LAUNCHING A RAFT. 293 







horses or mules never to go without a three-inch 

 augur we soon build a raft 12 feet long by 

 6^ feet wide ; the timber is fastened together with 

 wooden trenails. 



The stream makes a bend at this spot, and does 

 not run quite so swiftly, about eighty yards wide, 

 with a dry bank on the side we are, but swampy 

 on the opposite. We launch our raft ; she floats 

 like a boat, make ropes fast to her, and stow a 

 coil on board ; with one man I commence 

 crossing, paddling with rough oars hewn from 

 a pine-branch. They pay-out rope as we near 

 the opposite bank; twice we whirl round, and 

 come very near being a wreck, but right again. 

 We are over. Now we make fast our rope, and 

 the men on the other side haul her back ; and thus 

 we tug her from side to side, heavily freighted ; 

 we have made a very successful crossing, neither 

 losing nor damaging anything. The mules swam 

 the river, and also got safely over. 



May 27th. Fine morning: made an early 

 start; kept close along on the course of the 

 river for about twenty miles, following a ridge 

 lightly timbered. The opposite or east bank 

 is an enormous mass of black basaltic rock, ex- 

 tending several miles in length. The top is 

 like a table, reaching as far as one could see, 



