THE RIVER VALLEYS 



71 



of the River Senguerr was the fact that four of the horses had 

 strayed in the night. It was our intention to camp as soon as we 

 reached a suitable place in the valley and to scour the country for 

 the lost horses. This, however, turned out not to be necessary, as 

 we came right upon the truants grazing in the mouth of a small rift 

 in the cliff of the caiiadon. One of 

 them cantered out with a neigh to 

 meet the troop npon the hillside. 

 It rained so heavilv in the 

 night that we put up the tent and 

 were crlad of its warm shelter. 

 Morning came with pearl-grey 

 mists in the valley. We worked 

 like slaves, and our hands be- 

 came verv sore with the new 



RIVEK SEXGUEKK, WHI.Kl. l/I~.\-ll.i< 



IK TOOK US 



cargo-ropes. 



The next day, had I but known it, marked the last ot our mis- 

 fortunes, for after that we enjoyed as good luck as we had hitherto 

 experienced the reverse. 



We spent most of the morning in slowly marching a couple of 

 leagues, and then Scrivenor, who was leading, came back to say 

 that our way was barred by a sheer cliff, close under which the 

 river ran. Burbury, however, was of the opinion that it would be 

 easier to proceed than to attempt to scale the tall barranca, which 

 was our only alternative choice. We straggled across the hall- 

 dry marshy grass that fringed the river-bed, which here winds 

 o;reatlv. 



Presently we climbed on to a steep slope on the cliffs, where 

 directly below us the river ran with a current of about three knots. 

 The passage along this slope was very difficult, and we were 

 driving the horses with infinite care. The face of the clift was 

 scarred with the traces of a landslip. One of the horses, the ( )ld 

 Zaino, so called not because of any weight of years, but on account 

 of the gravity of his demeanour, climbed up and uj), in spit'^ ot 

 all our efforts, among the shifting earth and loose stones until he 

 was some hundred feet above the niain body of the troop. He 

 was a tall, ewe-necked animal, and always bore an exasperating 



