Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

3o8 NOTES OF A BOTANIST
gttianensis, and suspended in mid-air, whilst the raft
passed from under him.
Our deck now presented a lamentable sight, but
we had little time for ascertaining the amount of
damage, as at every turn a similar peril awaited us.
We, in fact, twice again ran into the bush, not
quite so violently as before, but each time adding
to the damage already sustained. We had calculated
on reaching Caracol that day, and might
still have done so before nightfall, but that there
were some bad turns ahead, which, as the men
were already much fatigued, we could not expect to
pass without very great risk; so at 4^ P.M. we
brought to, with some difficulty,
at a place where
the bank was free from trees, and made fast for the
night. We then set to work to clear away the
wreck of sticks and leaves which strewed the raft,
and to repair the roof, which was completed by
moonlight. The cases had received only a few
slight cracks, and had none of them turned over,
but the leaves of the precious plants were sorely
maltreated. ... As far as Caracol the river con-
tinued narrow and winding, and at various points
we barely cleared the bushes, but nothing more
serious happened to us than the loss of a few loose
cloths, which were hooked up by a pendulous mass
of the Uncaria. From Caracol downwards the
river grew wider, and the banks were less overhung
with wood, so that we went on with more
. . . security. Soon after nightfall we had got as far
as to where the influence of the tide was still felt,
and as it was ebbing we profited by it to hold on our
way until 2 o'clock of the following morning, when
the flood-tide obliged us to lay by. Thenceforward