302 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS 



two Indians baled out the water with large cuyas. We 

 thus managed to keep afloat until we reached our destina- 

 tion, when the men patched up the leak for our return 

 journey. 



The landing-place lay a short distance within the 

 mouth of a shady inlet, on whose banks, hidden amongst 

 the dense woods, were the houses of a few Indian and 

 mameluco settlers. The path to the cattle farm led first 

 through a tract of swampy forest ; it then ascended a 

 slope and emerged on a fine sweep of prairie, varied 

 with patches of timber. The wooded portion occupied 

 the hollows where the soil was of a rich chocolate-brown 

 colour, and of a peaty nature. The higher grassy un- 

 dulating parts of the campo had a lighter and more sandy 

 soil. Leaving our friends, I and Jose took our guns and 

 dived into the woods in search of the monkeys. As we 

 walked rapidly along I was very near treading on a 

 rattlesnake which lay stretched out nearly in a straight 

 line on the bare sandy pathway. It made no movement 

 to get out of the way, and I escaped the danger by a 

 timely and sudden leap, being unable to check my steps 

 in the hurried walk. We tried to excite the sluggish 

 reptile by throwing hands full of sand and sticks at it, 

 but the only notice it took was to raise its ugly horny 

 tail and shake its rattle. At length it began to move 

 rather nimbly, when we despatched it by a blow on the 

 head with a pole, not wishing to fire on account of alarming 

 our game. 



We saw nothing of the white Caiarara ; we met, how- 

 ever, with a flock of the common light-brown allied 

 species (Cebus albifrons ?), and killed one as a specimen. 

 A resident on this side of the river told us that the white 

 kind was found further to the south, beyond Santa Cruz. 

 The light-brown Caiarara is pretty generally distributed 

 over the forests of the level country. I saw it very fre- 

 quently on the banks of the Upper Amazons, where it 

 was always a treat to watch a flock leaping amongst the 

 trees, for it is the most wonderful performer in this line 

 of the whole tribe. The troops consist of thirty or more 

 individuals which travel in single file. When the fore- 

 most of the flock reaches the outermost branch of an 

 unusually lofty tree, he springs forth into the air without 

 a moment's hesitation and alights on the dome of yielding 

 foliage belonging to the neighbouring tree, maybe fifty 



