So strongly did the idea begin to take hold of me, that my excitement made me restless, and as I had now caught two fish, and was secure from immediate starvation, I arose, and winding up my lines, began to wade through the shallows, searching the banks for a suitable place to take up my abode in while the coracle was being made. The river was, as I have said, but a small stream, formed by the confluence of a number of tiny brooks; but its banks rose pretty steeply for fully seven feet above its present level, showing that in the rains it carried a large body of water. I had wandered down nearly half a mile when I found the banks receding on either side as the river grew rapidly wider, and then the stream appeared to divide into two. At first I supposed that a tributary had entered it, but on going to the fork and observing that the water flowed down each side, I perceived that the river had really divided, and I had no doubt that the central portion of land was an island. In order to ascertain if this was the case I took the left-hand division, scanning the banks closely as I went, and as I proceeded the stream continued to widen out, forming a lake-like expanse, the appearance of which impressed me with a strange sense of familiarity. Presently I set my foot upon a hard, smooth body, the feel of which I knew at once. It was an affaní, and as I picked the mollusc up and dropped it into my wicker bag, the chain of association was complete. I felt certain that this was the very place where Bukári Moshi and I had crossed with the bags of gold upon our heads. With my heart thumping with excitement and anxiety, I splashed across the stream to the bank of what I believed to be the island, and wading along the shore, looked for the landing place. Presently I came to a spot where the bank shelved down more gradually, and running up the incline, found at the top a wide stretch of level ground covered with soft moss. Surely this was the place; there could be no doubt about it; but yet so intense was my excitement and my fear of a disappointment that I hardly had the courage to look for the crucial proof. At length I summoned up my nerve, and casting my eyes across the river, at once made out a tall oil palm rising out of the undergrowth, and near to it a lofty silk-cotton. Between the two stems was an opening in the foliage, through which I could see some high ground in the distance. I drew off a few paces to the left, but the two stems approached and came into one line. Then I stepped away to my right, and as the stems separated, the hill became more visible, until suddenly there appeared through the opening a patch of red cliff on the hillside. It was the cliff on to which the tunnel opened.