2o6 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



Steering- was no easy matter, she was canted badly, and we 

 discarded some of our heavy clothes, raw as the air was, preferring 

 the cold to tlie chance of sinking should anything happen. 



In places the rip was very strong and the curving ])earl-grey 

 water gave but a poor opportunity of observing any rocks that 

 might lie in our course. We were by this time able to manage 

 the launch better and were beginning to understand more or less 

 her special peculiarities. 



Then the dreaded event came to pass. We were sagging 

 down with about yo lb. of steam in the boiler, when a heavy 

 squall, which had long been brooding darkly over the Cordillera, 

 rushed suddenly upon us. The launch, under the fury of the 

 wind, turned almost broadside on to the current, and it became 

 necessary to give her her head. 



Bernardo, who had had his orders as to what to do in case 

 such an eventuality occurred, flung open the furnace-door and 

 piled on wood to get a heavy head of steam on. The Ariel's 

 powers had much improved with use, and she was able to race 

 along ahead of the current, a fact which gave her steerage- way. 



" She's steerino- a bit better," shouted Cattle ; " if Bernardo can 

 keep up the pressure it may be all right." Bernardo, evidently 

 feeline that the moment needed commemoration, blew the whistle 

 and grinned. 



Now that she was turned prow- first, any attempt to get the boat 

 back to her old position would have been more risky than to go 

 forward, for the river at this part was much narrower and the current 

 proportionately more rapid. Bernardo poked his head up from the 

 engine-hatch and laughed, "She go fine this way," he remarked. 

 At the moment a rock glimmered up close to the bows, but we 

 slipped over it with a few inches to spare. 



There was now no straining and grunting from the engines as 

 there had been while we were battling against the current. You 

 barely felt the throb and vibration, and it was only when you 

 looked at the banks that you realised how swiftly the boat was 

 rushing onward^;. Perhaps we achieved seventeen knots. The 

 shores slid by. 



We were now shut in in a world of our own, whose boundaries 



