an practically on an even keel, which would give them the
greatest bearing on the water and enable them to travel over the
shallowest water possible.

"_En roulant?_" said Moise, looking at Alex inquiringly.

Alex nodded, and the boys being now in their proper places in the
boats, he himself stepped in and gave a light push from the beach
with his paddle.

"So long, fellows," called out Rob over his shoulder as he put his
paddle to work. "I'm going to beat you all through--if I'm bow paddle
in the first boat I'll be ahead of everybody else. _En roulant, ma
boule!_"

The _Mary Ann_, swinging fully into the current, went off dipping and
gliding down the gentle incline of the stream. "Don't go too fast,
Moise," called out Alex. "We want to keep in sight of the cook-boat."

"All right!" sang out Moise. "We'll go plenty slow."

"Now," said Alex to John and Jess as he paddled along slowly and
steadily; "I want to tell you something about running strange waters
in a canoe. Riding in a canoe is something like riding a horse. You
must keep your balance. Keep your weight over the middle line of the
canoe, which is in the center of the boat when she's going straight,
of course. You'll have to ease off a little if she tilts--you ride her
a little as you would a horse over a jump. Now, look at this little
rough place we're coming to--there, we're through it already--you see,
there's a sort of a long V of smooth water running down into the
rapid. Below that there's a long ridge or series of broken water.
This rapid will do for a model of most of the others, although it's a
tame one.

"In this work the main thing is to keep absolutely cool. Never try a
bad rapid which is strange to you without first going out and getting
the map of it in your mind. Figure out the course you're going to
take, and then hang to it, and don't get scared. When I call to you to
go to the right, Mr. John, pull the boat over by drawing it to your
paddle on that side--don't try to push it over from the left side. You
can haul it over stronger by pulling the paddle against the water. Of
course I do the reverse on the stern. We can make her travel sidewise,
or straight ahead, or backward, about as we please. All of us canoemen
must keep cool and not lose our nerve.

"Well, I'll go on--usually we follow the V down into the head of a
rapid. Below that the highest wave is apt to roll back. If it is too
high, and curls over too far up-stream, it would swam