318 TO THE AMAZON AND HOME [chap, x 



We had been two months in the canoes — from 

 February 27 to April 26. We had gone over 750 kilo- 

 metres. The river from its source, near the thirteenth 

 degree, to where it became navigable and we entered 

 it, had a course of some 200 kilometres — probably more, 

 perhaps 300 kilometres. Therefore we had now put on 

 the map a river nearly 1,000 kilometres in length, of 

 which the existence was not merely unknown, but 

 impossible, if the standard maps were correct. But this 

 was not all. It seemed that this river of 1,000 kilo- 

 metres in length was really the true upper course of the 

 Aripuanan proper, in which case the total length was 

 nearly 1,500 kilometres. Pyrineus had been waiting 

 for us over a month, at the junction of what the rubber- 

 men called the Castanho, and of what they called the 

 upper Aripuanan. (He had no idea as to which stream 

 we would appear upon, or whether we would appear upon 

 either.) On March 26 he had measured the volume of 

 the two, and found that the Castanho, although the 

 narrower, was the deeper and swifter, and that in volume 

 it surpassed the other 'by 84 cubic metres a second. 

 Since then the Castanho had fallen ; our measurements 

 showed it to be shghtly smaller than the other ; the 

 volume of the river after the junction was about 

 4,500 cubic metres a second. This was in 7° 34'. 



We were glad indeed to see Pyrineus and be at his 

 attractive camp. We were only four hours above the 

 little river hamlet of Sao Joao, a port of call for rubber- 

 steamers, from which the larger ones go to Manaos in 

 two days. These steamers mostly belong to Senhor 

 Caripe. From P5Tineus we learned that Lauriadd and 

 Fiala had reached Manaos on March 26. On the swift 

 water in the gorge of the Papagaio Fiala's boat had 

 been upset and all his belongings lost, while he himself 



