reading from south-west to north-east, on approaching which we heard
the thundering roaring of another rapid. On the left bank we had a hill
range all along. The noise of the rapid got louder and louder, and we
were soon confronted by a terrifying rush of water at a spot where three
arms of the river met with such force that the clashing waters shot up in
the air, forming a wave some 40 or 50 ft. high with a foaming crest. The
backwash from this great wave was so violent against the rocky banks of
the river--very narrow there--that it was quite impossible for the canoe,
even empty, to be let down by means of ropes.

My men were in absolute despair, for the farther we went the more
insurmountable became the obstacles which confronted us. They said they
had agreed to go on a journey of exploration, but surely I was taking
them direct to Hades--if we had not got there already. I could not well
contradict them, for certainly that particular spot was the nearest
possible approach to it.

It does not do ever to lose courage. While my men, in the lowest state of
depression, sat on the volcanic rocks, I went about exploring on the
right bank until I found a place where the river had eroded a channel but
had afterwards filled it with an immense accumulation of rocks. If we
could only move those rocks away--several hundreds of them--I saw that it
would be possible to push the canoe along the channel which would thus be
formed. The work would require a great deal of hard labour.

[Illustration: A Most Dangerous Rapid navigated by Author and his Men.]

You should have seen the faces of my men when I took them to the spot and
asked them to remove all the big boulders. In order to set them a good
example, I myself started moving the rocks about, the smaller ones for
preference. We worked and worked hour after hour, jamming our fingers and
feet all the time as we pushed the rocks to one side and the other of the
little channel, only 4 ft. wide, which we were making. The language of my
men was pretty enough, but as long as they worked I had to put up with
it. Alcides, who was really a great worker, and whose principal fault was
that he would never save himself, worked with tremendous vigour that day.
Somehow or other the men seemed to think the work hard.

When we had taken the canoe safely to the end of the rapid through the
channel we had cleared, I went back to the top of the rapid to gaze once
more on the wonderful sight where t