Curly then got in himself, and Alec and him seized each an oar.
But what with their inexperience and the nature of the channel, they found it hard to get along.

The river was full of great stones, making narrow passages, so that, in some parts, it was not possible to row.
They knew nothing about the management of a boat, and were no more at ease than if they had been afloat in a tub.

Alec being stronger in the arms than Curly, they went round and round for some time, as if in a whirlpool, with a timeless and grotesque spluttering and sprawling.

At last they gave it up in weariness, and allowed the _Bonnie Annie_ to float along the stream, taking care only to keep her off the rocks.
Past them went the banks--here steep and stony, but green with moss where little trickling streams found their way into the channel; there spreading into low alluvial shores, covered with lovely grass, starred with daisies and buttercups, from which here and there rose a willow, whose low boughs swept the water.

A little while ago, they had skated down its frozen surface, and had seen a snowy land shooting past them; now with an unfelt gliding, they floated down, and the green meadows dreamed away as if they would dream past them for ever .-- Suddenly, as they rounded the corner of a rock, a great roar of falling water burst on their ears, and they started in dismay, "The sluice is up!" cried Alec.