EXCITING RAPIDS 
as I could — only interrupted momentarily by involun¬ 
tary shower-baths — prismatic compass and watch in hand 
all the time, the latter in order to measure the distances 
as accurately as possible. 
We had now come to another group of islands in a line 
in the centre of the river. They had been at one time 
evidently all one, which had subsequently been eroded 
into five separate islands and an extensive bank of gravel 
and sand. Taken in succession from south to north, there 
was first an oblong island, thickly wooded, 120 metres 
long, Nina Island, having on its western side an elongated 
bank of sand and gravel; then, where a barrier of rocks 
stretched transversely across the stream and where ex¬ 
tremely bad rapids occurred, three of them in succession, 
each worse than the last, was another island, Providence 
Island, 1,400 metres in length. 
When we reached any rapid we had to be quick in 
judging which was the best channel to follow, as the 
current was so strong that we had not sufficient strength 
to pull back against it. I generally selected the channel, 
my men by this time having gained sufficient confidence 
in my judgment, since so far we had had no serious mis¬ 
hap. But I foresaw that we should soon have an accident, 
as they were getting foolhardy, and in their ignorance 
attributed the wonderful luck we had had entirely to their 
own skill in navigation. 
On that particular occasion we had hardly time to 
recover from shooting the first rapid with the velocity of 
an arrow, and were wet all over with the splash of the 
water, when we came to the second and third rapids, where 
the channel was so narrow and rocks were scattered so 
near the surface, that it was really a marvel to me how 
we got through without capsizing. The men in their 
excitement were shrieking wildly as we dashed through 
the foaming waters, and there were also yells of positive 
terror from the man ahead, who, with a long pole in hand, 
99 
