CHAPTER X 



TO THE AMAZON AND HOME; ZOOLOGICAL 



AND GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF 



THE EXPEDITION 



OUR adventures and our troubles were alike over. 

 We now? experienced the incalculable contrast 

 between descending a known and travelled river, 

 and one that is utterly unknown. After four days we 

 hired a rubber-man to go with us as guide. We knew 

 exactly what channels were passable when we came to 

 the rapids, when the canoes had to unload, and where the 

 carry-trails were. It was all child's play compared to 

 what we had gone through. We made long days' jour- 

 neys, for at night we stopped at some palm-thatched 

 house, inhabited or abandoned, and therefore the men 

 were spared the labor of making camp; and we bought 

 ample food for them, so there was no further need of 

 fishing and chopping down palms for the palm-tops. The 

 heat of the sun was blazing; but it looked as if we had 

 come back into the rainy season, for there were many 

 heavy rains, usually in the afternoon, but sometimes in 

 the morning or at night. The mosquitoes were some- 

 times rather troublesome at night. In the daytime the 

 piums swarmed, and often bothered us even when we 

 were in midstream. 



