ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
of 45° east. The accumulation of boulders formed a 
formidable barrier before we reached an island most 
beautiful to gaze upon, so luxuriant was the vege¬ 
tation on it. 
This particular island was 200 metres long; next to 
it was another, 150 metres long; then, joined to this by 
a link of high rocks to the southeast, was a third, also of 
considerable beauty. So charming were these islands that 
I called the group the Three Graces Islands. 
The river turned due west from that point in a channel 
of continuous rapids and violent eddies for some 3,000 
metres. We went down, the canoe being knocked about 
in a most alarming way on one or two occasions, and 
shipping so much water as to reach almost up to our knees 
inside it. 
It was fortunate that all my photographic plates, 
note-books, and instruments were in water-tight boxes, or 
they certainly would have been damaged beyond saving. 
This was not the case with my clothes, shoes, and bed¬ 
ding, which had now been wet for many days with 
no possibility of drying them, as we were travelling all 
day long and every day, and during the night the heavy 
dew prevented them from getting dry. Why we did 
not get rheumatism I do not know, as not only did we 
wear wet things all day long, but we slept in blankets 
soaked with moisture. 
The moment I dreaded most was that in which we 
emerged from the rapid into the whirlpool which always 
followed, and in which the canoe swerved with such terrific 
force that it was all we could do to hold on and not be 
flung clean out of her, owing, of course, to the centrifugal 
force as she revolved quickly. 
Making a survey of the river was getting to be a 
complicated and serious job, what with the numberless 
islands we encountered, the continuous rapids, and the 
constant changes of direction. I was busy writing, as fast 
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