The canoes were hauled out on the bank, so that the stores could be readily taken out of them. The canvas canoe did not seem to be in the least injured either by the rock on which she had struck or by the collision with the other canoes. Harry’s canoe had sustained a little damage where one of the planks had been ground against the rock on which she had hung so long, but it was not enough to cause her to leak, and the injuries of the other canoes were confined to their varnish.
“All the trouble,” remarked Harry, “came from following too close after one another. To-morrow, if we find any more rapids, we will keep the canoes far enough apart, so that if one canoe runs aground the others can turn out for her.”
“We could have got into the canoes easy enough if we had only thought so,” said Tom. “If I’d stood up on the rock and held the canoe along-side of it, I could have stepped in without any difficulty.”
“Why didn’t you do it, then?” asked Harry.
“Because I didn’t happen to think of it, and because all the rest of you had started to float down after your canoes.”
“I noticed one thing about a rapid which if I was Commodore it would be my duty to impress on your faithful but ignorant minds,” said Joe. “When you see a big ripple on the water the rock that makes it isn’t under the ripple, but is about four or five feet higher up stream.”
“That’s so!” exclaimed Harry. “I ought to have remembered that, for Macgregor speaks about it in one of his books.”
“Whereabouts did your canoe strike, Commodore?” inquired Charley.
“Oh, about midships.”