some time; then, "Four feet."

"Three feet!" shouted Hop, when we had gone about two miles.

Cornwood rang the speed bell, and the boat slowed down to five miles an
hour.

"Two feet and a half!" cried Buck, the next moment.

The pilot rang the gong, for there was not more than six inches of
water under the stern. The Wetumpka continued to go ahead. The pilot
did not ring to back the paddle-wheel, and the deck-hands both reported
two feet and a half, several times in succession.

"A stream comes in there," said Cornwood, pointing to the mouth of a
creek on the left bank; "that run of water has made a shoal here."

"Three feet!" called Hop; and the same call was repeated by Buck; and
the pilot rang to go ahead at full speed.

In a short time it was "No bottom" again; and we went along very nicely
for about five miles. Here we had to slow down again, and then stop
her. The deck-hands got down to two feet and a half. When Hop said two
feet, Cornwood rang to back her. This was the draft of the boat aft.
One of the flat-boats which were stowed away aft, and which we had had
no occasion to use before, was put into the water, and with Buck I went
ahead, with a sounding-pole in my hand. I followed the two feet depth
for about a rod, and then came to three feet, and soon after to "no
bottom." I shouted to the pilot the result of my examination of the
stream, and Buck pulled back to the steamer. We got on board and made
fast the painter of the flat-boat, letting it tow astern, for we might
soon need it again.

Cornwood ran the Wetumpka back for some distance, and then went ahead
at full steam. If the boat stuck, he intended to force her over the
shoal, which was not more than a rod in breadth. She went over without
even scraping the sand. If she had been loaded with freight, she could
have gone no farther. After going a couple of miles more, the pilot ran
the boat up to the shore, which was almost the only place we had seen
for miles where the banks of the river were not swampy, with the roots
of the bushes under water. It was a pine forest on the eastern shore,
with no underbrush.

"This looks like the right place," said Cornwood, after he had directed
the deck-hands to carry the bow fasts ashore and catch a turn around
the trees. Then he looked about him, as if he was trying to identify
the place. "I wish I had the latitude," he added.

"We can give you that, for I have my instruments in my room. I brought
them beca