Before entering a rapid or piece of swift water, we carefully 
     
     oil the working parts of the motor, and see that everything is in 
     
     trim for our struggle against the stream. Off we go for our first 
     
     tussle, and in a minute more we are in swift water, with circling 
     
     eddies and a foam-lined shore. 
     
    

    
     The water is higher than usual, owing to recent rain and 
     
     well—swollen tributaries. The whole current of the great river flows 
     
     through the one channel we have just entered. Fortunately, the river 
     
     is deep here, and it gives a good hold for our rapidly revolving screw. 
     
     The engine working well, the lever is pushed to “full-speed,” and in 
     
     a moment we are cleaving the water into two high ridges at our 
     
     bow, while the throbbing motor settles down to its best speed. 
     
    

    
     we look ashore a little anxiously, it must be admitted, for we 
     
     appear unequal to our task, the trees alongside and the rocks by the 
     
     shore holding fixed positions on our beam. It is only for a moment, 
     
     however, for soon we creep along shore, slowly, very slowly; and 
     
     yet we are gaining. After half-an-hour’s steady going we emerge 
     
     into a wider channel, the current loses its force and now we go ahead 
     
     with increasing speed. 
     
    

    
     Here we are in a run that is clear save for the quantities of 
     
     logs floating downstream, and which are being gathered in and 
     
     made up into rafts to be towed or guided with poles to the maws of 
     
     the rapacious mill. The long boom of logs fastened together end- 
     
     wise, the walking platform and the small floating shanty, together 
     
     with the constant downward stream of logs of all sizes going down 
     
     singly, in “twos” and ”threes,” and, at times, in great bunches, all 
     
     make an interesting incident in the trip; and to thread a devious way 
     
     in and out of the swiftly passing timber keeps our rudder in constant 
     
     oscillation as we follow the ever-changing path. 
     
    

    
     Here is Lunt's Ferry. We see the high, steel cable strung 
     
     across the river, Wllll the running block and gang ropes connecting 
     
     it with the side-railed flat barge or ferry. These floats are often 
     
     propelled across stream by the 
     
     force of the current. Just as a ship 
     
     makes headway by the side wind 
     
     running off her sails obliquely, so 
     
     does a boat cross a stream by the 
     
     action of the tide, if care is taken 
     
     to have the boat's head turned 
     
     partly against the current. The 
     
     boat being fastened to a transverse 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
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