226 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



barrenness in salsaparilla and other wares. To Euro- 

 peans it will seem a most surprising thing that the 

 people of a civilised settlement, 170 years old, should 

 still be ignorant of the course of the river on whose 

 banks their native place, for which they proudly claim 

 the title of city, is situated. It would be very difficult 

 for a private individual to explore it, as the necessary 

 number of Indian paddlers could not be obtained. I 

 knew only one person who had ascended the TefTe to 

 any considerable distance, and he was not able to give 

 me a distinct account of the river. The only tribe 

 known to live on its banks are the Catauishis, a people 

 who perforate their lips all round, and wear rows of 

 slender sticks in the holes : their territory lies between 

 the Purus and the Jurua, embracing both shores of the 

 TefTe. A very considerable stream, the Bararua, enters 

 the lake from the west, about thirty miles above Ega ; 

 the breadth of the lake is much contracted a little below 

 the mouth of this tributary, but it again expands further 

 south, and terminates abruptly where the Teffe' proper, 

 a narrow river with a strong current, forms its head 

 water. 



The whole of the country for hundreds of miles is 

 covered with picturesque but pathless forests, and there 

 are only two roads along which excursions can be made 

 by land from Ega. One is a narrow hunter's track, 

 about two miles in length, which traverses the forest in 

 the rear of the settlement. The other is an extremely 

 pleasant path along the beach to the west of the 

 town. This is practicable only in the dry season, when 

 a flat strip of white sandy beach is exposed at the 



