74 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
ent voyage was attended with far more danger: for if we 
once fairly struck one of the thousand rocks by which 
we were surrounded the boat would be swamped in an 
instant. When a boat is swamped under these circum¬ 
stances, the boatmen commonly find no difficulty in 
keeping afloat at first, for the current keeps both them 
and their cargo up for a long way down the stream ; and 
if they can swim, they have only to work their way 
gradually to the shore. The greatest danger is of being 
caught in an eddy behind some larger rock, where the 
water rushes up stream faster than elsewhere it does 
down, and being carried round and round under the sur¬ 
face till they are drowned. McCauslin pointed out 
some rocks w T hich had been the scene of a fatal accident 
of this kind. Sometimes the body is not thrown out for 
several hours. He himself had performed such a cir¬ 
cuit once, only his legs being visible to his companions ; 
but he was fortunately thrown out in season to recover 
his breath.* In shooting the rapids, the boatman has 
this problem to solve: to choose a circuitous and safe 
course amid a thousand sunken rocks, scattered over a 
quarter or half a mile, at the same time that he is mov¬ 
ing steadily on at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. 
Stop he cannot; the only question is, where will he go ? 
The bow-man chooses the course with all his eyes about 
him, striking broad off with his paddle, and drawing the 
boat by main force into her course. The stern-man 
faithfully follows the bow. 
We were soon at the Aboljacarmegus Falls. Anx- 
* I cut this from a newspaper. “ On the 11th (instant?) [May, ’49], 
on Eappogenes Falls, Mr. John Delantee, of Orono, Me., was drowned 
while running logs. He was a citizen of Orono, and was twenty-six 
years of age. His companions found his body, enclosed it in bark, 
and buried it in the solemn woods.” 
