PARA 277 



the ropes out on the rocks in the sun. I sent the rest 

 back to bring the things we had left above yesterday. 

 Jacobson, Villegente, and myself stayed at the j-anclio, 

 wasting the little energy we still possessed in defending 

 ourselves against the attacks of the ants and flies. When 

 the men returned they brought but a small part of the 

 articles we had left behind. They were surprised, they 

 said, when they reached the spot where the boat was 

 moored, to find that the river had risen several feet and 

 had carried away the greater portion of our few remaining 

 things. It was too late to think of walking to the foot 

 of the falls, so we spent the few remaining hours of day- 

 light in the ranclio ; the men brooding over the almost 

 utter hopelessness of our position, I trying to devise some 

 means by which we might get the boat to the river, 

 should we not succeed in getting the pulleys to work. 



Mag 19. — Started early and walked to the foot of the 

 falls, the men carrying what remained of our things. On 

 the way the dogs, having wandered from the path into the 

 forest, barked furiously for some time ; we then heard 

 them howl, and when they returned they were terribly 

 lacerated. They had probably been mauled by a puma 

 or jaguar. After what appeared to me to be hours of 

 painful tramping we reached the stretch of sand forming 

 the banks of the pool below the falls. The long walk in 

 my starved and weakened state had brought on a severe 

 attack of fever, so that I was glad to throw myself on the 

 soft white sand, where I lay panting until the paroxysm 

 of the attack was over. How changed was Para ! Was 

 that raging whirlpool the placid pond with scarcely a 

 ripple we had crossed on the up journey, when I had felt 

 so disappointed with the falls? Could we hope to get 

 through that seething cauldron without being swamped ? 



