OTTERS 183 



adventurous angler desire than fishing for Morocotos from 

 a small dug-out in dangerous rapids ? 



After leaving the rapids of La Eaya we saw a good 

 many otters. Some were basking on the rocks, others 

 were swimming about. These animals are excellent 

 divers ; whenever they saw the boats coming they would 

 raise their heads above the water and snort loudly, but 

 they did not allow us to get close before diving. In any 

 case it would have been useless to shoot them in the 

 water, for their bodies sink and cannot be recovered. 

 Isidor told me that they destroy large quantities of fish ; 

 in this they resemble the other members of the familv 

 found in different parts of the world. 



We stopped early, and the things which had got wet 

 at La Kaya were spread out to drj^ The bag of salt was 

 quite saturated. This was serious, as salt happened to 

 be very scarce when we left La Prision, and I had to 

 be content with a quantity barely sufficient to meet the 

 requirements of the trip. At night I had a strong attack 

 of fever preceded by rigor and accompanied by violent 

 headache, pains in every bone and muscle, and difficulty 

 in breathing. I knew from the symptoms that I had 

 contracted the dreaded malarial fever of the Caura which 

 had very nearly squared all my terrestrial accounts in 

 1898. 



At ten o'clock on the morning of December 31 we 

 reached Pozo Bravo, our destination. An island occupies 

 the middle of the stream, and there we pitched our camp. 

 The small hut built by Eichard on our first trip, when he 

 explored the Nichare whilst I was at La Prision, was still 

 standing, although in a somewhat dilapidated and leaky 

 condition. The men repaired it and used it as a store- 

 house for our effects ; it served in addition as an hospital 



