ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
and looking out for birds or monkeys. Seven thousand 
five hundred metres from our camp we came to a water¬ 
fall, where we had endless trouble. The principal channel 
led to 50° bearings magnetic, but the river split up into 
innumerable channels among islands, islets, and rocks that 
formed a regular maze. The river was in that particular 
spot 1,200 metres wide, and contained great masses of 
volcanic rock, much fissured, and having great holes in 
them. This mass of rock extended from northeast to 
southwest. There were large cracks, where the mass had 
split, and had subsequently been eroded by the rush of 
water. The rock had cutting edges everywhere, like those 
of razors. With endless difficulty we had managed to 
drag the canoe along nearly to the bottom of that danger¬ 
ous place, when we were suddenly confronted by a drop 
of twelve feet, with a terrific rush of water over it. It 
was impossible for us to negotiate that point, for below 
was a whirlpool absolutely impassable. We had therefore 
the tiresome work of dragging back the canoe for some 
350 metres up the rapid once more, in order that we might 
find a more suitable channel. To make things more lively 
for us, a violent thunderstorm broke, soaking all our 
baggage, but making little difference to us, as we were 
soaked already. We had spent that entire day in the 
water, struggling to take the canoe down the rapid and 
up once more. By eight o’clock at night we were still 
working, endeavouring to save the canoe. 
We had had no lunch, and now had no dinner. My 
men felt perfectly miserable, and in their speech did not 
exactly bless the day they had started with me on that 
expedition. We had worked hard, and had covered a dis¬ 
tance of only 7,500 metres in twelve hours. At sunset, 
while the storm was raging, we beheld a most wonderful 
effect of light to the west, very much like a gorgeous 
aurora borealis. The sky, of intense vermilion, was 
streaked with beautiful radiations of the brightest lemon- 
196 
