"the oven." 25 



we did at the first practicable place. The banks were 

 knee-deep in mud, but we were too tired and sleepy to 

 search further, and carried our things to drier ground 

 higher up, where a land-slip from a steep cliff had 

 formed a small level space a few yards square. The 

 face of the cliff was semicircular, and its aspect due 

 south ; not a breath of air was stirring, and as we slept 

 with nothing to shade us from the fiery rays of the 

 mid-day sun, we awoke half baked. Some ducks 

 which we had killed the evening before were already 

 stinking and half putrid, and had to be thro\^^l away 

 as unfit for food. We found the position unbearable, 

 and, reluctantly re-loading our canoes, took to the river 

 again, and paddled languidly along until evening. 

 This camp, which we called " The Oven," was by far 

 the warmest place we ever found, with the exception 

 of the town of Acapulco, in Mexico, which stands in 

 a very similar situation. 



A week after we left Georgetown om- provisions 

 fell short, for the pemmican proved worthless, and fell 

 to the lot of Eover, and w^e supplied om'selves en- 

 tirely by shooting the wild-fowl, which were tolerably 

 plentiful. The young geese, although almost full- 

 grown and feathered, were not yet able to fly, but 

 afforded capital sport. When hotly pursued they 

 dived as we came near in the canoes, and, if too hardly 

 pushed, took to the shore. This was generally a fatal 

 mistake ; Milton immediately landed with Eover, w^ho 

 quickly discovered them lying with merely their heads 

 hidden in the grass or bushes, and they were then 

 captured. 



