Roger's expression changed suddenly.
"But the maps, the plane table, all the work!" he exclaimed, "you don't mean that everything is lost!"
"Do you suppose," answered the chief, "that I should be satisfied if those were gone?"
"Then how were they saved? I don't understand," put in the boy, mystified.
"I grabbed the oilskin bag with the maps when I went over the side," replied Rivers, "and Bulson hurled the plane table backwards over his head, so that it fell in the water for the other boat to pick up. But all the instruments are gone, of course, and a good many of our specimens."
"It's a good thing," put in the topographer, "that I made a little duplicate for my own collection."
"Yes," answered the chief, "it might be a whole lot worse than it is. It's a mighty fortunate thing that no one was badly hurt."
"And I'm mighty glad," said Roger, "that my camera and all the negatives were in the other canoe. But now that we've only got one boat, how shall we get down the rest of the way?"
"In the boat. We shall have to throw everything away except what we can't do without, and live on short rations. One of the guns is left, and there are plenty of fish in the river, so we probably will get along all right until we strike the Eskimo settlement on the delta of the river."
"And if we don't strike it?" asked Roger.