Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/471

 indicates a good stage of water, and they have been able to shoot the rapids and to row most of the way in the smoother waters. In going up the poling in the upper river is slow work, and the boats have to be dragged by ropes over the rapids, which consumes both time and strength, for the boatmen have to rest after passing the most difficult (i. e. high and swift). We must also take into consideration the difference of going with the current and against it.

By the time we have finished this little talk the boats have been tied to their moorings and the boatmen are sitting in squat-fashion on the decks, resting before their preparations for supper and for the night. As we bid them "Good-evening" our thoughts are busy with the morrow, when we shall begin to arrange our boats for the trip northward. At dawn we are awake, and find the atmosphere cool even to chilliness, as it always is in the winter months. The thermometer, we find, stands at 60° (at Cheung Mai at this season it is often as low as 54°). The cool season is best suited to traveling in boats, and it is important that we get off at its beginning. In the hot season, March and April, the journey will be intolerable, and the river being then very low, it would be impossible to get the larger boats through the shallow water. In the rainy season, from May till October, you can imagine what it would be to live in a close boat with a daily visi