256 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



condition, were carried aboard the waiting batelao, and the 

 next morning again found us on our way. The Gy-Parana 

 was rapidly becoming a vast, muddy sea, comparing favor- 

 ably in size to some of the larger affluents of the Orinoco, 

 such as the Caura and the Ventuari. The character of the 

 vegetation remained essentially the same, but some of the 

 creepers that drooped from the tall trees and trailed in the 

 water were covered with clusters of yellow, pink, and pale- 

 blue flowers. We saw and heard little of the animal life, 

 as we travelled too far from the banks. In the afternoon a 

 violent wind-storm blew up the river, accompanied by a 

 terrific downpour. 



Soon after the storm cleared we reached Sao Joao, an- 

 other rubber-camp, not unlike Monte Christo. The water 

 was so high at this station that we had to use a canoe in 

 going from one hut to another, and the whole place reeked 

 with pestilence. It is infinitely more dangerous to traverse 

 country of this kind than to pass through an entirely un- 

 inhabited region; the huts are fertile propagators and har- 

 borers of contagion of all kinds, to say nothing of the dan- 

 ger to which one is exposed on account of the more or less 

 constant mingling with the natives. Just below Sao Joao 

 the river is again broken by rapids; we rowed down to the 

 beginning of the turbulent water in a canoe and then car- 

 ried around to the foot of the falls. The distance is not 

 great, but we had to cross a high, rocky hill, so that we 

 were delayed a day in making this portage. The rapids 

 are called Sao Feliz and are of a formidable character, as 

 the bed of the river is dotted with huge granite boulders 

 over and among which the water rushes with a roar that 

 can be heard half a mile away. During the diy season 

 these rocks are exposed by the receding water and left cov- 

 ered with a thin scum of mud impregnated with salt; it is 

 said that parrots, parrakeets, and macaws then come in 

 thousands to eat of the saline deposit, and that they be- 

 come so tame great numbers of them are killed with sticks 

 and eaten by the rubber-collectors. I saw two macaws 



