IN CAPE LOPEZ BAY 105 
the raft is moored to the bank with a creeper as thick 
as a man’s arm, so that it may not be carried back 
upstream. 
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The next step is to get the raft into a narrow, winding 
side stream about twenty miles long which enters the 
sea through the southern shore of Cape Lopez Bay. If 
it is swept into any of the other arms which have their 
outlet in the middle of the bay it is lost, for the strong 
current of the rivers, which, after being dammed up by 
the flood tide, rushes down at five miles an hour, 
carries it right out to sea. Through the southern arm, 
however, it comes out into a strip of shallow water 
which runs along the coast, and over this it can be 
navigated with long poles to Cape Lopez. Here again, 
if the raft gets a few yards too far from the shore so 
that the punting-poles cannot touch bottom, it can no 
longer be guided and gets swept out to sea, and within 
these last ten miles a mighty contest often develops 
between the crew and the elements. If a land breeze 
gets up there is hardly anything to be done. If, 
indeed, the position of the raft is noticed at Cape Lopez, 
they try to send a boat to it with an anchor and a cable, 
and that may save it if the waves are not so strong as 
to break it up. But if that happens, there is only one 
thing for the crew to do, if they do not wish to be lost 
also, and that is to leave the raft, in the canoe — and at 
the right moment. For once out at the mouth of the 
bay, no canoe can make its way back to Cape Lopez 
in the teeth of the ebb tide and the regular current of 
the river. The fiat, keelless vessels which are used in 
the river are useless in a contest with the waves. 
