578 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1007 



Joaquim Ferreira Moutinho, author of 

 " Noticia sobre a provincia de Matto Grosso," 

 S. Paulo, 1869, in speaking of the guarana 

 trade in Matto Grosso, says (p. 212) that the 

 great consumption of this article keeps up the 

 trips to Para by way of the rivers Preto, 

 Arinos, etc. This author speaks at length of 

 the trips on the Arinos and Tapajos and gives 

 the distances between the principal falls, and 

 adds that the trip to Para is made nowadays 

 much more easily than formerly on account of 

 the experience of the pilots and eanoemen 

 (p. 216). 



Dr. Severiano da Fonseca in his " Viagem 

 ao redor do Brasil," I., 75-79, tells of various 

 trips up and down the Arinos and Tapajos, 

 and gives the distances between various points. 



In 1827 G. H. von Langsdorff, the well- 

 known traveler, then Russian consul-general 

 to Brazil, made a trip down the Arinos and 

 Tapajos. There is a brief account of it in the 

 " Eevista do Institute Historico do Brazil," 

 Vol. XXXVIII., 348-349. 



The writer of this review went to Diaman- 

 tino in 1882 with the purpose of descending 

 the Arinos and Tapajos to Santarem. There 

 was a regular traffic on the river, and during 

 his short stay at Diamantino a canoe loaded 

 with guarana arrived from the lower river. 

 The voyage was not made, however, for the 

 simple reason that the eanoemen were in 

 debt at Diamantino, and their creditors 

 would not allow them to leave unless their 

 debts, amounting to several thousand dollars, 

 were paid. 



If it is too much to expect that the writer of 

 such a book should take the trouble to ac- 

 quaint himself with the older literature of the 

 subject, surely it is not unreasonable to ex- 

 pect him to look through the indexes of the 

 Edyal Geographical Society of London in 

 order to find out whether the region he tra- 

 versed was unknown. Volume thirty-two of 

 the Journal of that society, pages 268-280, 

 contains an account by Chandless of his trip 

 down that river more than fifty years ago, 

 together with his determinations of latitudes 

 and longitudes. 



Inasmuch as but little is known of the de- 

 tails of the geology of the region between 

 Goyaz and Guyaba, the reviewer was much 

 interested at first in the lava flows, ashes, 

 volcanoes and craters reported across Goyaz 

 and Matto Grosso (pages 171-291). These 

 phenomena were quite unexpected, and their 

 mention on almost every page led to suspicion 

 first, and later to a comparison with the notes 

 of the trip across the same region made by 

 Castelnau in 1844. Evidently the author mis- 

 took for volcanic phenomena the iron cemented 

 rocks known in Brazil as canga. The book 

 fairly swarms with such absurdities and half 

 truths. 



Pages 181 to 230 of volume I. are devoted 

 to the Bororo Indians, their customs and 

 legends. One is amazed at the great amount 

 of material gathered by a person who knew 

 nothing of the language. The length of his 

 stay among them is not definitely given, but 

 he left them before May 20 (p. 233), and as 

 he had entered Matto Grosso May 11, it is 

 clear that he was with the Bororos less than 

 a week. 



The trip down the Arinos and Tapajos was 

 one long series of difliculties in passing falls 

 and trouble with his men. On the lower 

 Tapajos he left the river and struck out afoot 

 through the forests, and, as one would expect, 

 he was soon in trouble again with his men, 

 and out of food in addition to the inconve- 

 niences naturally to be expected in such a 

 region. 



From a scientific point of view such a 

 book is not worthy of review space. The cos- 

 mic and ethnologic theories propounded in the 

 preface, and the evidence on almost every 

 page of untrustworthiness of statement put 

 it quite out of the rank of books that can be 

 regarded as contributing to any branch of 

 science. It is a great pity that so much 

 energy and money should have been expended 

 to such little purpose. 



By his own confession he could not control 

 his men, and the reader is constantly wonder- 

 ing how long such an expedition can hold to- 

 gether, and whether the author will starve to 



