166 VIEWS OF NATUKE 



which so contract the bed of the river that its natural width 

 of more than 8500 feet is often reduced to a channel scarcely 

 navigable to the extent of 20 feet. At the present day the 

 eastern side is far less accessible and far more dangerous 

 than the western. 



At the mouth of the Cameji the boatmen unload their cargo 

 that they may leave the empty canoe, or, as it is here called, 

 the Piragua, to be piloted by Indians well acquainted with 

 the Raudal, as far as the mouth of the Toparo, where all 

 danger is supposed to be past. Where the rocks or shelvy 

 ledges, (each of which has its particular name,) are not above 

 two or three feet in height, the natives venture to shoot the 

 rapid with their canoes. When, however, they have to 

 ascend the stream, they swim in advance of the piragua, and 

 after much labour, and, perhaps, many unsuccessful efforts, 

 succeed in throwing a rope round a point of rock project- 

 ing above the breakers, and by this means draw the canoe 

 against the stream, which, in this arduous operation, is often 

 water-logged, or upset. 



Sometimes the canoe is dashed to pieces on the rock, and 

 this is the only danger the natives fear. With bleeding 

 bodies they then strain every nerve to escape the fury of the 

 whirlpool and swim to land. Where the rocky ledges are 

 very high and form a barrier by extending across the entire 

 bed of the river, the light canoe is hauled to land and 

 dragged for some distance along the shore on branches of 

 trees which serve the purpose of rollers. 



The most celebrated and most perilous ledges are those of 

 Purimarimi and Manimi, which are between nine and ten feet 

 in height. It was with surprise I found, by barometrical 

 measurements, that the entire fall of the Raudal, from the 

 mouth of the Cameji to that of the Toparo, scarcely amounted 

 to more than 30 or 32 feet. (A geodesic levelling is not 

 practicable, owing to the inaccessibility of the locality and the 

 pestiferous atmosphere, which swarms with mosquitoes.) I say 



