CHAPTER II.

GOTHA RIVER—SLEEPING IN CANOES—LILLA EDIT—LIVELY LANDLADY.

21st July.—At 5 A.M., after a cup of coffee, our boats were carried down by four men to a canal, and off we paddled, under convoy of a rush of spectators along the banks, men of larger growth as well as such boys as chanced to be already up. Having traversed short portions of canal, we emerged on the fine full-bodied river Gotha, and set sail to a north-westerly breeze. We intended to proceed as far up as the current might permit, and soon found it necessary to take in sail and paddle against a strong head-wind; the wind having shifted.

About 1 P.M. we hauled the canoes ashore on a rocky point, marked on the map as Kattleburg, and quickly had a blazing fire with our soup boiling above it. This, our first test of the commissarial resources of the boats, proved satisfactory. The rest of the day we paddled through magnificent rocky wooded passes, with here and there an opening showing us some house or a farm couching upon its pasture, and on one island a fine old ruin.

As evening lowered we looked out for some house at which we might put up for the night, but nothing earthly could we see within half a mile of us, large beds of reeds always dividing us from solidity. So we pushed on; and, by every mile of paddling, our chance of finding a house seemed lessened.

At 11 P.M. we determined to go no further, not having tasted food since one o'clock, and the night turning very cold; we had now passed beyond all rushes, and at the same time beyond all hope of houses, the steep rocks bristling to the water's edge. We stumbled on shore in the strange semi-darkness caused by the faded western glow which gives a false appearance to surrounding objects, so that one cannot distinguish where the water ends and the land begins. After many a flounder and bump on the rocks, we succeeded in placing the two canoes side by side, on a flat portion a short distance from the water.

We soon had fire and lamps alight, and soup and coffee under weigh. After supper, we prepared for the night by fixing our mackintosh coats over the hatchways of the canoes, laid a rug on each bottom, and then began the artful dodge of stowing five-feet-eight of man-head and shoulders under the after-deck, legs and feet under the fore-deck, body in the well. This little manoeuvre has to be achieved by shoving two-thirds of your body, counting from the foot end, under the forward-deck, and then carefully putting your head under the after-deck, and hauling yourself aft by your hands. Cover the hatch with the mackintosh, leaving a small aperture for air, shove the life-belt under your head, and blow it out into a convenient pillow. This mode of sleeping is very well as long as you are dry; but that night, as on many others, our rugs, coats, trousers, &c., being completely wet, the cold compelled us to rise at three o'clock. Broad daylight, but the mist so dense that we could not see many yards. We climbed the rocks, and found that the fog lay low and heavy along the whole valley of the river. As we had no meat or bread in the storeroom for breakfast, we paddled on, at first cold and shivering, through the soft white veil; but by 9 A.M., when we caught sight of a farmhouse half-a- mile inland, the sun was already burning-hot, the delicate wreaths of vapour had vanished. We walked off to the house, purchased eggs, black bread, and butter, returned to the river, and made our breakfast, then spread sails, clothes, and kits to dry, and we ourselves rolled into the grass for a good sleep.

By midday, thoroughly refreshed, with a rattling breeze and fine weather, we scudded on our course up the river, until we reached the first rapid. On landing we found the river had made a heavy bend, the rapid being off the point. We therefore lifted the boats out, and carrying each in succession, launched them above the rapid. After paddling through long picturesque reaches, and deep quiet pools, which reflected the sun gleaming from between the clouds, we arrived at Lilla Edit, a small village at the last waterfall on the Gotha River, surrounded by saw-mills worked by the cascade. Running parallel to the river is a short canal, with a set of locks at each end, through which vessels are enabled to get above the falls. We found there was a small inn, so had our boats carried into the sitting room, and indulged in the luxury of sleeping in a house and in a bed. Next day we went to the salmon-fishery, which has fallen off much of late years. We tried for hours with flies and spinning, but fruitlessly. The natives catch them with nets. The current here was too strong to paddle against, to make any reasonable progress. Therefore we determined to await the arrival of the steamboat for Wenersborg, and then to avail ourselves of it thus far. At midnight, the steamer entered the locks. II. and I started from the inn; seizing the Isis, we carried her down to the steamer, and were returning for the Nautilus, when we met the landlady and her daughter running down the hill at a good trot, with the Nautilus under their left arms and bearing the two paddles in their right hands.

CHAPTER III.
FALLS OF TROLLHATTEN—LAKE WENERN—CARLSTAD—A WET RUN.

