eally vertiginous pace. We managed to
clear by a mere hair's-breadth two great rocks which stood in the way.
Had we struck a rock on that particular occasion we certainly should have
all been killed. As luck would have it, before we knew what was happening
we were shot into the whirlpool under the rapid, and there we turned
round upon ourselves three or four times before my men had recovered from
the amazement of finding themselves still alive, and had begun to paddle
again after I had told them to do so for the twentieth time.

Filippe the negro exclaimed: "As long as we come with you, sir, we shall
never be killed, but you let us go very near death sometimes!" Then they
discussed among themselves, saying that I must have some particular
mascotte which I carried upon my person and which prevented disaster.

The range which was before us to the north-west developed itself into a
flat-topped hill mass about 500 ft. above the level of the river.

Another rapid, fairly violent, was reached some distance beyond, my men
this time offering at once, of their own accord, to unload the canoe and
take her down carefully with ropes. I pretended not to care, as I wanted
to give them a lesson, and said we had better shoot it, as we had done
the previous one.

"No, no, no, no!" they all said in a chorus; "there is such a thing as
tempting Providence!"

As we got farther down I could perceive that the range extended much
farther than I had seen earlier in the day; in fact, from the W.N.W. it
spread as far as E.S.E.

Below the last rapid was an island of great beauty--Babin Island--2,000
m. long. The river beyond that island formed two arms, one on each side
of a triangular island located in the opening formed in the hill range by
the river, where another strong rapid--in fact, a regular small
waterfall--was to be found.

It was very difficult to keep count of all the islands which we
constantly passed--many elongated, others triangular, others rectangular,
others of all kinds of irregular shapes. In my note-books I endeavoured
to map out the entire course of the river as well as I could, and I think
that, considering the amount of other work I had to do and the
difficulties encountered all the time, the map I made to the scale of one
centimetre to a kilometre is as accurate as it could possibly be made
with the means at my command. In places where I was uncertain I have left
blanks in the map, and have not gone in for the usual