202 THROUGH IHE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



what with the cold, the eddies and the cross-currents the chance of 

 a swimmer reaching the bank was not great. 



Should the current, however, get the launch broadside on, we 

 would have to give her full steam ahead, and charge down the 

 unknown and rock-set river. Besides, the channel was, we knew, 

 very hard to follow, for among the islands the stream divided into 

 four or five arms, and we had no guide to help us to choose the 

 main channel. 



The risks were very real and looked large enough in my eyes 

 that night, but in case I should be charged with foolhardiness in 

 deciding to carry out our design, I think I may say that the 

 average man would have decided as we did. Few, after so 

 many weary miles and months, coming at last to such a crucial 

 moment, would very closely consider the risks, since outside of 

 running them the single course open was to turn back defeated, 

 leaving one of the most interesting unexplored portions of the 

 Cordillera unvisited and untrodden. 



In the course of the next day or two we worked hard at the 

 launch and in gathering firewood. On the i8th we got the boat 

 afloat after eight hours of hard labour, for during her three years 

 rest she had sunk deep into the shingle and sand. It was quite 

 impossible to use the horses, as they would not pull forward into 

 the lake, and thus into the water, so we got at the work our- 

 selves. About mid-day a wind sprang up, and the water, fed by 

 the melting snows, was perishingly cold. It seemed for a time as 

 if we should never succeed in getting her afloat, and as we had not 

 been able to bring up either of the canvas boats, wading was very 

 much the order of the day, and after every few stretches of work 

 we were uncommonly glad to take spells in the sleeping-bacrs to 

 warm our half-fiozen limbs. Hot cocoa, also, was kept goino- from 

 time to time. 



At length we got her off into the little shallow bay, where 

 the waves were breaking, for a wind was rising out of the north- 

 west. 



During the day Cattle and I went down and viewed the 

 Leona. We fixed upon a little backwater some distance down 

 stream, where wood was abundant, as the goal of our first venture. 



