the two sets of double canoes
were let down by ropes, one of one couple being swamped but rescued
and brought safely to shore on each occasion. One of the men was upset
while working in the swift water, and his face was cut against the
stones. Lyra and Kermit did the actual work with the camaradas.
Kermit, dressed substantially like the camaradas themselves, worked in
the water, and, as the overhanging branches were thronged with crowds
of biting and stinging ants, he was marked and blistered over his
whole body. Indeed, we all suffered more or less from these ants;
while the swarms of biting flies grew constantly more numerous. The
termites ate holes in my helmet and also in the cover of my cot. Every
one else had a hammock. At this camp we had come down the river about
102 kilometres, according to the surveying records, and in height had
descended nearly 100 metres, as shown by the aneroid--although the
figure in this case is only an approximation, as an aneroid cannot be
depended on for absolute accuracy of results.

Next morning we found that during the night we had met with a serious
misfortune. We had halted at the foot of the rapids. The canoes were
moored to trees on the bank, at the tail of the broken water. The two
old canoes, although one of them was our biggest cargo-carrier, were
water-logged and heavy, and one of them was leaking. In the night the
river rose. The leaky canoe, which at best was too low in the water,
must have gradually filled from the wash of the waves. It sank,
dragging down the other; they began to roll, bursting their moorings;
and in the morning they had disappeared. A canoe was launched to look
for them; but, rolling over the boulders on the rocky bottom, they had
at once been riven asunder, and the big fragments that were soon
found, floating in eddies, or along the shore, showed that it was
useless to look farther. We called these rapids Broken Canoe Rapids.

It was not pleasant to have to stop for some days; thanks to the
rapids, we had made slow progress, and with our necessarily limited
supply of food, and no knowledge whatever of what was ahead of us, it
was important to make good time. But there was no alternative. We had
to build either one big canoe or two small ones. It was raining
heavily as the men started to explore in different directions for good
canoe trees. Three--which ultimately proved not very good for the
purpose--were found close to camp; splendid-looking trees,