BEAUTIFUL ISLANDS 
strong whirlpools* most troublesome to negotiate. An¬ 
other island of irregular shape* 200 metres long and 200 
metres wide* Rita Island, was found in a large basin, 
1,000 metres broad, where we came to strong rapids and 
violent eddies and whirlpools, the latter most dangerous- 
looking. The water revolved with such force that it 
formed in the centre of each vortex holes from one to two 
feet in diameter. 
The channel flowing north on the left side of the river 
seemed the better of the two, but it was strewn with rocks 
against which we had many collisions, owing to the strong 
current, the unmanageable canoe, and the disobedient crew. 
Another island, 350 metres long, Eloisa Island, was to 
the northeast of Rita Island. Fifteen hundred metres 
farther on another corrideira occurred. A small tributary 
entered the Arinos on the right side. 
We were then travelling in a north-northeasterly 
direction, the river being in a straight line for some 3,000 
metres, in the course of which we came to a small island 
on the left side; then to a great island, 3,000 metres long, 
Albert Rex Island, with beautiful forest upon it. There 
were two other islets in this channel, one a mere cluster 
of rocks, the other, northeast of the first and 150 metres 
in diameter, Belgium Island, having pretty vegetation 
upon it. 
A fourth and fifth-—Laeken Island, 300 metres in 
length, and Elizabeth R. Island, 5,000 metres in length 
— were separated by a narrow channel. The latter had 
most gorgeous vegetation upon it; so tidy was everything 
in the thick forest, and the ground under it so clean that 
you might have imagined yourself in an English park. 
Those islands were really too beautiful for words. 
Not being a poet, I cannot find appropriate language to 
describe their wonderful charm. 
The river had a tendency to flow toward the west, 
and even for one kilometre in a southwesterly direction. 
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