Down an Unknown River 299 



fertile land cannot be permitted to remain idle, to He as 

 a tenantless wilderness, while there are such teeming 

 swarms of human beings in the overcrowded, overpeopled 

 countries of the Old World. The very rapids and water- 

 falls which now make the navigation of the river so diffi- 

 cult and dangerous would drive electric trolleys up and 

 down its whole length and far out on either side, and run 

 mills and factories, and lighten the labor on farms. With 

 the incoming of settlement and with the steady growth of 

 knowledge how to fight and control tropical diseases, fear 

 of danger to health would vanish. A land like this is a 

 hard land for the first explorers, and perhaps for their 

 immediate followers, but not for the people who come 

 after them. 



In mid-afternoon we were once more in the canoes; 

 but we had paddled with the current only a few minutes, 

 we had gone only a kilometre, when the roar of rapids 

 in front again forced us to haul up to the bank. As 

 usual, Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, with Antonio Correa, 

 explored both sides while camp was being pitched. The 

 rapids were longer and of steeper descent than the last, 

 but on the opposite or western side there was a passage 

 down which we thought we could get the empty dugouts 

 at the cost of dragging them only a few yards at one 

 spot. The loads were to be carried down the hither 

 bank, for a kilometre, to the smooth water. The river 

 foamed between great rounded masses of rock, and at 

 one point there was a sheer fall of six or eight feet. We 

 found and ate wild pineapples. Wild beans were in 

 flower. At dinner we had a toucan and a couple of par- 

 rots, which were very good. 



