ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
Gingillo Island, and to the southwest of it a small islet 
with an extensive beach and accumulation of rocks in a 
northerly direction. On the southern side of the river a 
sand beach, interspersed with rocks, spread almost across, 
as far as the latter island. 
I took 55 astronomical sights in order to get the exact 
latitude and longitude (latitude 10° 30'.7 south; longi¬ 
tude 58° 19' west), and to check the time of the second 
chronometer, which still remained in my possession. We 
had made poor progress that day as far as the distance 
went, only 17 kilometres 100 metres. 
We had come to some terrible rapids, which at first 
looked quite impassable by water, some of the waves 
shooting up so high in the air as to make it out of the 
question for any canoe to go through. 
There was another extensive filare of rock, so beauti¬ 
fully polished that it looked almost as if it had been 
varnished over. It was evidently an ancient flow of lava, 
with great holes in it here and there. The flow spread 
from southwest to northeast, was of a brilliant shining 
yellow, and most beautiful to look at. 
I had to make my camp on the rocks near this rapid, 
where we unloaded the canoe in order to take her down 
by means of ropes by the eastern channel — very narrow 
and unpleasant, but it was the only one possible. It was 
all we could do to hold the canoe as she tobogganed down 
the incline, and we had some nasty falls on the slippery 
rock trying to hold her. 
We had a dangerous bit of work to do the moment 
we had descended the rapid, for we had then to navigate 
the canoe right across the basin, where whirlpools of some 
magnitude were formed, directly over a waterfall of some 
height and pouring down great volumes of water with a 
terrific roar on the northeast side of the basin; then along 
the really terrifying rapid on the southwest side. It was 
necessary to do that, as I had observed that it was only 
124 
