VALLEY OF THE BLACK RIVER 35 



ous character ; for it is not black at all in appear- 

 ance, like its Amazonian namesake. The water, 

 which flows from the Andes across a continent of 

 stone and gravel, is wonderfully pure, in color 

 a clear sea-green. So green does it look to the 

 eye in some lights that when dipped up in a glass 

 vessel one marvels to see it changed, no longer 

 green, but crystal as dew or rain drop. Doubtless 

 man is naturally scientific, and finds out why 

 things are not what they seem, and gets to the 

 bottom of all mysteries; but his older, deeper, 

 primitive, still persistent nature is non-scientific 

 and mythical, and, in spite of reason, he wonders 

 at the change ; it is a miracle, a manifestation of 

 the intelligent life and power that is in all things. 



The river has its turbid days, although few and 

 far between. One morning, on going down to the 

 water, I was astonished to find it no longer the 

 lovely hue of the previous evening, but dull red 

 red with the red earth that some swollen tributary 

 hundreds of miles to the west had poured into its 

 current. This change lasts only a day or two, 

 after which the river runs green and pure again. 



The valley at the end of a long hot windy sum- 

 mer had an excessively dry and barren appear- 

 ance. The country, I was told, had suffered from 

 scarcity of rain for three years: at some points 

 even the roots of the dry dead grass had been 

 blown away, and when the wind was strong a 

 cloud of yellow dust hung all day over the valley. 

 In such places sheep were dying of starvation: 



