268 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



past two more rapids. Near the first of these we saw a 

 small cayman, a jacare-tinga. At each set of rapids the 

 canoes were unloaded and the loads borne past on the 

 shoulders of the camaradas; three of the canoes were 

 paddled down by a couple of naked paddlers apiece; and 

 the two sets of double canoes were let down by ropes, one 

 of one couple being swamped but rescued and brought 

 safely to shore on each occasion. One of the men was 

 upset while working in the swift water, and his face was 

 cut against the stones. Lyra and Kermit did the actual 

 work with the camaradas. Kermit, dressed substantially 

 like the camaradas themselves, worked in the water, and, 

 as the overhanging branches were thronged with crowds 

 of biting and stinging ants, he was marked and blistered 

 over his whole body. Indeed, we all suffered more or 

 less from these ants; while the swarms of biting flies 

 grew constantly more numerous. The termites ate holes 

 in my helmet and also in the cover of my cot. Every 

 one else had a hammock. At this camp we had come 

 down the river about 102 kilometres, according to the 

 surveying records, and in height had descended nearly 

 100 metres, as shown by the aneroid — although the figure 

 in this case is only an approximation, as an aneroid can- 

 not be depended on for absolute accuracy of results. 



Next morning we found that during the night we had 

 met with a serious misfortune. We had halted at the 

 foot of the rapids. The canoes were moored to trees on 

 the bank, at the tail of the broken water. The two old 

 canoes, although one of them was our biggest cargo- 

 carrier, were water-logged and heavy, and one of them 

 was leaking. In the night the river rose. The leaky 



