care about. The rest of our descent was easily accomplished, and
in half an hour after regaining the ravine we had partaken of our
evening morsel, built our hut as usual, and crawled under its
shelter.

The next morning, in spite of our debility and the agony of
hunger under which we were now suffering, though neither of us
confessed to the fact, we struggled along our dismal and still
difficult and dangerous path, cheered by the hope of soon
catching a glimpse of the valley before us, and towards evening
the voice of a cataract which had for some time sounded like a
low deep bass to the music of the smaller waterfalls, broke upon
our ears in still louder tones, and assured us that we were
approaching its vicinity.

That evening we stood on the brink of a precipice, over which the
dark stream bounded in one final leap of full 300 feet. The
sheer descent terminated in the region we so long had sought. On
each side of the fall, two lofty and perpendicular bluffs
buttressed the sides of the enormous cliff, and projected into
the sea of verdure with which the valley waved, and a range of
similar projecting eminences stood disposed in a half circle
about the head if the vale. A thick canopy of trees hung over
the very verge of the fall, leaving an arched aperture for the
passage of the waters, which imparted a strange picturesqueness
to the scene.

The valley was now before us; but instead of being conducted into
its smiling bosom by the gradual descent of the deep watercourse
we had thus far pursued, all our labours now appeared to have