serene and majestic
spot I have ever seen. Even the religious grandeur of Nikko's
cryptomeria aisles was incomparable to this.

One afternoon our column found itself hopelessly lost in a jungle growth
so dense that one could penetrate it only by cutting a tunnel through,
and for hours we hacked and hacked and made microscopic progress. At
last the head of the column came to an abrupt drop of a couple of
hundred feet which seemed an effectual bar to all further progress. The
cliff fell off at an angle of sixty degrees, with the slope densely
matted with heavy scrub and underbrush. It was necessary either to
retrace our steps through that long and heart-breaking jungle or else
find a way down the cliff. The water was gone and the horses must be got
to water before night.

Then, followed the most dramatic episode of our trip. We simply fell
over the cliff, plunging, caroming, and ricocheting down through the
masses of vegetation. How the horses got down I shall never know and
shall always consider as a miracle. And how the burden-bearing porters
managed to get their loads down is even more of a mystery.

Somewhere down below we heard the cry of a baby!

That meant that there must be human habitation near and, of course, a
mountain stream, and perhaps guides to lead us out of the mountain
fastness. A few moments more of falling and sliding and plunging, and
the advance guard came into a tiny clearing where a fire was burning. A
rude Wanderobo shack, built around the base of a towering tree from
which fell great festoons of giant creepers, stood in the center of the
clearing. Some food, still hot, was found in the vessels in which it had
been cooking. The people had fled and had been swallowed up in the
silent depths of the forest.

[Drawing: _Coming Down the Mountain_]

We called and shouted, but no answer came. Some of our porters proceeded
to rob the shack of its store of wild honey, but were apprehended in
time and were threatened with violent punishment if it continued. Then
we prepared to make camp. There was no space for our tents, and trees
had to be cut down and a little clearing made. Here the tents were
huddled together, clinging to the sloping mountain side. Darkness fell,
and then a most wonderful thing happened.

One of the tent boys who was searching for firewood in the darkening
forest found a little naked baby, barely three months old. It had been
thrown away as its mother, as she thought, fled for h