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+Project Gutenberg's Through the Brazilian Wilderness, by Theodore Roosevelt
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Through the Brazilian Wilderness
+
+Author: Theodore Roosevelt
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2004 [EBook #11746]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Etext prepared by John Bickers and Dagny
+
+
+
+
+THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS
+By Theodore Roosevelt
+
+Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com
+              and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz
+
+
+
+                   THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS
+
+                                  BY
+
+                          THEODORE ROOSEVELT
+
+
+
+                               PREFACE
+
+  This is an account of a zoo-geographic reconnaissance through the
+  Brazilian hinterland.
+
+  The official and proper title of the expedition is that given it
+  by the Brazilian Government: Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt-
+  Rondon. When I started from the United States, it was to make an
+  expedition, primarily concerned with mammalogy and ornithology,
+  for the American Museum of Natural History of New York. This was
+  undertaken under the auspices of Messrs. Osborn and Chapman,
+  acting on behalf of the Museum. In the body of this work I
+  describe how the scope of the expedition was enlarged, and how it
+  was given a geographic as well as a zoological character, in
+  consequence of the kind proposal of the Brazilian Secretary of
+  State for Foreign Affairs, General Lauro Muller. In its altered
+  and enlarged form the expedition was rendered possible only by the
+  generous assistance of the Brazilian Government. Throughout the
+  body of the work will be found reference after reference to my
+  colleagues and companions of the expedition, whose services to
+  science I have endeavored to set forth, and for whom I shall
+  always feel the most cordial friendship and regard.
+
+  THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+  SAGAMORE HILL,
+  September 1, 1914
+
+
+
+
+
+                   THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS
+
+
+
+                             I. THE START
+
+One day in 1908, when my presidential term was coming to a close,
+Father Zahm, a priest whom I knew, came in to call on me. Father Zahm
+and I had been cronies for some time, because we were both of us fond
+of Dante and of history and of science--I had always commended to
+theologians his book, "Evolution and Dogma." He was an Ohio boy, and
+his early schooling had been obtained in old-time American fashion in
+a little log school; where, by the way, one of the other boys was
+Januarius Aloysius MacGahan, afterward the famous war correspondent
+and friend of Skobeloff. Father Zahm told me that MacGahan even at
+that time added an utter fearlessness to chivalric tenderness for the
+weak, and was the defender of any small boy who was oppressed by a
+larger one. Later Father Zahm was at Notre Dame University, in
+Indiana, with Maurice Egan, whom, when I was President, I appointed
+minister to Denmark.
+
+On the occasion in question Father Zahm had just returned from a trip
+across the Andes and down the Amazon, and came in to propose that
+after I left the presidency he and I should go up the Paraguay into
+the interior of South America. At the time I wished to go to Africa,
+and so the subject was dropped; but from time to time afterward we
+talked it over. Five years later, in the spring of 1913, I accepted
+invitations conveyed through the governments of Argentina and Brazil
+to address certain learned bodies in these countries. Then it occurred
+to me that, instead of making the conventional tourist trip purely by
+sea round South America, after I had finished my lectures I would come
+north through the middle of the continent into the valley of the
+Amazon; and I decided to write Father Zahm and tell him my intentions.
+Before doing so, however, I desired to see the authorities of the
+American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, to find out
+whether they cared to have me take a couple of naturalists with me
+into Brazil and make a collecting trip for the museum.
+
+Accordingly, I wrote to Frank Chapman, the curator of ornithology of
+the museum, and accepted his invitation to lunch at the museum one day
+early in June. At the lunch, in addition to various naturalists, to my
+astonishment I also found Father Zahm; and as soon as I saw him I told
+him I was now intending to make the South American trip. It appeared
+that he had made up his mind that he would take it himself, and had
+actually come on to see Mr. Chapman to find out if the latter could
+recommend a naturalist to go with him; and he at once said he would
+accompany me. Chapman was pleased when he found out that we intended
+to go up the Paraguay and across into the valley of the Amazon,
+because much of the ground over which we were to pass had not been
+covered by collectors. He saw Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of
+the museum, who wrote me that the museum would be pleased to send
+under me a couple of naturalists, whom, with my approval, Chapman
+would choose.
+
+The men whom Chapman recommended were Messrs. George K. Cherrie and
+Leo E. Miller. I gladly accepted both. The former was to attend
+chiefly to the ornithology and the latter to the mammalogy of the
+expedition; but each was to help out the other. No two better men for
+such a trip could have been found. Both were veterans of the tropical
+American forests. Miller was a young man, born in Indiana, an
+enthusiastic with good literary as well as scientific training. He was
+at the time in the Guiana forests, and joined us at Barbados. Cherrie
+was an older man, born in Iowa, but now a farmer in Vermont. He had a
+wife and six children. Mrs. Cherrie had accompanied him during two or
+three years of their early married life in his collecting trips along
+the Orinoco. Their second child was born when they were in camp a
+couple of hundred miles from any white man or woman. One night a few
+weeks later they were obliged to leave a camping-place, where they had
+intended to spend the night, because the baby was fretful, and its
+cries attracted a jaguar, which prowled nearer and nearer in the
+twilight until they thought it safest once more to put out into the
+open river and seek a new resting-place. Cherrie had spent about
+twenty-two years collecting in the American tropics. Like most of the
+field-naturalists I have met, he was an unusually efficient and
+fearless man; and willy-nilly he had been forced at times to vary his
+career by taking part in insurrections. Twice he had been behind the
+bars in consequence, on one occasion spending three months in a prison
+of a certain South American state, expecting each day to be taken out
+and shot. In another state he had, as an interlude to his
+ornithological pursuits, followed the career of a gun-runner, acting
+as such off and on for two and a half years. The particular
+revolutionary chief whose fortunes he was following finally came into
+power, and Cherrie immortalized his name by naming a new species of
+ant-thrush after him--a delightful touch, in its practical combination
+of those not normally kindred pursuits, ornithology and gun-running.
+
+In Anthony Fiala, a former arctic explorer, we found an excellent man
+for assembling equipment and taking charge of its handling and
+shipment. In addition to his four years in the arctic regions, Fiala
+had served in the New York Squadron in Porto Rico during the Spanish
+War, and through his service in the squadron had been brought into
+contact with his little Tennessee wife. She came down with her four
+children to say good-by to him when the steamer left. My secretary,
+Mr. Frank Harper, went with us. Jacob Sigg, who had served three years
+in the United States Army, and was both a hospital nurse and a cook,
+as well as having a natural taste for adventure, went as the personal
+attendant of Father Zahm. In southern Brazil my son Kermit joined me.
+He had been bridge building, and a couple of months previously, while
+on top of a long steel span, something went wrong with the derrick, he
+and the steel span coming down together on the rocky bed beneath. He
+escaped with two broken ribs, two teeth knocked out, and a knee
+partially dislocated, but was practically all right again when he
+started with us.
+
+In its composition ours was a typical American expedition. Kermit and
+I were of the old Revolutionary stock, and in our veins ran about
+every strain of blood that there was on this side of the water during
+colonial times. Cherrie's father was born in Ireland, and his mother
+in Scotland; they came here when very young, and his father served
+throughout the Civil War in an Iowa cavalry regiment. His wife was of
+old Revolutionary stock. Father Zahm's father was an Alsacian
+immigrant, and his mother was partly of Irish and partly of old
+American stock, a descendant of a niece of General Braddock. Miller's
+father came from Germany, and his mother from France. Fiala's father
+and mother were both from Bohemia, being Czechs, and his father had
+served four years in the Civil War in the Union Army--his Tennessee
+wife was of old Revolutionary stock. Harper was born in England, and
+Sigg in Switzerland. We were as varied in religious creed as in ethnic
+origin. Father Zahm and Miller were Catholics, Kermit and Harper
+Episcopalians, Cherrie a Presbyterian, Fiala a Baptist, Sigg a
+Lutheran, while I belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church.
+
+For arms the naturalists took 16-bore shotguns, one of Cherrie's
+having a rifle barrel underneath. The firearms for the rest of the
+party were supplied by Kermit and myself, including my Springfield
+rifle, Kermit's two Winchesters, a 405 and 30-40, the Fox 12-gauge
+shotgun, and another 16-gauge gun, and a couple of revolvers, a Colt
+and a Smith & Wesson. We took from New York a couple of canvas canoes,
+tents, mosquito-bars, plenty of cheesecloth, including nets for the
+hats, and both light cots and hammocks. We took ropes and pulleys
+which proved invaluable on our canoe trip. Each equipped himself with
+the clothing he fancied. Mine consisted of khaki, such as I wore in
+Africa, with a couple of United States Army flannel shirts and a
+couple of silk shirts, one pair of hob-nailed shoes with leggings, and
+one pair of laced leather boots coming nearly to the knee. Both the
+naturalists told me that it was well to have either the boots or
+leggings as a protection against snake-bites, and I also had gauntlets
+because of the mosquitoes and sand-flies. We intended where possible
+to live on what we could get from time to time in the country, but we
+took some United States Army emergency rations, and also ninety cans,
+each containing a day's provisions for five men, made up by Fiala.
+
+The trip I proposed to take can be understood only if there is a
+slight knowledge of South American topography. The great mountain
+chain of the Andes extends down the entire length of the western
+coast, so close to the Pacific Ocean that no rivers of any importance
+enter it. The rivers of South America drain into the Atlantic.
+Southernmost South America, including over half of the territory of
+the Argentine Republic, consists chiefly of a cool, open plains
+country. Northward of this country, and eastward of the Andes, lies
+the great bulk of the South American continent, which is included in
+the tropical and the subtropical regions. Most of this territory is
+Brazilian. Aside from certain relatively small stretches drained by
+coast rivers, this immense region of tropical and subtropical America
+east of the Andes is drained by the three great river systems of the
+Plate, the Amazon, and the Orinoco. At their headwaters the Amazon and
+the Orinoco systems are actually connected by a sluggish natural
+canal. The headwaters of the northern affluents of the Paraguay and
+the southern affluents of the Amazon are sundered by a stretch of high
+land, which toward the east broadens out into the central plateau of
+Brazil. Geologically this is a very ancient region, having appeared
+above the waters before the dawning of the age of reptiles, or,
+indeed, of any true land vertebrates on the globe. This plateau is a
+region partly of healthy, rather dry and sandy, open prairie, partly
+of forest. The great and low-lying basin of the Paraguay, which
+borders it on the south, is one of the largest, and the still greater
+basin of the Amazon, which borders it on the north, is the very
+largest of all the river basins of the earth.
+
+In these basins, but especially in the basin of the Amazon, and thence
+in most places northward to the Caribbean Sea, lie the most extensive
+stretches of tropical forest to be found anywhere. The forests of
+tropical West Africa, and of portions of the Farther-Indian region,
+are the only ones that can be compared with them. Much difficulty has
+been experienced in exploring these forests, because under the
+torrential rains and steaming heat the rank growth of vegetation
+becomes almost impenetrable, and the streams difficult of navigation;
+while white men suffer much from the terrible insect scourges and the
+deadly diseases which modern science has discovered to be due very
+largely to insect bites. The fauna and flora, however, are of great
+interest. The American Museum was particularly anxious to obtain
+collections from the divide between the headwaters of the Paraguay and
+the Amazon, and from the southern affluents of the Amazon. Our purpose
+was to ascend the Paraguay as nearly as possible to the head of
+navigation, thence cross to the sources of one of the affluents of the
+Amazon, and if possible descend it in canoes built on the spot. The
+Paraguay is regularly navigated as high as boats can go. The starting-
+point for our trip was to be Asuncion, in the state of Paraguay.
+
+My exact plan of operations was necessarily a little indefinite, but
+on reaching Rio de Janeiro the minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Lauro
+Muller, who had been kind enough to take great personal interest in my
+trip, informed me that he had arranged that on the headwaters of the
+Paraguay, at the town of Caceres, I would be met by a Brazilian Army
+colonel, himself chiefly Indian by blood, Colonel Rondon. Colonel
+Rondon has been for a quarter of a century the foremost explorer of
+the Brazilian hinterland. He was at the time in Manaos, but his
+lieutenants were in Caceres and had been notified that we were coming.
+
+More important still, Mr. Lauro Muller--who is not only an efficient
+public servant but a man of wide cultivation, with a quality about him
+that reminded me of John Hay--offered to help me make my trip of much
+more consequence than I had originally intended. He has taken a keen
+interest in the exploration and development of the interior of Brazil,
+and he believed that my expedition could be used as a means toward
+spreading abroad a more general knowledge of the country. He told me
+that he would co-operate with me in every way if I cared to undertake
+the leadership of a serious expedition into the unexplored portion of
+western Matto Grosso, and to attempt the descent of a river which
+flowed nobody knew whither, but which the best-informed men believed
+would prove to be a very big river, utterly unknown to geographers. I
+eagerly and gladly accepted, for I felt that with such help the trip
+could be made of much scientific value, and that a substantial
+addition could be made to the geographical knowledge of one of the
+least-known parts of South America. Accordingly, it was arranged that
+Colonel Rondon and some assistants and scientists should meet me at or
+below Corumba, and that we should attempt the descent of the river, of
+which they had already come across the headwaters.
