XXIV ITINERARY. 



should scarcely have been so disturbed at the prospect. As we got 

 farther down, the roots and rocky ledges were more prominent at the 

 sides, and there were little steps on the hard earthy slope, so that one 

 could almost take a half side-position. It had been the nearly vertical 

 and bare upper part that had given it so forbidding and impossible an 

 aspect, when we had so unexpeetedly cqme upon it. 



We all got down quite safely, no basket strings breaking to let any 

 part of a load come clattering down on heads below, which had been a 

 half-thought in my mind. We wondered what we should have done 

 with Pembroke had he been with us — it did not seem possible that he 

 could have got down without being let down by a rope. 



Before we got a quarter of the way down the steep declivity, the 

 track curved away to the left, and we were then able to turn wholly 

 forward, and it was quite a long time before we were on level ground 

 through high forests, from which the cliffs could not be seen. After a 

 comparatively short walk we came upon one of the houses built for us, 

 but unfortunately it was not on the main river, but by a creek in the 

 bush, where there had evidently been an old clearing for a provision 

 field or house. Nor was there a single woodskin in sight. Everjrthing 

 depended on a sufficient supply of these being obtained. 



It was evident from our situation here, and the nature of the descent 

 which we had made, that the trail — at any rate, at the latter part — was 

 not the same as that followed by McTurk and Boddam-Whethsim. 

 Apparently there were other tracks to points on the river, as the side- 

 trails had indicated, and probably easier ones ; and it was not clear 

 why this one had been selected for us. All the guide could tell us was 

 that this was the way, as he had said on the cliff. Perhaps it was the 

 most direct ; but it was clearly a point where we were absolutely in the 

 hands of the people until they brought the boats, for which McOonnell 

 had made arrangements that they should be awaiting us. On the 

 banks of the river we should not have felt so cooped up, and probably 

 there would have been tracks to a settlement where we could hurry up 

 the people. Here it was apparently flooded country between the creek 

 and the river, for there was water all about the rocks and under the 

 trees. The only thing was to wait till the woodskins were brought, as 

 the guides said they would be. 



In the late afternoon McConnell suggested to the guides that they 

 might go and hurry up their friends, and they went off soon after 

 through the water. Before sundown another man, who spoke a little 

 English, turned up with the story that the boats were coming, but by 

 next morning there were still none. Our new friend had passed the 

 night close by under a couple of palm leaves he had brought with him 

 — there were no palms to be seen in the immediate neighbourhood, our 

 house having been laboriously thatched with some small leaves like 

 those of a lai-ge lily, making a very poor substitute, — and he had shown 

 off his accomplishments by singing for a good part of the night 

 " Good-bye, my friends, good-bye," which is a common paddling song 

 on the rivers, and has been learnt as a " march-round " song in many 

 of the Indian settlements. 



Later in the morning McConnell offered the man a gun if he would 

 get as many woodskins as we needed, and he went off at once throuc^h 



