I START ON CAMP LIFE. 79 



further away. I found out next day that, to save trouble, 

 they were still using the original stream, and then a sort 

 of panic arose. So 1 had to shift camp, and, fortunately, 

 this is a much better site in every respect in another 

 small valley concealed from the road by bushes, and more 

 picturesque, though not five minutes' walk over the brow 

 from the old camp. Now to resume my journal. 



August 22. The place where my line crosses the divide 

 is a low ridge (1012 m., or 3329 ft), from the neighbour- 

 ing Serra do Cortume, and is for some distance covered by 

 dense " capoeira," or second growth after the virgin forest 

 mata virgem has been cut down. This is one of the most 

 abominable kinds of stuff to go through, owing to the thick 

 undergrowth of creepers, etc. I first cut a path from a 

 neighbouring horse-track down to the desired point, where, 

 along the summit, there is a long, broad " vallo," or ditch, 

 which is a boundary of the property of Major Joao Ferreira, 

 of the Fazenda do Cortume, to whom I shall refer later. I 

 next set out lines both ways, and had picadas cut to the 

 east and west. Then, leaving three men to construct a 

 rough bridge over the vallo, and a stile on the further side 

 to prevent cattle crossing, I went forward with two men 

 Joscelino and Antonio da Costa Campo, sons of my guide 

 Fortunate to drive lines ahead, coming across exposed 

 rocks near the summit, and then passing numerous gullies 

 twenty or thirty feet deep, with sometimes a nasty bit of 

 marsh at the bottom. 



In the evening Aleixo and his wife came to visit me, 

 bringing a beautiful hot cake for " o Senhor Doutor " (my- 

 self). They told us of the neighbouring " bichiga " (small- 

 pox) ; hence the hullaballoo I mentioned in a former letter. 



August 24. A nigger came in early, bringing four new- 

 laid eggs as an offering to the Senhor Doutor. I went 