+
+I had to travel through Brazil, Uruguay, the Argentine, and Chile for
+six weeks to fulfil my speaking engagements. Fiala, Cherrie, Miller,
+and Sigg left me at Rio, continuing to Buenos Aires in the boat in
+which we had all come down from New York. From Buenos Aires they went
+up the Paraguay to Corumba, where they awaited me. The two naturalists
+went first, to do all the collecting that was possible; Fiala and Sigg
+travelled more leisurely, with the heavy baggage.
+
+Before I followed them I witnessed an incident worthy of note from the
+standpoint of a naturalist, and of possible importance to us because
+of the trip we were about to take. South America, even more than
+Australia and Africa, and almost as much as India, is a country of
+poisonous snakes. As in India, although not to the same degree, these
+snakes are responsible for a very serious mortality among human
+beings. One of the most interesting evidences of the modern advance in
+Brazil is the establishment near Sao Paulo of an institution
+especially for the study of these poisonous snakes, so as to secure
+antidotes to the poison and to develop enemies to the snakes
+themselves. We wished to take into the interior with us some bottles
+of the anti-venom serum, for on such an expedition there is always a
+certain danger from snakes. On one of his trips Cherrie had lost a
+native follower by snake-bite. The man was bitten while out alone in
+the forest, and, although he reached camp, the poison was already
+working in him, so that he could give no intelligible account of what
+had occurred, and he died in a short time.
+
+Poisonous snakes are of several different families, but the most
+poisonous ones, those which are dangerous to man, belong to the two
+great families of the colubrine snakes and the vipers. Most of the
+colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that
+we meet everywhere. But some of them, the cobras for instance, develop
+into what are on the whole perhaps the most formidable of all snakes.
+The only poisonous colubrine snakes in the New World are the ring-
+snakes, the coral-snakes of the genus elaps, which are found from the
+extreme southern United States southward to the Argentine. These
+coral-snakes are not vicious and have small teeth which cannot
+penetrate even ordinary clothing. They are only dangerous if actually
+trodden on by some one with bare feet or if seized in the hand. There
+are harmless snakes very like them in color which are sometimes kept
+as pets; but it behooves every man who keeps such a pet or who handles
+such a snake to be very sure as to the genus to which it belongs.
+
+The great bulk of the poisonous snakes of America, including all the
+really dangerous ones, belong to a division of the widely spread
+family of vipers which is known as the pit-vipers. In South America
+these include two distinct subfamilies or genera--whether they are
+called families, subfamilies, or genera would depend, I suppose,
+largely upon the varying personal views of the individual describer on
+the subject of herpetological nomenclature. One genus includes the
+rattlesnakes, of which the big Brazilian species is as dangerous as
+those of the southern United States. But the large majority of the
+species and individuals of dangerous snakes in tropical America are
+included in the genus lachecis. These are active, vicious, aggressive
+snakes without rattles. They are exceedingly poisonous. Some of them
+grow to a very large size, being indeed among the largest poisonous
+snakes in the world--their only rivals in this respect being the
+diamond rattlesnake of Florida, one of the African mambas, and the
+Indian hamadryad, or snake-eating cobra. The fer-de-lance, so dreaded
+in Martinique, and the equally dangerous bushmaster of Guiana are
+included in this genus. A dozen species are known in Brazil, the
+biggest one being identical with the Guiana bushmaster, and the most
+common one, the jararaca, being identical, or practically identical
+with the fer-de-lance. The snakes of this genus, like the rattlesnakes
+and the Old World vipers and puff-adders, possess long poison-fangs
+which strike through clothes or any other human garment except stout
+leather. Moreover, they are very aggressive, more so than any other
+snakes in the world, except possibly some of the cobras. As, in
+addition, they are numerous, they are a source of really frightful
+danger to scantily clad men who work in the fields and forests, or who
+for any reason are abroad at night.
+
+The poison of venomous serpents is not in the least uniform in its
+quality. On the contrary, the natural forces--to use a term which is
+vague, but which is as exact as our present-day knowledge permits--
+that have developed in so many different families of snakes these
+poisoned fangs have worked in two or three totally different fashions.
+Unlike the vipers, the colubrine poisonous snakes have small fangs,
+and their poison, though on the whole even more deadly, has entirely
+different effects, and owes its deadliness to entirely different
+qualities. Even within the same family there are wide differences. In
+the jararaca an extraordinary quantity of yellow venom is spurted from
+the long poison-fangs. This poison is secreted in large glands which,
+among vipers, give the head its peculiar ace-of-spades shape. The
+rattlesnake yields a much smaller quantity of white venom, but,
+quantity for quantity, this white venom is more deadly. It is the
+great quantity of venom injected by the long fangs of the jararaca,
+the bushmaster, and their fellows that renders their bite so generally
+fatal. Moreover, even between these two allied genera of pit-vipers,
+the differences in the action of the poison are sufficiently marked to
+be easily recognizable, and to render the most effective anti-venomous
+serum for each slightly different from the other. However, they are
+near enough alike to make this difference, in practice, of
+comparatively small consequence. In practice the same serum can be
+used to neutralize the effect of either, and, as will be seen later
+on, the snake that is immune to one kind of venom is also immune to
+the other.
+
+But the effect of the venom of the poisonous colubrine snakes is
+totally different from, although to the full as deadly as, the effect
+of the poison of the rattlesnake or jararaca. The serum that is an
+antidote as regards the colubrines. The animal that is immune to the
+bite of one may not be immune to the bite of the other. The bite of a
+cobra or other colubrine poisonous snake is more painful in its
+immediate effects than is the bite of one of the big vipers. The
+victim suffers more. There is a greater effect on the nerve-centres,
+but less swelling of the wound itself, and, whereas the blood of the
+rattlesnake's victim coagulates, the blood of the victim of an elapine
+snake--that is, of one of the only poisonous American colubrines--
+becomes watery and incapable of coagulation.
+
+Snakes are highly specialized in every way, including their prey. Some
+live exclusively on warm-blooded animals, on mammals, or birds. Some
+live exclusively on batrachians, others only on lizards, a few only on
+insects. A very few species live exclusively on other snakes. These
+include one very formidable venomous snake, the Indian hamadryad, or
+giant cobra, and several non-poisonous snakes. In Africa I killed a
+small cobra which contained within it a snake but a few inches shorter
+than itself; but, as far as I could find out, snakes were not the
+habitual diet of the African cobras.
+
+The poisonous snakes use their venom to kill their victims, and also
+to kill any possible foe which they think menaces them. Some of them
+are good-tempered, and only fight if injured or seriously alarmed.
+Others are excessively irritable, and on rare occasions will even
+attack of their own accord when entirely unprovoked and unthreatened.
+
+On reaching Sao Paulo on our southward journey from Rio to Montevideo,
+we drove out to the "Instituto Serumtherapico," designed for the study
+of the effects of the venom of poisonous Brazilian snakes. Its
+director is Doctor Vital Brazil, who has performed a most
+extraordinary work and whose experiments and investigations are not
+only of the utmost value to Brazil but will ultimately be recognized
+as of the utmost value for humanity at large. I know of no institution
+of similar kind anywhere. It has a fine modern building, with all the
+best appliances, in which experiments are carried on with all kinds of
+serpents, living and dead, with the object of discovering all the
+properties of their several kinds of venom, and of developing various
+anti-venom serums which nullify the effects of the different venoms.
+Every effort is made to teach the people at large by practical
+demonstration in the open field the lessons thus learned in the
+laboratory. One notable result has been the diminution in the
+mortality from snake-bites in the province of Sao Paulo.
+
+In connection with his institute, and right by the laboratory, the
+doctor has a large serpentarium, in which quantities of the common
+poisonous and non-poisonous snakes are kept, and some of the rarer
+ones. He has devoted considerable time to the effort to find out if
+there are any natural enemies of the poisonous snakes of his country,
+and he has discovered that the most formidable enemy of the many
+dangerous Brazilian snakes is a non-poisonous, entirely harmless,
+rather uncommon Brazilian snake, the mussurama. Of all the interesting
+things the doctor showed us, by far the most interesting was the
+opportunity of witnessing for ourselves the action of the mussurama
+toward a dangerous snake.
+
+The doctor first showed us specimens of the various important snakes,
+poisonous and non-poisonous, in alcohol. Then he showed us
+preparations of the different kinds of venom and of the different
+anti-venom serums, presenting us with some of the latter for our use
+on the journey. He has been able to produce two distinct kinds of
+anti-venom serum, one to neutralize the virulent poison of the
+rattlesnake's bite, the other to neutralize the poison of the
+different snakes of the lachecis genus. These poisons are somewhat
+different and moreover there appear to be some differences between the
+poisons of the different species of lachecis; in some cases the poison
+is nearly colorless, and in others, as in that of the jararaca, whose
+poison I saw, it is yellow.
+
+But the vital difference is that between all these poisons of the pit-
+vipers and the poisons of the colubrine snakes, such as the cobra and
+the coral-snake. As yet the doctor has not been able to develop an
+anti-venom serum which will neutralize the poison of these colubrine
+snakes. Practically this is a matter of little consequence in Brazil,
+for the Brazilian coral-snakes are dangerous only when mishandled by
+some one whose bare skin is exposed to the bite. The numerous
+accidents and fatalities continually occurring in Brazil are almost
+always to be laid to the account of the several species of lachecis
+and the single species of rattlesnake.
+
+Finally, the doctor took us into his lecture-room to show us how he
+conducted his experiments. The various snakes were in boxes, on one
+side of the room, under the care of a skilful and impassive assistant,
+who handled them with the cool and fearless caution of the doctor
+himself. The poisonous ones were taken out by means of a long-handled
+steel hook. All that is necessary to do is to insert this under the
+snake and lift him off the ground. He is not only unable to escape,
+but he is unable to strike, for he cannot strike unless coiled so as
+to give himself support and leverage. The table on which the snakes
+are laid is fairly large and smooth, differing in no way from an
+ordinary table.
+
+There were a number of us in the room, including two or three
+photographers. The doctor first put on the table a non-poisonous but
+very vicious and truculent colubrine snake. It struck right and left
+at us. Then the doctor picked it up, opened its mouth, and showed that
+it had no fangs, and handed it to me. I also opened its mouth and
+examined its teeth, and then put it down, whereupon, its temper having
+been much ruffled, it struck violently at me two or three times. In
+its action and temper this snake was quite as vicious as the most
+irritable poisonous snakes. Yet it is entirely harmless. One of the
+innumerable mysteries of nature which are at present absolutely
+insoluble is why some snakes should be so vicious and others
+absolutely placid and good-tempered.
+
+After removing the vicious harmless snake, the doctor warned us to get
+away from the table, and his attendant put on it, in succession, a
+very big lachecis--of the kind called bushmaster--and a big
+rattlesnake. Each coiled menacingly, a formidable brute ready to
+attack anything that approached. Then the attendant adroitly dropped
+his iron crook on the neck of each in succession, seized it right
+behind the head, and held it toward the doctor. The snake's mouth was
+in each case wide open, and the great fangs erect and very evident. It
+would not have been possible to have held an African ring-necked cobra
+in such fashion, because the ring-neck would have ejected its venom
+through the fangs into the eyes of the onlookers. There was no danger
+in this case, and the doctor inserted a shallow glass saucer into the
+mouth of the snake behind the fangs, permitted it to eject its poison,
+and then himself squeezed out the remaining poison from the poison-
+bags through the fangs. From the big lachecis came a large quantity of
+yellow venom, a liquid which speedily crystallized into a number of
+minute crystals. The rattlesnake yielded a much less quantity of white
+venom, which the doctor assured us was far more active than the yellow
+lachecis venom. Then each snake was returned to its box unharmed.
+
+After this the doctor took out of a box and presented to me a fine,
+handsome, nearly black snake, an individual of the species called the
+mussurama. This is in my eyes perhaps the most interesting serpent in
+the world. It is a big snake, four or five feet long, sometimes even
+longer, nearly black, lighter below, with a friendly, placid temper.
+It lives exclusively on other snakes, and is completely immune to the
+poison of the lachecis and rattlesnake groups, which contain all the
+really dangerous snakes of America. Doctor Brazil told me that he had
+conducted many experiments with this interesting snake. It is not very
+common, and prefers wet places in which to live. It lays eggs, and the
+female remains coiled above the eggs, the object being apparently not
+to warm them, but to prevent too great evaporation. It will not eat
+when moulting, nor in cold weather. Otherwise it will eat a small
+snake every five or six days, or a big one every fortnight.
