THROUGH THE COASTAL WILDERNESS. 24 I 



It was dead high tide, although the water was fresh — ■ 

 backed up by the salt tide farther down. The surface 

 seemed to be covered with rubbish, and at first glance it 

 looked as unsavoury as the water in a New York ferry slip! 

 But when we examined it, the flotsam proved to be composed 

 of a host of various nuts and seeds, many of which were 

 beginning to send out roots and leaflets. They were of all 

 shapes and sizes — from large flat disk-like pods and round 

 vegetable-ivory nuts, to smaller ones covered with corrugated 

 husks, fluted or polished like metal. 



The river became still more narrow, and twisted and turned 

 to every point of the compass. Flowers were abundant and 

 we noted at least twenty species with large and conspicuous 

 blooms. A blue-bell blossom was especially characteristic 

 of the Tapakuma, growing up from the water six to thirty 

 inches. There were few lilies and the predominating tree 

 was one with sensitive foliage, which went to sleep in the 

 late afternoon. Several species of orchids in full flower were 

 common, and from one branch we pulled into the canoe a 

 string of a dozen plants of a most fragrant white orchid — 

 Epidendrum nocturnum. The whole region was very different 

 from that of the Biara but no less interesting. 



Just before sunset we came to the fairyland of Tapakuma 

 Lake. We had zigzagged through many miles of tortuous 

 channels, with copper-colored Indian hunters passing us now 

 and then, silently in their small canoes. At last we came 

 to a portage — a gentle slope up which our canoe was 

 dragged, over the divide and into the great grassy expanse 

 of water savanna, in the centre of which is the dark deep 

 lake. 



We walked a few yards into the woods to see some "falls" 

 which turned out to be only a moderately foamy rapid, and 

 on the way we disturbed a large troop of monkeys which 

 limbed off slowly through the branches; and then hurried 



