CHAPTER X 
Fishing — Termites — The Great Araguaya River 
A N amusing incident happened. A cow chewed up 
the coat of one of my men, which was lying on 
the ground. In his fury, the owner of the coat, on 
discovering the misdeed, seized his carbine and fired four 
shots at the cow and four at the farmhouse. None of 
us could tell where the bullets went. The cow, startled 
by the shots, gave a few jumps and kicks, then, absolutely 
uninjured, peacefully continued grazing. The house, too, 
remained untouched. Amazing shots my men were! 
Across almost flat country we reached the Rio Claro 
— “the Limpid River” (elevation 1,250 feet above the 
sea level), 200 yards wide, and flowing by a winding 
course in a general direction of southwest to northeast. 
Wide beaches of sand and fine gravel were to be seen on 
the convex or inner curves of its channel. Along the 
banks there was luxuriant vegetation, which hung down 
and dipped into the water. 
Diamonds were to be found in that river. At low 
water curious eruptive, highly ferruginous rocks showed 
in the river bed, some in the shape of spherical balls 
riddled with perforations, as if they had been in a state 
of ebullition, others as little pellets of yellow lava, such as 
I had before encountered between Araguary and Goyaz, 
and which suggested the spluttering of molten rock 
suddenly cooled by contact with cold air or water. 
We encamped some three kilometres from the Rio 
Claro, on the streamlet Arejado, where again we were 
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