CUTTING A TRAIL 
magnetic, and after passing innumerable rocks made our 
camp again before coming to a large rapid which we heard 
rumbling in that direction. 
We had worked hard all that day, and all the progress 
we had made by sunset was a distance of 2,000 metres, or 
a little more than one mile. 
Alcides, Antonio, and I immediately proceeded to cut 
a trail through the forest from that point down to the end 
of the rapid, 1,200 metres farther down. Then we pro¬ 
ceeded to take all the baggage upon our shoulders, a task 
which occupied several hours. I was greatly surprised to 
find that the men did this willingly enough, although they 
were unaccustomed to carrying and the loads were heavy. 
They laughed heartily at one another as they struggled 
under the heavy weights, or trod upon thorns, or were 
jerked about with knocking against trees, the passage we 
had cut being necessarily not spacious. 
I had not seen my men so jolly for a long time, in 
fact, I do not remember ever having seen them so jolly. 
I was in hopes that this state of affairs might last, as it 
was certainly not pleasant to be travelling in such usually 
morose company. 
During the night we caught an immense jahu, weigh¬ 
ing over fifty pounds, as well as some 200 pounds of smaller 
fish. As the bank of the stream was rather high and steep, 
we had a great deal of trouble to land the larger fish 
safely. Some of my men had exciting experiences, one 
man falling into the water on receiving a powerful blow 
from the tail of the struggling jahu. The scene was a 
comic one, the terror of the man being most amusing to 
watch. 
We carried a great quantity of salt; with it my men 
set out to preserve the best portions of the fish we had 
caught, a precaution of which I fully approved. 
I noticed that whenever we came across rocky places 
the number of insects increased to an enormous extent, 
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