THE DESCENT OF THE RIO GY-PARANA 251 



snake, but in the meantime several of the men had been 

 swept down-stream and were on the verge of drowning be- 

 fore he could reach them; the geologist had gone to the 

 bottom, but was rescued and revived with some difficulty; 

 thereafter he travelled with us in the batclao. 



There were numbers of small alligators in the river, not 

 over four feet long, called jacaretinga; later on we had the 

 cook prepare one, as they were said to be good to eat. 

 The flesh was of a white color when cooked, and tender, 

 but it possessed an objectionable muddy flavor, so that we 

 could eat but little of it; however, the natives liked it. 



The next day we covered a distance of one hundred and 

 eight kilometres. The current in the Gy-Parana is not so 

 strong as in the Commemoracao, but, the weather being 

 fair, the men pulled at the oars steadily during the twelve 

 hours' travel, with only short periods for rest and refresh- 

 ment. All meals were cooked aboard, on a fire built on a 

 box of sand in the prow. Insects were not particularly 

 troublesome, as we kept to the middle of the stream, which, 

 receiving the water of numerous good-sized tributaries, was 

 constantly growing wider. There were abundant signs of 

 the close proximity of Indians on both sides of the river. 

 We saw some palm-leaf lean-tos used for overnight stops, 

 with the charred sticks of a camp-fire in front; where the 

 water eddied slowly against a crumbling bank, bamboo 

 stakes protruded above the muddy stream — remnants of 

 an ancient fish-trap — and occasionally we passed a small 

 cleared spot, now overgrown with rank weeds and second- 

 growth sprouts, which marked the site of an old plantation. 



Realizing the importance of obtaining the good-will of 

 the wild folk of whose existence in the surrounding forest 

 there was such abundant evidence, the Brazilian Govern- 

 ment had erected a number of small bamboo and palm-leaf 

 sheds various distances apart, near some of the more re- 

 cently used trails that led from the water into the dark 

 jungle. Under each rough shelter a bench, made of long 

 poles laid across sticks driven into the ground, had been 



