262 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



figure in this case is only an approximation, as an aneroid 

 cannot be depended on for absolute accuracy of results. 



Next morning we found that during the night we had 

 met with a serious misfortune. We had halted at the foot 

 of the rapids. The canoes were moored to trees on the 

 bank, at the tail of the broken water. The two old canoes, 

 although one of them was our biggest cargo-carrier, were 

 water-logged and heavy, and one of them was leaking. In 

 the night the river rose. The leaky canoe, which at best 

 was too low in the water, must have gradually filled from 

 the wash of the waves. It sank, dragging down the other; 

 they began to roll, bursting their moorings; and in the 

 morning they had disappeared. A canoe was launched to 

 look for them; but, rolling over the bowlders on the rocky 

 bottom, they had at once been riven asunder, and the big 

 fragments that were soon found, floating in eddies, or along 

 the shore, showed that it was useless to look farther. We 

 called these rapids Broken Canoe Rapids. 



It was not pleasant to have to stop for some days; 

 thanks to the rapids, we had made slow progress, and with 

 our necessarily limited supply of food, and no knowledge 

 whatever of what was ahead of us, it was important to 

 make good time. But there was no alternative. We had 

 to build either one big canoe or two small ones. It was 

 raining heavily as the men started to explore in different 

 directions for good canoe trees. Three which ultimately 

 proved not very good for the purpose were found close to 

 camp; splendid-looking trees, one of them five feet in 

 diameter three feet from the ground. The axemen imme- 

 diately attacked this one under the superintendence of 

 Colonel Rondon. Lyra and Kermit started in opposite di- 



