THE LAGOON OF THE DEER 
gradually to an elevation of 1,550 feet upon an undulating 
terrace of the second section of the Estivado range. 
Pulling and pushing the mules and horses over a lot 
of boulders and up a steep incline, we reached the highest 
point of the range on our route — 1,800 feet above the 
sea level. Again the stratification of red and grey rock 
in layers from six inches to a foot thick, standing vertically, 
showed what a geological commotion there must have been 
in those regions. The summit of the range, extending 
from north to south, appeared like the teeth of a saw, so 
broken up was it into repeated undulations. On the west 
side of the range we found a gentle slope of clear campos 
with merely a few stunted trees upon them. 
Before us to the west stood high the level sky-line of 
a tableland, showing perfectly straight, parallel strata of 
rock extending all along its face, but slightly undulated 
near the summit of the range. Otherwise its grassy slopes 
were quite undisturbed in their virgin smoothness. 
In the distance, to the north of our course, was a great 
lagoon — the Lagoa dos Veados, “ Lagoon of the Deer ” 
■—a most important point in South America, for it was 
there that the great Arinos (Tapajoz) River rose. The 
lagoon — three kilometres long and less than a kilometre 
wide — had no visible outlet, but some hundreds of metres 
away a spring came out of the earth, forming the Rio 
Preto (Black River). The Rio Preto, soon joined by 
the Rio Novo, which we had seen descending from the 
Serra Azul, formed the Arinos River and could certainly 
be considered the head-waters of that immense tributary 
of the Amazon. 
A short distance south of Diamantino were the Sete 
Lagoas, or Seven Lakes — as a matter of fact, they 
numbered more than seven — circular pools only a few 
yards in diameter but extraordinarily deep, evidently of 
volcanic origin, and filled with water at a later time. 
Around their edges a remarkably luxuriant growth of 
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