9A6 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



tapir of this region is covered with short, hard, mouse- 

 coloured hair, of uniform tint. In the young one I 

 noticed that its skin was soft and its fur striped. Un- 

 fortunately I cannot remember the exact shades of colour, 

 the original notes having been lost, but there was one 

 thing which struck me very much at the time, and that 

 was the bright lilac hue of the intestines of this young 

 animal. The men were delighted at having obtained a 

 becerro,^ as they called the unborn tapir. They evidently 

 meant to have a feast when we should camp for the night. 

 We fared sumptuously off tapir steaks. Then we turned 

 our backs on Ameha, with Arichi and the dark mass of 

 Arawa in front of us. During the whole afternoon we 

 had both mountains in view, and the day being a very 

 clear one the contour of the masses was well defined, 

 showing in bold relief the gigantic scale of their perpen- 

 dicular cliffs. 



We encamped at night at the abandoned Indian huts 

 where Jacobson had committed such havoc among the 

 moths when he burnt his flashlights. The men roasted 

 the young tapir whole and feasted late into the night. 



Early on the following morning we passed the mouth 

 of the Arichi. Just before we reached this point I had 

 my last look at Ameha, an almost indefinable mass in 

 the distance behind us. Arichi was partly covered with 

 dense white clouds, and Arawa could not be seen from 

 where we were. We shot the first set of rapids success- 

 fully. Then we got through the channel where we had 

 had to stop for repairs on the up jom^ney. We still had 

 to face the difficulties and dangers attending the lowering 

 of the boats down the three ledges in front of us. In 

 spite of all our precautions we had a mishap at the very 



' Calf. 



