Going through a Narrow Channel.
CHAPTER XI
A Family of Ariranhas—Attacked by them—Three Nasty Rapids—Beautiful Sand Beaches—Exciting Experiences—Going down a Thundering Cataract—Alcides' Narrow Escape—A Night's Work in the Midst of a Foaming Rapid in order to rescue the half-submerged Canoe—Filippe's Courage—Visited by a Snake 20 ft. long
We camped some hundred metres away from the spot where we had killed the sucuriú. It was getting late. My men did not sleep a wink the whole night, as they thought perhaps the mate of the snake might come and pay us a visit. We had a lively time the entire night, as we had made our camp over the home of a family of ariranhas. They had their young in a small grotto in the bank, and we heard them all night squealing for their mothers, who were grinding their teeth and shrieking furiously a little way off from the bank, not daring to enter their homes while we were near. They were, I think, more frightened of the fire which my men had made than they were of us. There were twenty or thirty of them, and they made so much noise during the night that it was quite out of the question to rest. The vegetation was very thick, the damp considerable, and the air quite stifling, with a minimum temperature of 60° F. Occasionally, when the air moved at all, we could smell our friend the dissected sucuriú.
We were glad to leave at eight o'clock the next morning; we seldom could make an earlier start, owing to the slowness of my men in getting their breakfast and mine ready, and reloading the canoe, as all the baggage was taken out every night. Where we had made camp, Victor Emmanuel Island came to an end, the length of the island being some 14 kil. We had great fun just before leaving, the ariranhas coming boldly to attack us as we were getting into the canoe. Our dogs, which had been squealing and growling the whole night at the unmusical shrieks of the ariranhas, now jumped into the water, and there was a fierce fight between them and the amphibious animals. My men, as usual, fired a great many shots. Eventually we recovered our dogs and started off once more on our journey.
The river flowed from that point at first mostly in a north-easterly direction and in a somewhat winding course; then gradually tended toward the north-west. In the western part of a large basin 1,200 m. broad were two islands and innumerable rocks. Then, farther on, one more long rocky barrier extended from north-west to south-east in the north-western part of the basin. Once more did we have to let the canoe down the terrific rapids by means of ropes.
Where the river turned to the north-west it was 500 m. wide and most beautiful. A great many islands were seen, and innumerable rocks barred the entrance of the channel at the end of the basin above described. Soon after, however, we entered another basin 1,000 m. wide, with more islands and rapids fairly easy to negotiate. Once more did the river turn due north for 6,000 m., after we had gone over another swift and most troublesome rapid, where we had to unload our baggage and take the canoe down carefully with ropes. After that we entered a long channel strewn with rocks. We had not gone far when another strong rapid was encountered, over another great barrier of rock. No sooner had we negotiated that difficult passage than another great barrier of rock, also from south-west to north-east, had to be gone over through a troublesome rapid.
My men were getting tired of exploring, and were perplexed, because the more dangers we surmounted the greater seemed the dangers confronting us. They were beginning to lose the nerve they had temporarily acquired, and were now so scared at the vicious waters that they tried to keep the canoe all the time close to the banks or islands, the river being so deep that they thought this was the best way of saving their lives in case we had a bad accident. The current was extraordinarily swift, and to make things worse a strong north-easterly wind blew with great fury, driving us back and producing such high waves that our canoe was constantly filled with water. The result of keeping so close to the bank, and having our heads continually brushed by the foliage which overhung the stream, was that each time we came in contact with the branch of a tree thousands of ants would drop on to the canoe and upon us, and would bite us furiously. This was most trying—an additional torture to that we had to endure of being stung all over by other insects which followed the canoe in swarms.