ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND 215 



put on a head-net. Afterward we used fine nets of a kind 

 of cheese-cloth. They were hot, but they kept out all, 

 or almost all, of the sand-flies and other small tormentors. 



Here we overtook the rearmost division of Captain 

 Amilcar's bullock-train. Our own route had diverged, in 

 order to pass the great falls. Captain Amilcar had come 

 direct, overtaking the pack-oxen, which had left Tapirapoan 

 before we did, laden with material for the Duvida trip. 

 He had brought the oxen through in fine shape, losing 

 only three beasts with their loads, and had himself left 

 the Juruena the morning of the day we reached there. 

 His weakest animals left that evening, to make the march 

 by moonlight; and as it was desirable to give them thirty- 

 six hours' start, we halted for a day on the banks of the 

 river. It was not a wasted day. In addition to bathing 

 and washing our clothes, the naturalists made some valua- 

 ble additions to the collection — including a boldly marked 

 black, blue, and white jay — and our photographs were de- 

 veloped and our writing brought abreast of the date. 

 Travelling through a tropical wilderness in the rainy sea- 

 son, when the amount of baggage that can be taken is 

 strictly limited, entails not only a good deal of work, but 

 also the exercise of considerable ingenuity if the writing 

 and photographing, and especially the preservation, of the 

 specimens are to be done in satisfactory shape. 



At the telegraph office we received news that the voy- 

 age of Lauriado and Fiala down the Papagaio had opened 

 with a misadventure. In some bad rapids, not many miles 

 below the falls, two of the canoes had been upset, half of 

 their provisions and all of Fiala's baggage lost, and Fiala 

 himself nearly drowned. The Papagaio is known both at 



