A BEAUTIFUL STREAM 
went the whole day without hearing the song of a bird, 
or the howling of a wild animal. We did hear a noise 
resembling the bark of a dog; so much did it resemble it 
that my dogs barked back. But it came not from a dog 
at all. The peculiar noise was made by a large bird. 
After passing a handsome beach of white sand on our 
left, the river described sharp angles, west, northwest, 
northeast, then north. There were rapids, fairly strong, 
although not dangerous in any way. The river was forced 
through a channel fifty metres wide, where the current 
was very strong. To make things worse, a giant tree had 
fallen and obstructed much of the passage, compelling # us 
to negotiate the rapid in its worst part. A large bay, 
180 metres in diameter, opened out below that point. 
Farther came a perfectly straight stretch of water for 
8,000 metres. Half way down that stretch, to the right, 
we passed the mouth of the Agua Clara, a charming 
rivulet of crystalline water, ten metres wide. A con¬ 
glomerate stratum of alluvial formation, composed of 
well-rounded pebbles held together by red earth, and 
crumbling easily under pressure of the fingers, showed 
through in many places. The beaches of handsome, fine 
white sand were most interesting. 
The forest was getting thin on both sides. In fact, 
late in the afternoon we had open country on the left 
bank, only a few trees being visible near the water’s edge, 
and an occasional giant jatobd (Hymencoea Courbaril 
L.), the latter chiefly on the right bank. The right bank 
was sparsely wooded, and at one time we had open campos 
on both sides of us. 
A streamlet three metres wide entered the Arinos on 
the left. We got to one point where the river proved 
treacherous, although apparently almost tranquil on the 
surface. The Brazilians have an excellent name for such 
places: rebojo , or a curve formed by sudden deviation of 
a current. If we had not been careful in going across such 
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