122 
VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. 
Chap. II. 
in the morning and five in the afternoon, wearing 
nothing but loose and thin cotton trousers and a light 
straw hat, and could not be accommodated in Joao 
Aracu s house, as it was a small one and full of noisy 
children. One night we had a terrific storm. The 
heat in the afternoon had been greater than ever, 
and at sunset the sky had a brassy glare : the black 
patches of cloud which floated in it, being lighted 
up now and then by flashes of sheet lightning. The 
mosquitoes at night were more than usually trouble- 
some, and I had just sunk exhausted into a doze 
towards the early hours of morning when the storm 
began ; a complete deluge of rain with incessant light- 
ning and rattling explosions of thunder. It lasted for 
eight hours ; the grey dawn opening amidst the crash 
of the tempest. The rain trickled through the seams 
of the cabin roof on to my collections, the late hot 
weather having warped the boards, and it gave me 
immense trouble to secure them in the midst of the 
confusion. Altogether I had a bad night of it, but what 
with storms, heat, mosquitoes, hunger, and, towards the 
last, ill health, I seldom had a good night's rest on the 
Cupari. 
A small creek traversed the forest behind Joao 
Aracti's house, and entered the river a few yards from 
our anchoring place. I used to cross it twice a day, on 
going and returning from my hunting ground. One 
day early in September, I noticed that the water 
was two or three inches higher in the afternoon than 
it had been in the morning. This phenomenon was 
repeated the next day, and in fact daily, until the 
