LAKE OF JUTECA 



435 



whose thick clothing, not having been washed during 

 the whole time we had been out (eighteen days), gave 

 forth a most vile effluvia. 



We spent the night of the 7th of November pleasantly 

 on the smooth sands, where the jaguars again serenaded 

 us, and on the succeeding morning commenced our return 

 voyage to Ega. We first doubled the upper end of the 

 island of Catua, and then struck off for the right bank of 

 the Solimoens. The river was here of immense width, 

 and the current was so strong in the middle that it re- 

 quired the most strenuous exertions on the part of our 

 paddlers to prevent us from being carried miles away 

 down the stream. At night we reached Juteca, a small 

 river which enters the Solimoens by a channel so narrow 

 that a man might almost jump across it, but a furlong 

 inwards expands into a very pretty lake several miles in 

 circumference. We slept again in the forest, and again 

 were annoyed by rain and mosquitoes : but this time 

 Cardozo and I preferred remaining where we were to 

 mingling with the reeking crowd in the boats. When the 

 gray dawn arose a steady rain was still falling, and the 

 whole sky had a settled leaden appearance, but it was 

 delightfully cool. We took our net into the lake and 

 gleaned a good supply of delicious fish for breakfast. 

 I saw at the upper end of this lake the native rice of this 

 country growing wild. 



The weather cleared up at - 10 o'clock a.m. At 3 p.m. 

 we arrived at the mouth of the Cayambe, another tributary 

 stream much larger than the Juteca. The channel of 

 exit to the Solimoens was here also very narrow, but 

 the expanded river inside is of vast dimensions : it 

 forms a lake (I may safely venture to say) several score 

 miles in circumference. Although prepared for these 

 surprises, I was quite taken aback in this case. We 

 had been paddling all day along a monotonous shore, 

 with the dreary Solimoens before us, here three to four 

 miles broad, heavily rolling onward its muddy waters. 

 We come to a little gap in the earthy banks, and find 

 a dark, narrow inlet with a wall of forest over-shadowing 

 it on each side : we enter it, and at a distance of two or 

 three hundred yards a glorious sheet of water bursts upon 

 the view. The scenery of Cayambe is very picturesque. 

 The land, on the two sides visible of the lake, is high 

 and clothed with sombre woods, varied here|and there 



