one in the hope that I
could get some information. During Monday I swept on a flying current
around a point of rock and was glad to catch sight of two men on the
bank. One stood on the ground surrounded by a group of sheep, the other
was up in a tree with a knife, lopping off the young limbs, throwing
them to his companion who distributed them to the sheep. I hailed them
with the cry of 'Hey, brother.' The man in the tree looked around and on
discovering my black figure in the water, helplessly let go all holds
and fell to the ground. His companion was startled; but when,
recovering from the shock, I was pointed out, he ran to the bank,
yelled something that seemed to be a warning and then both disappeared.
As I passed on, I saw why he had shouted. A young, gipsy-like girl stood
on a shelf of rock surrounded by goats. As the current was carrying me
toward her, she gave a cry of alarm and faced me, the long-bearded
goats doing the same. They formed a beautiful picture. Not wishing to
frighten her, I called out some reassuring word in Spanish, and to
show that she was not frightened, as were her male protectors, she
seized a big stone and raising it defiantly over her head, awaited my
approach. As I passed, I waved her an adieu and then she dropped the
stone and fled up the mountain followed by her goats.

"All day I picked my way cautiously along, using every energy to avoid
the varied shaped boulders which filled the river. At one time I
appeared to shoot down a very steep hill. I was hemmed in by huge rocks
that rose like a high wall on either side and there was no possible way
to get out. The thought struck me that I was going into some
subterranean passage, the perpendicular walls seeming to close in and
swallow up the entire river. I was swept down by the mighty, though
narrow current, and was beginning to feel sure that I was being
carried into some underground rapids, when I was suddenly dumped into
a deep pool, where the course of the river was running smooth and
placidly along almost at right angles with the rapids above. At this
abrupt turn, evidences of former floods were plain. Immense rocks were
cut and carved in spiral columns as skillfully as any sculptor could
have chiseled them. Great flocks of wild black ducks peculiar to the
Tagus, were continually rising at my approach.

"At ten o'clock that night, hearing the heavy roar of rapids below and
the river becoming