300 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



run down empty, and the loads carried painfully along the 

 face of the cliffs; so bad was the trail that I found it rather 

 hard to follow, although carrying nothing but my rifle and 

 cartridge-bag. The explorers returned with the informa- 

 tion that the mountains stretched ahead of us, and that 

 there were rapids as far as they had gone. We could only 

 hope that the aneroid was not hopelessly out of kilter, and 

 that we should, therefore, fairly soon find ourselves in com- 

 paratively level country. The severe toil, on a rather lim- 

 ited food supply, was telling on the strength as well as on 

 the spirits of the men; Lyra and Kermit, in addition to 

 their other work, performed as much actual physical labor 

 as any of them. 



Next day, the 3d of April, we began the descent of these 

 sinister rapids of the chasm. Colonel Rondon had gone to 

 the summit of the mountain in order to find a better trail 

 for the burden-bearers, but it was hopeless, and they had 

 to go along the face of the cliffs. Such an exploring expe- 

 dition as that in which we were engaged of necessity in- 

 volves hard and dangerous labor, and perils of many kinds. 

 To follow down-stream an unknown river, broken by innu- 

 merable cataracts and rapids, rushing through mountains 

 of which the existence has never been even guessed, bears 

 no resemblance whatever to following even a fairly danger- 

 ous river which has been thoroughly explored and has be- 

 come in some sort a highway, so that experienced pilots 

 can be secured as guides, while the portages have been 

 pioneered and trails chopped out, and every dangerous 

 feature of the rapids is known beforehand. In this case 

 no one could foretell that the river would cleave its way 

 through steep mountain chains, cutting narrow clefts in 



