CANELOS TO BANGS 157 



we must pass one by one with slow and cautious 

 steps, where one slip might be fatal. Though the 

 bamboos were scarcely so thick as one's leg and 

 completely wetted, the natural asperity of their 

 cuticle rendered passing along them less insecure 

 than I had feared ; but the longest bridge bent so 

 low when we reached the middle that beyond this 

 it was like climbing a hill, and in this part a surging 

 wave wetted me to the knees, but I stood firm and 

 allowed it to pass. The river was obviously rising 

 and our bridge must soon be swept away. 



Those who have escaped from death by hunger 

 or drowning may understand what a load was taken 

 off my heart when we had all got safely across the 

 Topo, although I had been obliged to abandon so 

 many things which to me were more valuable 

 than money. On the following clay we might 

 hope to reach the Rio Verde, where is a hacienda 

 for the fabrication of cane-brandy, and the first 

 habitation on the skirts of the Montana. The rain 

 came down heavier than ever, and the forest was 

 like a marsh, but we dashed on as quickly as we 

 could. The track lay mostly along nearly level 

 ground, with a high cliff to our left, and the Pastasa 

 roaring along its base. In one part we had to wade 

 for nearly a mile though fetid mud in which grew 

 beds of gigantic horse-tails 18 feet high, and nearly 

 as thick as the wrist at the base. At length we 

 came to where we had to descend to the beach of 

 the Pastasa, or " Arenal" as it is called. Here it 

 might truly be said " C'est le premier pas qui 

 coute," for the descent began by a ladder merely 

 a notched pole down a rock which overhung the 

 very Pastasa at a height of 1 50 feet above it ; and. 



