ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
spot, and came close several times, grinding their teeth 
at us, especially when we were slaughtering the fish on 
the bank. We kept watch during the entire night, as on 
that occasion they were truly vicious. Our dogs, for a 
change, became quite sportive. One of them, named 
Negrino, got furious with the ariranhas , and, driven mad 
by their unmusical noises, actually jumped into the stream 
to go to their attack. In a moment he had quantities of 
ariranhas upon him, and was bitten savagely, one ear 
being nearly torn off. He endeavoured to beat a hasty 
retreat, but by that time he was in mid-stream and 
struggling for dear life against his enemies. We put out 
in the canoe at once and went to his rescue, eventually 
getting him on board in an exhausted condition, and 
bleeding terribly all over. 
We enjoyed a hearty breakfast of boiled and fried 
fish before leaving camp at nine o’clock in the morning; 
we were sorry to leave this beautiful camp, the best we 
had had since we had been on the river Arinos. There 
were before us two great channels. The one flowing east 
was the larger of the two, fully 400 metres wide and 3,000 
metres long in a straight line. As we were paddling 
along we passed on our left a triangular island, the 
southern side of which was 2,000 metres long, the south¬ 
east side 500 metres, Angela Island. 
Where the river deviated to 30° bearings magnetic, a 
perfectly straight stretch of 8,000 metres was before us, 
a most beautiful sight. Two parallel islands, only 50 
metres wide, one 400 metres, the other 300 metres long, 
were on the right of us, in the part of the river where 
George Rex Island, which was still to the right of us, 
described a graceful semicircle. Fifteen hundred metres 
farther down George Rex Island came to an end with a 
beautiful spit of sand 200 metres long. Just beyond, still 
on our right, another island, 400 metres long, Rosalinda 
Island, was passed, also with a lovely spit of sand 200 
138 
