DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER 315 



all he could eat for dinner, and for breakfast the following 

 morning. 



The forenoon of the following day was a repetition of 

 this wearisome work; but late in the afternoon the river 

 began to run in long quiet reaches. We made fifteen kilo- 

 metres, and for the first time in several weeks camped where 

 we did not hear the rapids. The silence was soothing and 

 restful. The following day, April 14, we made a good 

 run of some thirty-two kilometres. We passed a little 

 river which entered on our left. We ran two or three light 

 rapids, and portaged the loads by another. The river ran 

 in long and usually tranquil stretches. In the morning 

 when we started the view was lovely. There was a mist, 

 and for a couple of miles the great river, broad and quiet, 

 ran between the high walls of tropical forest, the tops of 

 the giant trees showing dim through the haze. Different 

 members of the party caught many fish, and shot a monkey 

 and a couple of jacu-tinga — birds kin to a turkey, but the 

 size of a fowl — so we again had a camp of plenty. The 

 dry season was approaching, but there were still heavy, 

 drenching rains. On this day the men found some new 

 nuts of which they liked the taste; but the nuts proved 

 unwholesome and half of the men were very sick and un- 

 able to work the following day. In the balsa only two 

 were left fit to do anything, and Kermit plied a paddle all 

 day long. 



Accordingly, it was a rather sorry crew that embarked 

 the following morning, April 15. But it turned out a red- 

 letter day. The day before, we had come across cuttings, 

 a year old, which were probably but not certainly made by 

 pioneer rubber-men. But on this day — during which we 



