Down an Unknown River 307 



Next day Lyra, Kermit, and their camaradas brought 

 the five canoes that were left down to camp. They had 

 in four days accomplished a work of incredible labor and 

 of the utmost importance ; for at the first glance it had 

 seemed an absolute impossibility to avoid abandoning the 

 canoes when we found that the river sank into a cataract- 

 broken torrent at the bottom of a canyon-like gorge 

 between steep mountains. On April 2 we once more 

 started, wondering how soon we should strike other rap- 

 ids in the mountains ahead, and whether in any reason- 

 able time we should, as the aneroid indicated, be so low 

 down that we should necessarily be in a plain where we 

 could make a journey of at least a few days without 

 rapids. We had been exactly a month going through 

 an uninterrupted succession of rapids. During that 

 month we had come only about 1 10 kilometres, and had 

 descended nearly 150 metres — the figures are approxi- 

 mate but fairly accurate.* We had lost four of the 

 canoes with which we started, and one other, which we 

 had built, and the life of one man ; and the life of a dog 

 which by its death had in all probability saved the life of 

 Colonel Rondon. In a straight line northward, toward 

 our supposed destination, we had not made more than a 

 mile and a quarter a day; at the cost of bitter toil for 

 most of the party, of much risk for some of the party, 

 and of some risk and some hardship for all the party. 

 Most of the camaradas were downhearted, naturally 

 enough, and occasionally asked one of us if we really be- 



*The first four days, before we struck the upper rapids, and 

 during which we made nearly seventy kilometres, are of course not 

 included when I speak of our making our way down the rapids. 



