RIVER BANKS. 



213 



when the case of life or death is decided. After six days more they 

 begin to bathe, if they are well enough. This is the course the distemper 

 takes when the patient lies out in the woods, without medical aid or 

 shelter from the weather. 



One of them had employed himself in mating a white grass hat, after 

 the fashion of a Panama. They were delighted to get on board, and as 

 we paddled along, the one with the new hat was telling the crew what 

 sort of a time they had. The schoolmaster gave us the amount of what 

 he could understand. The crew were silent while Straw Hat was speak- 

 ing, but kept him going by questions when he held up. They seemed 

 very much affected, and, one by one, gave expression to his feelings at 

 the loss of the missing man. 



At 9 a. m. we came to, as usual, for breakfast. Thermometer, 76° ; 

 wet bull, 74°. Temperature of water, 71°. The channel, as we descend, 

 is less obstructed by drift-wood, snags, and sawyers. The banks are 

 three feet high, the trees smaller, and the wind light from the north. 



We passed an Indian slung up in a hamac between two poles stuck 

 in a mud bank. The crew called to him, and saw the hamac move, 

 which was our only sign that the poor creature was alive. He had been 

 left with the small pox by one of the canoes we met. The flooded river 

 had reached the under part of the hamac last night, and now the hot 

 sun was shining over him. The old captain shook his head when we 

 wanted him to go and see what could be done for the man. The crew 

 pulled rapidly by. 



The beach here is mud. On the shore of San Mateo, the beach was 

 rocky, with large and small round stones, such as are used for paving 

 streets. After we got below the rocky formation we found sand beaches, 

 white and grey. The banks of the river were high. Here we have low 

 banks, and run out of the sandy region into the mud. For the first 

 time we saw an alligator. 



The waters of a stream, as it increases from a mountain torrent to a large 

 river, performs the labor of a system of sifters. The earth and rocks are 

 broken away ; stone, sand, and earth, are carried down the side of the 

 Andes by the floods in the rainy season. The large stones are thrown 

 out on the sides of the stream, as it reaches the base of the mountains, 

 while the sand and earth pass through. Finally, the sand is separated 

 and deposited in another place below, and the mud, in its turn, settles 

 through and leaves the sifter clean. The water at the mouth of a 

 muddy stream is the clearest. When river water meets the heavy salt 

 water of the ocean, the river current comes to a stand, and it is there » 

 while standing still, that dirt settles from water the quickest; there 



