken his line and meant to keep it.. He 
plied his paddle with strength and skill, and every attitude 
’'showed off his well-knit frame. The others worked hard 
and silently, watching the steerer’s eye, and ready to help 
him at the slightest sign. It was evidently no child’s play, 
and they were not children. I sketched the steersman at 
one place, and we agreed that we were safe in his hands;, 
so we smoked our pipes and held our tongues to give the 
men fair play. That rapid alone was worth the journey.. 
That night we were obliged to stop short of our point, for. 
night fell, and we could not shoot the rapids in the'dark. 
