A DRIPPING, STEAMING FOREST 273 



and hazard, it was not likely that we should go much 

 faster. 



On the morning of March 22 we started in our six 

 canoes. We made ten kilometres. Twenty minutes 

 after starting we came to the first rapids. Here every- 

 one walked except the three best paddlers, who took the 

 canoes down in succession — an hour's job. Soon after 

 this we struck a bees' nest in the top of a tree over- 

 hanging the river ; our steersman climbed out and 

 robbed it, but, alas ! lost the honey on the way back. 

 We came to a small steep fall, which we did not dare 

 run in our overladen, clumsy, and cranky dugouts. 

 Fortunately we were able to follow a deep canal which 

 led off for a kilometre, returning just below the falls, 

 fifty yards from where it had started. Then, having 

 been in the boats and in motion only one hour and 

 a half, we came to a long stretch of rapids which it took 

 us six hours to descend, and we camped at the foot. 

 Everything was taken out of the canoes, and they were 

 run down in succession. At one difficult and perilous 

 place they were let down by ropes ; and even thus we 

 almost lost one. 



We went down the right bank. On the opposite 

 bank was an Indian village, evidently inhabited only 

 during the dry season. The marks on the stumps of 

 trees showed that these Indians had axes and knives ; 

 and there were old fields in which maize, beans, and 

 cotton had been grown. The forest dripped and steamed. 

 Rubber-trees were plentiful. At one point the tops of 

 a group of tall trees were covered with yellow-white 

 blossoms. Others bore red blossoms. Many of the big 

 trees, of different kinds, were buttressed at the base 

 with great thin walls of wood. Others, including both 

 palms and ordinary trees, showed an even stranger 



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