ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
especially mosquitoes and gnats. I think it was due prin¬ 
cipally to the fact that in those rocks many cavities were 
found which got filled with stagnant water which even¬ 
tually became putrefied. 
The place where we halted we called Abelha Camp, 
because of the millions of bees which worried us to death 
there, not to speak of the swarms of flies, mosquitoes, and 
ants, and myriads of butterflies which came to settle in 
swarms upon us. It was indeed curious to note the won¬ 
derful tameness of the latter, as they had never seen a 
human being before. 
There was a nasty-looking rapid close to the camp. 
We had to let the empty canoe down carefully by means 
of ropes, my men on that particular occasion donning 
their life-belts again, although they walked on dry land 
when they were taking the canoe along. When I asked 
them why they put them on, they said that perhaps the 
canoe might drag them into the water and they had no 
wish to get drowned. 
We left that camp late in the afternoon, at three 
o’clock, having wasted the entire morning conveying the 
canoe to a spot of safety and then carrying all the baggage 
along overland. 
After having gone some two kilometres farther we 
came to another rapid and a pedraria with nasty rocks 
right across the channel, the only passage I could see 
possible for our canoe being in the centre of the stream. 
That channel was only a few metres wide, and had in the 
centre of it a large rock just under the surface, which 
flung the water up in the air. We just managed to shoot 
that rapid safely, although with trembling hearts. 
Farther down, rocks innumerable, rising only two or 
three feet above water, spread half way across the channel 
from the right side. Then rapids and strong eddies were 
encountered. For 700 metres the river showed foliated 
rock strewn all along on both banks, and great volcanic 
90 
