access to the bank, and the next few minutes were the most anxious and exciting I had spent for a very long time. The ice on the right bank was covered with water, and under the weight of the ponies it swayed up and down most alarmingly. My first impulse was to rush to the assistance of the men and animals, and the salvage of the baggage, for bedding, instruments, journals, and other valuables were in jeopardy ; but I perceived that I should increase the weight on the ice with no chance of any compensating advantage. The danger was of short duration, and just as the last of the cavalcade reached the bank a large ice-floe became jammed between the ice-fringes, checking the current, which after an instant broke through with great force. The ice-floe came crashing onwards and tore up the ice-fringe where, a few moments before, the men and animals had been plodding wearily along. While thanking a merciful Providence for this escape, I was delighted to perceive a company of villagers from Oey Bekay hastening to our assistance. They helped our men to take the ponies up the steep bank from the brink of the river, and then to carry the baggage over that portion of the track where ponies could not carry it. Soon after dark we reached the small village, where a small house, very dirty and out of order, was assigned to me. This dwelling was in one block, divided into three rooms by two partitions, through each of which
there was a low doorway. The roof was flat and very low ; the rooms were ill-ventilated, the chimney, or hole
in the roof, being too small to allow the free escape of
the smoke. I occupied the inner room and Dass took possession of the central one, but a miscellaneous popu-
lation of fowls, sheep, and goats, rats and mice with their hereditary enemy the cat, was distributed through the house.
Near this village it was necessary to cross to the
IIIFカラー高解像度
