242 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



that shut our erstwhile leader and his Brazilian companions 

 from view; and then, filled with misgivings as to whether or 

 not we should ever see them again, we turned our thoughts 

 to the task before us. 



Our party consisted of Captain Amilcar de Magalhaes, a 

 remarkably skilful and wholly tireless leader, and Lieutenant 

 Joaquim de Melho, of the Brazilian Army, Doctor Euzebio 

 Paulo de Oliveira, a geologist, and Senor Henrique Heinisch, 

 a taxidermist, all of the Brazilian Telegraph Commission, 

 besides myself; then there were some thirty-odd camaradas, 

 or native assistants. We had a very large pack-train of 

 mules and oxen, as that wing of the expedition, in charge 

 of Captain Amilcar, which had hitherto travelled ahead of 

 the main party, was to proceed with us from this point. 

 Our plan was to continue overland to the headwaters of the 

 Gy-Parana and to descend that stream to the Madeira, 

 taking observations as we went, for, in common with many 

 of the rivers of the South American continent, the course 

 of this stream has not been accurately mapped. 1 Zoologi- 

 cally speaking, we were in a most interesting and almost 

 unknown country, and no opportunity could be lost to add 

 to our already large and constantly growing collection of 

 both mammals and birds. 



We left the Duvida (now Rio Theodoro) shortly before 

 noon; but it had rained nearly the entire day and the trail 

 was indescribably bad; besides, the animals had completed 

 their thirty-eighth day of travel without proper food or 

 rest. That night we camped beside the trail on a site 

 cleared for the purpose by the camaradas; we had taken 



1 The Gy-Parand had been descended by two parties which Colonel Rondon 

 detached for this purpose from his main expedition of 1909. The first, under 

 the zoologist Alipio de Mirando Ribeiro, went down the Pimenta Bueno and 

 the Gy-Parand to the Madeira; the second, under Lieutenant Antonio Pyri- 

 neus de Souza, descended the Jaru and the Gy-Parand. (see map). It was the 

 reconnoissance survey made by the first party that established the fact that 

 the Gy-Parand, instead of flowing northwest throughout its course, as until 

 then supposed, turns abruptly north in 11M° south latitude, and flows in this 

 direction for nearly three degrees, until, at another abrupt bend in 9° south, 

 it turns west and empties into the Madeira. 



