The only shore
on the right was close to the head of the rapid, a small
deposit or bank of earth and rock. The inner gorge here was
about nine hundred feet deep."
"Ellsworth went first, taking the left-hand side. I picked
out a course on the right as being the least dangerous; but
I was scarcely started when I found myself on a nest of
jagged rocks, with violent water all about me, and with
other rocks, some of them submerged, below me. I climbed out
on the rocks and held the boat."
"If the others could land below the rapid and climb back,
they might get a rope to me and pull me off the rocks far
enough to give me a new start, but they could not pull the
boat in to shore through the rough water. A person thinks
quickly under such circumstances, I had it all figured out
as soon as I was on the rocks. The greatest trouble would be
to hold the boat if she broke loose."
"Then I saw that the _Defiance_ was in trouble. She caught
in a reverse whirl in the very middle of the pounding rapid,
bouncing back and forth like a great rubber ball. Finally
she filled with the splashing water, sank low, and the water
pouring over the rock caught the edge of the twelve-hundred
pound boat and turned her over as if she were a toy; my
brother was holding to the gunwale when she turned. Still
she was held in the whirl, jumping as violently as ever,
then turned upright again and was forced out.
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