78 WANDERINGS IN 



First caiioe's favoui'. At a little distance from the place, a large 



Journey. 



tree had fallen into the river, and in the mean time the 



canoe was lashed to one of its branches. 



The roaring of the water was dreadful ; it foamed and 

 dashed over the rocks with a tremendous spray, like 

 breakers on a lee -shore, threatening destruction to what- 

 ever approached it. You would have thought, by the 

 confusion it caused in the river, and the whirlpools it 

 made, that Scylla and Charybdis, and their whole pro- 

 geny, had left the Mediterranean, and come and settled 

 here. The channel was barely twelve feet wide, and the 

 torrent in rushing down formed traverse furrows, which 

 snowed how near the rocks were to the surface. 



Nothing could surpass the skill of the Indian who 

 steered the canoe. He looked steadfastly at it, then at the 

 rocks, then cast an eye on the channel, and then looked 

 at the canoe again. It was in vain to speak. The sound 

 was lost in the roar of waters ; but his eye showed that 

 he had already passed it in imagination. He held up his 

 paddle in a position, as much as to say, that he would 

 keep exactly amid channel ; and then made a sign to cut 

 the bush-rope that held the canoe to the fallen tree. 

 The canoe drove down the torrent with inconceivable 

 rapidity. It did not touch the rocks once all the way. 

 The Indian proved to a nicety, " medio tutissimus 

 ibis." 



Shortly after this it rained almost day and night, the 



