RAPIDS AND EDDIES 
During the night in less than one hour we caught two 
large jahu, one huge pacu (Prochilodus argentius) , the 
latter shaped like a sole, but of a much greater size, and 
with brilliant red patches on its body — a most delicately 
tasting fish to eat — and a number of large trahira 
(Machrodon trahira) , also called by the Brazilians rubaffo 
because of the noise they make in the water. Altogether 
over 200 pounds of fish were got out of the water in less 
than sixty minutes. 
We found many jenipapeiros (or genipapeiro) trees, 
from the stewed bark of which we made excellent tea. Its 
fruit was good to eat and we used it for making sweets. 
During the night of July eighteenth the minimum 
temperature was 67° Fahrenheit. 
We started off gaily enough in the morning, passing 
first a great boulder, 10 metres in diameter, sticking right 
out of the water; then an island 200 metres long contained 
in a basin 500 metres wide. We left the island, Ruby 
Island, which was 80 metres long, on our left, and went 
down a channel with strong eddies and whirlpools. Look¬ 
ing back at the eastern channel, we were glad we had not 
followed it, as it was extremely rocky. 
The river was contracting in narrow necks and ex¬ 
panding into large basins, another of these being 450 
metres broad. A strong rapid existed here, owing to the 
barrier formed across the stream by a central island of 
rock and other boulders. After that came a basin 700 
metres wide, with three islands, Teffe Island, Nair Island, 
Rock Island, in its western part. The central and eastern 
passages were difficult owing to the quantity of rocks 
which stood in the way, so we took the canoe down the 
channel from south-southwest to north-northeast, which 
was also extremely bad, and where we had to let her down 
with the greatest care by means of ropes, the baggage 
having been previously unloaded. Even then the canoe 
got filled with water. That involved a great loss of time 
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