222 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



the foot of the mountain itself, but, as matters stood, it 

 was necessary to decide between cutting a track through 

 the forest to Arawa and abandon the trip to Ameha, or 

 push on to the latter mountain. Maite, who knew the 

 country well, advised our going without delay to Ameha. 

 He said that although it would take us four or five days 

 to paddle up the river we would have fewer difficulties 

 to encounter in exploring Ameha than if we remained 

 where we were and attempted to get to Arawa. While 

 returning to our camp I was attacked by strong fever, 

 which lasted the whole night. 



The Merevari, above where the Arawa joins it, has 

 cut its way through beds of conglomerate, the banks being 

 walls of masonry, as it were, with pebbles inserted in what 

 appears to be a sort of cement. These pebbles are mostly 

 of a dark slate colour, and are fairly uniform in size and 

 shape. In the bed of the stream itself were banks of large 

 round stones of a reddish-brown colour, over which the 

 current rushed with such force that the men had to get 

 out, and, wading up to their knees in the water, push the 

 boats up. We saw Arawa several times during the day. 

 At sunset we encamped at the foot of the rapids of Arichi. 



Beds of large round stones similar to those seen on 

 the previous day encumbered the river and made it diffi- 

 cult for us to get the boats over the shallow parts. There 

 are three places in the rapids of Arichi where the river 

 falls over ledges of from one to three feet in height. 

 Every time we got to one of these ledges the boats had 

 to be unloaded and the cargo carried overland. At mid- 

 day we reached the last of these small waterfalls. The 

 men were taking the things out of the boats preparatory 

 to hauling them up, when there strolled out of the bushes, 

 ^uite close to where Jacobson and myself were sitting 



