pendant from every branch above was an ape ready to fall upon us. At this threatened juncture, when our lives depended upon the drop, the screech of the steam-whistle saved us. Some of our late assailants, paralyzed with the fearful shriek, dropped nerveless to the ground; others upon us, and clinging to our persons grinned beseechingly for protection. But the majority swung themselves from limb to limb in wild panic, disappearing over the brow of the hill. Without waiting to test the permanency of their fears, or courage for a rally, we shook off our personal attachments, and assisted the wounded on board, under cover of the still sounding whistle. In candor I must confess that our reception by those who remained on board ill accorded, from a lack of pitying sympathy, with our narrow escape from imminent peril. Yet I will as frankly acknowledge that there was ample cause for the levity of their manifest disgust at our approach; but when the old savage added his grin to the measure of our disgrace it was more than human nature could bear, and we thankfully accepted a warm bath, in our clothes, proffered by the engineer, while standing on the outjutting portion of the gangway plank, which he administered through the nozzle of the deck hose. Even Jack, who had received an ugly gash which had sounded the depth of his scalp, was obliged to submit to purification before Doctor Baāhar would bestow upon him the rites of absolution conferred by adhesive plaster, notwithstanding his plight was equally abnormal. But the sailor, in the spirit of his invincible good humor, provoked by the novelty of the encounter, declared that he knew the fellow who had barked his head- piece, and would have his revenge. Although we failed to appreciate the mirth of our scathless “friends,” we were exceedingly thankful for our escape, for we realized in the cool moments of reflection the peril we had encountered too vividly for the capital of a laugh at our own expense. Neither did we wish for a second trial of Mr. Dow’s skill in aping practical jokes. Bill, in expressing his gratitude for his friend’s escape, said, “There you lay, Jack, knocked on the head, and them fellows just ready to drop on us tooth and nail; well, I can tell you our lives weren’t worth the flutter of a gaff to’sel in a gale of wind, when the whistle brought them up with a sharp turn. But what’s food for one’s fun for another; the squall just took the wild ones aback like the wink of a gib in a luff, so they turned tail and scuttled away, and we hauled off for repairs, mighty glad they didn’t grapple.” While the explorers’ ablutions were in progress ape sentinels were seen in the tree tops above their habitations, in which position they continued until a curve of the river concealed them from view.