The River of Doubt 263 



either hand were tall rubber-trees. The surveying canoes, 

 as usual, went first, while I shepherded the two pairs of 

 lashed cargo canoes. I kept them always between me 

 and the surveying canoes — ahead of me until I passed 

 the surveying canoes, then behind me until, after an hour 

 or so, I had chosen a place to camp. There was so much 

 overflowed ground that it took us some little time this 

 afternoon before we found a flat place high enough to 

 be dry. Just before reaching camp Cherrie shot a jacu, 

 a handsome bird somewhat akin to, but much smaller 

 than, a turkey ; after Cherrie had taken its skin, its body 

 made an excellent canja. We saw parties of monkeys ; 

 and the false bell-birds uttered their ringing whistles in 

 the dense timber around our tents. The giant ants, an 

 inch and a quarter long, were rather too plentiful around 

 this camp ; one stung Kermit ; it was almost like the sting 

 of a small scorpion, and pained severely for a couple of 

 hours. This half-day we made twelve kilometres. 



On the following day we made nineteen kilometres, 

 the river twisting in every direction, but in its general 

 course running a little west of north. Once we stopped 

 at a bee-tree, to get honey. The tree was a towering 

 giant, of the kind called milk-tree, because a thick milky 

 juice runs freely from any cut. Our camaradas eagerly 

 drank the white fluid that flowed from the wounds made 

 by their axes. I tried it. The taste was not unpleasant, 

 but it left a sticky feeling in the mouth. The helmsman 

 of my boat, Luiz, a powerful negro, chopped into the tree, 

 balancing himself with springy ease on a slight scaffold- 

 ing. The honey was in a hollow, and had been made by 

 medium-sized stingless bees. At the mouth of the hollow 



