MORE RAPIDS 
The river had many islets as we proceeded on our 
journey, with wooded hillocks some 100 to 150 feet high 
in long successive undulations along the river banks. The 
coast-line was generally of rocky volcanic formation, with 
accumulations of boulders in many places right across 
the stream. 
After passing the rapids we were travelling through 
a region of extensive and beautiful sand beaches, with 
hardly any rock showing through anywhere. The coun¬ 
try on each side was almost altogether flat, merely an 
occasional hill being visible here and there. 
On October nineteenth we came in for a howling storm 
of wind and rain, waves being produced in the river as 
high as those that occur in the sea. We tossed about 
considerably and shipped a lot of water. More immense 
sand beaches were passed, and then we came to a region 
of domed rocks showing along the river bank. At all the 
bar actios, or trading sheds where the seringueiros bought 
their supplies, the same rubbish was for sale: con¬ 
demned, quite uneatable ship biscuits sold at 5s. a kilo; 
Epsom salts at the rate of £2 sterling a kilo; putrid 
tinned meat at the rate of 10s. a tin; one pound tins of 
the commonest French salt butter fetched the price of 
10s. each. The conversation at all those halting-places 
where the trading boats stopped was dull beyond words, 
the local scandal —- there was plenty of it always — hav¬ 
ing little interest for me. 
At one place we were met by a charming girl dressed 
up in all her finery, singing harmonious songs to the 
accompaniment of her guitar. So great was her desire 
to be heard that she kept on with the music incessantly, 
during the whole time we stopped — some three hours 
— although nobody paid the slightest attention to it after 
the first song or two. 
Farther down the river, there 800 metres wide, hills 
and undulations were to be seen on each side. At sun- 
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