Another great comber had rolled in, and the pile of foaming water was sweeping inshore, looking very high and threatening from my position. I put the canoe straight on to it, and got up what speed I could, expecting such a sousing as I had just had; but she was now on an even keel, and her weight was mostly stowed amidships, so when the great mass of water struck her she merely flung her bows up into the air, and sent a fountain of spray on either side. I continued to paddle cautiously forward towards the line of breaking waves until I was as near as I dared to go; then I waited for the interval that comes periodically in the surf, and only paddled enough to hold my ground, whilst the broken water struck me blow after blow, and tended to sweep me inshore. At length, as a great wave curled over and burst with a dull explosion, I looked over the wall of foam, and could see no following crest. Now was my time, while the brief lull lasted, and digging the paddle deep into the water, I charged straight forward at the advancing wall of foam. As I met it, the canoe nearly stood on end, and the spray flew up in a cloud, but the ballast prevented me from being thrown back, and as the bubbling water swept past, I paddled for my life. If I failed to dodge the surf now I must inevitably be swamped. As I drew near the main line of the surf, the brief lull came to an end, and I saw a huge wave sweeping towards me, growing higher as it approached, like a moving mountain. Onward it came, all in a tremble, rearing its colossal bulk above me until I could see the sky through its green crest. Then a spot of white appeared on its summit with a hissing murmur; the edge began to turn over, and as the canoe soared upward, the murmur swelled into a roar. In the midst of a blinding cloud of spray I felt the canoe check and begin to turn, and with the energy of despair I plied my paddle to keep her head to the sea. For an instant my fate hung trembling in the balance, but a moment later the full explosion of the bursting wave boomed from just astern, and the canoe sank into the rear hollow. But I was not yet safe, for my bark had been thrown back some distance, and I dug my paddle viciously into the water as I struggled to regain my place. Another immense wave came rolling in shorewards, and as the canoe flew upward with a velocity that took away my breath, the crest crumbled into foam, and blinded me with a shower of spray. But it held the canoe only for a moment, and then I slid down the back of the wave. A dozen more strokes of the paddle carried me out of immediate peril, for the next wave, though it towered above me in a most terrifying manner, only whisked me up into the sky, and dropped me on its farther side, without so much as a sprinkle of spray. I was safely through the surf, and when I had paddled for yet a few minutes more, to get a proper offing (for this was a lee shore), I ventured to look about me, and to see how my late pursuers were faring.