30 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



the natives had drunk two of the canteens of water, which 

 was half of our entire supply. Just at dusk it began to 

 rain, and, realizing what a night at that altitude would be 

 without fire, I had every effort made to get one started. 

 Fortunately for us, we succeeded. Schad took one can- 

 teen of water and made some coffee, and fried some 

 bacon. These with the emergency rations comprised our 

 meal, which we enjoyed greatly, for we had had a hard 

 day's work. We soon began to suffer terribly from thirst, 

 and, though it rained for three hours and wet us to the 

 skin, we were not able to catch any water to drink. At 

 8 p. M. our situation was sad, to say nothing of being 

 perilous. A single misstep in the darkness might mean a 

 broken leg or a broken arm ; it was nine hours till dawn ; 

 there was not a level place large enough to lie down 

 upon ; our thirst tormented us, and the dampness chilled 

 us to the bone. I continued to urge all to utilize the light 

 of the fire in searching for more wood, and Schad and I 

 worked for over two hours at this groping in the dark- 

 ness, and with our bolos cut whatever we could find that 

 was inflammable and much that was not. 



About 10 o'clock the rain ceased, and we then set to 

 work to dry our clothes, piece by piece. By midnight we 

 were all thoroughly dried out, and by keeping up the fire 

 we managed to pass a night that might have been far 

 worse with wet clothes and no fire. At early dawn 

 Schad was cooking again, using the remaining canteen 

 of water for colfee. After breakfast there was but little 

 food of any kind remaining, as we had left some with 

 our Negrito friends, of whom there were five, instead of 

 only two, as we had expected. Before sunrise we were 

 again ascending, cutting our way through the wet vines 



