THE LONG TRAIL 



took a long time, and in some places where 

 the river ran through gorges it was almost 

 impossible. We lost in all six of the ten 

 canoes with which we started, and of 

 course much of our food-supply and 

 general equipment. It was necessary to 

 delay and build two more canoes — a 

 doubly laborious task because of the axes 

 and adzes which had gone down in the 

 shipwrecks. The Brazil nuts upon which 

 we had been counting to help out our 

 food-supply had had an off year. If this 

 had not been so we would have fared by 

 no means badly, for these nuts may be 

 ground into flour or roasted or prepared 

 in a number of different ways. Another 

 source upon which we counted failed us 

 when we found that there were scarcely 

 any fish in the river. For some inexplic- 

 able reason many of the tributaries of the 

 Amazon teem with fish, while others flow- 

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