The River: Chapters 8–15

by Gary Paulsen
In this sequel to Hatchet, Brian Robeson returns to the wilderness accompanied by a government psychologist who wishes to study his survival techniques. But after a devastating accident, Brian must fight to save both of their lives.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–15, Chapters 16–25

Here are links to our lists for other works by Gary Paulsen: Hatchet, The Voyage of the Frog.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. anvil
    a heavy block on which hot metals are shaped by hammering
    He dropped like an anvil, his finger still pointing at the fish.
  2. outcropping
    part of a rock formation that juts above surrounding land
    Halfway down the face of the cut there was a small outcropping of soil and rocks mixed, held in place because it was made of clay and chalk bound together, and Brian hit this mound on his stomach.
  3. shard
    a broken piece of a brittle artifact
    Most of them were round and smooth, rubbled by wind and water and weather and time, but mixed in with them were black, hardened shards.
  4. weathered
    worn by exposure to the elements
    Where he’d fallen there were fresh ones, not weathered, and he saw that they had come from the bank where he had bounced.
  5. depression
    a sunken or lowered geological formation
    The tree was long rotted and gone to worms, the soil had filtered somewhat back into the hole and taken grass seeds, and what was left was a large depression in the side of the hill with an overhanging shelf of rock.
  6. fissure
    a long narrow opening
    But it was good enough, far better than nothing, and to cap it off, there was a small spring of water to the side of the overhang, where a fissure of rock let water work out in a trickle that made its way down to the lake.
  7. bough
    any of the larger branches of a tree
    “Beds and a fire. You use pine boughs to make the beds.” He showed Derek how to cut the boughs and stick them point down to make a soft bed. “You do that and I’ll work on a fire.”
  8. pulverize
    make into a powder by breaking up or cause to become dust
    To this he added some pulverized, dried grass, worked almost into flour, and when it was all together, he gently used his finger to make a hole in the middle.
  9. tinder
    material that burns easily and is used for starting a fire
    Brian set aside the tinder and found some dry pine twigs, as small as matches.
  10. colonial
    relating to a body of people who settle far from home
    “Fire. It’s so...so alive. Such an important thing to us. Back there in the world we don’t know that. But when I got home last time I tried to read about what it was like, you know, before we got everything we have now. In colonial times they kept people awake just to watch the fires, and in ancient times the most important person in the tribe was called the fire watcher.”
  11. genuine
    not pretended; sincerely felt or expressed
    When he’d fallen and Derek had kneeled next to him, he had been genuinely worried.
  12. haunch
    the upper thigh and back of the hip in human beings
    Brian settled back on his haunches and smiled; looked up at Derek, who was also smiling.
  13. domestic
    produced in a particular country
    They were a little green, but even so, Brian couldn’t believe how sweet and rich they were—like small domestic plums, with a little more tang to them.
  14. grouse
    popular game bird having a plump body and feathered legs
    Plus, they had more clams stored and plenty of fish left in the trap and knew the locations of several ruffed grouse.
  15. prowl
    move about in or as if in a predatory manner
    There were no bugs, the night cool wasn’t too cold, no animals prowled, and he could find nothing wrong and was closing his eyes to sleep again when he heard it.
  16. splinter
    divide or break into slivers or fragments
    There was a slashing, new, impossibly loud crack as lightning seemed to hit the shelter itself and Brian saw the top of the pine next to the opening suddenly explode and felt-saw the bolt come roaring down the tree, burning and splitting and splintering the wood and bark, and he saw it hit Derek.
  17. indication
    something that serves to suggest
    “Derek?”
    There was no answer, no indication that Derek had heard him.
  18. transpose
    exchange positions without a change in value
    He tried to time it, but couldn’t transpose the number of beats per minute measured on his digital watch into a pulse rate because he couldn’t think.
  19. coma
    a state of deep and often prolonged unconsciousness
    Derek was down, unconscious.
    In a coma.
  20. resentment
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    That left everything, everything on Brian, and for a moment he felt a touch of anger and resentment.
  21. consciousness
    an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself
    If he stayed and Derek didn’t regain consciousness, how long would he...last?
  22. frantic
    excessively agitated; distraught with violent emotion
    The choking continued and Brian frantically pulled Derek’s head over to the side, held his face down and pounded on his back—all he knew to do.
  23. exasperation
    a feeling of annoyance
    He threw the stick down in exasperation.
  24. ethics
    motivation based on ideas of right and wrong
    “I admire his ethics.”
  25. pry
    be nosey
    He felt like he was prying and decided not to read any more of the notebooks.
  26. negate
    deny the truth of
    But in the largeness of the country shown on the map, the massive forest the map showed, the river was a small thing, and he had negated it.
  27. considerable
    large in number, amount, extent, or degree
    But in other places it ran straight for a considerable distance and he followed it, through smaller lakes and what he thought must be swamps, through the darker green portions that meant heavier forest.
  28. respectable
    large in amount or extent or degree
    The river had grown all along, gotten wider so that it made a respectable blue cut across the map, and where it made a large bend, cutting back nearly straight cast, there was a small circle drawn and the words: Brannock Trading Post.
  29. vital
    urgently needed; absolutely necessary
    Time was everything now—once the decision was made, time was vital.
  30. contour
    a line drawn on a map connecting points of equal height
    He studied it closer on the map and noted that it grew wider as it flowed and that in some places it moved through hilly country—there were contour lines on the map close together, which meant steeper hills.
  31. grove
    a small growth of trees without underbrush
    The beavers had been working at the grove for some time—probably years—and they had not only dropped the trees, many of them the right diameter, but they had cut the limbs off and dragged them down pathways to the lake and cut some of the tree trunks in sections between eight and ten or twelve feet long, apparently to make them easier to move.
  32. slick
    made smooth, as by ice, grease, or water
    The last four feet to the water were fairly steep and the mud was slick from the recent rain and the logs pretty much made their own way to the lake, pushing him ahead down into the water.
  33. streamline
    contour economically or efficiently
    The ends weren’t quite even, but close, and they were pointed, the way the beavers had chewed them off. It gave them a streamlined look.
  34. notch
    make a small cut into
    By using his knife to notch the cross-pieces to take the material, he made sure the cloth tie-downs didn’t slip off.
  35. stout
    having rugged physical strength
    He put four of these cross-members down the length of the raft, tying them in place as tight as he could get them, and when he was done the raft was stout enough for him to stand on, jump on, walk back and forth on.
Created on Thu Jun 06 08:06:34 EDT 2019 (updated Thu Jun 06 10:27:03 EDT 2019)

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