Island--having
pretty vegetation upon it.

A fourth and fifth--Laeken Island, 300 m. in length, and Elizabeth R.
Island, 5,000 m. in length--were separated by a narrow channel. The
latter had most gorgeous vegetation upon it; so tidy was everything in
the thick forest, and the ground under it so clean that you might have
imagined yourself in an English park.

Those islands were really too beautiful for words. Not being a poet, I
cannot find appropriate language to describe their wonderful charm.

The river had a tendency to flow toward the west, and even for 1 kil. in
a south-westerly direction. It had a width of 700 m. A small island 50 m.
in diameter, chiefly formed of accumulated rounded rocks which had rolled
down and deposits of gravel, had formed in the centre of the stream.
Beyond it a charming little island, 180 m. long--Germaine Island--was
found, on which we made our camp. It had an extensive gravel beach, on
which I found beautiful crystals and pebbles of wonderfully coloured
marble.

CHAPTER VIII

Magnificent Basins--Innumerable Rapids--Narrow Escapes--The
Destructive Sauba Ants--Disobedient Followers--A Range of
Mountains--Inquisitive Monkeys--Luck in Fishing--Rocky
Barriers--Venus

WE left at 8 a.m. on July 20th, the minimum temperature during the night
having been 57 deg. F. We had hardly gone 11/2 kil. when we came to another
island, 500 m. long--Mabel Island--quite as beautiful as the one on which
we had camped. Small rapids were encountered where we just managed to
avoid dangerous submerged rocks close to the right bank, near the
entrance of a basin 900 m. wide.

All those basins were really magnificent to look at. This one, for
instance, displayed a lovely island--Noailles Island--500 m. long, and
200 m. wide on its left side. Picturesque rocks of a vivid red colour
peeped out of the water and broke the current, the spray that rose in the
air forming pretty rainbows. There was a channel there, 300 m. wide,
after passing the last island. Then came one more great basin 700 m.
wide, and yet another pretty island, with a rocky spur.

[Illustration: Preparing the Canoe prior to descending a Rapid.]

[Illustration: A Nasty Rapid.]

We followed a course of 10 deg. b.m. on the left side of the island--Margie
Island--which was 500 m. long, and had a number of subsidiary islands
formed by picturesque groups of rock.

We then came to one more great basin, with an immense