ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
places, it would have been easy for the canoe to have been 
turned over and sucked under. 
Patches of thick forest were met on either bank, and 
in those patches numerous indeed were the rubber trees. 
In the afternoon we saw chiefly campos and chapada, or 
thin scrub. 
Considering all, we did well, chiefly owing to the 
strong current, on our first day of navigation. We had 
gone some seventy kilometres when we halted at sunset, 
at the junction of the very deep streamlet Quarustera 
with the Aronis. The elevation of our camp, sixty feet 
above the river, was 1,200 feet. 
The nights were cool enough — minimum 55° Fahren¬ 
heit on the night of June 6-7. There was a thick haze 
over the river in the morning, and as we did not know 
what we might be coming upon suddenly, we did not 
make a start until 7.15. After crossing a large and 
shallow bay the stream was forced into a channel fifty 
metres wide. There was open country, campos, on the 
right bank. A curious, isolated volcanic boulder split in 
two was then observed in the stream, while the banks 
were of alluvially deposited conglomerate. From that 
spot luxuriant forest was on the right bank once more, 
while open country was on the left. Upon examination I 
found that the thick forest was merely a band or zone near 
the water; behind was open country. 
Farther, the river went through a neck 40 metres 
wide where the current was very swift. The banks almost 
all along were from 10 to 20 feet high. Slender tucuma 
or tucuman palms were to be seen, which had stems only 
3 to 4 inches in diameter, but were 30 to 40 feet high, 
and had a ball-like tuft of leaves at the top. We then 
came upon open country ( chapada) on both sides, and 
went over small corrideiras, which we got to like, as we 
travelled on them at a greater speed than in the still 
waters, with a minimum of exertion. The river seemed to 
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