THE FALLS OF KEEWASH. 35 
and so from every twig on the branching river floats gather 
as the river gathers on its way to the sea. 
‘ Sometimes great piles of timber get stranded, jammed, 
and entangled upon a shallow, near the head of a narrow 
rapid ; and then it is no easy or safe employment to start 
them. Men armed with axes, levers, and long slender 
boat-hooks, start down in crazy boats, and clamber over 
slippery stones and rocks to the float, where they wade 
and crawl about amongst the trees, to the danger of life 
and limb. They work with might and main at the base 
of the stack, hacking, dragging, and pushing, till the whole 
mound gives way, and rolls and slides rumbling and crash- 
ing into the torrent, where it scatters and rushes onwards. 
“Tt is a sight worth seeing. The brown shoal of trees 
rush like living things into the white water, and charge 
full tilt, end on, straight at the first curve in the bank. 
There is a hard bump and a vehement jostle; for there 
are no crews to paddle and steer these floats. The dashing 
sound of raging water is varied by the deep musical notes 
of the battle between wood and stone. Water pushes 
‘wood, tree urges tree, till logs turn over and whirl round, 
and rise up out of the water, and sometimes even snap and 
splinter like dry reeds. 
‘The rock is broken, and crushed, and dinted at the 
water-line’ by a whole fleet of battering-rams, and the 
‘square ends of logs are rounded; so both combatants 
.retain marks of the strife.’ 
At Keewash I was told that the logs shot the fall bound 
‘together in floats or rafts, whether single floats consisting 
of 60 logs, or in long rafts consisting of ten such floats, 
‘bound together, I neglected to enquire, but I presume the 
‘former, I would have been glad to have seen the effect in 
either case, but I could not await the operation, 
