294 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



the exploring party returned with the news that we had 

 an all day's job ahead of us; and we made camp in the 

 rain, which did not matter much, as we were already 

 drenched through. It was impossible, with the wet wood, 

 to make a fire sufficiently hot to dry all our soggy things, 

 for the rain was still falling. A tapir was seen from our 

 boat, but, as at the moment we were being whisked round 

 in a complete circle by a whirlpool, I did not myself see 

 it in time to shoot. 



Next morning we went down a kilometre, and then 

 landed on the other side of the river. The canoes were 

 run down, and the loads carried to the other side of a little 

 river coming in from the west, which Colonel Rondon chris- 

 tened Cherrie River. Across this we went on a bridge con- 

 sisting of a huge tree felled by Macario, one of our best 

 men. Here we camped, while Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and 

 Antonio Correa explored what was ahead. They were ab- 

 sent until mid-afternoon. Then they returned with the 

 news that we were among ranges of low mountains, utterly 

 different in formation from the high plateau region to which 

 the first rapids, those we had come to on the 2d of March, 

 belonged. Through the first range of these mountains the 

 river ran in a gorge, some three kilometres long, immedi- 

 ately ahead of us. The ground was so rough and steep 

 that it would be impossible to drag the canoes over it and 

 difficult enough to carry the loads; and the rapids were so 

 bad, containing several falls, one of at least ten metres in 

 height, that it was doubtful how many of the canoes we 

 could get down them. Kermit, who was the only man 

 with much experience of rope work, was the only man 

 who believed we could get the canoes down at all; and it 



