For I had fallen not into the placid backwater behind the nut-bush island, but out into the edge of the main stream, and a cross current catching me, had sent me swinging out into the very centre of the racing river. For a few moments I beat the water desperately with all four paws in a frantic effort to get back to the shore which I had left; but very soon I exhausted myself so completely that I could fight no longer, and, paddling feebly, was swept down-stream at a positively terrifying speed. It was now late in October, and the water was very cold. Soon I began to feel quite numbed. Besides this, I was horribly frightened, while the pace at which the small whirlpools into which I was constantly flung, spun me around, made me giddy, and added to the hopelessness of my feelings. The whole experience was so horrifying that I may be forgiven for confessing the terror I felt. Once or twice I saw tree-roots or projecting points of high banks forming promontories which extended out into the flood, and so long as strength lasted I made fierce efforts to reach them. But in each case the current, rendered the more irresistible by opposition, mocked my puny efforts and whirled me away out into the centre again. Once a small log, floating almost submerged, overtook me as I battled with the stream, and, catching me across the neck, pushed me quite under water and drove over me. When I rose once more, my strength was almost spent, and I felt that I could not much longer continue the useless struggle. I was sinking lower and lower in the water; my strokes were becoming more feeble every moment, and it was only a question of a few minutes before I must have sunk for good, when I suddenly caught sight of a long narrow plank, evidently torn from some paling by the flood, sweeping down, end on, beside me. With a last despairing effort I struck out for it, and just before it had passed quite out of my reach, succeeded in scrambling upon one end of it. It dipped beneath my water-logged weight, and the current almost snatched me away. But, clinging with all my claws, I managed to crawl along to its centre, and found to my joy that it would support me. But, even so, my position was extremely perilous. The way in which the banks flew by showed how rapid was the rush of the flooded river. Suppose the plank caught against any obstacle, it must at once roll over and plunge me again into the water. Happily, however, this did not happen, and though time and again it checked and quivered, I managed to retain my hold, and so was swept along almost as fast as a man could run.