6 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



I wore in Africa, with a couple of United States Army 

 flannel shirts and a couple of silk shirts, one pair of hob- 

 nailed shoes with leggings, and one pair of laced leather 

 boots coming nearly to the knee. Both the naturalists told 

 me that it was well to have either the boots or leggings as 

 a protection against snake-bites, and I also had gauntlets 

 because of the mosquitoes and sand-flies. We intended 

 where possible to live on what we could get from time to 

 time in the country, but we took some United States 

 Army emergency rations, and also ninety cans, each con- 

 taining a day's provisions for five men, made up by Fiala. 

 The trip I proposed to take can be understood only if 

 there is a slight knowledge of South American topography. 

 The great mountain chain of the Andes extends down the 

 entire length of the western coast, so close to the Pacific 

 Ocean that no rivers of any importance enter it. The 

 rivers of South America drain into the Atlantic. South- 

 ernmost South America, including over half of the terri- 

 tory of the Argentine Republic, consists chiefly of a cool, 

 open plains country. Northward of this country, and east- 

 ward of the Andes, lies the great bulk of the South Ameri- 

 can continent, which is included in the tropical and the 

 subtropical regions. Most of this territory is Brazilian. 

 Aside from certain relatively small stretches drained by 

 coast rivers, this immense region of tropical and subtrop- 

 ical America east of the Andes is drained by the three 

 great river systems of the Plate, the Amazon, and the 

 Orinoco. At their headwaters the Amazon and the Ori- 

 noco systems are actually connected by a sluggish natural 

 canal. The headwaters of the northern affluents of the 

 Paraguay and the southern affluents of the Amazon are 



