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Se Se 
LAUNCHING A RAFT. 293 
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horses or mules never to go without a three-inch 
augur—we soon build a raft 12 feet long by 
64 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 2%th.— 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, 
