Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1895 — SHOOTING A RAPID. [ARTICLE]

SHOOTING A RAPID.

Exciting Scene On a Canadian River. As we approached the steersman in the first canoe stood up to look over the course. The sea was high. Was it too high? Could they leap the waves? There was a quick talk among our guides as we slipped along, undecided which way to \ turn. Then the question seemed to settle itself, as most of these woodland quest : ons do, as if some silent force of nature had the casting vote. “Sautez, sautez!" cried Ferdinand, “envoyez an large!" In a moment we were sliding down the \ smooth back of the rapid, directly toward the first big wave. The rocky shore went by us like a dream, we could feel the motion of the earth whirling around with us. The crest of the billow in. front curled above the bow of the canoe. “Arrete, Arrete. doucement!” A swift stroke of the paddle checked the canoe, quivering and prancing like a ; horse suddenly halted. The wave ahead,as if surprised, sank and flattened for a second. The canoe leaped through the edge of it, swerved to one side, and ran gayly down along the fringe of the line of billows, into quieter water. Everyone feels the exhilaration of such a descent. I know a lady who almost cried with fright when she went down her first rapid, but before the voyage was ended she was saying:

Count that day lost whose low descending suu Sees no fall leaped, no foaming rapid run. It takes a touch of danger to bring out the joy of life. Our guides began to shout, and joke each other, and praise their canoes. “You grazed that villain rock at the corner,” said Jean; “didn’t you know where it was?” “Yes, after I touched it,” cried Ferdinand; “but you took in a bucket of water, and I suppose m’sieur is sitting on a piece of the river. Is it not?” This seemed to us all a very merry jest, aud we laughed with the same inextinguishable laughter which a practical joke, according to Homer, always used to raise in Olympus.