An Encampment of Giant Ant-Hills, 
137 
üncommöuljr, pleasant scent.. A quantity of empty turtle carapaces, 
each witli a round bitten-in hole, indicated the presence of the "turtle 
tiger" in no inconsiderable numbers. 
335. iViter proceeding some miles on the placid surface of the 
Cotiuga we reached its junction with the Zuruma tliat rolls into it from 
the jN'W'. : the Cotiuga comes almost direct from the JS'orth. Both 
streams at the junction liave the same width. As 1 have already stated, 
the Cotinga is the Ci'istais of the old Portuguese maps and is generally, 
but as it appears to me, wrongfully l egarded as a tril»utary of the Zuruma, 
a view that the Indians also reject, for they look upon the latter as a 
trilnitary of the former, and call the whole stream which we covered 
from tlie Takutu also by the name Cotinga. (iSect. 301). 
33(). As i mentioned previously, the trigonomcti'ical I.eariiigs of the 
junction had to be taken : owing to Mr. Goodall liaving a fresh attack 
of fever A\e were forced to nuike a stay of several days. \Ve pitched our 
camp on the edge of the enstern bank of the Cotinga close to a fair sized 
sandbank. On reacliing the first rapids of the Cotiuga, the mosipdtoes 
had disa]>peared, but this vouchsafed us little or m» relief, because they 
were immediately replaced l»y similar shoals of sandtlies that worriod us 
from sunrise until sunset. We had considered it impossible for there 
to be any increase in the torments hitherto suffered, Itut yet, in our case, 
this impossibility turned out to be a reality. Any sedentary employment 
became real torture and was rendered still more unbearable liy the 
si-orchingly hot rays of the tropical sun, exposed to Avliich the 
thermometer indicated 140° Falir. 
337. Unless we wanted to be bitten all over, it was impossible 
to stay in camp during the daytime: the savannah fortunately 
provided us with a ])lacc <il' refuge, and at some distance from the 
river our troubles (lisappeare<l. An extraordinarily large number 
of suiall duck. A nas ridiidld, had cidlected on one of the sheets of water 
that still covered the savauuah, and tlie Indians commenced a merciless 
onslaught on them. Not ouly on account of this pleasant intermezzo 
did tlie savanuali i)rove of interest, but also on account of the 
coue-shaped 12 to 10 ft. liigh ant-hills, 'built from the infusorial 
e3ay soil, whiirfi, in between the isolated Cnratella trees, covered 
every bit of i-ising ground that the flood waters had left exposed, 
like a t'l'ieudly military encampment, and lent to the otherwise 
moiudouous level surface au extraordinary animated appearance. Upon 
the areas wlience the waters had already receded grew innumerable 
C^entians. such as L'txijo ntlnix iilif/iiiosKs (Irieseb., (^oiiionhca rcfJc.rd 
r!(Mdli. while on other flats again were to be ^ouud the gioi ious 
^<<-lnilf('s;Ui hrarhj/ptera Chamss. forming a lovely flowery tlooring 
with a really imposing appearance. Amongst them I also found two new 
species Slchiilfesia Benthaiiihina. Klolzseh and the but 4 to 6 in. high 
f^chvlfesia fnihcrenata Klotzsch. 
338. As I had been unable up to now to clean all the flesh oft" my 
tapir skeleton, on which account it was stinking horribly, it seemed to 
me that T could not do better thait call upon, tlie more effective help of 
our terrible enemies, the jiirai. Att,ache(l to a strcmg line. T left it tied to 
the big boat in the water, but found on the following morning that the 
