there appeared to be a repetition of the entrance from the
great river, where they passed along through the dark tunnel overhung by
trees.

"Oh, it's all right, sir," said Shaddy, on being appealed to. "Dessay
we shall find a way on."

"Of course," replied Brazier, who only had eyes for the plants he was
collecting and hardly looked up; "this great body of water must go
somewhere."

"Look sharp round to the left!" cried Rob, standing up in the boat as
they glided round a bend where the stream nearly turned upon itself and
then back again, forming a complete S; and as they moved round the
second bend Rob uttered a shout of delight, for the banks receded on
either hand, so that they appeared to have glided into a wide opening
about a mile long, floored with dark green dotted with silver, through
which in a sinuous manner the river wound. A minute later, though, the
two lads saw that the river really expanded into a lake, the stream in
its rapid course keeping a passage open, the rest of the water being
densely covered with the huge, circular leaves of a gigantic water-lily,
whose silvery blossoms peered up among the dark green leaves.

"Look at the jacanas!" cried Joe, pointing to a number of
singular-looking birds like long-necked and legged moorhens, but
provided with exaggerated toes, these being of such a length that they
easily supported their owners as they walked about or ran on the
floating leaves.

"Wouldn't be a bad place for a camp, sir," suggested Shaddy, when they
were about half-way along the lake, and he pointed to a spot on their
left where the trees stood back, leaving a grassy expanse not unlike the
one at which they had first halted, only of far greater extent.

"Yes, excellent," replied Brazier; "but can we get there?"

"Oh yes, sir; I'll soon make a way through the leaves."

Shaddy seized a pole, said a few words to his men, and stepped right to
the front of the boat, where he stood thrusting back the vegetation as
it collected about the bows, while the men rowed hard forcing the boat
onward, the huge leaves being sent to right and left and others passing
right under the keel, but all floating back to their former positions,
so that as Rob looked back the jacanas were again running over the
vegetation which had re-covered the little channel the boat had made.

In all probability a vessel had never entered that lake before, and it
caused so little alarm that great fish, which had been shel