So often we had asked each other,
"Will they never end?" However, in the afternoon on August 26th,
we reached smooth water, and had a few hours' paddling. Then
darkness began to close in. If only we could keep on! I knew from
my observation that day we could not be many miles from our
journey's end now; but it was not to be that we should reach our
destination that night, and camp was pitched at a point, which I
thought must be about seven or eight miles above the post.
It was very disappointing, and when George said, "If the ship is
there they will be sure to try to get off Saturday night," I felt
rather desperate. Still it would not do to take chances with the
George River in the dark.
In spite of anxieties I slept that night but felt quite strung in
the morning. At breakfast I used the last of the crystalose in my
tea. It seemed very wonderful that the little ounce bottle of this
precious sweet had lasted us as long as sixty pounds of sugar.
There was just a little of our tea left, and I filled the bottle
with it to keep as a souvenir of the trip. The remainder I put
into one of the waterproof salt-shakers and this I gave to George.
I learned later that there was a bit of quiet fun among the men as
I did it. They had no great faith in my calculations, and it was
their opinion that the tea would probably taste quite good at
lunch.
After what seemed an unnecessarily long time, the camp things were
again in the canoe and we were off. About a mile below the camp we
found that the rapids were not yet passed. Here a heavy though
short one made a portage necessary and then we dropped down to
where the river spreads out to two miles or more in width. For
several miles we paddled on in smooth water, the river swinging a
little to the west. How eagerly I watched the point where it
turned again to the north for beyond that we should see the post.
As we neared the bend there was an exciting escape from running
into an unsuspected rapid. Nothing was to be seen ahead but smooth
water. The wind was from the south and not a sound was heard till,
suddenly, we found ourselves almost upon the brink of the slope,
and only by dint of hard paddling reached the shore just at its
edge. It was the first and only time we had been caught in this
way. Again came the question, "Will they never end?"
The rapids stretched on before us turbulent and noisy, as before,
first west then swinging abruptly to the north.