BY 1 A.M., with daylight approaching, Captain Ericson, who spoke English well, said it was no use to turn in, as we should soon come to the waterfalls of Trollhatten. We therefore made ourselves comfortable on the bridge, enjoying the grand, wild scenery in the dusky morning. The roar of a waterfall became distinct, louder, and heavier, as we neared it, when, on rounding a point, suddenly the glorious sight of the locks of Trollhatten broke upon us a mountain face, as it were, with locks rising one above another-a stupendous marvel! Vessels stepping. up before one's eyes, from lock to lock, to a height of 120 feet from the lower part of the river into the Trollhatten canal above, which deposits them back again in the river, but above the waterfalls. There is a grand old canal, which was blasted and cut through half a mile of solid mountain, forming a huge narrow dyke, with a series of locks along its bottom, but this is now left unused, owing to the still greater work since achieved. When the steamer entered the first lock, we went into the captain's cabin and he regaled us on Swedish punch; we then started ashore to see the falls. All the paths and roads were covered with sawdust, and a mill appeared at every single spot where water could be caught to turn the wheel. In some of these mills they mash great logs of wood into pulp, pack it in casks, and send it away long distances to be finally converted into paper.

The falls consist of a long wild cataract, the water bounding down over stones and rocks, with here and there a large troubled pool whence the same body of water again launches forth, hissing and crashing round and over islands and rocks, forming many channels, again uniting, some having passed through quiet shady pools, whilst others have had it rough all the way, making a last grand leap into the river below, and gliding quietly away to be mixed with the waters of the vast North Sea. We mounted the heights, and rejoined our steamer in the Trollhatten canal, and, after a few miles of the Gotha river, entered another canal, the "Karlsgraf," which takes a short cut across country into Lake Wassbotten, thus escaping another series of falls.

It was not until after entering this Karlsgraf canal that the passengers-some ten or fifteen-began to come on deck. They had slept through all ,the grand scenery, and were just in time for a fine view of the flat marshes around Lake Wassbotten, a kind of bay of Lake Wenern. Captain Ericson now told us that, after touching at Wenersborg, he was going to Carlstad, and thence on a cruise on the N.W. side of Lake Wenern, and proposed that we should accompany him, promising to bring us back again to Wenersborg, from which town we wished to start in our canoes. To this plan we agreed; and after landing the passengers we enjoyed this fine inland sea, along which we steamed all day. Lake Wenern is the largest lake in Europe excepting Ladoga, being about 100 miles long by 50 broad (in places).

Towards evening we reached Carlstad, built on an island formed by the two mouths of the river Klar, and connected with the mainland by a magnificent bridge. Here we found passengers ready for the cruise awaiting the steamer, and by 10 P.M. we were off again. Next morning we were still steaming on, bound for Upperud, a small village, whence a new series of cuttings are now in course of formation, to connect one lake with another, to gain a direct communication with Christiania; thus it becomes an enterprise of great commercial interest. Through a net-work of lakes, rocky crags, and wooded hills, we at last reached Upperud, where we all disembarked from the large steamer into a small one of about thirty tons, better suited for canal work. In this we proceeded through more lakes until our course was arrested by a waterfall. Here the steamer turned into a set of locks on the right-hand side, which raise boats up into a large iron aqueduct, which crosses the river at the top of the falls, and through which we steamed into the lake above. Here we got ashore, as the water looked good for salmon, whilst the other passengers went on, enjoying a noisy brass band and many tedious locks up to the end of the new canal, where they were to turn round and come back to Upperud. After fishing in the best-looking places for two hours, without one rise, we had the pleasure to learn that there was not a single salmon or trout in the water. So we walked off across the hills, finding our way back to Upperud. There we launched our canoes from the big steamer, and took a cruise amongst the lakes, where we had good perch and pike fishing until evening, when we rejoined the steamer, started for Carlstad, and arrived there early next morning.

Having landed the passengers, we now turned towards the N.E. corner, for a small village, Skattkarr, where we took in a cargo of steel and iron, and returned to Carlstad and Wenersborg. Here the weather continued so dirty that we waited a couple of days hoping it might clear, but this it declined to do, so we could delay no longer, and on the 29th our canoeing life commenced in earnest.

The morning was anything but propitious, a fresh south-westerly wind blowing, the barometer at 29.9, a heavy sea, and every prospect of rain. Our first course lay from the lighthouse at Wenersborg to Cape Udd, about 10 miles, over which we ran before a heavy sea, which increased as we distanced the land, and made sailing impracticable. At Cape Udd we landed on one of the numerous rocky islands-about two acres of thickly wooded mossy rocks, which would have formed a delightful dining-room but for the pouring rain. We soon had a good fire and our dinner cooking on it. All stores and baggage were wet, for what little water there was in the bottom of the boats was well washed about by the heavy seas. The seas were so short we had been unable to use our sails, for, even when paddling easy, we had some difficulty in keeping the boat's nose from running under the sea in front of her, when she would be lifted astern by the next sea, and either be capsized or ship a lot of water, neither of which would be pleasant whilst four or five miles from the nearest land.

During our halt on the island the wind shifted from S.W. to N.E., in a heavy rain-squall, so, for the rest of the evening, we had to paddle against a head-wind amongst numerous islands, on one or other of which we landed several times to take bearings of the headlands in sight, in order to find the position of the canoes on the chart. Waste of work enough we had, for want of a deeper water, or rather for want of a truer and minuter chart to guide us; the result of error involves one in the "square root of a negative quantity." Divers were our errors, and divers were the miniature voyages of discovery we made up small bays which invariably ended in a swamp, yet at last we happened upon one sufficiently flooded to float the canoes across to a bay belonging to the other side of Cape Udd.

