324 Through the BraziHan Wilderness 



ometres, and for the first time in several weeks camped 

 where we did not hear the rapids. The silence was sooth- 

 ing and restful. The following day, April 14, we made 

 a good run of some thirty-two kilometres. We passed a 

 little river which entered on our left. We ran two or 

 three light rapids, and portaged the loads by another. 

 The river ran in long and usually tranquil stretches. 

 In the morning when we started the view was lovely. 

 There was a mist, and for a couple of miles the great 

 river, broad and quiet, ran between the high walls of 

 tropical forest, the tops of the giant trees showing dim 

 through the haze. Different members of the party caught 

 many fish, and shot a monkey and a couple of jacii-tinga 

 — ^birds kin to a turkey, but the size of a fowl — so we 

 again had a camp of plenty. The dry season was ap- 

 proaching, but there were still heavy, drenching rains. 

 On this day the men found some new nuts of which they 

 liked the taste; but the nuts proved unwholesome and 

 half of the men were very sick and unable to work the 

 following day. In the balsa only two were left fit to do 

 anything, and Kermit plied a paddle all day long. 



Accordingly, it was a rather sorry crew that embarked 

 the following morning, April 15. But it turned out a 

 red-letter day. The day before, we had come across 

 cuttings, a year old, which were probably but not cer- 

 tainly made by pioneer rubber-men. But on this day — 

 during which we made twenty-five kilometres — ^after 

 running two hours and a half we found on the left bank 

 a board on a post, with the initials J. A., to show the 

 farthest-up point which a rubber-man had reached and 

 claimed as his own. An hour farther down we came on 



