t awake most of the night, one or other of
them, overcome by fatigue, occasionally nodding over in a sort of
half-sleep, but awaking again after a few minutes' uncomfortable
dreaming. They talked but little, as the noise of the rushing rapids
rendered conversation painful. To be heard, they were under the
necessity of shouting to one another, like passengers in an omnibus. It
was cold, too. None of them had been much wetted in escaping from the
canoe; but they had saved neither overcoat, blanket, nor buffalo-robe;
and, although it was now late in the spring, the nights near Lake
Winnipeg, even at that season, are chilly. They were above the latitude
of 50 deg.; and although in England, which is on that parallel, it is not
very cold of a spring night, it must be remembered that the line of
equal temperature--in the language of meteorologists the "_isothermal
line_,"--is of a much lower latitude in America than in Europe.

Our voyageurs were chilled to the very bones, and of course glad to see
the daylight glimmering through the tops of the trees that grew upon the
banks of the river. As soon as day broke, they began to consider how
they would reach those trees. Although swimming a river of that width
would have been to any of the four a mere bagatelle, they saw that it
was not to be so easy an affair. Had they been upon either bank, they
could have crossed to the other without difficulty--as they would have
chosen a place where the water was comparatively still. On the rock they
had no choice, as the rapids extended on both sides above and below it.
Between the boulders the current rushed so impetuously, that had they
attempted to swim to either bank, they would have been carried downward,
and perhaps dashed with violence against one or other of the sharp
stones.

As soon as it was light, they saw all this; not without feelings of
apprehension and uneasiness. Their whole attention was now occupied with
the one object--how they should get to the bank of the river.

The right bank was the more distant; but the passage in that direction
appeared the easier one. The current was not so swift, nor yet did it
seem so deep. They thought they might ford it, and Basil made the
attempt; but he soon got beyond his depth; and was obliged, after being
carried off his feet, to swim up under the lee of the rock again.

From the rock to the right bank was about an hundred yards' distance.
Here and there, at irregular intervals, sharp,