Terrifying Rapid shot by Author and his Men in their Canoe.
There were again plenty of rubber trees in the forest, plenty of fish in the river. The climate was not too hot—merely 87° F. in the shade, 105° in the sun—the insects not too troublesome; so that it seemed to us a paradise on earth.
We had now before us a great expanse of 5,000 m. of straight river to 345° b.m., with two parallel ranges of hills extending from west to east. The second range was the higher of the two—some 600 ft., whereas the first was only 200 ft. high.
What I took to be a great river coming from 75° b.m. (N.E.), 250 m. wide, joined the Arinos from the right side; but I was puzzled whether this was not a mere arm of the Arinos. In the quick survey I was making, and with the many things which occupied my mind at every moment, the river being moreover so wide, it was impossible, single-handed, to survey everything carefully on every side. Therefore this may have been a mere arm of the Arinos which I mistook for a tributary. It was not possible for me to deviate from my course every moment to go and ascertain problematic details, but it will be quite easy for subsequent travellers to clear up this point now that attention has been drawn to it.
An island, 1,000 m. long—Olivia Island—was found at the point where the main arm of the river flowed in a direction of 345° b.m., and where to the north-west, north, and north-east, three hill ranges were before us—one 300 ft. high, extending from south-west to north-east on the left side of the river; another thickly wooded hill from west to east, also 300 ft. high; and yet another one, the highest of all, behind it from S.S.W. to N.N.E., on the right bank. The river was 350 m. wide, and its water almost stagnant.
Another barrier of rock held up the stream. We came to an island 800 m. long, 300 m. wide—Sabrina Island—on the left side of the stream, which showed a beautiful spit of white sand at its southern end.
I halted on the bank where the island began in order to take observations for latitude and longitude, and as the day was a very clear one I took forty-eight consecutive sights of the sun with the sextant. Lat. 10° 35′·1 S.; long. 58° 12′ W. While I was busy observing the sun I thought I heard curious noises in the forest just behind me. The dogs all of a sudden jumped up, barking furiously, and I heard the sounds of what seemed an escaping person dashing away through the thick growth near the stream. My men were greatly excited, saying it was an Indian who had come quite close to me, and was about to shoot an arrow while I was busy with my sextant and chronometers. All through lunch they sat with their loaded rifles next to them, in case we might be attacked.
The river now flowed in a straight line for 5,000 m. in a north-westerly direction. Half-way along was a large triangular island—Pandora Island; then farther on the left another island, 2,000 m. long—Sibyl Island.