Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

ON A RAFT TO GUAYAQUIL 307
The oars used in navigating these rafts are
merely bamboos, about 20 feet long, half their
thickness being cut away for about a yard at the
outer end, so as to form a sort of scoop. T\vo oars
were fixed in the prow, and a third oar in the stern,
the latter being worked by the old black who had
sold me the raft. The river had risen almost to its
winter level, and we swept along rapidly. At
2 P.M. we were already eight leagues away from
Aguacatal, near a site called Catarama, below which
the river is narrowed in some places to 30 yards,
and the navigable channel is further straitened by
the trees (chiefly species of Inga) which hang far
over the water. Add to this that the river ran like
a sluice, and that the turns were frequent and
and it will be seen how difficult it was to
abrupt,
maintain our clumsy craft always in the mid-stream.
Although the men tugged hard at their oars, they
could not save us from being frequently brushed
by the trees ; and at length, at a sharp turn, the
raft went dead on, and through a mass of branches
and twiners that hung over to the middle of the
river. The effect was tremendous : the heavy
cases were hoisted up and clashed against each
other, the roof of our cabin smashed in, and the
old pilot was for some moments so completely
involved in the branches and the wreck of the roof,
that I expected nothing but that he had been
carried away; he held on, however, and at last
emerged, panting and perspiring, but with no
further injury than a smart Hogging from the twigs,
which indeed none of us entirely escaped.
have been instances on this river ol a man
There
being
hooked up bodily by the formidable