PLENTIFUL RUBBER 
mounds just emerging above the water surface, then by 
a magnificent gravel beach with numberless beautiful 
crystals. On the left bank a tributary fifteen metres wide 
entered the Arinos from the southwest. 
The river was getting more and more entrancing at 
every turn. Profuse blossoms of the most gorgeous 
yellow shone resplendent in all their beauty against the 
background of dark green foliage. The entire edge of 
the forest was festooned with daintily leafed creepers and 
with myriads of convolvuli of the purest amethyst colour. 
There was poetry in the scene, frequently disturbed, 
perhaps, by the inconceivable oaths of the man to whom 
was entrusted the heavy task of baling out the water from 
the canoe, which leaked badly. She was fissured from 
end to end, and we had no effective means of preventing 
the water coming in; in fact, if the baling were not done 
quickly and continuously with a bucket, the water soon 
gained and reached the platform on which we had placed 
the baggage. Our feet, of course, were in water all day 
long, but we did not mind that so much. In fact, our feet 
became so soaked with moisture that with the greatest 
ease we could peel off the skin in big patches. 
After travelling across a basin 250 metres broad, we 
came to a corrideira with shallow water. We dashed with 
great speed sidewise over a bank of gravel, and nearly 
turned turtle. The gravel was banked up against the lee 
side of the canoe, and with a strong current pushing her 
we had the greatest trouble to pull her off again. 
There was a great deal of rubber, particularly on the 
left bank, while on the right, chapada was again observed. 
The river was so wonderfully tidy that, had it not been 
for its great breadth, one would have felt as if going 
through a watercourse in England. 
From the east came a little tributary, two metres wide, 
on the right bank. Another beautiful island, 500 metres 
long and 80 metres wide, Helena Island, a most enchant- 
57 
