It took us
the best part of an hour to extricate ourselves from our uncomfortable
position.

A beautiful island 400 m. long and 200 m. wide--Maria Island--was then
reached. It had a long spur of white sand at its south-easterly end, and
pretty vegetation upon it. Strange domes of rock were near by, one
particular dome of great size showing a spit of white sand 70 m. long, on
its north-westerly side. Many other islets of rock rose above the water
along the bank of the larger island, while rapids of some magnitude
existed at the end of the island.

We hardly ever came to a stretch of placid water. No sooner had we left
the last rapid than, the river turning sharply at that point, we went
over a strong _corrideira_, so strewn with obstacles that in the terrific
current we had a narrow escape of having our unmanageable, long canoe
smashed against one of the innumerable rocks.

As we went on at a great speed I had just time to notice rocks of all
sizes and shapes along both banks, and strange rocks in the middle of the
river, one or two of them with stunted trees growing in fissures which
had become filled with earth.

Another island, 300 m. long--Martia Island--with a picturesque spur of
rock at its south-easterly end, was next reached as we were going swiftly
down a _corrideira_ in the channel to the right which we were following.

After the _corrideira_, as I was busy writing a description of the
landscape, I was thrown off my seat. My men also had a similar
experience, the canoe nearly turning turtle and becoming filled with
water. Alcides had steered us right into the centre of a whirlpool.

These unexpected baths were not much to my taste--not so much for the
discomfort they caused my person, as for the trouble they gave me in
protecting my notebooks and instruments. Also, in these accidents we lost
a considerable amount of our supply of salt, which melted away in the
water, and the supply of flour and rice suffered from these unnecessary
immersions.

A channel 30 m. wide separated Martia Island from a second
island--Camilla Island--100 m. long, which must once certainly have
formed part of it, but which had been separated by the eroding waters of
the stream. Both islands were wooded, and were extremely pretty. Great
heaps of rock, 20 m. in diameter and even more, occupied the centre of
the stream after we had passed the last island.

We had only gone 12 kil. 300 m. that day, so difficult had been the
navigat