NATURE 



[February 17, 19 16 



consisting of either lime, silica, iron, or other elements. provided there is a chance of doing so without 

 Any such information from your readers would be | dan^fer to themselves. An attempt to clear up 



valued. 



The Magnesian Limestone of Sunderland has per- 

 haps the largest number of these calcareous growths, 

 of which this illustration shows three specimens. The 

 first and third show clearly the change from rods to 



liar structures in 



tubes, the last being the most advanced and typical as 

 to size. That in the centre is extra large, but the 

 process is incomplete. 



Other illustrations of the structures in the Fulwell 

 Hill beds can be seen in Nature of January 29 and 

 December 31, 1914. George Abbott. 



2 Rusrhall Park» Tunbridge Wells, February 3. 



WILD AMAZONIA. 



THE author, whilst fretting- on the Active List 

 owing- to ill-health contracted in the in- 

 terior of East Africa, happened to read \\'allace's 

 classical "Travels on the Amazon," with the re- 

 sult that he Idft England in the month of April, 

 190,8, reaching- Manaos by the end of Ma3^ His 

 serious work beg-an in the middle of August at 

 Encanto, the place of "enchantment," now by 

 irony of fate of Putumayo fame. Thence he dis- 

 appeared for some months in the wilderness, 

 roaming over some 40,000 square miles of that 

 no man's land claimed by Brazil, Ecuador, and 

 Peru. His company was composed as follows : — 

 Above all, John Brown, a Barbados negTo, as per- 

 sonal servant, who proved himself a very good 

 choice ; eight Indian carriers who were changed 

 often, mostly because they ran away ; two half- 

 castes, rubber-collectors who attached themselves 

 to the party for some time ; and eight Rationales 

 or semi-civilised Indians, with three women, and 

 armed with W^inchesters. It is customary, in 

 most Latin-America/i countries, to distinguish as 

 " reasonables " those Indians who have been 

 broken in to the white man's ways; other tribes 

 are hravos, reduzidos, and manaos, i.e., still wild, 

 broken, or tame. 



The danger of these travels arises from the wild 

 natives, who, not understanding the object of a 

 white man's presence, think it best to kill him, 



1 "The Nnrth-Wfst Ama7on«. Notes of Snm- ^^onth■^ Spent among 

 Cannibal Trih'-^.- Hy Cai.-. T. Whifl^tn. P,.. xvii + siQ. (London: 

 Con>tableand Co., Ltd., 1915 ) Pre; i7.v. tif. net. 



NO. 2416, VOL. 96] 



danger to themselves. 



the fate of the French explorer Robuchon, lost 

 in 1906, was unsuccessful. When possible, 

 travelling was done by launch; that down and 

 up the Japura river by canoe ; but by far the 

 greater part of the journeys was across country, 

 and therefore the most difficult in every respect. 



Fig. I. — Andoke bamboo case with dans for blowpipe and gourd full of 

 cotton. From "The North-West Amazjns." 



The seven months' travelling make an extremely 

 complicated course. 



Experienced traveller as he was. Captain 

 Whiffen, in order to get an insight into the 

 Indians' mode of life, sank all notions of 

 superiority, manners, and customs, and prac- 

 tically lived their kind of life. Information could 

 be obtained only by closest observation. The lan- 

 guage is always the difficulty, and yet slurred over 



