was no longer fierce, but glided along deep and dark at the
rate of about four miles an hour.

"Hab!" cried the captain; "this is better. Now, gentlemen, you may get
your guns ready for anything worth shooting. We can easily retrieve it
here, and find a place by-and-by up among the rocks on one side or the
other to land and cook whatever you manage to bring down."

"Why, Brace," said Sir Humphrey, as they glided gently along, gun in
hand, watching the steep slope of cliff on their left, everywhere
beautiful and in places almost perpendicular and awful in its grandeur,
"this is the most beautiful part of the country we have seen."

"Don't talk," said Brace, in a low tone of voice. "I seem to want to
watch."

"But don't forget about the cooking," said Briscoe, suddenly raising his
gun to his shoulder. "Look out, Brace, up yonder, and watch the bushes
on that shelf of rock."

He fired twice the next moment, and half a dozen large birds rose to fly
across the river, one of which fell to Brace's gun; while, the boat
being run close under the rocky face of the cliff, a couple of men
climbed out and crept up among the bushes, where they found that Briscoe
had shot three large turkey-like birds, which would form a welcome
addition to their larder.

During their steady glide on, half a dozen more good-sized birds of
similar and different kinds were brought down from where they were
feeding upon the fruits and berries, the men's spirits rising with their
success as much as from the beauty of the winding gorge, so that the
evening's camping was looked forward to with eagerness, while the
captain's declaration that they were getting beyond the influence of the
flood was received with a cheer.

"You see, gentlemen, it's like this: the flood has been acting like the
tide in a river which has kept back the regular flow here, and it
strikes me that before we have gone many miles farther the stream will
have grown slacker and slacker till it comes almost to a standstill, and
to-morrow some time we shall have it against us once more."

"Unless we turn into another stream and so get back a fresh way,"
suggested Brace. "It is a wonderful network of water."

"Maybe," said the captain; "but we don't want to lose our bearings."

"We couldn't if we kept on going down stream. We must reach the sea
somewhere."

"That's right enough," said the captain drily; "but I don't want to
reach it somewhere. I want the way that leads by