EMERGENCY PREPARATIONS 263 



days. We had used over a third of our food. We 

 had gone only 125 kilometres, and it was probable that 

 we had at least five times, perhaps six or seven times, 

 this distance still to go. We had taken a fortnight to 

 descend rapids amounting in the aggregate to less than 

 seventy yards of fall. A very few yards of fall makes 

 a dangerous rapid when the river is swoUen and swift, 

 and there are obstructions. We had only one aneroid 

 to determine our altitude, and therefore could make 

 merely a loose approximation to it, but we probably 

 had between two and three times this descent in the 

 aggregate of rapids ahead of us. So far the country 

 had offered little in the way of food except palm-tops. 

 We had lost four canoes and one man. We were in 

 the country of wild Indians, who shot well with their 

 bows. It behoved us to go warily, but also to make 

 all speed possible if we were to avoid serious trouble. 



The best plan seemed to be to march thirteen men 

 down along the bank, while the remaining canoes, 

 lashed two and two, floated down beside them. If 

 after two or three days we found no bad rapids, and 

 there seemed a reasonable chance of going some dis- 

 tance at decent speed, we could then build the new 

 canoes — preferably two small ones this time, instead of 

 one big one. We left all the baggage we could. We 

 were already down as far as comfort would permit ; but 

 we now struck off much of the comfort. Cherrie, 

 Kermit, and I, had been sleeping under a very light 

 fly, and there was another small light tent for one 

 person, kept for possible emergencies. The last was 

 given to me for my cot, and all five of the others swung 

 their hammocks under the big fly. This meant that 

 we left two big and heavy tents behind. A box of 

 surveying instruments was also abandoned. Each of 



