START FOR THE PLAN ALTO 163 



spruce thickets, and rapid brooks rush under the 

 drenched and swaying alder-boughs. 



From Tapirapoan our course lay northward up to 

 and across the Plan Alto, the highland wilderness of 

 Brazil. From the edges of this highland country, which 

 is geologically very ancient, the affluents of the Amazon 

 to the north, and of the Plate to the south, flow, with 

 immense and devious loops and windings. 



Two days before we ourselves started with our mule- 

 train, a train of pack-oxen left, loaded with provisions, 

 tools, and other things, which we would not need until, 

 after a month or six weeks, we began our descent into 

 the valley of the Amazon. There were about seventy 

 oxen. Most of them were well broken, but there were 

 about a score which were either not broken at all or 

 else very badly broken. These were loaded with much 

 difficulty, and bucked like wild broncos. Again and 

 again they scattered their loads over the corral and over 

 the first part of the road. The pack-men, however— 

 copper-coloured, black, and dusky-white — were not only 

 masters of their art, but possessed tempers that could 

 not be ruffled ; when they showed severity it was because 

 severity was needed, and not because they were angry. 

 They finally got all their longhorned beasts loaded, and 

 started on the trail with them. 



On January 21 we ourselves started, with the mule- 

 train. Of course, as always in such a journey, there 

 was some confusion before the men and the animals of 

 the train settled down to the routine performance of 

 duty. In addition to the pack-animals we all had 

 riding-mules. The first day we journeyed about twelve 

 miles, then crossed the Sepotuba and camped beside 

 it, below a series of falls, or rather rapids. The country 

 was level. It was a great natural pasture, covered with 



