CHAPTER XXI 
A Beautiful Lagoon — Strange Lunar Display — Waves of Lava — 
Curious Grottoes — Rock Carvings — A Beautiful Waterfall 
W E camped at the Lagoa Formosa — or “ Beautiful 
Lagoon ” — a large, verdant, oval-shaped lagoon, 
entirely covered with grass, only 140 feet lower 
than the top of the plateau (elevation 2,290 feet). 
Barring a slight undulation in the land to the northeast 
of the marsh, the country was there absolutely flat. 
At night I witnessed a marvellous lunar effect. The 
half-moon was high up in the sky. Soon after sunset two 
immense, concentric arches of mist, with their centres on 
the horizon to the east, shone like silver rings, their upper 
edges being lighted by the bluish light of the moon. With 
the reflection of this in the still waters of the lagoon, the 
effect was enchanting and intensely picturesque. 
My men suffered a great deal from the damp — they 
were always suffering from everything: from the heat of 
the sun, the rain, the cold, the long marches. 
That night we had a minimum temperature of 51° 
Fahrenheit, the elevation of our camp being 2,150 feet. 
Naturally, over the expanse of water, the sunrise was 
wonderful. The sky was well covered by feathery radia¬ 
tions from the northeast, which were intersected by 
striations shooting skyward from east to west and forming 
a charming design. The radiations from the northeast 
reached right across the sky as far as the horizon to the 
southwest. What astonished me most in Matto Grosso 
was the characteristic immobility of the clouds. In the 
daytime they remained sometimes for hours with hardly 
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