STRIKING SCENERY 
anta plenty of time to hop away gracefully into the 
darkness of the forest. 
I had given orders to them to keep watch all night, 
as a precaution against an attack from the Indians, but 
my orders were, as usual, disobeyed. Personally, I took 
the first watch every night, sitting up till two a.m., which 
time I occupied in writing up my notes, working out 
computations of astronomical observations, classifying 
the botanical and geological specimens collected during 
the day, and replenishing my cameras with new plates. 
My men had eaten all the supply of beans (feijao) 
I had purchased at Diamantino, and therefore even the 
cook could not be kept awake during the night. The 
first rubber collector I had picked up when coming down 
the Arinos was now our cook, and diabolical indeed was 
his cuisine . Several times already his life had been in 
danger from the angry attacks of his companions, the 
quantities of pepper he sprinkled on everything he cooked 
causing us all to cough sometimes for half-hours at a 
time. He was very fond of pepper himself, and could not 
understand why none of us liked it. 
During the night we still had a mackerel sky, covering 
one third of the sky vault, and a clear triangle of mist, the 
apex of which was to the west, extending towards the 
east, close upon the horizon line. When we left in the 
morning at 7.30, we had chapada and campos on the right 
bank and forest on the other side. We had gone some 
eight and a half kilometres from our camp when we came 
to a hill range, seventy-five feet high, on the right bank, 
encircling the river with its thickly wooded slopes. There 
was a tributary twenty-five metres wide, a most beautiful 
stream, on the right bank. It came from 70° bearings 
magnetic. Its water was deliciously clear. Where it 
entered the Arinos it had deposited a bank of crystals and 
marble pebbles, yellow, red, and white, which in the 
dazzling sun shone with great brilliancy at the bottom of 
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