THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS 169 



thickets and rapid brooks rush under the drenched and 

 swaying alder-boughs. 



From Tapirapoan our course lay northward up to and 

 across the Plan Alto, the highland wilderness of Brazil. 

 From the edges of this highland country, which is geolog- 

 ically very ancient, the affluents of the Amazon to the north, 

 and of the Plate to the south, flow, with immense and de- 

 vious loops and windings. 



Two days before we ourselves started with our mule- 

 train, a train of pack-oxen left, loaded with provisions, 

 tools, and other things, which we would not need until, 

 after a month or six weeks, we began our descent into 

 the valley of the Amazon. There were about seventy 

 oxen. Most of them were well broken, but there were 

 about a score which were either not broken at all or else 

 very badly broken. These were loaded with much diffi- 

 culty, and bucked like wild broncos. Again and again 

 they scattered their loads over the corral and over the first 

 part of the road. The pack-men, however — copper-colored, 

 black, and dusky-white — were not only masters of their art, 

 but possessed tempers that could not be ruffled; when they 

 showed severity it was because severity was needed, and 

 not because they were angry. They finally got all their 

 longhorned beasts loaded and started on the trail with 

 them. 



On January 21 we ourselves started, with the mule- 

 train. Of course, as always in such a journey, there was 

 some confusion before the men and the animals of the 

 train settled down to the routine performance of duty. 

 In addition to the pack-animals we all had riding-mules. 

 The first day we journeyed about twelve miles, then cross- 



