6 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



gun, and another 16-gauge gun, and a couple of re- 

 volvers, a Colt and a Smith & Wesson. We took from 

 New York a couple of canvas canoes, tents, mosquito- 

 bars, plenty of cheesecloth, including nets for the hats, 

 and both light cots and hammocks. We took ropes and 

 pulleys which proved invaluable on our canoe trip. Each 

 equipped himself with the clothing he fancied. Mine 

 consisted of khaki, such as I wore in Africa, with a 

 couple of United States Army flannel shirts and a couple 

 of silk shirts, one pair of hob-nailed shoes with leggings, 

 and one pair of laced leather boots coming nearly to the 

 knee. Both the naturalists told me that it was well to 

 have either the boots or leggings as a protection against 

 snake-bites, and I also had gauntlets because of the mos- 

 quitoes and sand-flies. We intended where possible to 

 live on what we could get from time to time in the coun- 

 try, but we took some United States Army emergency 

 rations, and also ninety cans, each containing a day's 

 provisions for five men, made up by Fiala. 



The trip I proposed to take can be understood only 

 if there is a slight knowledge of South American topog- 

 raphy. The great mountain chain of the Andes extends 

 down the entire length of the western coast, so close to 

 the Pacific Ocean that no rivers of any importance enter 

 it. The rivers of South America drain into the Atlantic. 

 Southernmost South America, including over half of 

 the territory of the Argentine Republic, consists chiefly 

 of a cool, open plains country. Northward of this coun- 

 try, and eastward of the Andes, lies the great bulk of 

 the South American continent, which is included in the 

 tropical and the subtropical regions. Most of this terri- 



