About the same time a thick, white fog peculiar to the Po, settled over the river.

Through this he picked his way cautiously and as the current swept in around the bend of the river, the noise he heard before seemed to be no great distance away.

The speed of the current seemed to increase and in a few minutes afterwards, he was shot over a dam and hurled in the tumbling water below.
Before he could extricate himself, the little boat had been upset and was about sinking when he grabbed her.

The current soon drove him far below the dam, where he landed on a bar and emptied his tender of water.
He knew her contents were ruined; but it was too dark to examine, so he kept on his voyage until sunrise, when he landed and found that all his provisions were converted into a kind of pudding, dotted with cigars instead of fruit.

The small flask of Cognac and a bottle of oil were the only things uninjured.