104 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: NARRATIVE. 



detect any point of vantage from which to attempt a passage. At the 

 upper end of the island there was, however, a faint ripple on the surface 

 of the water, indicative perhaps of a riffle beneath. I chose this point, 

 realizing the certain advantage it would afford for making a landing 

 somewhere on the island, in case my horse should suddenly encounter 

 swimming water, and thus avoid the possibility of being swept by the 

 rapid current into the middle of the stream below the islands. Slowly 

 and cautiously I urged my sturdy little horse into the icy water, which 

 gradually gained in depth, until, in midstream, with the waters surging 

 by my saddle skirts, I stopped for a moment to consider whether I had 

 not best turn back, for, after all, if I succeeded in gaining the opposite 

 shore on horseback, was it possible to cross our loaded cart through a 

 stream so deep and swift ? For an instant only I hesitated to essay the 

 stronger current that rushed madly by in my front, then, holding my 

 horse well up stream, I urged him forward. He had evidently stopped 

 immediately on the crest of a high bank, for with the first step forward he 

 plunged head downward into swimming water, and we were suddenly in 

 the midst of the current, by which we were being swept rapidly down stream. 

 The little animal made a gallant struggle, while I lent such assistance 

 as was possible by throwing myself on one side and steering him for the 

 island, in hopes that he might find bottom before we had passed its lower 

 limits. In this hope I was fortunately not disappointed, for after a few 

 brief moments which seemed all too long however, passed struggling in 

 the icy waters, his front feet struck on the bar, and with an extraordinary 

 effort he succeeded in gaining its surface. I was not long in regaining 

 the island and recrossing the two channels I had successfully passed. 

 Once on shore I realized the fact that, since I had only two days before 

 left my bed, I could hardly be considered as beyond the stage of conva- 

 lescence, so, drenched to the skin, I started on my return to camp at the 

 summit of the bluff, fifteen miles distant. From this and several subse- 

 quent experiences with this stream I am content to abide by the descrip- 

 tion of it given by Darwin. On April thirteenth, 1834, he described it as 

 a river from three to four hundred yards broad, with a depth in the middle 

 of about seventeen feet and a current of from four to six knots an hour. 

 It had apparently not deteriorated when I first visited it on January the 

 second, 1897. ^ ls a magnificent river, as it rushes swiftly over its stony 

 bed from its source in Lake Argentine, at the base of the Andes, almost 



