ACHABA 267 



without having eaten anything, not even wild fruit. 

 Shot a large heron, the kind known by the natives as 

 Garza morena. How glad we all were ! If we get 

 nothing else there is still something to eat. Three times 

 we had to land and walk or rather crawl through the 

 forest while the boat was being carefully let down by 

 ropes. We have to be ever so cautious now. If anything 

 should happen to our small dug-out we are lost. What 

 hard work it was getting through the forest ! Every two 

 or three minutes we had to sit down and rest. Jacobson 

 and Villegente appear to be even weaker than I, although 

 they can eat more whenever we have food. Toiled on 

 the whole afternoon until we staggered out on to the open 

 beach where our camp had been pitched and where the 

 boats had been launched after the portage. We threw 

 ourselves on the ground and rested awhile. * The Pirate ' 

 reminded me that I had shot a venomous snake at this 

 spot, quite close to him. It was only a short distance 

 to our camping-place of March 30, and as we had then 

 cut a good track through the forest when the boats were 

 carried overland, we walked slowly across, leaving the 

 boat securely moored to a tree to be dragged over on the 

 following day. We hoped to be able to utilise the huts 

 built on the up journey, but when we reached our old 

 camping-place we found that it was flooded, the water 

 almost reaching the forest growth, so we slung our ham- 

 mocks under some detached trees fringing the beach. This 

 part of Achaba is very picturesque. During the two days 

 we had spent here some six weeks previously Jacobson had 

 exposed several plates from which we expected fine results. 

 The boats being hauled up through the rapids, our camp, 

 the portage through the forest, the falls of Achaba, were 

 all interesting subjects, but the plates lay buried in the 