+
+There is the widest difference, both among poisonous and non-poisonous
+snakes, not alone in nervousness and irascibility but also in ability
+to accustom themselves to out-of-the-way surroundings. Many species of
+non-poisonous snakes which are entirely harmless, to man or to any
+other animal except their small prey, are nevertheless very vicious
+and truculent, striking right and left and biting freely on the
+smallest provocation--this is the case with the species of which the
+doctor had previously placed a specimen on the table. Moreover, many
+snakes, some entirely harmless and some vicious ones, are so nervous
+and uneasy that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be induced
+to eat in captivity, and the slightest disturbance or interference
+will prevent their eating. There are other snakes, however, of which
+the mussurama is perhaps the best example, which are very good
+captives, and at the same time very fearless, showing a complete
+indifference not only to being observed but to being handled when they
+are feeding.
+
+There is in the United States a beautiful and attractive snake, the
+king-snake, with much the same habits as the mussurama. It is friendly
+toward mankind, and not poisonous, so that it can be handled freely.
+It feeds on other serpents, and will kill a rattlesnake as big as
+itself, being immune to the rattlesnake venom. Mr. Ditmars, of the
+Bronx Zoo, has made many interesting experiments with these king-
+snakes. I have had them in my own possession. They are good-natured
+and can generally be handled with impunity, but I have known them to
+bite, whereas Doctor Brazil informed me that it was almost impossible
+to make the mussurama bite a man. The king-snake will feed greedily on
+other snakes in the presence of man--I knew of one case where it
+partly swallowed another snake while both were in a small boy's
+pocket. It is immune to viper poison but it is not immune to colubrine
+poison. A couple of years ago I was informed of a case where one of
+these king-snakes was put into an enclosure with an Indian snake-
+eating cobra or hamadryad of about the same size. It killed the cobra
+but made no effort to swallow it, and very soon showed the effects of
+the cobra poison. I believe it afterward died, but unfortunately I
+have mislaid my notes and cannot now remember the details of the
+incident.
+
+Doctor Brazil informed me that the mussurama, like the king-snake, was
+not immune to the colubrine poison. A mussurama in his possession,
+which had with impunity killed and eaten several rattlesnakes and
+representatives of the lachecis genus, also killed and ate a venomous
+coral-snake, but shortly afterward itself died from the effects of the
+poison. It is one of the many puzzles of nature that these American
+serpents which kill poisonous serpents should only have grown immune
+to the poison of the most dangerous American poisonous serpents, the
+pit-vipers, and should not have become immune to the poison of the
+coral-snakes which are commonly distributed throughout their range.
+Yet, judging by the one instance mentioned by Doctor Brazil, they
+attack and master these coral-snakes, although the conflict in the end
+results in their death. It would be interesting to find out whether
+this attack was exceptional, that is, whether the mussurama has or has
+not as a species learned to avoid the coral-snake. If it was not
+exceptional, then not only is the instance highly curious in itself,
+but it would also go far to explain the failure of the mussurama to
+become plentiful.
+
+For the benefit of those who are not acquainted with the subject, I
+may mention that the poison of a poisonous snake is not dangerous to
+its own species unless injected in very large doses, about ten times
+what would normally be injected by a bite; but that it is deadly to
+all other snakes, poisonous or non-poisonous, save as regards the very
+few species which themselves eat poisonous snakes. The Indian
+hamadryad, or giant cobra, is exclusively a snake-eater. It evidently
+draws a sharp distinction between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes,
+for Mr. Ditmars has recorded that two individuals in the Bronx Zoo
+which are habitually fed on harmless snakes, and attack them eagerly,
+refused to attack a copperhead which was thrown into their cage, being
+evidently afraid of this pit-viper. It would be interesting to find
+out if the hamadryad is afraid to prey on all pit-vipers, and also
+whether it will prey on its small relative, the true cobra--for it may
+well be that, even if not immune to the viper poison, it is immune to
+the poison of its close ally, the smaller cobra.
+
+All these and many other questions would be speedily settled by Doctor
+Brazil if he were given the opportunity to test them. It must be
+remembered, moreover, that not only have his researches been of
+absorbing value from the standpoint of pure science but that they also
+have a real utilitarian worth. He is now collecting and breeding the
+mussurama. The favorite prey of the mussurama is the most common and
+therefore the most dangerous poisonous snake of Brazil, the jararaca,
+which is known in Martinique as the fer-de-lance. In Martinique and
+elsewhere this snake is such an object of terror as to be at times a
+genuine scourge. Surely it would be worth while for the authorities of
+Martinique to import specimens of the mussurama to that island. The
+mortality from snake-bite in British India is very great. Surely it
+would be well worth while for the able Indian Government to copy
+Brazil and create such an institute as that over which Doctor Vital
+Brazil is the curator.
+
+At first sight it seems extraordinary that poisonous serpents, so
+dreaded by and so irresistible to most animals, should be so utterly
+helpless before the few creatures that prey on them. But the
+explanation is easy. Any highly specialized creature, the higher its
+specialization, is apt to be proportionately helpless when once its
+peculiar specialized traits are effectively nullified by an opponent.
+This is eminently the case with the most dangerous poisonous snakes.
+In them a highly peculiar specialization has been carried to the
+highest point. They rely for attack and defence purely on their
+poison-fangs. All other means and methods of attack and defence have
+atrophied. They neither crush nor tear with their teeth nor constrict
+with their bodies. The poison-fangs are slender and delicate, and,
+save for the poison, the wound inflicted is of a trivial character. In
+consequence they are helpless in the presence of any animal which the
+poison does not affect. There are several mammals immune to snake-
+bite, including various species of hedgehog, pig, and mongoose--the
+other mammals which kill them do so by pouncing on them unawares or by
+avoiding their stroke through sheer quickness of movement; and
+probably this is the case with most snake-eating birds. The mongoose
+is very quick, but in some cases at least--I have mentioned one in the
+"African Game Trails"--it permits itself to be bitten by poisonous
+snakes, treating the bite with utter indifference. There should be
+extensive experiments made to determine if there are species of
+mongoose immune to both cobra and viper poison. Hedgehogs, as
+determined by actual experiments, pay no heed at all to viper poison
+even when bitten on such tender places as the tongue and lips and eat
+the snake as if it were a radish. Even among animals which are not
+immune to the poison different species are very differently affected
+by the different kinds of snake poisons. Not only are some species
+more resistant than others to all poisons, but there is a wide
+variation in the amount of immunity each displays to any given venom.
+One species will be quickly killed by the poison from one species of
+snake, and be fairly resistant to the poison of another; whereas in
+another species the conditions may be directly reversed.
+
+The mussurama which Doctor Brazil handed me was a fine specimen,
+perhaps four and a half feet long. I lifted the smooth, lithe bulk in
+my hands, and then let it twist its coils so that it rested at ease in
+my arms; it glided to and fro, on its own length, with the sinuous
+grace of its kind, and showed not the slightest trace of either
+nervousness or bad temper. Meanwhile the doctor bade his attendant put
+on the table a big jararaca, or fer-de-lance, which was accordingly
+done. The jararaca was about three feet and a half, or perhaps nearly
+four feet long--that is, it was about nine inches shorter than the
+mussurama. The latter, which I continued to hold in my arms, behaved
+with friendly and impassive indifference, moving easily to and fro
+through my hands, and once or twice hiding its head between the sleeve
+and the body of my coat. The doctor was not quite sure how the
+mussurama would behave, for it had recently eaten a small snake, and
+unless hungry it pays no attention whatever to venomous snakes, even
+when they attack and bite it. However, it fortunately proved still to
+have a good appetite.
+
+The jararaca was alert and vicious. It partly coiled itself on the
+table, threatening the bystanders. I put the big black serpent down on
+the table four or five feet from the enemy and headed in its
+direction. As soon as I let go with my hands it glided toward where
+the threatening, formidable-looking lance-head lay stretched in a half
+coil. The mussurama displayed not the slightest sign of excitement.
+Apparently it trusted little to its eyes, for it began to run its head
+along the body of the jararaca, darting out its flickering tongue to
+feel just where it was, as it nosed its way up toward the head of its
+antagonist. So placid were its actions that I did not at first suppose
+that it meant to attack, for there was not the slightest exhibition of
+anger or excitement.
+
+It was the jararaca that began the fight. It showed no fear whatever
+of its foe, but its irritable temper was aroused by the proximity and
+actions of the other, and like a flash it drew back its head and
+struck, burying its fangs in the forward part of the mussurama's body.
+Immediately the latter struck in return, and the counter-attack was so
+instantaneous that it was difficult to see just what had happened.
+There was tremendous writhing and struggling on the part of the
+jararaca; and then, leaning over the knot into which the two serpents
+were twisted, I saw that the mussurama had seized the jararaca by the
+lower jaw, putting its own head completely into the wide-gaping mouth
+of the poisonous snake. The long fangs were just above the top of the
+mussurama's head; and it appeared, as well as I could see, that they
+were once again driven into the mussurama; but without the slightest
+effect. Then the fangs were curved back in the jaw, a fact which I
+particularly noted, and all effort at the offensive was abandoned by
+the poisonous snake.
+
+Meanwhile the mussurama was chewing hard, and gradually shifted its
+grip, little by little, until it got the top of the head of the
+jararaca in its mouth, the lower jaw of the jararaca being spread out
+to one side. The venomous serpent was helpless; the fearsome master of
+the wild life of the forest, the deadly foe of humankind, was itself
+held in the grip of death. Its cold, baleful serpent's eyes shone, as
+evil as ever. But it was dying. In vain it writhed and struggled.
+Nothing availed it.
+
+Once or twice the mussurama took a turn round the middle of the body
+of its opponent, but it did not seem to press hard, and apparently
+used its coils chiefly in order to get a better grip so as to crush
+the head of its antagonist, or to hold the latter in place. This
+crushing was done by its teeth; and the repeated bites were made with
+such effort that the muscles stood out on the mussurama's neck. Then
+it took two coils round the neck of the jararaca and proceeded
+deliberately to try to break the backbone of its opponent by twisting
+the head round. With this purpose it twisted its own head and neck
+round so that the lighter-colored surface was uppermost; and indeed at
+one time it looked as if it had made almost a complete single spiral
+revolution of its own body. It never for a moment relaxed its grip
+except to shift slightly the jaws.
+
+In a few minutes the jararaca was dead, its head crushed in, although
+the body continued to move convulsively. When satisfied that its
+opponent was dead, the mussurama began to try to get the head in its
+mouth. This was a process of some difficulty on account of the angle
+at which the lower jaw of the jararaca stuck out. But finally the head
+was taken completely inside and then swallowed. After this, the
+mussurama proceeded deliberately, but with unbroken speed, to devour
+its opponent by the simple process of crawling outside it, the body
+and tail of the jararaca writhing and struggling until the last.
+During the early portion of the meal, the mussurama put a stop to this
+writhing and struggling by resting its own body on that of its prey;
+but toward the last the part of the body that remained outside was
+left free to wriggle as it wished.
+
+Not only was the mussurama totally indifferent to our presence, but it
+was totally indifferent to being handled while the meal was going on.
+Several times I replaced the combatants in the middle of the table
+when they had writhed to the edge, and finally, when the photographers
+found that they could not get good pictures, I held the mussurama up
+against a white background with the partially swallowed snake in its
+mouth; and the feast went on uninterruptedly. I never saw cooler or
+more utterly unconcerned conduct; and the ease and certainty with
+which the terrible poisonous snake was mastered gave me the heartiest
+respect and liking for the easy-going, good-natured, and exceedingly
+efficient serpent which I had been holding in my arms.
+
+Our trip was not intended as a hunting-trip but as a scientific
+expedition. Before starting on the trip itself, while travelling in
+the Argentine, I received certain pieces of first-hand information
+concerning the natural history of the jaguar, and of the cougar, or
+puma, which are worth recording. The facts about the jaguar are not
+new in the sense of casting new light on its character, although they
+are interesting; but the facts about the behavior of the puma in one
+district of Patagonia are of great interest, because they give an
+entirely new side of its life-history.
+
+There was travelling with me at the time Doctor Francisco P. Moreno,
+of Buenos Aires. Doctor Moreno is at the present day a member of the
+National Board of Education of the Argentine, a man who has worked in
+every way for the benefit of his country, perhaps especially for the
+benefit of the children, so that when he was first introduced to me it
+was as the "Jacob Riis of the Argentine"--for they know my deep and
+affectionate intimacy with Jacob Riis. He is also an eminent man of
+science, who has done admirable work as a geologist and a geographer.
