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National Geographic : 1920 Sep
Contents
KAIETEUR AND RORAIMA den was carried in the typical basket borne upon the back and supported by bands of tough bark which pass over the shoulders and across the forehead. The carriers would reach the, camp about noon and receive their stipulated ration sitting about the little fire, over which they boiled the rice and roasted the meat. Then, chatting and laughing, they would depart to Tukeit, to repeat the climb on the morrow. One memorable night I had sent every one down and remained alone. It was this particular time that was chosen by a jaguar to stalk and rush a tapir, and both of the animals plunged through the forest a few yards from my hammock. Of course, one always sleeps with fire arms within reach, for many things may befall in those wilds. With the last of the loads, a week later, Dr. Lutz came up and final preparations were made for further progress. Long before this the enforced decision had been made to leave my colleague here and to venture on without him. Heavy rains and vexatious delays had reduced the available time, so that the remainder of the projected trip needed to be made in rapid order, if at all; and ordinarily two white men cannot travel as fast as one, because the doubled chances of illness must be taken into account. So the goods were put aboard the wooden punt, which my Indians had brought down from an abandoned plan tation up the river, as well as on the wooden dug-outs, or "corials," and the still more primitive "wood-skins." The last named are merely lengths of bark from a large forest tree, which have the ends brought up by cross-sticks, so as to give a freeboard of three or four inches; yet a hundred pounds of freight and two Indians can be supported by such a frail craft. Waving farewells to Dr. Lutz, as he stood on the bank with the Indian man and two boys left with him, our little flotilla passed around a bend of the river toward the unknown experiences of the future. High forests came down to the very edge of the water, and the trees were so festooned with vines or "lianas" as to constitute a veritable wall, which re echoed the crash of the paddles on the gunwales of the boats, as from a cliff of rock. Thirty miles of hard paddling against the swollen current of the upper Potaro River brought us, after three days, to Chenapowu, a region of widely scattered Indian settlements consisting of one or two huts at the most.. At Chenapowu began the long walk, for the projected route to Roraima trended due west, at right angles to the smaller streams of Guiana and the larger north ern tributaries of the Amazon. More than a hundred miles through almost trackless country lay between us and the mountain, and although the dis tance itself was not long, yet the difficul ties to be met rendered it far greater in experience. In preparation for the long march the equipment was slightly reduced in bulk and the bearers were increased to twenty five, and soon we filed off into the heavy forests that intervened between Chena powu and the Brazilian border. STUMBLING THROUGH THE JUNGLE It is impossible adequately to describe the arduous journeys of the next five days. Every day, about the time of start ing from the temporary camp of the night, the sky clouded and the rain poured down on the dense tree-tops, which formed a veritable canopy to collect the waters and to pour them in streams upon the stumbling travelers beneath. In the deep gloom the feet caught on the interlaced roots of the trees, which, unable to enter the hard ground, ramified like traps under the thick wet cover of fallen leaves. The eye searched the ground for the little deadly labarria and the "bushmaster" (a worthy rival of the king cobra in strength and venom), which so closely resemble in coloration the dark-blotched earth that the closest scrutiny of the line of travel must be incessantly kept. Up steep slopes of 500 feet or more, clinging to the bushes, and down gullies, where the swollen streams must be forded waist and shoulder deep, day after day, the human wayfarers struggled on to- 235
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