Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/478

 Heaven"), a provincial capital ten days' journey below Rahang, we find it situated at the junction of two branches of the river. Our route leads us into the left or north-west branch. Here the current is so swift that it becomes necessary to abandon the oars and resort to the long poles (iron-pronged at the end) to push the boat through the seething waters. All the dexterity and acuteness of the polesmen and pilot are put to the test now in keeping within the channel and to prevent our being cast upon a sandbar. The bed of the river is filled with masses of sand, which are in a state of perpetual change. Whirling and careering and finding no permanent lodgment, it is constantly displacing the channel, while we in our pursuit of it often miss it by a half space of the boat, one side of which is lying on a sand-drift, and at the other there may be the depth of twelve or fourteen feet of water. In pushing off, the current carries us down stream, and as we recover our distance again we think of the problem of the frog in the well, and our question is: If in one hour we gain three miles and lose one, when shall we reach Rahang?

However, as "perseverance conquers all things," we make our way through this war of waters (passing several towns on our way) more or less difficult of navigation, until we reach Rahang, where we find the river divided