+At one period, in connection with his duties as a boundary
+commissioner on the survey between Chile and the Argentine, he worked
+for years in Patagonia. It was he who made the extraordinary discovery
+in a Patagonian cave of the still fresh fragments of skin and other
+remains of the mylodon, the aberrant horse known as the onohipidium,
+the huge South American tiger, and the macrauchenia, all of them
+extinct animals. This discovery showed that some of the strange
+representatives of the giant South American Pleistocene fauna had
+lasted down to within a comparatively few thousand years, down to the
+time when man, substantially as the Spaniards found him, flourished on
+the continent. Incidentally the discovery tended to show that this
+fauna had lasted much later in South America than was the case with
+the corresponding faunas in other parts of the world; and therefore it
+tended to disprove the claims advanced by Doctor Ameghino for the
+extreme age, geologically, of this fauna, and for the extreme
+antiquity of man on the American continent.
+
+One day Doctor Moreno handed me a copy of The Outlook containing my
+account of a cougar-hunt in Arizona, saying that he noticed that I had
+very little faith in cougars attacking men, although I had explicitly
+stated that such attacks sometimes occurred. I told him, Yes, that I
+had found that the cougar was practically harmless to man, the
+undoubtedly authentic instances of attacks on men being so exceptional
+that they could in practice be wholly disregarded. Thereupon Doctor
+Moreno showed me a scar on his face, and told me that he had himself
+been attacked and badly mauled by a puma which was undoubtedly trying
+to prey on him; that is, which had started on a career as a man-eater.
+This was to me most interesting. I had often met men who knew other
+men who had seen other men who said that they had been attacked by
+pumas, but this was the first time that I had ever come across a man
+who had himself been attacked. Doctor Moreno, as I have said, is not
+only an eminent citizen, but an eminent scientific man, and his
+account of what occurred is unquestionably a scientifically accurate
+statement of the facts. I give it exactly as the doctor told it;
+paraphrasing a letter he sent me, and including one or two answers to
+questions I put to him. The doctor, by the way, stated to me that he
+had known Mr. Hudson, the author of the "Naturalist on the Plata," and
+that the latter knew nothing whatever of pumas from personal
+experience and had accepted as facts utterly wild fables.
+
+Undoubtedly, said the doctor, the puma in South America, like the puma
+in North America, is, as a general rule, a cowardly animal which not
+only never attacks man, but rarely makes any efficient defence when
+attacked. The Indian and white hunters have no fear of it in most
+parts of the country, and its harmlessness to man is proverbial. But
+there is one particular spot in southern Patagonia where cougars, to
+the doctor's own personal knowledge, have for years been dangerous
+foes of man. This curious local change in habits, by the way, is
+nothing unprecedented as regards wild animals. In portions of its
+range, as I am informed by Mr. Lord Smith, the Asiatic tiger can
+hardly be forced to fight man, and never preys on him, while
+throughout most of its range it is a most dangerous beast, and often
+turns man-eater. So there are waters in which sharks are habitual man-
+eaters, and others where they never touch men; and there are rivers
+and lakes where crocodiles or caymans are very dangerous, and others
+where they are practically harmless--I have myself seen this in
+Africa.
+
+In March, 1877, Doctor Moreno with a party of men working on the
+boundary commission, and with a number of Patagonian horse-Indians,
+was encamped for some weeks beside Lake Viedma, which had not before
+been visited by white men for a century, and which was rarely visited
+even by Indians. One morning, just before sunrise, he left his camp by
+the south shore of the lake, to make a topographical sketch of the
+lake. He was unarmed, but carried a prismatic compass in a leather
+case with a strap. It was cold, and he wrapped his poncho of guanaco-
+hide round his neck and head. He had walked a few hundred yards, when
+a puma, a female, sprang on him from behind and knocked him down. As
+she sprang on him she tried to seize his head with one paw, striking
+him on the shoulder with the other. She lacerated his mouth and also
+his back, but tumbled over with him, and in the scuffle they separated
+before she could bite him. He sprang to his feet, and, as he said, was
+forced to think quickly. She had recovered herself, and sat on her
+haunches like a cat, looking at him, and then crouched to spring
+again; whereupon he whipped off his poncho, and as she sprang at him
+he opened it, and at the same moment hit her head with the prismatic
+compass in its case which he held by the strap. She struck the poncho
+and was evidently puzzled by it, for, turning, she slunk off to one
+side, under a bush, and then proceeded to try to get round behind him.
+He faced her, keeping his eyes upon her, and backed off. She followed
+him for three or four hundred yards. At least twice she came up to
+attack him, but each time he opened his poncho and yelled, and at the
+last moment she shrank back. She continually, however, tried, by
+taking advantage of cover, to sneak up to one side, or behind, to
+attack him. Finally, when he got near camp, she abandoned the pursuit
+and went into a small patch of bushes. He raised the alarm; an Indian
+rode up and set fire to the bushes from the windward side. When the
+cougar broke from the bushes, the Indian rode after her, and threw his
+bolas, which twisted around her hind legs; and while she was
+struggling to free herself, he brained her with his second bolas. The
+doctor's injuries were rather painful, but not serious.
+
+Twenty-one years later, in April, 1898, he was camped on the same
+lake, but on the north shore, at the foot of a basaltic cliff. He was
+in company with four soldiers, with whom he had travelled from the
+Strait of Magellan. In the night he was aroused by the shriek of a man
+and the barking of his dogs. As the men sprang up from where they were
+lying asleep they saw a large puma run off out of the firelight into
+the darkness. It had sprung on a soldier named Marcelino Huquen while
+he was asleep, and had tried to carry him off. Fortunately, the man
+was so wrapped up in his blanket, as the night was cold, that he was
+not injured. The puma was never found or killed.
+
+About the same time a surveyor of Doctor Moreno's party, a Swede named
+Arneberg, was attacked in similar fashion. The doctor was not with him
+at the time. Mr. Arneberg was asleep in the forest near Lake San
+Martin. The cougar both bit and clawed him, and tore his mouth,
+breaking out three teeth. The man was rescued; but this puma also
+escaped.
+
+The doctor stated that in this particular locality the Indians, who
+elsewhere paid no heed whatever to the puma, never let their women go
+out after wood for fuel unless two or three were together. This was
+because on several occasions women who had gone out alone were killed
+by pumas. Evidently in this one locality the habit of at least
+occasional man-eating has become chronic with a species which
+elsewhere is the most cowardly, and to man the least dangerous, of all
+the big cats.
+
+These observations of Doctor Moreno have a peculiar value, because, as
+far as I know, they are the first trustworthy accounts of a cougar's
+having attacked man save under circumstances so exceptional as to make
+the attack signify little more than the similar exceptional instances
+of attack by various other species of wild animals that are not
+normally dangerous to man.
+
+The jaguar, however, has long been known not only to be a dangerous
+foe when itself attacked, but also now and then to become a man-eater.
+Therefore the instances of such attacks furnished me are of merely
+corroborative value.
+
+In the excellent zoological gardens at Buenos Aires the curator,
+Doctor Onelli, a naturalist of note, showed us a big male jaguar which
+had been trapped in the Chaco, where it had already begun a career as
+a man-eater, having killed three persons. They were killed, and two of
+them were eaten; the animal was trapped, in consequence of the alarm
+excited by the death of his third victim. This jaguar was very savage;
+whereas a young jaguar, which was in a cage with a young tiger, was
+playful and friendly, as was also the case with the young tiger. On my
+trip to visit La Plata Museum I was accompanied by Captain Vicente
+Montes, of the Argentine Navy, an accomplished officer of scientific
+attainments. He had at one time been engaged on a survey of the
+boundary between the Argentine and Parana and Brazil. They had a
+quantity of dried beef in camp. On several occasions a jaguar came
+into camp after this dried beef. Finally they succeeded in protecting
+it so that he could not reach it. The result, however, was disastrous.
+On the next occasion that he visited camp, at midnight, he seized a
+man. Everybody was asleep at the time, and the jaguar came in so
+noiselessly as to elude the vigilance of the dogs. As he seized the
+man, the latter gave one yell, but the next moment was killed, the
+jaguar driving his fangs through the man's skull into the brain. There
+was a scene of uproar and confusion, and the jaguar was forced to drop
+his prey and flee into the woods. Next morning they followed him with
+the dogs, and finally killed him. He was a large male, in first-class
+condition. The only features of note about these two incidents was
+that in each case the man-eater was a powerful animal in the prime of
+life; whereas it frequently happens that the jaguars that turn man-
+eaters are old animals, and have become too inactive or too feeble to
+catch their ordinary prey.
+
+During the two months before starting from Asuncion, in Paraguay, for
+our journey into the interior, I was kept so busy that I had scant
+time to think of natural history. But in a strange land a man who
+cares for wild birds and wild beasts always sees and hears something
+that is new to him and interests him. In the dense tropical woods near
+Rio Janeiro I heard in late October--springtime, near the southern
+tropic--the songs of many birds that I could not identify. But the
+most beautiful music was from a shy woodland thrush, sombre-colored,
+which lived near the ground in the thick timber, but sang high among
+the branches. At a great distance we could hear the ringing, musical,
+bell-like note, long-drawn and of piercing sweetness, which occurs at
+intervals in the song; at first I thought this was the song, but when
+it was possible to approach the singer I found that these far-sounding
+notes were scattered through a continuous song of great melody. I
+never listened to one that impressed me more. In different places in
+Argentina I heard and saw the Argentine mocking-bird, which is not
+very unlike our own, and is also a delightful and remarkable singer.
+But I never heard the wonderful white-banded mocking-bird, which is
+said by Hudson, who knew well the birds of both South America and
+Europe, to be the song-king of them all.
+
+Most of the birds I thus noticed while hurriedly passing through the
+country were, of course, the conspicuous ones. The spurred lapwings,
+big, tame, boldly marked plover, were everywhere; they were very noisy
+and active and both inquisitive and daring, and they have a very
+curious dance custom. No man need look for them. They will look for
+him, and when they find him they will fairly yell the discovery to the
+universe. In the marshes of the lower Parana I saw flocks of scarlet-
+headed blackbirds on the tops of the reeds; the females are as
+strikingly colored as the males, and their jet-black bodies and
+brilliant red heads make it impossible for them to escape observation
+among their natural surroundings. On the plains to the west I saw
+flocks of the beautiful rose-breasted starlings; unlike the red-headed
+blackbirds, which seemed fairly to court attention, these starlings
+sought to escape observation by crouching on the ground so that their
+red breasts were hidden. There were yellow-shouldered blackbirds in
+wet places, and cow-buntings abounded.
+
+But the most conspicuous birds I saw were members of the family of
+tyrant flycatchers, of which our own king-bird is the most familiar
+example. This family is very numerously represented in Argentina, both
+in species and individuals. Some of the species are so striking, both
+in color and habits, and in one case also in shape, as to attract the
+attention of even the unobservant. The least conspicuous, and
+nevertheless very conspicuous, among those that I saw was the
+bientevido, which is brown above, yellow beneath, with a boldly marked
+black and white head, and a yellow crest. It is very noisy, is common
+in the neighborhood of houses, and builds a big domed nest. It is
+really a big, heavy kingbird, fiercer and more powerful than any
+northern kingbird. I saw them assail not only the big but the small
+hawks with fearlessness, driving them in headlong flight. They not
+only capture insects, but pounce on mice, small frogs, lizards, and
+little snakes, rob birds' nests of the fledgling young, and catch
+tadpoles and even small fish.
+
+Two of the tyrants which I observed are like two with which I grew
+fairly familiar in Texas. The scissor-tail is common throughout the
+open country, and the long tail feathers, which seem at times to
+hamper its flight, attract attention whether the bird is in flight or
+perched on a tree. It has a habit of occasionally soaring into the air
+and descending in loops and spirals. The scarlet tyrant I saw in the
+orchards and gardens. The male is a fascinating little bird, coal-
+black above, while his crested head and the body beneath are brilliant
+scarlet. He utters his rapid, low-voiced musical trill in the air,
+rising with fluttering wings to a height of a hundred feet, hovering
+while he sings, and then falling back to earth. The color of the bird
+and the character of his performance attract the attention of every
+observer, bird, beast, or man, within reach of vision.
+
+The red-backed tyrant is utterly unlike any of his kind in the United
+States, and until I looked him up in Sclater and Hudson's ornithology
+I never dreamed that he belonged to this family. He--for only the male
+is so brightly colored--is coal-black with a dull-red back. I saw
+these birds on December 1 near Barilloche, out on the bare Patagonian
+plains. They behaved like pipits or longspurs, running actively over
+the ground in the same manner and showing the same restlessness and
+the same kind of flight. But whereas pipits are inconspicuous, the
+red-backs at once attracted attention by the contrast between their
+bold coloring and the grayish or yellowish tones of the ground along
+which they ran. The silver-bill tyrant, however, is much more
+conspicuous; I saw it in the same neighborhood as the red-back and
+also in many other places. The male is jet-black, with white bill and
+wings. He runs about on the ground like a pipit, but also frequently
+perches on some bush to go through a strange flight-song performance.
