476 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. X 



on her and her efforts, when foolish negroes tri- 

 umphed over her by the use of a twig or two. 



I swayed myself over the flimsy bridges and found 

 a third stream, in which the water rushed swiftly ; but 

 it was shallow, and, as the Wakamba had placed a 

 guide rope across it, we reached the further bank 

 without difficulty. The second of the two streams 

 was worse, and threw up more spray ; so I decided 

 not to cross it by the bridge, but to go over by 

 means of the rocks, until I reached a spot near the 

 first falls, where, the stre^am being wider and the cur- 

 rent less swift, I thought I might swim the beasts 

 across. The whole day was spent in engineering 

 work, and by dark I had constructed two strong 

 bridges across the chasms thirty and thirty-five feet 

 wide respectively, and had placed a guide rope across 

 the stream where it was necessary to swim the beasts. 

 The construction of this bridge I found to be a mat- 

 ter of the greatest difficulty, unskilled as I was in 

 engineering. We could not span the stream with a 

 single log ; so it was necessary first to run a log as 

 far as possible over the stream, then to creep slowly 

 and cautiously to the end of this log and seize 

 another and slighter pole shoved toward one from 

 the rear, which was bound to the end of the first log 

 so strongly that it was able to support it. Numbers 

 of small poles were added to this, until at length a 

 man was able to cross. With this as a base, we man- 

 aged to construct a bridge ten feet wide, and strong 

 enough to bear the weight of our donkeys and cattle. 



At 5.30 A.M. the following day the men were set to 

 work carrying the loads across. The twenty donkeys 



