122 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 



in the morning and five in the afternoon, wearing 

 nothing but loose and thin cotton trousers and a light 

 straw hat, and could not be accommodated in Joao 

 Aracus house, as it was a small one and full of noisy 

 children. One night we had a terrific storm. The 

 heat in the afternoon had been greater than ever, 

 and at sunset the sky had a brassy glare : the black 

 patches of cloud which floated in it, being lighted 

 up now and then by flashes of sheet lightning. The 

 mosquitoes at night were more than usually trouble- 

 some, and I had just sunk exhausted into a doze 

 towards the early hours of morning when the storm 

 began ; a complete deluge of rain with incessant light- 

 ning and rattling explosions of thunder. It lasted for 

 eight hours ; the grey dawn opening amidst the crash 

 of the tempest. The rain trickled through the seams 

 of the cabin roof on to my collections, the late hot 

 weather having warped the boards, and it gave me 

 immense trouble to secure them in the midst of the 

 confusion. Altogether I had a bad night of it, but what 

 with storms, heat, mosquitoes, hunger, and, towards the 

 last, ill health, I seldom had a good night's rest on the 

 Cupari. 



A small creek traversed the forest behind Joao 

 Aracus house, and entered the river a few yards from 

 our anchoring place. I used to cross it twice a day, on 

 going and returning from my hunting ground. One 

 day early in September, I noticed that the water 

 was two or three inches higher in the afternoon than 

 it had been in the morning. This phenomenon was 

 repeated the next day, and in fact daily, until the 



