After adjusting life-preservers I returned to my boat and was soon on the smooth water above the rapid, holding my boat to prevent her from being swept over the rock in the centre, jockeying for the proper position before I would allow her to be carried into the current.  Once in, it seemed but an instant until I was past the first rock, and almost on top of the second.  I was pulling with every ounce of strength, and was almost clear of the rock when the stern touched it gently.  I had no idea the boat would overturn, but thought she would swing around the rock, heading bow first into the stream, as had been done before on several occasions.  Instead of this she was thrown on her side with the bottom of the boat held against the rock while I found myself thrown out of the boat, but hanging to the gunwale.  Then the boat swung around and instantly turned upright while I scrambled back into the cockpit.  Looking over my shoulder, when I had things well in hand again, I saw my brother was still at the camera, white as a sheet, but turning at the crank as if our entire safety depended on it.  After I landed the water-filled boat, however, he confessed to me that he had no idea whether he had caught the upset or not, as he may have resumed the work when he saw that I was safe.

Then we went to work to find out what damage was done.  First we found that the case, which was supposed to be waterproof, had a half-inch of water inside, but fortunately none of our films were wet.  Some plates which we had just exposed and which were still in the holders were soaked.  The cameras also had suffered.  We hurriedly wiped off the surplus water and piled these things on the shore, then emptied the boat of a few barrels of water.

This one experience, I suppose, should have been enough for me with that rapid, but I foolishly insisted on making another trial at it with the Edith, for I felt sure I could make it if I only had another chance, and the fact that Emery had the empty boat at the end of the rapid and could rescue me if an upset occurred greatly lessened the danger.  The idea of making a portage, with the loss of nearly a day, did not appeal to me.

Emery agreed to this reluctantly, and advised waiting until morning, for it was growing dusk, but with the remark “I will sleep better with both boats tied at the lower end of the rapid,” I returned to the Edith.  To make a long story short I missed my channel, and was carried over the rock in the centre of the stream.  The Edith had bravely mounted the first wave, and was climbing the second comber, standing almost on end, seemed to me, when the wave crested over the stern while the current shooting it from the side struck the submerged bow and she fell back in the water upside down.  It was all done so quickly, I hardly knew what had occurred, but found myself in the water, whirling this way and that, holding to the right oar with a death-grip.  I wondered if the strings would hold,