174 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



lark; and of the far northland woods in June, fragrant 

 with the breath of pine and balsam-fir, where sweetheart 

 sparrows sing from wet spruce thickets and rapid brooks 

 rush under the drenched and swaying alder-boughs. 



From Tapirapoan our course lay northward up to and 

 across the Plan Alto, the highland wilderness of Brazil. 

 From the edges of this highland coimtry, which is geolog- 

 ically very ancient, the affluents of the Amazon to the 

 north, and of the Plate to the south, flow, with immense 

 and devious loops and windings. 



Two days before we ourselves started with our mule- 

 train, a train of pack-oxen left, loaded with provisions, 

 tools, and other things, which we would not need until, 

 after a month or six weeks, we began our descent into 

 the valley of the Amazon. There were about seventy 

 oxen. Most of them were well broken, but there were 

 about a score which were either not broken at all or else 

 very badly broken. These were loaded with much diffi- 

 culty, and bucked like wild broncos. Again and again 

 they scattered their loads over the corral and over the 

 first part of the road. The pack-men, however — copper- 

 colored, black, and dusky-white — ^were not only masters 

 of their art, but possessed tempers that could not be 

 ruffled ; when they showed severity it was because severity 

 was needed, and not because they were angry. They 

 finally got all their longhomed beasts loaded and started 

 on the trail with them. 



On January 21 we ourselves started, with the mule- 

 train. Of course, as always in such a journey, there was 

 some confusion before the men and the animals of the 

 train settled down to the routine performance of duty. 



