CHAPTER XI\^ 



THE DOWN-STREAM NAVIGATION OE THE KI\ER LEON A 



Boat necessary for farther exploration — Steam-launch on shores of Lake 

 Viednia our only hope— Start to find her— Difficulty of crossing Santa Cruz 

 River — River Leona — Old camp — Hills and guanaco-tracks — Lake Viedma — 

 Finding launch- Damaged by wanderers — Down-stream trip discussed — 

 Repairing launch — Our one chance of penetrating Cordillera — Risks of down- 

 stream passage — Gathering firewood — Cold work — Launch oi Ariel — Aspect of 

 Leona River — Good intentions — Califate fuel — Desolate evening — Getting up 

 stream— Start in bad weather — Obliged to put back — Second start — Sucked 

 into current of Leona — Bernardo puts on steam — Rain — Stop for the night — 

 Dangers of Leona channel — Second day's trip — Launch turns in squall — 

 Rushing down stream — Racing ahead of the current — Awaiting the finish — 

 Reach after reach — Rounding a cliff^Choice of many channels — Narrow 

 passage — Safe — Sup off armadillo — " If." 



As it Wcis impossible to make any turther exploration without a 

 craft of some sort, I began to cast about for materials for boat- 

 building or, rather, for boat-repairing. There were a couple of 

 canvas boats on the spot, left on the shore by a Commission some 

 three years previously, with which I thought perhaps something 

 might be clone. Rut these, on examination, proved to be so worn 

 with the stress of weather, and when launched shipped so much 

 water, that it seemed hardly practical)le to use them for our purpose, 

 the more especially as their holding capacity made it impossible to 

 take more than a small (juantity of provisions. 



I next heard of a boat on the River Santa Cruz, but that was 

 also in very evil plight, added to which the odds were against our 

 being able to get her up to Lake Argentino, owing to the fact that 

 the River Santa Cruz was in llood and the current more than 

 usually fierce. 



Note. — The author regrets the comparative absence of illustration tt) this chapter. 

 The launch shipped so much water through her broken plate and in other ways tiiat 

 tlic photographs taken were destroyed. 



