A RATTAN BRIDGE 235 



" This freed him, and he pulled himself up further and 

 " gained the bank." * 



When once a man was on the other side, it was 

 simple to throw over another rattan, and so to pull 

 over many more which he tied to the trees on his bank. 

 On our side of the river was a large boulder with a hole 

 conveniently bored through it, into which stout posts 

 were jammed Y-fashion, and over them the rattans were 

 strained and fastened to the trees behind. When more 

 men were able to cross the river, a similar structure was 

 erected on the other bank. 



The plan of the bridge was very simple, two hand- 

 rails made of a number of twisted rattans, and a foot 

 piece made of a long thin tree, which was secured to the 

 hand-rails by loops of rattan. The span of the bridge 

 was about one hundred feet, and there must have been 

 several hundred yards of rattan used in its construction. 

 The credit of the idea and of most of the work in making 

 the bridge is due to the Gurkhas, without whose help 

 we should never have crossed the Iwaka. 



But all this work had occupied valuable time, and 

 when the bridge was finished we found that we had 

 provisions left for only eight days longer. On 

 February 8th Rawling, Marshall and I, with three 

 Gurkhas and nineteen coolies, and Cramer with a small 

 party of convicts, crossed the Iwaka and made a way 

 Eastwards. After crossing a moderately steep ridge 

 we came down to a stream of marvellously clear water, 

 which brought us in a short time to another large river 

 flowing out of the mountains in a Southerly direction. 

 * Capt. C. G. Rawling. ComUry Life. 20 May, 1911. 



