This being all I could do without a greater variety of tools, I
determined to complete my work in a more convenient situation, and
forthwith dispatched Fritz and Jack with orders to bring the sledge
(which now ran on wheels taken from gun-carriages) that the canoe might
be transported direct to the vicinity of the harbour at Tentholm.
During their absence I fortunately found some wood naturally curved,
just suited for ribs to support and strengthen the sides of the boat.
When the two lads returned with the sledge, it was time to rest for the
night; but with early dawn we were again busily at work.
The sledge was loaded with the new boat, and everything else we could
pack into it, and we turned our steps homewards, finding the greatest
difficulty, however, in getting our vehicle through the woods. We
crossed the bamboo swamp, where I cut a fine mast for my boat, and came
at length to a small opening or defile in the ridge of rocks, where a
little torrent rushed from its source down into the larger stream
beyond; here we determined to make a halt, in order to erect a great
earth wall across the narrow gorge, which, being thickly planted with
prickly pear, Indian-fig, and every thorny bush we could find, would in
time form an effectual barrier against the intrusion of wild beasts,
the cliffs being, to the best of our belief, in every other part
inaccessible.
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