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DRUNKEN BOATMEN.
243
per man per mile, instead of 20 skillings, the regular
fare, and this was considerably below their demand :
indeed, they seemed quite unwilling to work at all.
The drunken man commenced by pulling furiously,
then missed the water, catching crabs, and fell over
the seat. Then a head wind blowing, very moderately,
they struck altogether, tied the boat to a rock, and
refused to go on unless I paid them a dollar. I took
no notice of their demand, but laid myself down at the
bottom of the boat, and bade them good night. They
ate dried salmon and drunk " brande v in" for about
three-quarters of an hour, and then went on; but the
drunken man was now quite useless; he merely splashed
the water and rolled about, while the boat made a
very curious course. At one moment it was nearly
capsized, for they were running it ashore upon a sloping
piece of rock which would have uplifted the bow and
sent the stern under water; but I took the oar from the
entirely drunken man and just pushed off in time. The
other looked over at the deep blue water, and the steep
rocks above, in a very uncomfortable manner: he was
evidently frightened, and when 1 strapped on my
knapsack and made them understand that I was quite
prepared for swimming, and that I had only saved the
boat for the sake of my knapsack, which was lying
under the seat, lie became quite civil and humble. His
drunken helpmate continued as random and stupid as
ever, but persisted in rowing; and as they had to keep
close to shore to escape the wind, the boat was in
continual danger of running into the rocks. I sat with my
e 2
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