THE RIVER TROMBETAS 95 
slow .we persevered, keeping the river always 
within hearing, and now and then crossing an 
igarape, either by wading through the water or by 
passing along some fallen slippery trunk which 
bridged it over ; and at i o'clock in the morning 
reached our camp — sadly maltreated and wayworn. 
The effects of this disastrous journey hung on 
us for a full week. Besides the rheumatic pains 
and stiffness brought on by the wetting, our hands, 
feet, and legs were torn and thickly stuck with 
prickles, some of which produced ulcers. In com- 
parison with these, the annoyance caused by the 
bites of ticks large and small and the stings of 
wasps and ants was trifling and transitory. 
I have been thus minute in my account of this 
adventure, in order to give some idea of what it is 
to be lost or benighted in an Amazonian forest. 
. . . Let the reader try to picture to himself the 
vast extent of the forest-clad Amazon valley ; how 
few and far between are the habitations of man 
therein ; and how the vegetation is so dense that, 
especially where the ground is level, it is rarely 
possible to see more than a few paces ahead ; so 
that the lost traveller may be very near to help, or 
to some known track or landmark, without knowing 
it. I have heard an Indian, recently established in 
a new clearing, relate that, having gone out one 
morning to cut firewood, he had wandered about 
the whole day before he could find his hut again, 
although, as he ascertained afterwards, he had 
never been more than a mile away from it. . . . 
In making one's way through the forest, it is 
advisable not to cut entirely away the intercepting 
branches, but to cut or break them half through 