+He perches motionless, bolt upright, and even then his black coloring
+advertises him for a quarter of a mile round about. But every few
+minutes he springs up into the air to the height of twenty or thirty
+feet, the white wings flashing in contrast to the black body, screams
+and gyrates, and then instantly returns to his former post and resumes
+his erect pose of waiting. It is hard to imagine a more conspicuous
+bird than the silver-bill; but the next and last tyrant flycatcher of
+which I shall speak possesses on the whole the most advertising
+coloration of any small bird I have ever seen in the open country, and
+moreover this advertising coloration exists in both sexes and
+throughout the year. It is a brilliant white, all over, except the
+long wing-quills and the ends of the tail-feathers, which are black.
+The first one I saw, at a very long distance, I thought must be an
+albino. It perches on the top of a bush or tree watching for its prey,
+and it shines in the sun like a silver mirror. Every hawk, cat, or man
+must see it; no one can help seeing it.
+
+These common Argentine birds, most of them of the open country, and
+all of them with a strikingly advertising coloration, are interesting
+because of their beauty and their habits. They are also interesting
+because they offer such illuminating examples of the truth that many
+of the most common and successful birds not merely lack a concealing
+coloration, but possess a coloration which is in the highest degree
+revealing. The coloration and the habits of most of these birds are
+such that every hawk or other foe that can see at all must have its
+attention attracted to them. Evidently in their cases neither the
+coloration nor any habit of concealment based on the coloration is a
+survival factor, and this although they live in a land teeming with
+bird-eating hawks. Among the higher vertebrates there are many known
+factors which have influence, some in one set of cases, some in
+another set of cases, in the development and preservation of species.
+Courage, intelligence, adaptability, prowess, bodily vigor, speed,
+alertness, ability to hide, ability to build structures which will
+protect the young while they are helpless, fecundity--all, and many
+more like them, have their several places; and behind all these
+visible causes there are at work other and often more potent causes of
+which as yet science can say nothing. Some species owe much to a given
+attribute which may be wholly lacking in influence on other species;
+and every one of the attributes above enumerated is a survival factor
+in some species, while in others it has no survival value whatever,
+and in yet others, although of benefit, it is not of sufficient
+benefit to offset the benefit conferred on foes or rivals by totally
+different attributes. Intelligence, for instance, is of course a
+survival factor; but to-day there exist multitudes of animals with
+very little intelligence which have persisted through immense periods
+of geologic time either unchanged or else without any change in the
+direction of increased intelligence; and during their species-life
+they have witnessed the death of countless other species of far
+greater intelligence but in other ways less adapted to succeed in the
+environmental complex. The same statement can be made of all the many,
+many other known factors in development, from fecundity to concealing
+coloration; and behind them lie forces as to which we veil our
+ignorance by the use of high-sounding nomenclature--as when we use
+such a convenient but far from satisfactory term as orthogenesis.
+
+
+
+                         II. UP THE PARAGUAY
+
+On the afternoon of December 9 we left the attractive and picturesque
+city of Asuncion to ascend the Paraguay. With generous courtesy the
+Paraguayan Government had put at my disposal the gunboat-yacht of the
+President himself, a most comfortable river steamer, and so the
+opening days of our trip were pleasant in every way. The food was
+good, our quarters were clean, we slept well, below or on deck,
+usually without our mosquito-nettings, and in daytime the deck was
+pleasant under the awnings. It was hot, of course, but we were dressed
+suitably in our exploring and hunting clothes and did not mind the
+heat. The river was low, for there had been dry weather for some weeks
+--judging from the vague and contradictory information I received
+there is much elasticity to the terms wet season and dry season at
+this part of the Paraguay. Under the brilliant sky we steamed steadily
+up the mighty river; the sunset was glorious as we leaned on the port
+railing; and after nightfall the moon, nearly full and hanging high in
+the heavens, turned the water to shimmering radiance. On the mud-flats
+and sandbars, and among the green rushes of the bays and inlets, were
+stately water-fowl; crimson flamingoes and rosy spoonbills, dark-
+colored ibis and white storks with black wings. Darters, with
+snakelike necks and pointed bills, perched in the trees on the brink
+of the river. Snowy egrets flapped across the marshes. Caymans were
+common, and differed from the crocodiles we had seen in Africa in two
+points: they were not alarmed by the report of a rifle when fired at,
+and they lay with the head raised instead of stretched along the sand.
+
+For three days, as we steamed northward toward the Tropic of
+Capricorn, and then passed it, we were within the Republic of
+Paraguay. On our right, to the east, there was a fairly well-settled
+country, where bananas and oranges were cultivated and other crops of
+hot countries raised. On the banks we passed an occasional small town,
+or saw a ranch-house close to the river's brink, or stopped for wood
+at some little settlement. Across the river to the west lay the level,
+swampy, fertile wastes known as the Chaco, still given over either to
+the wild Indians or to cattle-ranching on a gigantic scale. The broad
+river ran in curves between mud-banks where terraces marked successive
+periods of flood. A belt of forest stood on each bank, but it was only
+a couple of hundred yards wide. Back of it was the open country; on
+the Chaco side this was a vast plain of grass, dotted with tall,
+graceful palms. In places the belt of forest vanished and the palm-
+dotted prairie came to the river's edge. The Chaco is an ideal cattle
+country, and not really unhealthy. It will be covered with ranches at
+a not distant day. But mosquitoes and many other winged insect pests
+swarm over it. Cherrie and Miller had spent a week there collecting
+mammals and birds prior to my arrival at Asuncion. They were veterans
+of the tropics, hardened to the insect plagues of Guiana and the
+Orinoco. But they reported that never had they been so tortured as in
+the Chaco. The sand-flies crawled through the meshes in the mosquito-
+nets, and forbade them to sleep; if in their sleep a knee touched the
+net the mosquitoes fell on it so that it looked as if riddled by
+birdshot; and the nights were a torment, although they had done well
+in their work, collecting some two hundred and fifty specimens of
+birds and mammals.
+
+Nevertheless for some as yet inscrutable reason the river served as a
+barrier to certain insects which are menaces to the cattlemen. With me
+on the gunboat was an old Western friend, Tex Rickard, of the
+Panhandle and Alaska and various places in between. He now has a large
+tract of land and some thirty-five thousand head of cattle in the
+Chaco, opposite Concepcion, at which city he was to stop. He told me
+that horses did not do well in the Chaco but that cattle throve, and
+that while ticks swarmed on the east bank of the great river, they
+would not live on the west bank. Again and again he had crossed herds
+of cattle which were covered with the loathsome bloodsuckers; and in a
+couple of months every tick would be dead. The worst animal foes of
+man, indeed the only dangerous foes, are insects; and this is
+especially true in the tropics. Fortunately, exactly as certain
+differences too minute for us as yet to explain render some insects
+deadly to man or domestic animals, while closely allied forms are
+harmless, so, for other reasons, which also we are not as yet able to
+fathom, these insects are for the most part strictly limited by
+geographical and other considerations. The war against what Sir Harry
+Johnston calls the really material devil, the devil of evil wild
+nature in the tropics, has been waged with marked success only during
+the last two decades. The men, in the United States, in England,
+France, Germany, Italy--the men like Doctor Cruz in Rio Janeiro and
+Doctor Vital Brazil in Sao Paulo--who work experimentally within and
+without the laboratory in their warfare against the disease and death
+bearing insects and microbes, are the true leaders in the fight to
+make the tropics the home of civilized man.
+
+Late on the evening of the second day of our trip, just before
+midnight, we reached Concepcion. On this day, when we stopped for wood
+or to get provisions--at picturesque places, where the women from
+rough mud and thatched cabins were washing clothes in the river, or
+where ragged horsemen stood gazing at us from the bank, or where dark,
+well-dressed ranchmen stood in front of red-roofed houses--we caught
+many fish. They belonged to one of the most formidable genera of fish
+in the world, the piranha or cannibal fish, the fish that eats men
+when it can get the chance. Farther north there are species of small
+piranha that go in schools. At this point on the Paraguay the piranha
+do not seem to go in regular schools, but they swarm in all the waters
+and attain a length of eighteen inches or over. They are the most
+ferocious fish in the world. Even the most formidable fish, the sharks
+or the barracudas, usually attack things smaller than themselves. But
+the piranhas habitually attack things much larger than themselves.
+They will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water;
+they mutilate swimmers--in every river town in Paraguay there are men
+who have been thus mutilated; they will rend and devour alive any
+wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness.
+They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces; and bite off the tails of
+big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked.
+Miller, before I reached Asuncion, had been badly bitten by one. Those
+that we caught sometimes bit through the hooks, or the double strands
+of copper wire that served as leaders, and got away. Those that we
+hauled on deck lived for many minutes. Most predatory fish are long
+and slim, like the alligator-gar and pickerel. But the piranha is a
+short, deep-bodied fish, with a blunt face and a heavily undershot or
+projecting lower jaw which gapes widely. The razor-edged teeth are
+wedge-shaped like a shark's, and the jaw muscles possess great power.
+The rabid, furious snaps drive the teeth through flesh and bone. The
+head with its short muzzle, staring malignant eyes, and gaping,
+cruelly armed jaws, is the embodiment of evil ferocity; and the
+actions of the fish exactly match its looks. I never witnessed an
+exhibition of such impotent, savage fury as was shown by the piranhas
+as they flapped on deck. When fresh from the water and thrown on the
+boards they uttered an extraordinary squealing sound. As they flapped
+about they bit with vicious eagerness at whatever presented itself.
+One of them flapped into a cloth and seized it with a bulldog grip.
+Another grasped one of its fellows; another snapped at a piece of
+wood, and left the teeth-marks deep therein. They are the pests of the
+waters, and it is necessary to be exceedingly cautious about either
+swimming or wading where they are found. If cattle are driven into, or
+of their own accord enter, the water, they are commonly not molested;
+but if by chance some unusually big or ferocious specimen of these
+fearsome fishes does bite an animal--taking off part of an ear, or
+perhaps of a teat from the udder of a cow--the blood brings up every
+member of the ravenous throng which is anywhere near, and unless the
+attacked animal can immediately make its escape from the water it is
+devoured alive. Here on the Paraguay the natives hold them in much
+respect, whereas the caymans are not feared at all. The only redeeming
+feature about them is that they are themselves fairly good to eat,
+although with too many bones.
+
+At daybreak of the third day, finding we were still moored off
+Concepcion, we were rowed ashore and strolled off through the streets
+of the quaint, picturesque old town; a town which, like Asuncion, was
+founded by the conquistadores three-quarters of a century before our
+own English and Dutch forefathers landed in what is now the United
+States. The Jesuits then took practically complete possession of what
+is now Paraguay, controlling and Christianizing the Indians, and
+raising their flourishing missions to a pitch of prosperity they never
+elsewhere achieved. They were expelled by the civil authorities
+(backed by the other representatives of ecclesiastical authority) some
+fifty years before Spanish South America became independent. But they
+had already made the language of the Indians, Guarany, a culture-
+tongue, reducing it to writing, and printing religious books in it.
+Guarany is one of the most wide-spread of the Indian tongues, being
+originally found in various closely allied forms not only in Paraguay
+but in Uruguay and over the major part of Brazil. It remains here and
+there, as a lingua general at least, and doubtless in cases as an
+original tongue, among the wild tribes. In most of Brazil, as around
+Para and around Sao Paulo, it has left its traces in place-names, but
+has been completely superseded as a language by Portuguese. In
+Paraguay it still exists side by side with Spanish as the common
+language of the lower people and as a familiar tongue among the upper
+classes. The blood of the people is mixed, their language dual; the
+lower classes are chiefly of Indian blood but with a white admixture;
+while the upper classes are predominantly white, with a strong
+infusion of Indian. There is no other case quite parallel to this in
+the annals of European colonization, although the Goanese in India
+have a native tongue and a Portuguese creed, while in several of the
+Spanish-American states the Indian blood is dominant and the majority
+of the population speak an Indian tongue, perhaps itself, as with the
+Quichuas, once a culture-tongue of the archaic type. Whether in
+Paraguay one tongue will ultimately drive out the other, and, if so,
+which will be the victor, it is yet too early to prophesy. The English
+missionaries and the Bible Society have recently published parts of
+the Scriptures in Guarany and in Asuncion a daily paper is published
+with the text in parallel columns, Spanish and Guarany--just as in
+Oklahoma there is a similar paper published in English and in the
+tongue which the extraordinary Cherokee chief Sequoia, a veritable
+Cadmus, made a literary language.
