CHAPTER IV 
Oleo Pardo Trees—Beautiful Palms—The River Bottom--Swarms 
of Butterflies—Millions of Bees — A Continuous Torture 
T HE night of July tenth was cool — minimum tem¬ 
perature 58° Fahrenheit. When we departed at 
i 7.10 in the morning the river was extremely tor¬ 
tuous at first, in one place actually veering from north 
to due south. On the right side of us was a lake divided 
by a low bank, three to five feet high, from the river by 
which it was fed. The entrance into the lake was narrow. 
We had gone hardly one kilometre when we found our¬ 
selves in a great basin 300 metres long, 200 metres wide, 
with one large island, Nellie Island, 150 metres in length, 
and several other small islets in its centre. 
Another lagoon was shortly after reached on the right 
bank, its inlet being 10 metres wide. 
The waters of the Arinos were, at this point, of a 
leaden placidity. We seemed to travel slowly now that 
the current did not help us. The river was again com¬ 
pressed into a deep channel 50 metres wide. Before us 
loomed a cliff 100 feet high, reflected with irreproachable 
faithfulness in the almost still waters of the stream. 
There was not a breath of wind to disturb the mirror-like 
surface, nor to cool our sweating brows in the stifling heat 
of the broiling sun. The lower 40 to 60 feet of the cliff 
was red, the upper light yellow, almost white. Where 
we reached this rocky wall there was a circle 150 metres 
in diameter, with a low, thickly wooded triangular island, 
80 metres long, 100 metres wide, Eleonora Island. 
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