About and Above the Great Falls. 129 



means the most pleasant I have ever experienced, even 

 though I stood well against the current. 



On the occasion of the former attempt, the rain had 

 been falling heavily for some days, culminating in a 

 downpour of unusual severity the night immediately 

 preceding. Now, on the return from the higher part of 

 the river, though rain had fallen nearly every day, it had 

 been much less heavy, and the creeks were pronounced 

 by the Indians to be "not too full." An early start was 

 therefore made, three of the Indians of the former jour- 

 ney again accompanying us, and four of the men carrying 

 provisions and hammocks, that we might spend the night 

 on the mountain. 



We had scarcely entered the forest outside the village 

 ere the rain came down, and it continued throughout 

 nearly the whole day, varying at times from a heavy 

 downpour to a gentle shower. The track was by no 

 means clear, and the two younger Indians were not 

 infrequently puzzled as to its exa6t course, some little 

 walking in various direftions being occasionally neces- 

 sary to decide it. The valleys and creeks that previously 

 had been so swollen, were now almost quite clear, and 

 large tacoobas gave a right of way, dry, over the chan- 

 nels. The varied Fauna that had chara6terised the trunks 

 of the trees and the low bushes, on the former occasion, 

 was now hidden away in its many haunts; and but a few 

 beetles, cockroaches and myriapods rewarded the trouble 

 of turning over, or breaking up, the old and rotten wood 

 on the forest floor. Various branches of the Mabooroo 

 creek were passed, and then the main creek itself, 

 where an immense tacooba crossed the wide and deep 

 channel, at the bottom of which a small body of water 



R 



