I knew I was in for a tough job and made up my mind to go through with it.

The river ran all over the country and was as changeable in temper as a novelist's heroine.

Sometimes it was a mile wide, running slowly, with as calm and smooth a surface as a lake.
Again, at the next bend it would dart toward a range of hills, and instead of going around them as its previously erratic course led me to expect, it would plough straight through the solid rocks.

Then it would become as narrow as a canal, deep and rapid as a mill race, and in some places hurried along with the speed of an express train.

The country was utterly wild, and it was not an unusual thing to paddle from morning until night without seeing a human being.