Chap. II. GREAT HEAT. 121 



stepping out of the bushes I met face to face a huge 

 serpent coming down a slope, and making the dry twigs 

 crack and fly with his weight as he moved over them. 

 I had very frequently met with a smaller boa, the 

 Cutim-boia, in a similar way, and knew from the 

 habits of the family that there was no danger, so I stood 

 my ground. On seeing me the reptile suddenly turned, 

 and glided at an accelerated pace down the path. 

 Wishing to take a note of his probable size and the 

 colours and markings of his skin, I set off after him ; 

 but he increased his speed, and I was unable to get 

 near enough for the purpose. There was very little of 

 the serpentine movement in his course. The rapidly 

 moving and shining body looked like a stream of brown 

 liquid flowing over the thick bed of fallen leaves, rather 

 than a serpent with skin of varied colours. He de- 

 scended towards the lower and moister parts of the 

 Ygapo. The huge trunk of an uprooted tree here lay 

 across the road ; this he glided over in his undeviating 

 course, and soon after penetrated a dense swampy 

 thicket, where of course I did not choose to follow him. 



I suffered terribly from the heat and mosquitoes as 

 the river sank with the increasing dryness of the season, 

 although I made an awning of the sails to work under, and 

 slept at night in the open air with my hammock slung 

 between the masts. But there was no rest in any part ; 

 the canoe descended deeper and deeper into the gulley, 

 through which the river flows between high clayey 

 banks, as the water subsided, and with the glowing sun 

 overhead we felt at midday as if in a furnace. I could 

 bear scarcely any clothes in the daytime between eleven 



