her side, with
only the _mafus_ to guard it, and therefore open to robbery.

About a third of a mile from the ferry we found a sandy cornfield on a
level shelf just above the water, and pitched our tents. A slight wind was
blowing and before long we had sand in our shoes, sand in our beds, sand in
our clothes, and we were eating sand. Heller went down the river with a bag
of traps while we set forty on the hills above camp, and after a supper of
goral steak, which did much to allay the irritation of the day, we crawled
into our sandy beds.

At daylight Hotenfa visited the ferry and reported that the loads were safe
but that one of the boatmen had gone to the village and no one knew when he
would return. We went to the river with Wu as soon as breakfast was over
and spent an aggravating hour trying by alternate threats and cajoling to
persuade the remaining ferryman to cross the river to us. But it was
useless, for the louder I swore the more frightened he became and he
finally retired into a rock cave from which the _mafus_ had to drag him out
bodily and drive him into the boat.

The second boatman ambled slowly in about ten o'clock and we felt like
beating them both, but Wu impressed upon us the necessity for patience if
we ever expected to get our caravan across and we swallowed our wrath;
nevertheless, we decided not to leave until the loads and mules were on the
other side, and we ate a cold tiffin while sitting on the sand.

Heller employed his time by skinning the twenty small mammals (one of which
was a new rat) that our traps had yielded. We took a good many photographs
and several rolls of "movie" film showing the efforts of the _mafus_ to get
the mules aboard. Some of them went in quietly enough but others absolutely
refused to step into the boat. One of the _mafus_ would pull, another push,
a third twist the animal's tail and a fourth lift its feet singly over the
side. With the accompaniment of yells, kicks, and Chinese oaths the
performance was picturesque to say the least.

By five o'clock the entire caravan had been taken across the racing green
water and we had some time before dark in which to investigate the caverns
with which the cliffs above the river are honeycombed. They were of two
kinds, gold quarries and dwelling caves. The latter consist of a long
central shaft, just high enough to allow a man to stand erect; this widens
into a circular room. Along the sides of the corridor shallow nests hav