ardly gone to sleep when I thought I heard a curious noise by my
side, as of something dragging along the ground. I immediately jumped up,
and saw a huge snake some 20 ft. long inquisitively looking at me, only
half a metre away. I do not know which of us two was more surprised. The
snake with sinuous grace moved away from me with gradually accelerated
speed, and, passing right under the hammocks of my men, disappeared in
the forest behind.

Taking all things into consideration, that was a night worth remembering.
What was worst of all was the fact that, with the excitement and the
fatigue, I had forgotten to wind the chronometer at the usual hour of
seven o'clock in the evening, and when I woke up startled in the morning,
remembering the fact, I found the chronometer had stopped altogether.
That was the greatest blow of all, after all the trouble I had taken to
keep the Greenwich mean time for my observations of longitude. The mishap
was not irreparable, as I got the time fairly accurately by using the
previous observations at local noon and working out the difference with
Greenwich mean time.

So many had been the obstacles we had found that day that, before
reaching the rapid where we had the disaster, we had made a progress of
39 kil. 500 m.--poor work indeed as compared to the wonderful distances
we had been able to cover on the first days of our navigation of the
Arinos River. Considering all, however, it was really marvellous that we
could cover even that distance, short as it was.

CHAPTER XII

A Tiny Globular Cloudlet warning us--Tossed in a Merciless
Manner--Saved by Providence--Vicious Waters--A Diabolical Spot--A
Highly Dangerous Crossing--A Terrible Channel--More Bad
Rapids--On the Verge of a Fatal Drop down a Waterfall--Saved in
Time--A Magnificent Sight--The August Falls--A Mutiny--The Canoe,
weighing 2,000 lb., taken across the Forest over a Hill-range

THE thermometer that night, July 30th, showed a minimum of 63 deg. F. We
repaired the large hole (about 1 ft. in diameter) in the side of the
canoe by stuffing it with a pair of my pyjamas, while one or two shirts
which I still had left were torn to shreds in order to fill up the huge
crack which went from one end of the canoe almost to the other, and which
had become opened again in scraping rocks in the rapid.

We did not leave that camp until 11 o'clock a.m. An isolated hill was
visible on the left bank. We h