226 
EXCUKSIONS AROUND EGA. 
Chap. IV. 
barrenness in salsaparilla and other wares. To Euro- 
peans it will seem a most surprising thing that the 
people of a civilised settlement, 170 years old, should 
still be ignorant of the course of the river on whose 
banks their native place, for which they proudly claim 
the title of city, is situated. It would be very difficult 
for a private individual to explore it, as the necessary 
number of Indian paddlers could not be obtained. I 
knew only one person who had ascended the Teffe to 
any considerable distance, and he was not able to give 
me a distinct account of the river. The only tribe 
known to live on its banks are the Catauishis, a people 
who perforate their lips all round, and wear rows of 
slender sticks in the holes : their territory lies between 
the Purus and the Jurua, embracing both shores of the 
Teffe. A very considerable stream, the Bararua, enters 
the lake from the west, about thirty miles above Ega ; 
the breadth of the lake is much contracted a little below 
the mouth of this tributary, but it again expands further 
south, and terminates abruptly where the Teffe proper, 
a narrow river with a strong current, forms its head 
water. 
The whole of the country for hundreds of miles is 
covered with picturesque but pathless forests, and there 
are only two roads along which excursions can be made 
by land from Ega. One is a narrow hunter's track, 
about two miles in length, which traverses the forest in 
the rear of the settlement. The other is an extremely 
pleasant path along the beach to the west of the 
town. This is practicable only in the dry season, when 
a flat strip of white sandy beach is exposed at the 
