The four deserters joined this party, two of them in each watch, one to keep lookout while the others rested. Their precautions were excellently taken and showed the solicitude felt by Johannes for their general welfare. The night however passed by undisturbed. Early in the morning Schlickeisen noticed a creaking sound coming from the forest bordering the banks. He kept a sharp lookout and observed a herd of about fifty deer, led by a handsome buck with a magnificent pair of antlers, coming down the slopes to drink from the crystalline river water. While the herd was drinking their leader stood posted on the top of the bank whence he could overlook the surrounding country. There he remained, sniffing the air and pricking up his ears, offering a fair mark to the Swiss, who proceeded to take good aim and fired. His first movement, however, had alarmed the stag; the noble animal suddenly threw his horns back on his neck, uttered a loud cry and took his first and last leap. Tumbling from the steep height he rolled into the water and would undoubtedly have been carried out of reach had he not struck against one of the rangkans and become entangled among the lines. The rest of the herd had suddenly disappeared. The alarm and commotion caused by that shot and its reverberations through the steep banks was great, but thanks to the cool behavior of the Europeans peace was soon restored. The buck was drawn out of the stream, skinned and quartered, promising a delicious adjunct to the ensuing meal. All congratulated Schlickeisen upon his fair shot, but he vowed to be less hasty for the future and never to fire during inconvenient hours. An hour afterward the flotilla was again en route, making way against the fierce and increasing current of the wild stream. This day also contributed its share of difficulties. A little beyond Kiham Hoeras, near kotta Hoerakan, the dioritic soil suddenly changed into a coarse yellow-brown sandstone. This friable stone, subject to rapid disorganization, filled the bed of the river to such an extent that in some places no canoe could pass; a rangkan had to be steered with the utmost caution in order to keep within the narrow strip of water which formed the channel. The sand of this stone is easily displaced by the immense force of the fleeting mass of water and here and there forms banks in mid-stream where the tide is slackened and the river shallowed. Sometimes the sandbanks assume the dimensions of islands and are known as karangans by the natives. Harimaoung Boekit informed his friends that these are highly auriferous and that not unfrequently small nuggets are found of a quality considered the best of the Kapoeas regions. “We ought to try our luck here,” La Cueille said. “Certainly not,” Johannes replied; “our way lies forward! We are still too near the Dutch and must place a few more cataracts between them and ourselves.”