250 THE RIVER OF DOUBT [chap, viii 



the canoes and loads, with hard labour, to the little 

 beach by the three palms where our tents were pitched. 

 Many pacovas grew round about. The men used their 

 immense leaves, some of which were twelve feet long 

 and two and a half feet broad, to roof the flimsy shelters 

 under which they hung their hammocks. 1 went into 

 the woods, but in the tangle of vegetation it would 

 have been a mere hazard had I seen any big animal. 

 Generally the woods were silent and empty. Now and 

 then Uttle troops of birds of many kinds passed — wood- 

 hewers, ant-thrushes, tanagers, flycatchers ; as in the 

 spring and fall similar troops of warblers, chickadees, 

 and nuthatches pass through our northern woods. On 

 the rocks and on the great trees by the river grew 

 beautiful white and Hlac orchids — the sobraha, of sweet 

 and delicate fragrance. For the moment my own books 

 seemed a trifle heavy, and perhaps I would have found 

 the day tedious if Kermit had not lent me the Oxford 

 Book of French Verse. Eustache Deschamp, Joachim 

 du Bellay, Ronsard, the charming La Fontaine, the 

 delightful but appalling Vfllon, Victor Hugo's 

 " Guitare," Madame Desbordes - Valmore's lines on 

 the little girl and her pillow, as dear little verses 

 about a child as ever were written — these and many 

 others comforted me much, as I read them in head-net 

 and gauntlets, sitting on a log by an unknown river in 

 the Amazonian forest. 



On the 10th we again embarked, and made a kilo- 

 metre and a half, spending most of the time in getting 

 past two more rapids. Near the first of these we saw a 

 small cayman, a jacard-tinga. At each set of rapids the 

 canoes were unloaded, and the loads borne past on the 

 shoulders of the camaradas ; three of the canoes were 

 paddled down by a couple of naked paddlers apiece ; 



