As the roar below grew more terrible, I lost some courage and endeavored to check up, fearing to encounter backwater.

In attempting to stop myself, I grasped a rock as I was being carried by; but did not have strength enough to resist the force of the current, and so was hurled along.

The current ran about thirty kilometers an hour, and the rocks were so high on either side that only a small strip of sky was visible overhead.

The stream took on an abrupt turn about every hundred yards and was running in the most peculiar currents.

I was tossed repeatedly from one side of the river to the other by sortie unseen action and bumped against the rocks.