354 APPENDIX B 



sary for South America. Tin boxes or trunks are the best in which 

 to carry one's spare things. A good medicine-chest is indispensable- 

 Nowadays doctors know so much of tropical diseases that there is no 

 difficulty in fitting one out. It is better not to make the trip at all 

 than to fail to take an ample supply of quinine pills. Cholera pills and 

 cathartic pills come next in importance. In liquid shape there should 

 be serum to inject for the stoppage of amoebic dysentery, and anti- 

 snake-venom serum. Fly-dope should be taken in quantities. 



For clothing Kermit and I used what was left over from our Afri- 

 can trip. Sun helmets are best in the open; slouch-hats are infinitely 

 preferable in the woods. There should be hobnailed shoes — the nails 

 many and small, not few and large; and also moccasins or rubber-soled 

 shoes; and light, flexible leggings. Tastes diflFer in socks; I like mine 

 of thick wool. A khaki-colored shirt should be worn, or, as a better 

 substitute, a khaki jacket with many pockets. Very light underclothes 

 are good. If one's knees and legs are unfortunately tender, knicker- 

 bockers with long stockings and leggings should be worn; ordinary 

 trousers tend to bind the knee. Better still, if one's legs will stand the 

 exposure, are shorts, not coming down to the knee. A kilt would 

 probably be best of all. Kermit wore shorts in the Brazilian forest, 

 as he had already worn them in Africa, in Mexico, and in the New Bruns- 

 wick woods. Some of the best modern hunters always wear shorts; as, 

 for example, that first-class sportsman the Duke of Alva. 



Mr. Fiala, after the experience of his trip down the Papagaio, the 

 Juruena, and the Tapajos, gives his judgment about equipment and 

 provisions as follows: 



The history of South American exploration has been full of the losses 

 of canoes and cargoes and lives. The native canoe made from the 

 single trunk of a forest giant is the craft that has been used. It is 

 durable and if lost can be readily replaced from the forest by good 

 men with axes and adzes. But, because of its great weight and low 

 free-board, it is unsuitable as a freight carrier and by reason of the lim- 

 itations of its construction is not of the correct form to successfully run 

 the rapid and bad waters of many of the South American rivers. The 

 North American Indian has undoubtedly developed a vastly superior 

 craft in the birch-bark canoe and with it will run rapids that a South 

 American Indian with his log canoe would not think of attempting, 



