Up the Puruni River. 315 
the stream, dragging the boat over the submerged rocks, 
and able to immerse themselves entirely in the cool 
water. 
Though I paddled, whenever possible, all the way 
from Bartica to my camp, to relieve the monotony of 
travelling, it did not seem advisable to attempt any 
water work, for I had seen the effects of like exertions 
on three white men, who subsequently had paid 
dearly for their temerity — one of them, in fact, 
nearly dying from fever brought on by the sudden 
change, and the shock to the system caused by plunging 
into the cool river whilst in an overheated state. In the 
Cuyuni River, earlier in the year, this same cause gave 
dysentery to some of the men employed in the Surveyor's 
boats, of whom two died whilst away in the interior, and 
one after his return to town.* 
The Puruni river being narrower than the Maza- 
runi, one escapes the intense heat of the sun, since 
frequent opportunities occur of sheltering in the shade 
of the trees along the banks, of which the boat captains 
are only too glad to avail themselves after the glare 
and heat experienced in the wider river. 
Of pacu (Myletes pacu) which are most abundant 
and most easily procurable when the water in the river 
is low, we got none, though one energetic boatman 
frequently insisted upon arming himself with a bow and 
* The remedy used by some bovianders for dysentery, which appears 
to be more prevalent in the Cuyuni than the Mazaruni or Puruni Rivers, 
is the fruit of a tree known as the Saparoa, which grows plentifully on 
the rocks and islands near the rapids in the Cuyuni and Mazaruni, and 
in one or two places in the Puruni. It is by no means a sovereign 
cure, however, as the above mentioned victims of the disease found to 
their cost. 
KR 
