After butchering the carcass (his biological description of the process is not for the squeamish) the author is faced with carrying it bit by bit down the mountainside before transporting it four miles by raft to civilisation.
It does, however, make the odds against his successful defense of American interests a bit less like those faced by Horatius at the bridge, if not yet the "sure thing" the merits of the case ought to dictate.