lls rose
vertically, or nearly so, from the water's edge. We saw the only thing
to do was to lower one boat, with two men on board, by her line for some
distance (a hundred feet of best Manila rope were attached to each boat
by a strong iron ring; in the stern was also an iron ring), and from the
stern let the other cautiously down to the very head of the fall, where
there was a second pile of rocks which received the boat between them
and held her fast. The upper boat was then pulled back to where we had
remained, the line from the second being tied to her stern. Entering
her we clung to projections of the wall with our hands, to prevent the
current from swinging the boat out, while the men who were in the lower
boat carefully hauled on the stern line till at last we also reached the
rocks. With a great deal of labour we then worked both boats from
these rocks to some others nearer the right wall, from which they were
manoeuvred across to a pile about two hundred feet away against the foot
of the cliff, This ended our struggle for the day, as night was upon us.
The black rocks towering so far above made the gorge darken early, and
rain began to fall. A little damp driftwood was collected with which a
fire was started in order that Andy might prepare supper. When this
was almost ready peal after peal of thunder suddenly crashed among the
cliffs, which seemed to collapse and fall down upon us, and a flood from
the sky descended. The fire died without a sputter, everything not in
rubber was soaked, and all we could do was to stand in the darkness,
cold and hungry, and wait for the deluge to cease. At last we were able
to start the fire once more, and had a half-cooked supper before hunting
the soft sides of the rocks for beds. The next day it required hard work
till one o'clock to get the boats down two hundred yards farther. At one
place to keep the bow in, I was in one of the boats, being lowered along
the wall, while the other men were a hundred feet above my head, holding
the end of two hundred feet of rope, as they clambered along a ledge.
The situation all around was rather precarious, but we had no accident.
This brought us to a small alcove where there was a limited talus. The
boats were so much bruised that we were obliged to halt on these rocks
for repairs, instead of starting out again into the current as we
intended. This work took so long that darkness approached before all was
done. At the same time we discove