ASCENT OF THE RIO TEMI. 259 
avenues of water four or five feet broad. An Indian 
furnished with a large knife stood at the bow con- 
tinually cutting the branches which obstructed the 
passage. In the thickest part of it a shoal of fresh- 
water dolphins issued from beneath the trees and 
surrounded the vessel. At five in the evening the 
travellers, after sticking for some time between two 
trunks and experiencing other difficulties, regained 
the proper channel, and passed the night near one of 
the columnar masses of granite which occasionally 
protrude from the level surface. 
Setting out before daybreak, they remained in 
the bed of the river till sunrise, when, to avoid 
the force of the current, they again entered the in- 
undated forest ; and soon arriving at the junction of 
the Temi with the Tuamini, they followed the lat- 
ter toward the south-west. At eleven they reached 
San Antonio de Javita, where they had the pleasure 
of finding a very intelligent and agreeable monk: 
though they were obliged to remain nearly a week 
while the boat was carried by land to the Rio Ne- 
gro. For two days the travellers had felt an ex- 
traordinary irritation on the joints of the fingers 
and on the back of the hands, which the missionary 
informed them was caused by insects. Nothing could 
be distinguished with a lens but parallel streaks of a 
whitish colour, the form of which has obtained for 
these animalcule the name of aradores, or plough- 
men. A mulatto woman engaged to extirpate them 
one by one, and, digging witha small bit of pointed 
wood, at length succeeded in extracting a little round 
bag; but Humboldt did not possess sufficient pa- 
tience to wait for relief from so tedious an operation. 
Next day, however, an Indian effected a radical cure 