+
+The Guarany-speaking Paraguayan is a Christian, and as much an
+inheritor of our common culture as most of the peasant populations of
+Europe. He has no kinship with the wild Indian, who hates and fears
+him. The Indian of the Chaco, a pure savage, a bow-bearing savage,
+will never come east of the Paraguay, and the Paraguayan is only
+beginning to venture into the western interior, away from the banks of
+the river--under the lead of pioneer settlers like Rickard, whom, by
+the way, the wild Indians thoroughly trust, and for whom they work
+eagerly and faithfully. There is a great development ahead for
+Paraguay, as soon as they can definitely shake off the revolutionary
+habit and establish an orderly permanence of government. The people
+are a fine people; the strains of blood--white and Indian--are good.
+
+We walked up the streets of Concepcion, and interestedly looked at
+everything of interest: at the one-story houses, their windows covered
+with gratings of fretted ironwork, and their occasional open doors
+giving us glimpses into cool inner courtyards, with trees and flowers;
+at the two-wheel carts, drawn by mules or oxen; at an occasional
+rider, with spurs on his bare feet, and his big toes thrust into the
+small stirrup-rings; at the little stores, and the warehouses for
+matte and hides. Then we came to a pleasant little inn, kept by a
+Frenchman and his wife, of old Spanish style, with its patio, or inner
+court, but as neat as an inn in Normandy or Brittany. We were sitting
+at coffee, around a little table, when in came the colonel of the
+garrison--for Concepcion is the second city in Paraguay. He told me
+that they had prepared a reception for me! I was in my rough hunting-
+clothes, but there was nothing to do but to accompany my kind hosts
+and trust to their good nature to pardon my shortcomings in the matter
+of dress. The colonel drove me about in a smart open carriage, with
+two good horses and a liveried driver. It was a much more fashionable
+turnout than would be seen in any of our cities save the largest, and
+even in them probably not in the service of a public official. In all
+the South American countries there is more pomp and ceremony in
+connection with public functions than with us, and at these functions
+the liveried servants, often with knee-breeches and powdered hair, are
+like those seen at similar European functions; there is not the
+democratic simplicity which better suits our own habits of life and
+ways of thought. But the South Americans often surpass us, not merely
+in pomp and ceremony but in what is of real importance, courtesy; in
+civility and courtesy we can well afford to take lessons from them.
+
+We first visited the barracks, saw the troops in the setting-up
+exercises, and inspected the arms, the artillery, the equipment. There
+was a German lieutenant with the Paraguayan officers; one of several
+German officers who are now engaged in helping the Paraguayans with
+their army. The equipments and arms were in good condition; the
+enlisted men evidently offered fine material; and the officers were
+doing hard work. It is worth while for anti-militarists to ponder the
+fact that in every South American country where a really efficient
+army is developed, the increase in military efficiency goes hand in
+hand with a decrease in lawlessness and disorder, and a growing
+reluctance to settle internal disagreements by violence. They are
+introducing universal military service in Paraguay; the officers, many
+of whom have studied abroad, are growing to feel an increased esprit
+de corps, an increased pride in the army, and therefore a desire to
+see the army made the servant of the nation as a whole and not the
+tool of any faction or individual. If these feelings grow strong
+enough they will be powerful factors in giving Paraguay what she most
+needs, freedom from revolutionary disturbance and therefore the chance
+to achieve the material prosperity without which as a basis there can
+be no advance in other and even more important matters.
+
+Then I was driven to the City Hall, accompanied by the intendente, or
+mayor, a German long settled in the country and one of the leading men
+of the city. There was a breakfast. When I had to speak I impressed
+into my service as interpreter a young Paraguayan who was a graduate
+of the University of Pennsylvania. He was able to render into Spanish
+my ideas--on such subjects as orderly liberty and the far-reaching
+mischief done by the revolutionary habit--with clearness and vigor,
+because he thoroughly understood not only how I felt but also the
+American way of looking at such things. My hosts were hospitality
+itself, and I enjoyed the unexpected greeting.
+
+We steamed on up the river. Now and then we passed another boat--a
+steamer, or, to my surprise, perhaps a barkentine or schooner. The
+Paraguay is a highway of traffic. Once we passed a big beef-canning
+factory. Ranches stood on either bank a few leagues apart, and we
+stopped at wood-yards on the west bank. Indians worked around them. At
+one such yard the Indians were evidently part of the regular force.
+Their squaws were with them, cooking at queer open-air ovens. One
+small child had as pets a parrot and a young coati--a kind of long-
+nosed raccoon. Loading wood, the Indians stood in a line, tossing the
+logs from one to the other. These Indians wore clothes.
+
+On this day we got into the tropics. Even in the heat of the day the
+deck was pleasant under the awnings; the sun rose and set in crimson
+splendor; and the nights, with the moon at the full, were wonderful.
+At night Orion blazed overhead; and the Southern Cross hung in the
+star-brilliant heavens behind us. But after the moon rose the
+constellations paled; and clear in her light the tree-clad banks stood
+on either hand as we steamed steadily against the swirling current of
+the great river.
+
+At noon on the twelfth we were at the Brazilian boundary. On this day
+we here and there came on low, conical hills close to the river. In
+places the palm groves broke through the belts of deciduous trees and
+stretched for a mile or so right along the river's bank. At times we
+passed cattle on the banks or sand-bars, followed by their herders; or
+a handsome ranch-house, under a cluster of shady trees, some bearing a
+wealth of red and some a wealth of yellow blossoms; or we saw a horse-
+corral among the trees close to the brink, with the horses in it and a
+barefooted man in shirt and trousers leaning against the fence; or a
+herd of cattle among the palms; or a big tannery or factory or a
+little native hamlet came in sight. We stopped at one tannery. The
+owner was a Spaniard, the manager an "Oriental," as he called himself,
+a Uruguayan, of German parentage. The peons, or workers, who lived in
+a long line of wooden cabins back of the main building, were mostly
+Paraguayans, with a few Brazilians, and a dozen German and Argentine
+foremen. There were also some wild Indians, who were camped in the
+usual squalid fashion of Indians who are hangers-on round the white
+man but have not yet adopted his ways. Most of the men were at work
+cutting wood for the tannery. The women and children were in camp.
+Some individuals of both sexes were naked to the waist. One little
+girl had a young ostrich as a pet.
+
+Water-fowl were plentiful. We saw large flocks of wild muscovy ducks.
+Our tame birds come from this wild species and its absurd misnaming
+dates back to the period when the turkey and guinea-pig were misnamed
+in similar fashion--our European forefathers taking a large and hazy
+view of geography, and including Turkey, Guinea, India, and Muscovy as
+places which, in their capacity of being outlandish, could be
+comprehensively used as including America. The muscovy ducks were very
+good eating. Darters and cormorants swarmed. They waddled on the sand-
+bars in big flocks and crowded the trees by the water's edge.
+Beautiful snow-white egrets also lit in the trees, often well back
+from the river. A full-foliaged tree of vivid green, its round surface
+crowded with these birds, as if it had suddenly blossomed with huge
+white flowers, is a sight worth seeing. Here and there on the sand-
+bars we saw huge jabiru storks, and once a flock of white wood-ibis
+among the trees on the bank.
+
+On the Brazilian boundary we met a shallow river steamer carrying
+Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon and several other Brazilian
+members of the expedition. Colonel Rondon immediately showed that he
+was all, and more than all, that could be desired. It was evident that
+he knew his business thoroughly, and it was equally evident that he
+would be a pleasant companion. He was a classmate of Mr. Lauro Muller
+at the Brazilian Military Academy. He is of almost pure Indian blood,
+and is a Positivist--the Positivists are a really strong body in
+Brazil, as they are in France and indeed in Chile. The colonel's seven
+children have all been formally made members of the Positivist Church
+in Rio Janeiro. Brazil possesses the same complete liberty in matters
+religious, spiritual, and intellectual as we, for our great good
+fortune, do in the United States, and my Brazilian companions included
+Catholics and equally sincere men who described themselves as "libres
+penseurs." Colonel Rondon has spent the last twenty-four years in
+exploring the western highlands of Brazil, pioneering the way for
+telegraph-lines and railroads. During that time he has travelled some
+fourteen thousand miles, on territory most of which had not previously
+been traversed by civilized man, and has built three thousand miles of
+telegraph. He has an exceptional knowledge of the Indian tribes and
+has always zealously endeavored to serve them and indeed to serve the
+cause of humanity wherever and whenever he was able. Thanks mainly to
+his efforts, four of the wild tribes of the region he has explored
+have begun to tread the road of civilization. They have taken the
+first steps toward becoming Christians. It may seem strange that among
+the first-fruits of the efforts of a Positivist should be the
+conversion of those he seeks to benefit to Christianity. But in South
+America Christianity is at least as much a status as a theology. It
+represents the indispensable first step upward from savagery. In the
+wilder and poorer districts men are divided into the two great classes
+of "Christians" and "Indians." When an Indian becomes a Christian he
+is accepted into and becomes wholly absorbed or partly assimilated by
+the crude and simple neighboring civilization, and then he moves up or
+down like any one else among his fellows.
+
+Among Colonel Rondon's companions were Captain Amilcar de Magalhaes,
+Lieutenant Joao Lyra, Lieutenant Joaquin de Mello Filho, and Doctor
+Euzebio de Oliveira, a geologist.
+
+The steamers halted; Colonel Rondon and several of his officers, spick
+and span in their white uniforms, came aboard; and in the afternoon I
+visited him on his steamer to talk over our plans. When these had been
+fully discussed and agreed on we took tea. I happened to mention that
+one of our naturalists, Miller, had been bitten by a piranha, and the
+man-eating fish at once became the subject of conversation. Curiously
+enough, one of the Brazilian taxidermists had also just been severely
+bitten by a piranha. My new companions had story after story to tell
+of them. Only three weeks previously a twelve-year-old boy who had
+gone in swimming near Corumba was attacked, and literally devoured
+alive by them. Colonel Rondon during his exploring trips had met with
+more than one unpleasant experience in connection with them. He had
+lost one of his toes by the bite of a piranha. He was about to bathe
+and had chosen a shallow pool at the edge of the river, which he
+carefully inspected until he was satisfied that none of the man-eating
+fish were in it; yet as soon as he put his foot into the water one of
+them attacked him and bit off a toe. On another occasion while wading
+across a narrow stream one of his party was attacked; the fish bit him
+on the thighs and buttocks, and when he put down his hands tore them
+also; he was near the bank and by a rush reached it and swung himself
+out of the water by means of an overhanging limb of a tree; but he was
+terribly injured, and it took him six months before his wounds healed
+and he recovered. An extraordinary incident occurred on another trip.
+The party were without food and very hungry. On reaching a stream they
+dynamited it, and waded in to seize the stunned fish as they floated
+on the surface. One man, Lieutenant Pyrineus, having his hands full,
+tried to hold one fish by putting its head into his mouth; it was a
+piranha and seemingly stunned, but in a moment it recovered and bit a
+big section out of his tongue. Such a hemorrhage followed that his
+life was saved with the utmost difficulty. On another occasion a
+member of the party was off by himself on a mule. The mule came into
+camp alone. Following his track back they came to a ford, where in the
+water they found the skeleton of the dead man, his clothes uninjured
+but every particle of flesh stripped from his bones. Whether he had
+drowned, and the fishes had then eaten his body, or whether they had
+killed him it was impossible to say. They had not hurt the clothes,
+getting in under them, which made it seem likely that there had been
+no struggle. These man-eating fish are a veritable scourge in the
+waters they frequent. But it must not be understood by this that the
+piranhas--or, for the matter of that, the New-World caymans and
+crocodiles--ever become such dreaded foes of man as for instance the
+man-eating crocodiles of Africa. Accidents occur, and there are
+certain places where swimming and bathing are dangerous; but in most
+places the people swim freely, although they are usually careful to
+find spots they believe safe or else to keep together and make a
+splashing in the water.
+
+During his trips Colonel Rondon had met with various experiences with
+wild creatures. The Paraguayan caymans are not ordinarily dangerous to
+man; but they do sometimes become man-eaters and should be destroyed
+whenever the opportunity offers. The huge caymans and crocodiles of
+the Amazon are far more dangerous, and the colonel knew of repeated
+instances where men, women and children had become their victims. Once
+while dynamiting a stream for fish for his starving party he partially
+stunned a giant anaconda, which he killed as it crept slowly off. He
+said that it was of a size that no other anaconda he had ever seen
+even approached, and that in his opinion such a brute if hungry would
+readily attack a full-grown man. Twice smaller anacondas had attacked
+his dogs; one was carried under water--for the anaconda is a water-
+loving serpent--but he rescued it. One of his men was bitten by a
+jararaca; he killed the venomous snake, but was not discovered and
+brought back to camp until it was too late to save his life. The puma
+Colonel Rondon had found to be as cowardly as I have always found it,
+but the jaguar was a formidable beast, which occasionally turned man-
+eater, and often charged savagely when brought to bay. He had known a
+hunter to be killed by a jaguar he was following in thick grass cover.
