A 
166 FROM THE ALPS TO THE ANDES 
diverge into the forest and did not advance 
anything like a mile an hour. Indeed, we 
met with so many hindrances that we were 
forced to return to the Douglas river and 
could make but very little progress that day. 
To give some idea of the difficulty offered 
by the obstructions in the river itself, I quote 
the following lines from Mr. FitzGerald's 
narrative: “The rocks were so water-worn 
and smooth that it was only by scrambling 
upon the top of each other’s shoulders that we 
were able to surmount the huge boulders that 
seemed hopelessly to block our path at almost 
every step, and we had occasionally to resort 
to various and ingenious devices to get up 
some of the smooth faces of stone that pre- 
sented themselves to us. Sometimes, I would 
find some long log washed down by the river, 
and setting it upright against the face of the 
rock, I would swarm up to the top of it; then 
Zurbriggen would shove me still higher by 
lifting the whole log with me on it, and thus, 
perhaps, barely succeed in landing me on the 
top of the boulder: Sometimes, however, the 
manoeuvre would end in a general collapse.” 
On the morrow, these difficulties did but 
increase. We had to crawl through tunnels, 
formed by the action of the water under the