324 
PASSAGE OF THE KAFOOR . 
[chap. XI. 
high; and we thus lost the cool hours of morning and 
increased our fatigue. Having at length started, we 
arrived in the afternoon at the Kafoor river, at a bend 
from the south where it was necessary to cross over in 
our westerly course. The stream was in the centre of 
a marsh, and although deep, it was so covered with 
thickly-matted water-grass and other aquatic plants, 
that a natural floating-bridge was established by a 
carpet of weeds about two feet thick : upon this wav¬ 
ing and unsteady surface the men ran quickly across, 
sinking merely to the ankles, although beneath the 
tough vegetation there was deep water. It was equally 
impossible to ride or to be carried over this treacherous 
surface; thus I led the way, and begged Mrs. Baker 
to follow me on foot as quickly as possible, precisely 
in my track. The river was about eighty yards wide, 
and I had scarcely completed a fourth of the distance 
and looked back to see if my wife followed close to 
me, when I was horrified to see her standing in one 
spot, and sinking gradually through the weeds, while 
her face was distorted and perfectly purple. Almost 
as soon as I perceived her, she fell, as though shot 
dead. In an instant I was by her side ; and with the 
assistance of eight or ten of my men, who were fortu¬ 
nately c]pse to me, I dragged her like a corpse through 
the yielding vegetation, and up to our waists we scram¬ 
bled across to the other side, just keeping her head 
above the water : to have carried her would have been 
impossible, as we should all have sunk together through 
the weeds. I laid her under, a tree, and bathed her 
head and face with water, as for the moment I thought 
she had fainted; but she lay perfectly insensible as 
though dead, with teeth and hands firmly clenched, 
and her eyes open, but fixed. It was a coup de soldi . 
Many of the porters had gone on ahead with the 
baggage; and I started off a man in haste to recall an 
angarep upon which to carry her, and also for a bag 
with a change of clothes, as we had dragged her 
through the river. It was in vain that I rubbed her 
