The country was now assuming a different character, and the stream was running in a valley with rising ground--from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet high--on each side, and was narrowing very fast.

Towards morning on the fifth day the river had become a small stream, of but two or three feet deep; and they decided to leave the boat, as it was evident that they would be able to go but a short distance further.
"We may as well hide her carefully," Stanley said.

"It is certainly not likely that we shall want her again, but there is never any saying and, at any rate, there is no great trouble in doing it." They cooked a meal and then started at once, so as to do a few hours' walking before the sun became high.

They determined to keep on eastward, until they reached the highest point of the dividing ridge between the two main rivers, and then to follow it southward.
The country was now well cultivated, and they had some trouble in avoiding the small villages dotted thickly about, as the course they were following was not the one they would take if making straight to join the army.

They slept for three or four hours in the heat of the day; and then, pushing on, found themselves before sunset on what seemed to them the highest point of the divide.