JNGLING 



the place of its manufacture. The guides are sup- 

 plied with both paddles and poles. In a very few 

 minutes we are beyond the tidal water, and shortly 

 afterwards pass the last signs of civilization, our 

 passage, thereafter, being an avenue of which each 

 side is formed of forest-clad mountain, sloping to 

 the margin of the river. The water of the river 

 comes from countless springs, and is so perfectly 

 filtered by the gravelly nature of the river-bed and 

 surrounding country, that it is clear as crystal, 

 every pebble at the bottom of the stream being as 

 clearly visible at a depth of forty feet of water as 

 if only separated from us by a sheet of glass. 

 Quite abruptly the bed of the river, which was 

 nearly fifty feet below us a moment ago, now rubs 

 against the bottom of the canoes, and the Indians 

 have dropped the paddles, and standing up in either 

 end of the canoe are forcing it against the current 

 with all their might, their long poles stuck into 

 the gravel or pried against the rocks of the shallow 

 channel. So the journey goes; the Indians some- 

 times wading through shallow passes, where the 

 canoes scrape the bottom, and driving the some- 

 what heavy craft directly up picturesque rapids of 

 half a mile or so in length, where the water is 

 carded by angry rocks into white and fleecy foam, 

 and where, by dint of muscular effort and judi- 



219 



