ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND 233 



the sands or clays of the nearly level upland plateau, grassy 

 or covered with thin, stunted forest, the same type of 

 country that had been predominant ever since we ascended 

 the Parecis table-land on the morning of the third day after 

 leaving the Sepotuba. Then, at about the point where the 

 trail dipped into a basin containing the headsprings of 

 the Ananas, we left this type of country and began to 

 march through thick forest, not very high. There was 

 little feed for the animals on the chapadao. There was 

 less in the forest. Moreover, the continual heavy rains 

 made the travelling difficult and laborious for them, and 

 they weakened. However, a couple of marches before we 

 reached Tres Burity, where there is a big ranch with hun- 

 dreds of cattle, we were met by ten fresh pack-oxen, and 

 our serious difficulties were over. 



There were piums in plenty by day, but neither mos- 

 quitoes nor sand-flies by night; and for us the trip was 

 very pleasant, save for moments of anxiety about the mules. 

 The loose bullocks furnished us abundance of fresh beef, 

 although, as was inevitable under the circumstances, of a 

 decidedly tough quality. One of the biggest of the bul- 

 locks was attacked one night by a vampire bat, and next 

 morning his withers were literally bathed in blood. 



With the chapadao we said good-by to the curious, 

 gregarious, and crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which we 

 found so abundant along the line of the telegraph-wire. 

 They have offered one of the small problems with which the 

 Commission has had to deal. They are not common in 

 the dry season. They swarm during the rains; and, when 

 their tough webs are wet, those that lead from the wire 

 to the ground sometimes effectually short-circuit the wire. 



