Down an Unknown River 297 



a senator, who was also a writer of note. Kermit had 

 with him two of his novels, and I had read one of his 

 books dealing with a disastrous retreat during the Para- 

 guayan war. 



Next morning, the 25 th, the canoes were brought 

 down. A path was chopped for them and rollers laid; 

 and half-way down the rapids Lyra and Kermit, who 

 were overseeing the work as well as doing their share 

 of the pushing and hauling, got them into a canal of 

 smooth water, which saved much severe labor. As our 

 food supply lowered we were constantly more desirous 

 of economizing the strength of the men. One day more 

 would complete a month since we had embarked on the 

 Duvida — ^as we had started in February, the lunar and 

 calendar months coincided. We had used up over half 

 our provisions. We had come only a trifle over 160 kilo- 

 metres, thanks to the character and number of the rapids. 

 We believed we had three or four times the distance yet 

 to go before coming to a part of the river where we 

 might hope to meet assistance, either from rubber-gather- 

 ers, or from Pyrineus, if he were really coming up the 

 river which we were going down. If the rapids contin- 

 ued to be as they had been it could not be much more 

 than three weeks before we were in straits for food, aside 

 from the ever-present danger of accident in the rapids; 

 and if our progress were no faster than it had been — and 

 we were straining to do our best — we would in such event 

 still have several hundreds of kilometres of unknown 

 river before us. We could not even hazard a guess at 

 what was in front. The river was now a really big river, 

 and it seemed impossible that it could flow either into the 



