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 canadon. One of 

 them cantered out with a neigh to 

 meet the troop upon the hillside. 

 It rained so heavily in the 

 night that we put up the tent and 

 were glad of its warm shelter. 

 Morning came with pearl-grey 

 mists in the valley. We worked 

 like slaves, and our hands be- 

 came very sore with the new river senguerr, where disaster overtook us 



cargo 



-ropes. 



The next day, had I but known it, marked the last of 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 half- 

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

 greatly. 



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 cliff was 

 scarred with the traces of a landslip. One of the horses, the Old 

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

 of the gravity of his demeanour, climbed up and up, in spite of 

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

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

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



