The rapid broke just
below the lower end of the sheer rock, which extended twenty feet
beyond the irregular shore. The _Edith_ went first, headed upstream,
at a slight angle nearly touching the wall, dropping a few inches
between each restraining stroke of the oars. Bert crouched on the bow,
ready to spring with the rope, as soon as Emery passed the wall and
headed her in below the wall. Jumping to the shore, he took a snub
around a boulder and kept her from being dragged into the rapid. Then
they both caught the _Defiance_ as she swung in below the rock, and
half the battle was won before we tackled the rapid.
Our days were short, and we did not take the boats down until the next
day; but we did carry much of the camp material and cargo halfway down
over ledges a hundred feet above the river. For a bad rapid we were
very fortunate in getting past it as easily as we did. Logs were laid
over rocks, the boats were skidded over them about their own length
and dropped in again. Logs and boats were lined down in the swift, but
less riotous water, to the next barrier, which was more difficult. A
ten-foot rounded boulder lay close to the shore, with smaller rocks,
smooth and ice-filmed, scattered between. Powerful currents swirled
between these rocks and disappeared under two others, wedged closely
together on top. Three times the logs were snatched from our grasp as
we tried to bridge them across this current, and they vanished in the
foam, to shoot out end first, twenty feet below and race away on the
leaping water.
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