Below this we
found a rapid so much like the Soap Creek Rapid in appearance that a
portage seemed advisable. It was evening when we got the _Edith_ to
the lower end of this rapid after almost losing her, as we lined her
down, and she was wedged under a sloping rock that overhung the rapid.
We had two ropes, one at either end, attached to the boat in this
case. Emery stood below the rock ready to pull her in when once past
the rock. There was a sickening crackling of wood as the deck of the
boat wedged under and down to the level of the water, and at Emery's
call I released the boat, throwing the rope into the river, and
hurried to help him. He was almost dragged into the water as the boat
swung around fortunately striking against a sand-bank, instead of the
many rocks that lined the shore. We were working with a stream
different from the Green River, we found, and the _Defiance_ was taken
from the water the next day and slowly worked, one end at a time, over
the rocks, up to a level sand-bank, twenty-five or thirty feet above
the river. Then we put rollers under her, and worked her down past the
rapid. This work was little to our liking, for the boats, now pretty
well water-soaked, weighed considerably more than their original five
hundred pounds' weight.
A few successful plunges soon brought back our former confidence, and
we continued to run all other rapids that presented themselves. This
afternoon we passed the first rapid we remembered having seen, where
we could not land at its head before running it.
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