268 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



trembling waves, to enter which would have been instant 

 destruction. 



We would pass by a half dozen smooth-looking false chan- 

 nels, to enter the single safe one, perhaps far across under 

 the lee of the opposite shore. A pilot not acquainted with 

 every foot of the way would have overturned us instantly. 

 The Indian would head our bow into the roughest part of 

 the water apparently in sheer foolhardiness, but always the 

 waves broke under us and tossed us like a chip over the 

 jagged rocks. A cross current in the maelstrom would tear 

 our bow out of its course, and at a cry from the steersman, all 

 ten backs would bend as one and fairly lift the boat back 

 into her course. As before, Macaws shrieked overhead, 

 Cocoi Herons 31 stood watching us like statues and the little 

 flying fish rose from our bow and ploughed their furrows to 

 right and left. But all passed as a sw T iftly-moving kaleido- 

 scope, as instantaneous side-lights upon the great white 

 tumbling mass of water which ever boiled and surged about us. 



At noon of the day of our ascent we entered the Big Aremu 

 River, a side tributary of the Cuyuni not more than a hundred 

 feet wide, and an hour later we grounded at Aremu Landing. 

 Here we said good-by to Sproston's launch and paddlers, and 

 from here on were transported by Mr. Wilshire's own men 

 and boats. We slung our hammocks that night in an open- 

 work, thatched and wattled house, the company's store- 

 house, after a delicious swim in the cool water. 



No insects came about the vampire-discouraging lantern 

 at night and no evening choruses of birds were heard 

 except a family of Red-billed Toucans. 81 The iridescent 

 rough-backed green beetles, known to jewelry makers as 

 Brazilian Beetles (Mesomphalia discors), were abundant 

 on a vine near the house. 



As on our former expedition on the rivers of the northwest 

 we found that as the streams became smaller, their interest 



