i82 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



and oxen ; for some of them, especially among the oxen, 

 already showed the effects of the strain. Travelling in 

 a wild country with a pack-train is not easy on the pack- 

 animals. It was strange to see these big motor-vans out 

 in the wilderness where there was not a settler, not a 

 civilized man except the employees of the Telegraphic 

 Commission. They were handled by Lieutenant Lauriado, 

 who, with Lieutenant Mello, had taken special charge of 

 our transport service ; both were exceptionally good and 

 competent men. 



The following day we again rode on across the Plan 

 Alto. In the early afternoon, in the midst of a downpour 

 of rain, we crossed the divide between the basins of the 

 Paraguay and the Amazon. That evening we camped on 

 a brook whose waters ultimately ran into the Tapajos. 

 The rain fell throughout the afternoon, now lightly, now 

 heavily, and the mule-train did not get. up until dark. 

 But enough tents and flies were pitched to shelter all of 

 us. Fires were lit, and — ^after a fourteen hours' fast — 

 we feasted royally on beans and rice and pork and beef, 

 seated around oxskins spread upon the ground. The sky 

 cleared; the stars blazed down through the cool night; 

 and wrapped in our blankets we slept soundly, warm and 

 comfortable. 



Next morning the trail had turned, and our course led 

 northward and at times east of north. We traversed the 

 same high, rolling plains of coarse grass and stunted 

 trees. Kermit, riding a big, iron-mouthed, bull-headed 

 white mule, rode off to one side on a hunt, and rejoined 

 the line of march carrying two bucks of the little pampas- 

 deer, or field deer, behind his" saddle. These deer are 



