l, so that when the mules trod in the deep
holes they stuck with their hoofs and fell over, immediately struggling
wildly to free themselves. One of my men was nearly thrown down a
precipice that day, and all of us, as well as all the pack animals, had
many unpleasant falls during that march. Swampy places like that were
encountered for hundreds of metres at a time. In one place that day we
had two kilometres of continuous swampy mud. In the afternoon I had a
nasty fall, the mule rolling right on the top of me and nearly breaking
my right leg. The animal in falling had sunk its head in the sticky mud,
and was struggling madly to release itself. The animals were then
marching chest-deep in mud. In my helpless condition I tried to get off
when the animal fell, but sank up to my waist and stuck fast with my legs
in the mud. When the mule rolled over, it knocked me down on the edge of
the precipice, my leg remaining caught under the animal. Had not one of
my muleteers been by my side at the moment and rushed to my rescue, I
should have fared badly indeed.

We had a slippery descent after Tambo 33, where we had a lunch composed
of putrid tinned salmon and "invisible" eggs--the latter dish being a
speciality of that place. The _tambo_ man insisted that I had eaten six
eggs, whereas I had not even seen them except on the bill. He told me
that I was wrong, showing me a napkin on which two yellow streaks were to
be seen--though not left there by me, but by the lips of some traveller
who had passed perhaps a month before.

We made a long march that day, having left at seven o'clock in the
morning, and arriving at our halting-place at four o'clock in the
afternoon.

The next day, January 25th, we had a trying march. Several land-slides
had taken place, bringing down great patches of forest. Numberless trees
had fallen over, making it difficult for the animals to be taken across.
In one place all of them had to be unloaded, and they sank so deeply in
the slush and soft earth that we had three or four hours' extremely hard
work to cover a distance of about 50 m. The animals became so scared that
they would not go on at all. The men who pushed and led them along that
dangerous passage with a deep precipice on one side were in constant
danger.

The rain, which had been torrential during the night, continued during
the entire day, swelling the streams and making them most difficult to
cross. In one stream my mule and I were swept a