i6o Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



13th we broke camp, loaded ourselves and all our belong- 

 ings on the launch and the house-boat, and started up- 

 stream for Tapirapoan. All told there were about thirty- 

 men, with five dogs and tents, bedding and provisions; 

 fresh beef, growing rapidly less fresh; skins — ^all and 

 everything jammed together. 



It rained most of the first day and part of the first 

 night. After that the weather was generally overcast and 

 pleasant for travelling; but sometimes rain and torrid 

 sunshine alternated. The cooking — ^and it was good 

 cooking — ^was done at a funny little open-air fireplace, 

 with two or three cooking-pots placed at the stern of the 

 house-boat. 



The fireplace was a platform of earth, taken from ant- 

 hills, and heaped and spread on the boards of the boat. 

 Around it the dusky cook worked with philosophic solem- 

 nity in rain and shine. Our attendants, friendly souls 

 with skins of every shade and hue, slept most of the time, 

 curled up among boxes, bundles, and slabs of beef. An 

 enormous land turtle was tethered toward the bow of the 

 house-boat. When the men slept too near it, it made 

 futile efforts to scramble over them; and in return now 

 and then one of them gravely used it for a seat. 



Slowly the throbbing engine drove the launch and its 

 unwieldy side-partner against the swift current. The 

 river had risen. We made about a mile and a half an 

 hour. Ahead of us the brown water street stretched in 

 curves between endless walls of dense tropical forest. It 

 was like passing through a gigantic greenhouse. Wawasa 

 and burity palms, cecropias, huge figs, feathery bamboos, 

 strange yellow-stemmed trees, low trees with enormous 



