had taken my gun, one day, and was making my way along the bank of the
river, when I stopped to observe one of the curious nests hanging at the
extreme end of a palm-branch. Its structure was very curious; and I
observed that it had a small hole in the side, which served as a doorway
to the owner, a black bird--with an orange-yellow tail--about the size
of a dove. I watched one bringing food to his mate; who put out her
beak to receive it, and then fed her nestlings within. These nests are
equally secure from snakes or monkeys, as neither can descend the
delicate boughs to which they are pendent--nor can, indeed, climb the
smooth stems of the trees. Before me rose a perpendicular cliff, like a
wall of cyclopean masonry, surmounted by trees and shrubs; all around
hung from the wide-stretching boughs a rich tracery of sepos and
creepers of all sorts; vast arums hung suspended in the air, and
numberless gay-coloured flowers; while at my feet rushed, boiling and
foaming, the rapid stream, amid rocks, against which the water broke in
masses of spray.

It was a place where I could scarcely have believed it possible that any
boat, however strongly-built, could have ventured to descend; yet, as I
looked, I saw a canoe or pongo, guided by two natives with long poles--
the one in the bow and the other in the stern--while in the centre sat
composedly, amidst a cargo of cases, a passenger, with his gun placed
before him ready for use. In this passenger, as the canoe shot by, I
recognised my friend the doctor. I shouted and waved to him, and then
pointed down the stream, to let him understand that I would hurry on to
the nearest landing-place and meet him. He waved in return; but the
roar of the waters prevented our voices being heard by each other.

In a moment he was out of sight, so I hastened on, in the hope of
finding before long some calm water where the canoe could have ventured
to put in to the shore. I went on and on, but the water was still
rushing as furiously as at first. In vain did I look for the canoe;
nothing could I see of her, and I began to fear that she had been dashed
to pieces against some of the ugly dark rocks whose tops rose above the
surface.

I had gone a mile or more, when I saw a person approaching, and soon
afterwards the doctor and I were shaking hands.

"I have been a long time in coming," he said; "but I could find no men
to convey my chests to the river: and when, at length, I did find