CHAPTER IV.
COW "MAKING TRACKS "—NIGHT IN A HUT—" TOUCH AND GO "—IN THE SURF.

No house, no sign of human life, darkness increasing, rain coming on again, we cast about for a moderately dry spot for the night. Presently from out of the forest of fir emerged a woman and a cow. Happy thought! the woman must have some place to sleep in, and, as -it is so late, her home may probably be near. I blew my whistle to attract her attention, instead of which it scared her, and off she ran, as fast as she could go into the wood.

We landed as near as possible, hid our canoes in the bush, and made for the forest, but our Atalanta had sped so swiftly as to leave no impress of her foot behind her. Happily her cow was heavier; we discovered its track, followed it, and after a long wander through pine-woods, found a cottage. There we saw a man smoking his pipe, so we approached and asked him, in Swedish, for milk, eggs, and a bed. The whole family turned out, were very polite, and said "ja " to everything we wanted. So we led our host back to show him our boats, and, whilst we paddled round, he, on land, guided us to the nest bay, at the head of which was his cottage, to which we had before gained access only by the roundabout track through the forest.

30th July.—We started with a heavy sea and fresh breeze from S.W., with double-reefed sails and jibs; and having to cross a good stretch of rough water from one headland to another, we kept our life-belts handy. The seas ran very high; at times I almost lost sight of H. and his canoe, only the top of the mast being visible whilst in the trough of the sea. After about a ten-miles' run w e landed on a small island, made up a hut, with sails and branches of bushes, fried the pike we had caught, and made ourselves snug for the afternoon; the gale increasing all the time. Towards evening, the weather not improving, we again got under weigh, but the impetuous blasts urged us to seek some resting-place for the night.

We had not paddled far round the island when we came upon an actual hut, close to the water's edge, evidently built by some fisherman or sportsman. We hauled the boats ashore, opened the door, and found it uninhabited. There, in the corner, was a nice little fireplace, of which we soon made use to prepare supper, and then availed ourselves of this unexpected shelter for the night.

31st July.—The S.W. gale having increased rather than diminished, we walked across the rocks to the summit of the island, to have a good look at our intended course. We had now to steer to the Hinnabak, a long reef stretching some five miles at right angles to the mainland. Through this reef, according to my chart, there was a passage, but as Hinnabak was hardly visible on the horizon, we could not determine much from our present standpoint. We had been repeatedly warned that on Lake Wenern a very heavy sea would get up with a south-west wind. The case had not been overstated, and it was difficult to believe that the waves around us were those of a fresh-water lake, not those of the British Channel, in a gale.

With an area of 2,000 square miles Wenern offers space enough for the continued friction of the wind on the water to raise fine waves, but it looked as though there must have been, furthermore, systems of waves moving with different velocities, whose crests would thus become superimposed upon each other, to produce such a sea as this.

Having stowed the mainsails under the deck, and set our jibs, we ran before the mass of water, but on arriving wet through, at the Hinnabak reef, we found a dead lee shore, a heavy sea breaking in on to the rocks and no passage. The jibs were in in a moment, as it was evident nothing could be done but paddle round the point, a distance only of about half a mile, which, nevertheless, took us two hours to accomplish. At last, after a narrow escape in running through the tail end of the surf, we got into calm water to leeward of the bak, and hauled the boats up just under the landmark.

We soon made a fire of drift-wood and dried our clothes. The landmark was a huge three-sided wooden obelisk. At one side some of the boarding did not quite reach the ground, so by clearing away rubbish and stones we contrived to creep in underneath, where we found a spacious baronial hall, but as it was midday, and not midnight, we could not avail ourselves of its hospitable shelter for more than an hour. We now sailed across to the Island of Sparo in Uller Sund; caught some pike and perch and hauled up at a small barn. The people to whom it belonged brought us milk and rye porridge, and seemed delighted at the sight of the boats.

		Warington Baden-Powell Canoe Travelling: Log of a Cruise on the Baltic Chapter V. Pike And Mosquitoes—Mariestad Prison—West Gotha Canal
		Warington Baden-Powell, K.C. Sea Scouting and Seamanship for Boys, the first Sea Scout Manual, 1910 Foreward by Robert Baden-Powell.
		History of the Sea Scouts from The Stockton Sea Scout Base in Stockton, California.
		When he was young, Baden-Powell and his brothers built a canvas boat and took it on many adventures. His older brother, Henry Warington Smyth Baden-Powell, was to carry these youthful seaborne experiences with him through his life—in his exploits, his career and in helping B-P form the Sea Scouts in 1910.
		Baden-Powell Family History. A series of links based on the research of Robin Baden Clay, a grandson of Baden-Powell. They are focused on the genealogy of the Powell family. The author is extremely grateful to Mr. Clay for sharing the results of his labors with the Scouting community. Links are provided to pages for three of B-P's brothers: Baden, Warington and Sir George Baden-Powell as well as to the genealogy of the Smyth and Warington families.
		Baden-Powell Home Page

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