Now, however, they were face to face with a new trouble, for scarcely had they begun to descend the river when they discovered that at this dry season of the year it was in many places too shallow to allow the canoe to pass over the sand and mud banks.
Evidently there was but one thing to be done--abandon it and walk.
So they landed, ate from their store of food and began a terrible and toilsome journey.

On either side of the river lay dessicated swamp covered with dead reeds ten or twelve feet high.

Doubtless beyond the swamp there was high land, but in order to reach this, if it existed, they would be obliged to force a path through miles of reeds.

Therefore they thought it safer to follow the river bank.

Their progress was very slow, since continually they must make detours to avoid a quicksand or a creek, also the stones and scrubby growth delayed them so that fifteen or at most twenty miles was a good day's march.
Still they went on steadily, seeing no man, and when their food was exhausted, living on the fish which they caught in plenty in the shallows, and on young flapper ducks that haunted the reeds.