at the platform where
the captain had his station. This platform was about six feet high and
ten feet long; and it was just wide enough for the captain to walk to
and fro upon it. There was a flight of steps leading up to this platform
from the floor of the raft, and a little railing on each side of it, to
keep the captain from falling off while he was walking there.

The object of having this platform raised in this way, was to give the
captain a more commanding position, so as not only to enable him to
survey the whole of the raft, and observe how every thing was going on
upon it, but also to give him a good view of the river below, so that he
might watch the currents, and see how the raft was drifting, and give
the necessary orders for working it one way or the other, as might be
required in order to keep it in the middle of the stream.

Then Rollo went to the forward end of the raft to see the raftsmen row.
The oars were of monstrous size, as you might well suppose to be the
case from the fact that each of them required six men to work it. These
six men all stood in a row along the handle of the oar, which seemed to
be as large as a small mast. They all pressed down upon the handle of
the oar so as to raise the blade out of the water, and then walked along
over the floor of the raft quite a considerable distance. At last they
stopped, and lifting up their hands, they allowed the blade of the oar
to go down into the water. Then they turned, and began to push the oar
with their hands the other way. The outside men had to reach up very
high, for as the oar was very long, and the blade was now necessarily in
the water, the end of the handle was raised quite high in the air. The
men, accordingly, that were nearest the end of the oar, were obliged to
hold their hands up high, in order to reach it; and they all walked
along very deliberately, like a platoon of soldiers, pushing the oar
before them as they advanced. And as each of the other six oars had a
similar platoon marching with it to and fro, and as all acted in
concert, and kept time with each other in their motions, the whole
operation had quite the appearance of a military manoeuvre. Rollo
watched it for some time with great satisfaction.

After this Rollo walked up and down the raft two or three times, and
then his attention was attracted by a steamer going by. The steamer cut
her way through the water with great speed, and the waves made by her
paddle wheels