GORGEOUS BIRDS 
It was really amusing to watch the astonishment of 
the few animals and birds we met in that deserted part 
of Brazil, as none of them had seen a human being. They 
evidently did not know what to make of us. They 
generally looked with curiosity and surprise, and my men 
could fire shot after shot before they would attempt to 
run, or, if they were birds, fly away. 
There were in that region some fine specimens of the 
cigana (Opisthocomus cristatus) and of the jacu (Pene¬ 
lope cristata ). The cigana was beautiful to look at, with 
brown and yellow stripes, not unlike a pheasant, and a 
tuft of bright yellow feathers on the head. All of a 
sudden we came upon great numbers of these birds, and 
they supplied us with good meals. 
There were again plenty of rubber trees in the forest, 
plenty of fish in the river. The climate was not too hot, 
merely 87° Fahrenheit in the shade, 105° in the sun; the 
insects not too troublesome, so that it seemed to us a 
paradise on earth. 
We had now before us a great expanse of 5,000 
metres of straight river to 345° bearings magnetic, with 
two parallel ranges of hills extending from west to east. 
The second range was the higher of the two, some 600 
feet, whereas the first was only 200 feet high. 
What I took to be a great river coming from 75° 
bearings magnetic (northeast), 250 metres wide, joined 
the Arinos from the right side; but I was puzzled whether 
this was not a mere arm of the Arinos. In the quick 
survey I was making, and with the many things which 
occupied my mind at every moment, the river being more¬ 
over so wide, it was impossible, single-handed, to survey 
everything carefully on every side. Therefore this may 
have been a mere arm of the Arinos, which I mistook for a 
tributary. It was not possible for me to deviate from my 
course every moment to go and ascertain problematic 
details, but it will be quite easy for subsequent travellers 
115 
