These set off to push as far as they could into the country, intending
to return before night. They were accompanied by two seamen, who
carried their baggage.

The hills, when viewed from a distance, seemed to be partly wooded;
above the wood there was a plain, and beyond that bare rocks. Mr Banks
hoped to get through the woods, and made no doubt that beyond it he
would find new sorts of plants which no botanists had ever yet heard of.
They entered the wood full of hope, and with much of the excitement
that men cannot but feel when exploring a country that has never been
trodden by the foot of a civilised man since the world began.

It took them, however, much longer to get through the pathless wood than
they had expected. It was afternoon before they reached what they had
taken for a plain, but which, to their great disappointment, they found
to be a swamp covered with low bushes, which were so stubborn that they
could not break through them, and were therefore compelled to step over
them, while at every step they sank up to the ankles in mud--a mode of
progress so fatiguing that they were all very soon exhausted. To make
matters worse, the weather became gloomy and cold, with sudden blasts of
piercing wind accompanied by snow.

They pushed on vigorously notwithstanding, and had well-nigh crossed the
swamp when Mr Buchan was suddenly seized with a fit. This compelled a
halt. As he could not go further, a fire was kindled, and those who
were most fatigued were left behind to take care of him, while the rest
continued to advance. At last they reached the summit of the mountain,
and were rewarded for their toil by the botanical specimens discovered
there. It was late in the day by that time, and as it was impossible to
get back to the ship that night, they were obliged to make up their
minds to bivouac on the mountain, a necessity which caused them no
little uneasiness, for it had now become bitterly cold. Sharp blasts of
wind became so frequent, however, that they could not remain on the
exposed mountain-side, and were obliged to make for the shelter of the
woods in the nearest valley.

Mr Buchan having recovered, and the whole party having reassembled,
they set out to recross the swamp, intending, when they should get into
the woods, to build a hut of leaves and branches, kindle a fire, and
pass the night there as well as they could. But an overpowering torpor
had now begun to seize hold upon some of the pa