e best. It's
just as if we were set in the ice up yonder in the Arctic regions, eh?"

"This place is not very Arctic," said Brace, laughing.

"No, my lad, not very," said the captain, as Sir Humphrey came up. "We
seem to be in for it now, sir."

"Yes, but I suppose we are not stuck very fast. You'll send out an
anchor and haul upon it with the capstan."

"Wouldn't be any good, sir. We're fast in the sand upon an upright
keel, and until the water rises after a storm here we stick."

"But you talked about throwing over some of the ballast to lighten the
vessel if a case like this occurred," said Brace.

"Yes, squire, that would do perhaps; but what then? Go back?"

"Go back!" cried Brace; "certainly not. We want to go forward."

"Then you'll have to go another way," said the captain decisively, "for
the brig has done her work."

"But you'll be able to get her off in a short time?"

"I daresay I can, but look yonder at that cloud," said the captain, and
he pointed towards where, faintly seen, a rainbow spanned the river
above a rolling white cloud.

"What does that mean, captain--a shower?" Brace asked.

"Yes," said the captain, "a heavy one, squire, falling over the rocks in
hundreds of tons a minute. There's our limit. That's a cloud of spray
from some grand falls which I daresay run right across the river. I
shouldn't wonder if the country rises now in steps right away to the
mountains. If we could get up that fall, maybe we could go on sailing
for a hundred miles before we came to another; but it is not possible to
get the brig up, and, between ourselves, I think we've done wonders to
get her up here so far."

"But suppose we content ourselves with getting so far as this, and, when
we have got the brig off, turn her round and go back to the main stream
and sail up there?" asked Sir Humphrey.

"Which, sir?" said the captain, smiling; "the Amazons seem to be all
main streams, winding over thousands of miles of country, as far as we
can make out; but if we go back it's a chance if we get up so far as we
here."

Sir Humphrey merely nodded in reply to the captain's remarks, and then
they all rose and walked away in different directions, each of them
evidently trying to think of a means of getting over the difficulty
which confronted them.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

DISCUSSING PLANS.

The next time the party were assembled was over the midday meal, when
the conversation naturally turned to the