ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
Open country was again on our right after leaving the hill 
range, and lowlands liable to inundation. Soon after¬ 
wards, however, higher land appeared, with banks thirty- 
five feet high. 
Swarms of small white butterflies played upon the 
banks on the edge of the water. 
Sand and gravel mounds were numerous in the centre 
of the channel, with occasional basins of shallow water 
with corrideiras upon them. For instance, in one of those 
places for 150 metres the river was only from one to three 
feet deep, and we had to drag the long heavy canoe, which 
drew two feet of water, along the undulating gravel bed. 
In fact, we spent a good deal of our time every day in 
the water, pushing or pulling the canoe along over 
innumerable obstacles, her great length making it difficult 
to navigate her properly through the many shallow and 
tortuous passages. 
In a circular basin, 120 metres in diameter, beyond 
that point we encountered strong eddies near the left 
bank. On the north side big rocks emerged from the 
water and a corrideira was formed. 
An island 50 metres long and two other islets were 
separated from the mainland by two channels, one 20 
metres wide and only three inches deep, the other 60 
metres wide and three feet deep. The right bank was 
there 45 feet high. 
Fifteen hundred metres farther down we entered an¬ 
other basin 200 metres in diameter, with an island 80 
metres long and eight dry beaches of gravel. 
My men were greatly excited in trying to capture a 
capivara they had wounded. We actually got the animal 
on board, but my men were so timid in going near it that 
it jumped overboard again and made its escape. 
The right bank, which had been high, was now reduced 
to only four feet above the water; whereas the left bank 
rose to a height of forty-six feet. A rivulet three metres 
48 