+
+All such enemies, however, he regarded as utterly trivial compared to
+the real dangers of the wilderness--the torment and menace of attacks
+by the swarming insects, by mosquitoes and the even more intolerable
+tiny gnats, by the ticks, and by the vicious poisonous ants which
+occasionally cause villages and even whole districts to be deserted by
+human beings. These insects, and the fevers they cause, and dysentery
+and starvation and wearing hardship and accidents in rapids are what
+the pioneer explorers have to fear. The conversation was to me most
+interesting. The colonel spoke French about to the extent I did; but
+of course he and the others preferred Portuguese; and then Kermit was
+the interpreter.
+
+In the evening, soon after moonrise, we stopped for wood at the little
+Brazilian town of Porto Martinho. There are about twelve hundred
+inhabitants. Some of the buildings were of stone; a large private
+house with a castellated tower was of stone; there were shops, and a
+post-office, stores, a restaurant and billiard-hall, and warehouses
+for matte, of which much is grown in the region roundabout. Most of
+the houses were low, with overhanging, sloping caves; and there were
+gardens with high walls, inside of which trees rose, many of them
+fragrant. We wandered through the wide, dusty streets, and along the
+narrow sidewalks. It was a hot, still evening; the smell of the
+tropics was on the heavy December air. Through the open doors and
+windows we caught dim glimpses of the half-clad inmates of the poorer
+houses; women and young girls sat outside their thresholds in the
+moonlight. All whom we met were most friendly: the captain of the
+little Brazilian garrison; the intendente, a local trader; another
+trader and ranchman, a Uruguayan, who had just received his newspaper
+containing my speech in Montevideo, and who, as I gathered from what I
+understood of his rather voluble Spanish, was much impressed by my
+views on democracy, honesty, liberty, and order (rather well-worn
+topics); and a Catalan who spoke French, and who was accompanied by
+his pretty daughter, a dear little girl of eight or ten, who said with
+much pride that she spoke three languages--Brazilian, Spanish, and
+Catalan! Her father expressed strongly his desire for a church and for
+a school in the little city.
+
+When at last the wood was aboard we resumed our journey. The river was
+like glass. In the white moonlight the palms on the edge of the banks
+stood mirrored in the still water. We sat forward and as we rounded
+the curves the long silver reaches of the great stream stretched ahead
+of us, and the ghostly outlines of hills rose in the distance. Here
+and there prairie fires burned, and the red glow warred with the
+moon's radiance.
+
+Next morning was overcast. Occasionally we passed a wood-yard, or
+factory, or cabin, now on the eastern, the Brazilian, now on the
+western, the Paraguayan, bank. The Paraguay was known to men of
+European birth, bore soldiers and priests and merchants as they sailed
+and rowed up and down the current of its stream, and beheld little
+towns and forts rise on its banks, long before the Mississippi had
+become the white man's highway. Now, along its upper course, the
+settlements are much like those on the Mississippi at the end of the
+first quarter of the last century; and in the not distant future it
+will witness a burst of growth and prosperity much like that which the
+Mississippi saw when the old men of today were very young.
+
+In the early forenoon we stopped at a little Paraguayan hamlet,
+nestling in the green growth under a group of low hills by the river-
+brink. On one of these hills stood a picturesque old stone fort, known
+as Fort Bourbon in the Spanish, the colonial, days. Now the Paraguayan
+flag floats over it, and it is garrisoned by a handful of Paraguayan
+soldiers. Here Father Zahm baptized two children, the youngest of a
+large family of fair-skinned, light-haired small people, whose father
+was a Paraguayan and the mother an "Oriental," or Uruguayan. No priest
+had visited the village for three years, and the children were
+respectively one and two years of age. The sponsors included the local
+commandante and a married couple from Austria. In answer to what was
+supposed to be the perfunctory question whether they were Catholics,
+the parents returned the unexpected answer that they were not. Further
+questioning elicited the fact that the father called himself a "free-
+thinking Catholic," and the mother said she was a "Protestant
+Catholic," her mother having been a Protestant, the daughter of an
+immigrant from Normandy. However, it appeared that the older children
+had been baptized by the Bishop of Asuncion, so Father Zahm at the
+earnest request of the parents proceeded with the ceremony. They were
+good people; and, although they wished liberty to think exactly as
+they individually pleased, they also wished to be connected and to
+have their children connected with some church, by preference the
+church of the majority of their people. A very short experience of
+communities where there is no church ought to convince the most
+heterodox of the absolute need of a church. I earnestly wish that
+there could be such an increase in the personnel and equipment of the
+Catholic Church in South America as to permit the establishment of one
+good and earnest priest in every village or little community in the
+far interior. Nor is there any inconsistency between this wish and the
+further wish that there could be a marked extension and development of
+the native Protestant churches, such as I saw established here and
+there in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, and of the Y. M. C.
+Associations. The bulk of these good people who profess religion will
+continue to be Catholics, but the spiritual needs of a more or less
+considerable minority will best be met by the establishment of
+Protestant churches, or in places even of a Positivist Church or
+Ethical Culture Society. Not only is the establishment of such
+churches a good thing for the body politic as a whole, but a good
+thing for the Catholic Church itself; for their presence is a constant
+spur to activity and clean and honorable conduct, and a constant
+reflection on sloth and moral laxity. The government in each of these
+commonwealths is doing everything possible to further the cause of
+education, and the tendency is to treat education as peculiarly a
+function of government and to make it, where the government acts, non-
+sectarian, obligatory, and free--a cardinal doctrine of our own great
+democracy, to which we are committed by every principle of sound
+Americanism. There must be absolute religious liberty, for tyranny and
+intolerance are as abhorrent in matters intellectual and spiritual as
+in matters political and material; and more and more we must all
+realize that conduct is of infinitely greater importance than dogma.
+But no democracy can afford to overlook the vital importance of the
+ethical and spiritual, the truly religious, element in life; and in
+practice the average good man grows clearly to understand this, and to
+express the need in concrete form by saying that no community can make
+much headway if it does not contain both a church and a school.
+
+We took breakfast--the eleven-o'clock Brazilian breakfast--on Colonel
+Rondon's boat. Caymans were becoming more plentiful. The ugly brutes
+lay on the sand-flats and mud-banks like logs, always with the head
+raised, sometimes with the jaws open. They are often dangerous to
+domestic animals, and are always destructive to fish, and it is good
+to shoot them. I killed half a dozen, and missed nearly as many more--
+a throbbing boat does not improve one's aim. We passed forests of
+palms that extended for leagues, and vast marshy meadows, where
+storks, herons, and ibis were gathered, with flocks of cormorants and
+darters on the sand-bars, and stilts, skimmers, and clouds of
+beautiful swaying terns in the foreground. About noon we passed the
+highest point which the old Spanish conquistadores and explorers,
+Irala and Ayolas, had reached in the course of their marvellous
+journeys in the first half of the sixteenth century--at a time when
+there was not a settlement in what is now the United States, and when
+hardly a single English sea captain had ventured so much as to cross
+the Atlantic.
+
+By the following day the country on the east bank had become a vast
+marshy plain dotted here and there by tree-clad patches of higher
+land. The morning was rainy; a contrast to the fine weather we had
+hitherto encountered. We passed wood-yards and cattle-ranches. At one
+of the latter the owner, an Argentine of Irish parentage, who still
+spoke English with the accent of the land of his parents' nativity,
+remarked that this was the first time the American flag had been seen
+on the upper Paraguay; for our gunboat carried it at the masthead.
+Early in the afternoon, having reached the part where both banks of
+the river were Brazilian territory, we came to the old colonial
+Portuguese fort of Coimbra. It stands where two steep hills rise, one
+on either side of the river, and it guards the water-gorge between
+them. It was captured by the Paraguayans in the war of nearly half a
+century ago. Some modern guns have been mounted, and there is a
+garrison of Brazilian troops. The white fort is perched on the
+hillside, where it clings and rises, terrace above terrace, with
+bastion and parapet and crenellated wall. At the foot of the hill, on
+the riverine plain, stretches the old-time village with its roofs of
+palm. In the village dwell several hundred souls, almost entirely the
+officers and soldiers and their families. There is one long street.
+The one-story, daub-and-wattle houses have low eaves and steep sloping
+roofs of palm-leaves or of split palm-trunks. Under one or two old but
+small trees there are rude benches; and for a part of the length of
+the street there is a rough stone sidewalk. A little graveyard, some
+of the tombs very old, stands at one end. As we passed down the street
+the wives and the swarming children of the garrison were at the doors
+and windows; there were women and girls with skins as fair as any in
+the northland, and others that were predominantly negro. Most were of
+intervening shades. All this was paralleled among the men; and the
+fusion of the colors was going on steadily.
+
+Around the village black vultures were gathered. Not long before
+reaching it we passed some rounded green trees, their tops covered
+with the showy wood-ibis; at the same time we saw behind them, farther
+inland, other trees crowded with the more delicate forms of the
+shining white egrets.
+
+The river now widened so that in places it looked like a long lake; it
+wound in every direction through the endless marshy plain, whose
+surface was broken here and there by low mountains. The splendor of
+the sunset I never saw surpassed. We were steaming east toward clouds
+of storm. The river ran, a broad highway of molten gold, into the
+flaming sky; the far-off mountains loomed purple across the marshes;
+belts of rich green, the river banks stood out on either side against
+the rose-hues of the rippling water; in front, as we forged steadily
+onward, hung the tropic night, dim and vast.
+
+On December 15 we reached Corumba. For three or four miles before it
+is reached the west bank, on which it stands, becomes high rocky
+ground, falling away into cliffs. The country roundabout was evidently
+well peopled. We saw gauchos, cattle-herders--the equivalent of our
+own cowboys--riding along the bank. Women were washing clothes, and
+their naked children bathing, on the shore; we were told that caymans
+and piranhas rarely ventured near a place where so much was going on,
+and that accidents generally occurred in ponds or lonely stretches of
+the river. Several steamers came out to meet us, and accompanied us
+for a dozen miles, with bands playing and the passengers cheering,
+just as if we were nearing some town on the Hudson.
+
+Corumba is on a steep hillside, with wide, roughly paved streets, some
+of them lined with beautiful trees that bear scarlet flowers, and with
+well-built houses, most of them of one story, some of two or three
+stories. We were greeted with a reception by the municipal council,
+and were given a state dinner. The hotel, kept by an Italian, was as
+comfortable as possible--stone floors, high ceilings, big windows and
+doors, a cool, open courtyard, and a shower-bath. Of course Corumba is
+still a frontier town. The vehicles ox-carts and mule-carts; there are
+no carriages; and oxen as well as mules are used for riding. The water
+comes from a big central well; around it the water-carts gather, and
+their contents are then peddled around at the different houses. The
+families showed the mixture of races characteristic of Brazil; one
+mother, after the children had been photographed in their ordinary
+costume, begged that we return and take them in their Sunday clothes,
+which was accordingly done. In a year the railway from Rio will reach
+Corumba; and then this city, and the country roundabout, will see much
+development.
+
+At this point we rejoined the rest of the party, and very glad we were
+to see them. Cherrie and Miller had already collected some eight
+hundred specimens of mammals and birds.
+
+
+
+                  III. A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY
+
+The morning after our arrival at Corumba I asked Colonel Rondon to
+inspect our outfit; for his experience of what is necessary in
+tropical travelling has been gained through a quarter of a century of
+arduous exploration in the wilderness. It was Fiala who had assembled
+our food-tents, cooking-utensils, and supplies of all kinds, and he
+and Sigg, during their stay in Corumba, had been putting everything in
+shape for our start. Colonel Rondon at the end of his inspection said
+he had nothing whatever to suggest; that it was extraordinary that
+Fiala, without personal knowledge of the tropics, could have gathered
+the things most necessary, with the minimum of bulk and maximum of
+usefulness.
+
+Miller had made a special study of the piranhas, which swarmed at one
+of the camps he and Cherrie had made in the Chaco. So numerous were
+they that the members of the party had to be exceedingly careful in
+dipping up water. Miller did not find that they were cannibals toward
+their own kind; they were "cannibals" only in the sense of eating the
+flesh of men. When dead piranhas, and even when mortally injured
+piranhas, with the blood flowing, were thrown among the ravenous
+living, they were left unmolested. Moreover, it was Miller's
+experience, the direct contrary of which we had been told, that
+splashing and a commotion in the water attracted the piranhas, whereas
+they rarely attacked anything that was motionless unless it was
+bloody. Dead birds and mammals, thrown whole and unskinned into the
+water were permitted to float off unmolested, whereas the skinned
+carcass of a good-sized monkey was at once seized, pulled under the
+water, and completely devoured by the blood-crazy fish. A man who had
+dropped something of value waded in after it to above the knees, but
+went very slowly and quietly, avoiding every possibility of
+disturbance, and not venturing to put his hands into the water. But
+nobody could bathe, and even the slightest disturbance in the water,
+such as that made by scrubbing the hands vigorously with soap,
+immediately attracted the attention of the savage little creatures,
+who darted to the place, evidently hoping to find some animal in
+difficulties. Once, while Miller and some Indians were attempting to
+launch a boat, and were making a great commotion in the water, a
+piranha attacked a naked Indian who belonged to the party and
+mutilated him as he struggled and splashed, waist-deep in the stream.
