To the Amazon and Home 337 



bank, in addition to poling where the depth permitted it. 

 The river was as big as the Paraguay at Corumba; but, 

 in striking contrast to the Paraguay, there were few 

 water-birds. We ran some rather stiff rapids, the In- 

 fernino, without unloading, in the morning. In the 

 evening we landed for the night at a large, open, shed- 

 like house, where there were two or three pigs, the first 

 live stock we had seen other than poultry and ducks. It 

 was a dirty place, but we got some eggs. 



The following day, the 24th, we ran down some fifty 

 kilometres to the Carupanan rapids, which by observation 

 Lyra found to be in latitude 7° 47'. We met several 

 batelaos, and the houses on the bank showed that the set- 

 tlers were somewhat better off than was the case farther 

 up. At the rapids was a big store, the property of Senhor 

 Caripe, the wealthiest rubber-man wTio works on this 

 river ; many of the men we met were in his employ. He 

 has himself risen from the ranks. He was most kind and 

 hospitable, and gave us another boat to replace the last 

 of our shovel-nosed dugouts. The large, open house was 

 cool, clean, and comfortable. 



With these began a series of half a dozen sets of 

 rapids, all coming within the next dozen kilometres, and 

 all offering very real obstacles. At one we saw the graves 

 of four men who had perished therein ; and many more 

 had died whose bodies were never recovered ; the toll of 

 human life had been heavy. Had we been still on an un- 

 known river, pioneering our own way, it would doubtless 

 have taken us at least a fortnight of labor and peril to 

 pass. But it actually took only a day and a half. All 

 the channels were known, all the trails cut. Senhor 



