420 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XXV.—B.P. 
tains, creeks, and rivers, on the charts as Sir Edward 
Parry did from Igloolik, the famous Esquimaux. 
At Carka the settlement is rather larger than those 
lower down, and here the natives have a considerable 
sugar plantation. The sugar they make is very coarse, 
like crystallized molasses; they eat it with their cassava 
cake and roasted plantains, and very nourishing it 
must he, judging by the amount of work the men can 
undergo with this as their sole food, for they often 
depend upon it alone on their longest journeys. 
From Carka to the Javali mine there is a narrow 
trail through the dense forest; certainly none hut a 
native could find and follow it, and then you must 
travel in Indian file. The path, also, after the custom 
of the aborigines, leads over everything ; there is no 
attempt whatever to trace out as easy a road as pos¬ 
sible, so that the pathway between the river and the 
mines is rendered much more tedious and difficult by 
the hilly nature of the country over which it passes, 
up hill and down dale, the greater part of the way; 
to say nothing of crossing a good-sized creek several 
times, the same which falls into the river close to 
Carka. 
The distance between Carka and the mines is pro¬ 
bably about six miles; but the many obstacles and 
vile nature of the road would, no doubt, make it appear 
three times as long. 
In following the course of the creek, a very easy 
track might probably be found, and, this well cleared 
and opened so as to admit of the passage of a mule, 
would bring the mine within two hours of the river, 
