Part 41 (1/2)

A thickly-wooded hill range, 150 ft. high and extending from W.S.W. to E.N.E., stood to the north of us. Its slopes, eroded by the water, had caused a landslip, leaving bare vertical red rock for half the height of the hill-range and two much eroded spurs of bright yellow and white earth extending into the stream.

The river at that point turned from north to east. Open country was again on our right after leaving the hill range, and lowlands liable to inundation. Soon afterwards, however, higher land appeared with banks 35 ft. high.

Swarms of small white b.u.t.terflies played upon the banks on the edge of the water.

Sand and gravel mounds were numerous in the centre of the channel, with occasional basins of shallow water with _corrideiras_ upon them. For instance, in one of those places for 150 m. the river was only from 1 to 3 ft. deep, and we had to drag the long heavy canoe, which drew 2 ft. of water, along the undulating gravel bed. In fact, we spent a good deal of our time every day in the water, pus.h.i.+ng or pulling along the canoe over innumerable obstacles, her great length making it difficult to navigate her properly through the many shallow and tortuous pa.s.sages.

In a circular basin, 120 m. in diameter, beyond that point we encountered strong eddies near the left bank. On the north side big rocks emerged from the water and a _corrideira_ was formed.

An island 50 m. long and two other islets were separated from the mainland by two channels, one 20 m. wide and only 3 in. deep--the other 60 m. wide and 3 ft. deep. The right bank was there 45 ft. high.

Fifteen hundred metres farther down we entered another basin 200 m. in diameter, with an island 80 m. long and eight dry beaches of gravel.

My men were greatly excited in trying to capture a _capivara_ they had wounded. We actually got the animal on board, but my men were so timid in going near it that it jumped overboard again and made its escape.

The right bank, which had been high, was now reduced to only 4 ft. above the water; whereas the left bank rose to a height of 46 ft. A rivulet 3 m. wide coming from the west had cut its way through the latter bank.

The main river was getting more and more magnificent at every turn. I should have enjoyed the journey very much had it not been for the constant attention I had to pay to my men, who left their paddles and steering gear at every moment in order to fire recklessly at birds or _ariranhas_ or _capivaras_, much to the danger of everybody on board.

They would blaze away with their repeating rifles--and bullet cartridges, of course--at parrots and even _colibri_ birds 100 or 200 metres off.

They said the rifles were bad because they could never hit anything! I had ceased scolding them. They made me positively ill with pity, I was only praying for our supply of cartridges to come to an end soon, so that if we were to die at all it might not be through being pierced by one of our own bullets.

The river had been flowing, with slight deviations, northwards.

We came to an enchanting island 70 m. wide, with thick vegetation upon it and fine rocks.

The river in that portion flowed practically north in great stretches of 6,000 and 4,000 m. Another large and beautiful island, 250 m. long and 70 wide--Ghislaine Island--was pa.s.sed, and we admired the gorgeous vegetation upon it.

Below the island the river was 100 m. wide and very shallow--not more than from 1 to 4 ft. in depth. We halted at sunset, having gone that day 92 kil. 300 m.

During the night of July 11th my men suffered a great deal from cold, the thermometer being as low as 45 Fahrenheit. In the morning there was a thick fog over the river--so thick that we had to delay our departure until eight o'clock, as we could not see more than two or three metres ahead.

Two kilometres beyond we came to a rivulet, 2 m. wide, on the left bank, and soon after to a small _corrideira_ with a navigable channel in the centre. Three hundred metres farther down we pa.s.sed another tributary on the right bank. There was open country with spa.r.s.e stunted trees on the left of us, thick forest with plenty of rubber trees on the right. I noticed several good specimens of the _pao dolce_--a tree with a curious cl.u.s.ter of yellow flowers not unlike the flower of wistaria upside down.

Not only was the _pao dolce_ pretty to look at, but a most refres.h.i.+ng beverage could be made from a decoction of its leaves.

The course of the river was winding, with basins and rapids of no great importance. Another tributary 2 m. wide was reached on the left bank, and soon after another tiny streamlet entered the Arinos from the same side.

I had a narrow escape. One of the men, who was sitting behind me in the canoe, saw an _ariranha_ (_Lutra Brasiliensis_) put its head out of the water only ten metres in front of the canoe. In his great hurry to kill the beautiful animal he seized his rifle and emptied the eight shots out of his magazine, firing the first three shots close to my head on the left side, the other five just as close on the other side. The muzzle of his rifle was so near my ear that the noise deafened me for several minutes and my hair was almost singed off. The _ariranha_, needless to say, escaped unhurt, and luckily so did I.

We went over a long strip of shallow water from 1 to 3 ft. deep. We now had open country on the right bank, with a small streamlet finding its way into the Arinos on that side. The river was flowing again in long straight stretches--3,000 m., 2,000 m., 2,500 m. in length. In the portions where the banks were thickly wooded innumerable rubber trees were to be seen.

In the centre of a basin 150 m. wide we found another island, 100 m. long and 50 m. wide, absolutely smothered in vegetation and with a handsome gravel spit at its southern end. Two kilometres farther another basin, 300 m. broad, appeared. An amazing quant.i.ty of rubber trees was to be seen round that basin. Near the water we also found fine specimens of the _mate_ (_Ilex Paraguayensis_ St. Hil.), with its wax-like leaves, much used in certain parts of South America for making a kind of tea.

For close upon 13 kils. the river flowed--with slight deviations--almost always due north, and with its limpid waters was of extraordinary beauty.

The country was open on the right side of us. We saw that day two white _urubu_ (_Cathartes_). The Brazilians have a curious superst.i.tion about them. They say that if you write with a quill taken from the wing of one of these birds any business which you may be transacting will go well; in fact, anything you may wish to do and which you set down on paper with one of these quills and ink is sure to turn out successfully.

That day I again suffered much, while taking astronomical observations, from the millions of bees and other insects which settled in swarms upon my hands and face and stung me all over. We were then in lat. 12 26'5 S., long. 56 37' W. The temperature in the sun was not unbearable--merely 85 Fahr.