RIO KERMIT 265 



bend, and we got caught in the upper part of the swift 

 water, and had to run the first set of rapids in conse- 

 quence. We in the leading pair of dugouts were within 

 an ace of coming to grief on some big boulders, against 

 which we were swept by a cross current at the turn. 

 All of us paddling hard — scraping and bumping — we 

 got through by the skin of our teeth, and managed to 

 make the bank and moor our dugouts. It was a narrow 

 escape from grave disaster. The second pair of lashed 

 dugouts profited by our experience, made the run — 

 with risk, but with less risk — and moored beside us. 

 Then all the loads were taken out, and the empty 

 canoes were run down through the least dangerous 

 channels among the islands. 



This was a long portage, and we camped at the foot 

 of the rapids, having made nearly seven kilometres. 

 Here a little river, a rapid stream of volume equal to 

 the Diivida at the point where we first embarked, 

 joined from the west. Colonel Rondon and Kermit 

 came to it first, and the former named it Rio Kermit. 

 There was in it a waterfall about six or eight feet high, 

 just above the junction. Here we found plenty of fish. 

 Lyra caught two pacu, good-sized, deep-bodied fish. 

 They were delicious eating. Antonio the Parcels said 

 that these fish never came up heavy rapids in which 

 there were falls they had to jump. We could only 

 hope that he was correct, as in that case the rapids 

 we would encounter in the future would rarely be so 

 serious as to necessitate our dragging the heavy dugouts 

 overland. Passing the rapids we had hitherto encoun- 

 tered had meant severe labour and some danger. But 

 the event showed that he was mistaken. The worst 

 rapids were ahead of us. 



While our course as a whole had been almost due 



