Conveying the Canoe across the Forest on an Improvised Railway and Rollers.
A terrific rapid with a sheer drop of 3 ft. was situated here. A double whirlpool of great magnitude was formed at the bottom of the rapid, the water revolving with such force that the concavity was gradually depressed for some 3 ft. and had a great hole in each centre. We shot that rapid. As Alcides on that occasion followed my instructions, the canoe shot past between the two whirlpools, and although even then she nearly capsized, we were able to continue, my men shrieking with merriment at what they now believed to be their invulnerability. We dodged the unpleasant eddies while we floated with great speed in the strong current.
The river, which had contracted that day to 250 m., now expanded once more into a large basin 1,200 m. wide and 1,800 m. long, with most troublesome eddies as we went through it. The river described a great turn from N.N.E. to 180° b.m. or due south.
To add to the pleasures of our existence, we came in for a heavy rain-storm that day, with deafening thunder and blinding lightning. Notwithstanding the great discomfort it caused us, it pleased me very much because of the wonderful effects of light it produced on the river.
Where the stream, in a course which had wriggled like a snake, turned once more due north to 360° b.m., it divided itself into two small channels. High waves were produced where the water, pushed by the wind, was forced against the rapid. There was a good drop in the level of the river at that rapid, and it was a nasty place indeed for us to go through. We got tossed about, splashed all over, but we came out of it all the same, amid the wildly excited yells of my men. They were beginning to think that they were the greatest navigators that had ever lived, and they never let an opportunity pass of reminding each other of that fact.
I halted in the middle of the day to take the usual observations for latitude and longitude (lat. 8° 47′·5 S.; long. 58° 39′ W.), but I was interrupted in my work by another heavy rain-storm, which came and drenched us once more. After that dense clouds as black as ink covered the entire sky for the whole afternoon. We were now in the rainy season. Terrific gusts preceded these rain-storms, and were most troublesome to us.
After negotiating the bad rapids, the river went through a basin of boulders of broken foliated rock. There were three small channels. Then beyond, the entire river was forced through a rocky channel from 35 to 40 m. wide, the water rushing through with incredible force on a steep gradient until half-way down the channel, where it actually ran uphill for 50 m. or so, so great was the impetus it had received on its rapid descent to that point.
You can well imagine what a pleasant job it was for us to convey the canoe along with ropes over so delightful a spot. Owing to our insufficient food, our strength had greatly diminished. The ropes we had used on the many rapids were now half-rotted and tied up in innumerable knots. Moreover, the banks of sharp cutting rock were of great height, and our ropes were not long enough to be used separately, so that we decided to use only one long rope made up of all the ropes we possessed tied together. To make matters more difficult, the channel was not perfectly straight, but described two or three sharp corners, where the water was thrown with much vigour in one direction, then, being driven off immediately at a different angle, curled over itself, producing mountains of foaming water forty or fifty feet in height, and leaving great depressions near the inner corner.