292 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



river had wound so that we had gone two miles for every 

 one we made northward. Our progress had been very 

 slow; and until we got out of the region of incessant 

 rapids, with their attendant labor and hazard, it was not 

 likely that we should go much faster. 



On the morning of March 22 we started in our six 

 canoes. We made ten kilometres. Twenty minutes 

 after starting we came to the first rapids. Here every 

 one walked except the three best paddlers, who took the 

 canoes down in succession — ^an hour's job. Soon after 

 this we struck a bees' nest in the top of a tree overhang- 

 ing the river; our steersman climbed out and robbed it, 

 but, alas ! lost the honey on the way back. We came to 

 a small steep fall which we did not dare run in our over- 

 laden, clumsy, and cranky dugouts. Fortunately, we 

 were able to follow a deep canal which led off for a kilo- 

 metre, returning just below the falls, fifty yards from 

 where it had started. Then, having been in the boats and 

 in motion only one hour and a half, we came to a long 

 stretch of rapids which it took us six hours to descend, 

 and we camped at the foot. Everything was taken out 

 of the canoes, and they were run down in succession. At 

 one difificult and perilous place they were let down by 

 ropes ; and even thus we almost lost one. 



We went down the right bank. On the opposite bank 

 was an Indian village, evidently inhabited only during the 

 dry season. The marks on the stumps of trees showed 

 that these Indians had axes and knives; and there were 

 old fields in which maize, beans, and cotton had been 

 grown. The forest dripped and steamed. Rubber-trees 

 were plentiful. At one point the tops of a group of tall 



