Then I bethought myself of the others, and, dragging myself towards them with difficulty, I sprinkled them with water, and to my joy they began to recover -- Umslopogaas first, then the others.

Next they drank, absorbing water like so many sponges.
Then, feeling chilly -- a queer contrast to our recent sensations -- we began as best we could to get into our clothes.

As we did so Good pointed to the port side of the canoe: it was all blistered with heat, and in places actually charred.

Had it been built like our civilized boats, Good said that the planks would certainly have warped and let in enough water to sink us; but fortunately it was dug out of the soft, willowy wood of a single great tree, and had sides nearly three inches and a bottom four inches thick.

What that awful flame was we never discovered, but I suppose that there was at this spot a crack or hole in the bed of the river through which a vast volume of gas forced its way from its volcanic home in the bowels of the earth towards the upper air.