Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

154 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
desperate, our provisions altogether would not
suffice for more than a couple of meals, say to keep
body and soul together for two days. Of the painful
thoughts that passed through my mind at this
critical juncture my rough notes contain no record,
and writing now, after six months have elapsed, I
shrink from recalling them. The conclusion of my
cogitations was to remain by my effects till death
or help should arrive ; and my lad, who promised
not to desert me, was of the same opinion. We
calculated that we should be able to keep alive for
a week, and in that time perhaps some trader might
come from the Sierra on his way to Canelos. The
Indians also were loath to turn back for this reason
that they had received their pay in money, with
which they hoped to buy great store of calico in the
Sierra, where it would cost them but a real the vara,
whereas if they took the money back to Sara-yacu
they must give four reals the vara for the same sort
of calico to some trader who should by a rare chance
go thither. I called a council by the river-side, in
order to consult on the possibility of throwing the
second bridge to a rock a few yards higher up the
stream than the one that was under water, but so
much higher out of the water than the first stone
that the bridge resting on it must necessarily slope
considerably, and so far apart
that it was doubtful if
the bamboos would span the distance. I had pro-
posed the same thing to them yesterday, when they
had declared it impossible, but now they seemed to
think that if the bamboos would only reach the
was feasible. There was no
upper rock the plan
time to be lost, for heavy rain was coming, and it
was probable the river would speedily rise, so to