274 DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER [chap, ix 



peculiarity. The trunk, near the base, but sometimes 

 six or eight feet from the ground, was split into a dozen 

 or twenty branches or small trunks which sloped outward 

 in tent-Uke shape, each becoming a root. The larger 

 trees of this type looked as if their trunks were seated 

 on the tops of the pole-frames of Indian tepees. At one 

 point in the stream, to our great surprise, we saw a 

 flying-fish. It skimmed the water hke a swallow for 

 over twenty yards. 



Although we made only ten kilometres we worked 

 hard all day. The last canoes were brought down and 

 moored to the bank at nightfall. Our tents were pitched 

 in the darkness. 



Next day we made thirteen kilometres. We ran, 

 all told, a little over an hour and three-quarters. 

 Seven hours were spent in getting past a series of 

 rapids at which the portage, over rocky and difficult 

 ground, was a kilometre long. The canoes were 

 run down empty — a hazardous run, in which one of 

 them upset. 



Yet while we were actually on the river, paddling and 

 floating down-stream along the reaches of swift, smooth 

 water, it was very lovely. When we started in the morn- 

 ing, the day was overcast and the air was heavy with 

 vapour. Ahead of us the shrouded river stretched 

 between dim walls of forest, half-seen in the mist. Then 

 the sun burned up the fog, and loomed through it in a 

 red splendour that changed first to gold and then to 

 molten white. In the dazzling light, under the brilliant 

 blue of the sky, every detail of the magnificent forest 

 was vivid to the eye: the great trees, the network of 

 bush-ropes, the caverns of greenery, where thick-leaved 

 vines covered all things else. Wherever there was a 

 hidden boulder the surface of the current was broken by 



