ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
in the deep holes they stuck with their hoofs and fell 
over, immediately struggling wildly to free themselves. 
One of my men was nearly thrown down a precipice that 
day, and all of us, as well as all the pack animals, had 
many unpleasant falls during that march. Swampy 
places like that were encountered for hundreds of metres 
at a time. In one place that day we had two kilometres 
of continuous swampy mud. In the afternoon I had a 
nasty fall, the mule rolling right on top of me and nearly 
breaking my right leg. The animal in falling had sunk 
its head in the sticky mud, and was struggling madly to 
release itself. The animals were then marching chest- 
deep in mud. In my helpless condition I tried to get off 
when the animal fell, but sank up to my waist and stuck 
fast with my legs in the mud. When the mule rolled 
over, it knocked me down on the edge of the precipice, 
my leg remaining caught under the animal. Had not 
one of my muleteers been by my side at the moment and 
rushed immediately to my rescue, I should have fared 
badly indeed. 
We had a slippery descent after Tambo 33, where 
we had a lunch composed of putrid tinned salmon and 
“ invisible ” eggs — the latter dish being a specialty of 
that place. The tambo man insisted that I had eaten six 
eggs, whereas I had not even seen them, except on the 
bill. He told me that I was wrong, showing me a nap¬ 
kin on which two yellow streaks were to be seen — though 
not left there by me, but by the lips of some traveller 
who had passed perhaps a month before. 
We made a long march that day, having left at seven 
o’clock in the morning, and arrived at our halting-place 
at four o’clock in the afternoon. 
The next day, January twenty-fifth, we had a trying 
march. Several land-slides had taken place, bringing 
down great patches of forest. Numberless trees had 
fallen over, making it difficult for the animals to be taken 
across. In one place all of them had to be unloaded, and 
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