"Bulson liked it," broke in Magee; "sure the whole Rocky Mountains could fall on him, an' he'd like it for a regular exercise before breakfast." "I guess I'm all right, too," said Roger, and seeing his anxiety to sit up, they let him rise. He patted himself all over and then laughed. "I suppose I'd feel it if anything was broken," he said, "so it must be O. K." He got on his feet. "Did you get out of it all right, Mr. Rivers?" went on the boy, turning to his chief. "I'm not sure, but I think I saw you dive." "Yes," answered the geologist, "and it's lucky I did, for one of the rocks struck the very spot where I was sitting. I thought it was coming, and that's why I jumped. You're sure you feel all right?" "Sure," said the boy. "I lost my wind, that's about all." Rivers smiled. "You're lucky," he said, "in having been stooping over when the slide struck, because if it had taken you in the ribs or chest instead of the back, you'd have had some internal injury for sure. But since it struck you in the back, and you don't feel any special pain, your spine hasn't been hurt and nothing else can be, you must be all right." "I suppose the canoe is smashed!" the boy said questioningly. "The boat's at the bottom of the river, with a few tons of earth and rock and snow on top of it." Roger's expression changed suddenly. "But the maps, the plane table, all the work!" he exclaimed, "you don't mean that everything is lost!" "Do you suppose," answered the chief, "that I should be satisfied if those were gone?" "Then how were they saved? I don't understand," put in the boy, mystified. "I grabbed the oilskin bag with the maps when I went over the side," replied Rivers, "and Bulson hurled the plane table backwards over his head, so that it fell in the water for the other boat to pick up. But all the instruments are gone, of course, and a good many of our specimens." "It's a good thing," put in the topographer, "that I made a little duplicate for my own collection." "Yes," answered the chief, "it might be a whole lot worse than it is. It's a mighty fortunate thing that no one was badly hurt." "And I'm mighty glad," said Roger, "that my camera and all the negatives were in the other canoe. But now that we've only got one boat, how shall we get down the rest of the way?" "In the boat. We shall have to throw everything away except what we can't do without, and live on short rations. One of the guns is left, and there are plenty of fish in the river, so we probably will get along all right until we strike the Eskimo settlement on the delta of the river." "And if we don't strike it?" asked Roger. "Well, if we don't, you'll be pretty hungry. But we'll strike it, all right, you'll see."