“Shooting the rapids.––When a boat enters the rapids of the Columbia, the bowman and the steersman quickly resign their oars, and grasp short canoe paddles, which they hold down edge-wise, by the boat's sides, propping themselves, at the same time, against her gunwale, to steady her; while the rowers, in the middle, ply their oars most vigourously and then the boat sweeps onward––rising, or ducking, or spinning about, according as she is borne by the current or the eddies; to the great terror of those who, for the first time, are thus whirled along. The success of such a perilous adventure mainly depends on the steadiness and skill of the two guides, at the stem and stern––the efforts of the middle men* being, mainly, to keep the boat buoyant. The contrast between the Canadian voyageurs and the Indians, in performing this feat, is remarkable and characteristic those merrily chaunt their boat-song; but these are as silent and stern as death.”
[History of the Oregon Territory and British North-American Fur Trade, Dunn, 1844]

*ie: milieu.