iven back some ten miles down stream
before a suitable refuge could be found and the raft again safely
anchored. It was the worst storm that Dick had experienced, and even
Earle admitted that it far surpassed the worst that he had ever
encountered, even in the interior of Africa. The wind blew with
hurricane force, stripping the trees of their leaves and even of some of
their branches, so that the air was full of flying debris, while the
lightning flashed and the thunder roared and boomed and crashed in a
continuous deafening medley of sound that might almost have excused the
belief that the foundations of the earth were being torn asunder. And
all the time the rain came pounding down out of the storm-riven clouds
in such a deluge that it was difficult to draw one's breath while
exposed to it. But even this does not convey any very clear idea of the
copiousness of the downpour, which will perhaps be more easily realised
from the statement that within the short space of twenty minutes it
completely filled and swamped the canoe. This storm burst upon the
travellers about eleven o'clock at night, and it continued with unabated
fury all through the next day until within about half an hour of sunset.

For the following three days the weather continued unsettled; then it
cleared, and the raft resumed her journey. But her progress was slow,
owing to the scantness of the wind, and for the next ten days they were
able to accomplish only a few miles a day, the current running strong
against them. Then, late on a certain afternoon, they reached a point
where the bed of the river was obstructed by rapids, and the raft was
moored for the night so that the banks might be explored on the morrow
for portage facilities. And now it was that the real difficulties of
the journey began to reveal themselves; for upon attempting to find a
path through the forest, which grew right down to the water's edge on
both banks of the river, the explorers found the undergrowth to be so
absolutely impenetrable that, even to make their own way through it, it
was necessary to employ a gang of men to cut a path. And this was a
slow process, for not only had the tough tangle of creepers, of which
the underbush was chiefly composed, to be cut away, but it had to be
afterwards removed from the path, so that the better part of three days
was consumed in this way before a road was cleared to the upper end of
the rapids.

Then followed the laborious ta