+Men not making a splashing and struggling are rarely attacked; but if
+one is attacked by any chance, the blood in the water maddens the
+piranhas, and they assail the man with frightful ferocity.
+
+At Corumba the weather was hot. In the patio of the comfortable little
+hotel we heard the cicadas; but I did not hear the extraordinary
+screaming whistle of the locomotive cicada, which I had heard in the
+gardens of the house in which I stayed at Asuncion. This was as
+remarkable a sound as any animal sound to which I have listened,
+except only the batrachian-like wailing of the tree hyrax in East
+Africa; and like the East African mammal this South American insect
+has a voice, or rather utters a sound which, so far as it resembles
+any other animal sound, at the beginning remotely suggests batrachian
+affinities. The locomotive-whistle part of the utterance, however,
+resembles nothing so much as a small steam siren; when first heard it
+seems impossible that it can be produced by an insect.
+
+On December 17 Colonel Rondon and several members of our party started
+on a shallow river steamer for the ranch of Senhor de Barros, "Las
+Palmeiras," on the Rio Taquary. We went down the Paraguay for a few
+miles, and then up the Taquary. It was a beautiful trip. The shallow
+river--we were aground several times--wound through a vast, marshy
+plain, with occasional spots of higher land on which trees grew. There
+were many water-birds. Darters swarmed. But the conspicuous and
+attractive bird was the stately jabiru stork. Flocks of these storks
+whitened the marshes and lined the river banks. They were not shy, for
+such big birds; before flying they had to run a few paces and then
+launch themselves on the air. Once, at noon, a couple soared round
+overhead in wide rings, rising higher and higher. On another occasion,
+late in the day, a flock passed by, gleaming white with black points
+in the long afternoon lights, and with them were spoonbills, showing
+rosy amid their snowy companions. Caymans, always called jacares,
+swarmed; and we killed scores of the noxious creatures. They were
+singularly indifferent to our approach and to the sound of the shots.
+Sometimes they ran into the water erect on their legs, looking like
+miniatures of the monsters of the prime. One showed by its behavior
+how little an ordinary shot pains or affects these dull-nerved, cold-
+blooded creatures. As it lay on a sand-bank, it was hit with a long 22
+bullet. It slid into the water but found itself in the midst of a
+school of fish. It at once forgot everything except its greedy
+appetite, and began catching the fish. It seized fish after fish,
+holding its head above water as soon as its jaws had closed on a fish;
+and a second bullet killed it. Some of the crocodiles when shot
+performed most extraordinary antics. Our weapons, by the way, were
+good, except Miller's shotgun. The outfit furnished by the American
+Museum was excellent--except in guns and cartridges; this gun was so
+bad that Miller had to use Fiala's gun or else my Fox 12-bore.
+
+In the late afternoon we secured a more interesting creature than the
+jacares. Kermit had charge of two hounds which we owed to the courtesy
+of one of our Argentine friends. They were biggish, nondescript
+animals, obviously good fighters, and they speedily developed the
+utmost affection for all the members of the expedition, but especially
+for Kermit, who took care of them. One we named "Shenzi," the name
+given the wild bush natives by the Swahili, the semi-civilized African
+porters. He was good-natured, rough, and stupid--hence his name. The
+other was called by a native name, "Trigueiro." The chance now came to
+try them. We were steaming between long stretches of coarse grass,
+about three feet high, when we spied from the deck a black object,
+very conspicuous against the vivid green. It was a giant ant-eater, or
+tamandua bandeira, one of the most extraordinary creatures of the
+latter-day world. It is about the size of a rather small black bear.
+It has a very long, narrow, toothless snout, with a tongue it can
+project a couple of feet; it is covered with coarse, black hair, save
+for a couple of white stripes; it has a long, bushy tail and very
+powerful claws on its fore feet. It walks on the sides of its fore
+feet with these claws curved in under the foot. The claws are used in
+digging out ant-hills; but the beast has courage, and in a grapple is
+a rather unpleasant enemy, in spite of its toothless mouth, for it can
+strike a formidable blow with these claws. It sometimes hugs a foe,
+gripping him tight; but its ordinary method of defending itself is to
+strike with its long, stout, curved claws, which, driven by its
+muscular forearm, can rip open man or beast. Several of our companions
+had had dogs killed by these ant-eaters; and we came across one man
+with a very ugly scar down his back, where he had been hit by one,
+which charged him when he came up to kill it at close quarters.
+
+As soon as we saw the giant tamandua we pushed off in a rowboat, and
+landed only a couple of hundred yards distant from our clumsy quarry.
+The tamandua throughout most of its habitat rarely leaves the forest,
+and it is a helpless animal in the open plain. The two dogs ran ahead,
+followed by Colonel Rondon and Kermit, with me behind carrying the
+rifle. In a minute or two the hounds overtook the cantering, shuffling
+creature, and promptly began a fight with it; the combatants were so
+mixed up that I had to wait another minute or so before I could fire
+without risk of hitting a dog. We carried our prize back to the bank
+and hoisted it aboard the steamer. The sun was just about to set,
+behind dim mountains, many miles distant across the marsh.
+
+Soon afterward we reached one of the outstations of the huge ranch we
+were about to visit, and hauled up alongside the bank for the night.
+There was a landing-place, and sheds and corrals. Several of the peons
+or gauchos had come to meet us. After dark they kindled fires, and sat
+beside them singing songs in a strange minor key and strumming
+guitars. The red firelight flickered over their wild figures as they
+squatted away from the blaze, where the light and the shadow met. It
+was still and hot. There were mosquitoes, of course, and other insects
+of all kinds swarmed round every light; but the steamboat was
+comfortable, and we passed a pleasant night.
+
+At sunrise we were off for the "fazenda," the ranch of M. de Barros.
+The baggage went in an ox-cart--which had to make two trips, so that
+all of my belongings reached the ranch a day later than I did. We rode
+small, tough ranch horses. The distance was some twenty miles. The
+whole country was marsh, varied by stretches of higher ground; and,
+although these stretches rose only three or four feet above the marsh,
+they were covered with thick jungle, largely palmetto scrub, or else
+with open palm forest. For three or four miles we splashed through the
+marsh, now and then crossing boggy pools where the little horses
+labored hard not to mire down. Our dusky guide was clad in a shirt,
+trousers, and fringed leather apron, and wore spurs on his bare feet;
+he had a rope for a bridle, and two or three toes of each foot were
+thrust into little iron stirrups.
+
+The pools in the marsh were drying. They were filled with fish, most
+of them dead or dying; and the birds had gathered to the banquet. The
+most notable dinner guests were the great jabiru storks; the stately
+creatures dotted the marsh. But ibis and herons abounded; the former
+uttered queer, querulous cries when they discovered our presence. The
+spurred lapwings were as noisy as they always are. The ibis and plover
+did not pay any heed to the fish; but the black carrion vultures
+feasted on them in the mud; and in the pools that were not dry small
+alligators, the jacare-tinga, were feasting also. In many places the
+stench from the dead fish was unpleasant.
+
+Then for miles we rode through a beautiful open forest of tall,
+slender caranda palms, with other trees scattered among them. Green
+parakeets with black heads chattered as they flew; noisy green and red
+parrots climbed among the palms; and huge macaws, some entirely blue,
+others almost entirely red, screamed loudly as they perched in the
+trees or took wing at our approach. If one was wounded its cries kept
+its companions circling around overhead. The naturalists found the
+bird fauna totally different from that which they had been collecting
+in the hill country near Corumba, seventy or eighty miles distant; and
+birds swarmed, both species and individuals. South America has the
+most extensive and most varied avifauna of all the continents. On the
+other hand, its mammalian fauna, although very interesting, is rather
+poor in number of species and individuals and in the size of the
+beasts. It possesses more mammals that are unique and distinctive in
+type than does any other continent save Australia; and they are of
+higher and much more varied types than in Australia. But there is
+nothing approaching the majesty, beauty, and swarming mass of the
+great mammalian life of Africa and, in a less degree, of tropical
+Asia; indeed, it does not even approach the similar mammalian life of
+North America and northern Eurasia, poor though this is compared with
+the seething vitality of tropical life in the Old World. During a
+geologically recent period, a period extending into that which saw man
+spread over the world in substantially the physical and cultural stage
+of many existing savages, South America possessed a varied and
+striking fauna of enormous beasts--sabre-tooth tigers, huge lions,
+mastodons, horses of many kinds, camel-like pachyderms, giant ground-
+sloths, mylodons the size of the rhinoceros, and many, many other
+strange and wonderful creatures. From some cause, concerning the
+nature of which we cannot at present even hazard a guess, this vast
+and giant fauna vanished completely, the tremendous catastrophe (the
+duration of which is unknown) not being consummated until within a few
+thousand or a few score thousand years. When the white man reached
+South America he found the same weak and impoverished mammalian fauna
+that exists practically unchanged to-day. Elsewhere civilized man has
+been even more destructive than his very destructive uncivilized
+brothers of the magnificent mammalian life of the wilderness; for ages
+he has been rooting out the higher forms of beast life in Europe,
+Asia, and North Africa; and in our own day he has repeated the feat,
+on a very large scale, in the rest of Africa and in North America. But
+in South America, although he is in places responsible for the wanton
+slaughter of the most interesting and the largest, or the most
+beautiful, birds, his advent has meant a positive enrichment of the
+wild mammalian fauna. None of the native grass-eating mammals, the
+graminivores, approach in size and beauty the herds of wild or half-
+wild cattle and horses, or so add to the interest of the landscape.
+There is every reason why the good people of South America should
+waken, as we of North America, very late in the day, are beginning to
+waken, and as the peoples of northern Europe--not southern Europe--
+have already partially wakened, to the duty of preserving from
+impoverishment and extinction the wild life which is an asset of such
+interest and value in our several lands; but the case against
+civilized man in this matter is gruesomely heavy anyhow, when the
+plain truth is told, and it is harmed by exaggeration.
+
+After five or six hours' travelling through this country of marsh and
+of palm forest we reached the ranch for which we were heading. In the
+neighborhood stood giant fig-trees, singly or in groups, with dense,
+dark green foliage. Ponds, overgrown with water-plants, lay about; wet
+meadow, and drier pastureland, open or dotted with palms and varied
+with tree jungle, stretched for many miles on every hand. There are
+some thirty thousand head of cattle on the ranch, besides herds of
+horses and droves of swine, and a few flocks of sheep and goats. The
+home buildings of the ranch stood in a quadrangle, surrounded by a
+fence or low stockade. One end of the quadrangle was formed by the
+ranch-house itself, one story high, with whitewashed walls and red-
+tiled roof. Inside, the rooms were bare, with clean, whitewashed walls
+and palm-trunk rafters. There were solid wooden shutters on the
+unglazed windows. We slept in hammocks or on cots, and we feasted
+royally on delicious native Brazilian dishes. On another side of the
+quadrangle stood another long, low white building with a red-tiled
+roof; this held the kitchen and the living-rooms of the upper-grade
+peons, the headmen, the cook, and jaguar-hunters, with their families:
+dark-skinned men, their wives showing varied strains of white, Indian,
+and negro blood. The children tumbled merrily in the dust, and were
+fondly tended by their mothers. Opposite the kitchen stood a row of
+buildings, some whitewashed daub and wattle, with tin roofs, others of
+erect palm-logs with palm-leaf thatch. These were the saddle-room,
+storehouse, chicken-house, and stable. The chicken-house was allotted
+to Kermit and Miller for the preparation of the specimens; and there
+they worked industriously. With a big skin, like that of the giant
+ant-eater, they had to squat on the ground; while the ducklings and
+wee chickens scuffled not only round the skin but all over it,
+grabbing the shreds and scraps of meat and catching flies. The fourth
+end of the quadrangle was formed by a corral and a big wooden
+scaffolding on which hung hides and strips of drying meat.
+Extraordinary to relate, there were no mosquitoes at the ranch; why I
+cannot say, as they ought to swarm in these vast "pantanals," or
+swamps. Therefore, in spite of the heat, it was very pleasant. Near by
+stood other buildings: sheds, and thatched huts of palm-logs in which
+the ordinary peons lived, and big corrals. In the quadrangle were
+flamboyant trees, with their masses of brilliant red flowers and
+delicately cut, vivid-green foliage. Noisy oven-birds haunted these
+trees. In a high palm in the garden a family of green parakeets had
+taken up their abode and were preparing to build nests. They chattered
+incessantly both when they flew and when they sat or crawled among the
+branches. Ibis and plover, crying and wailing, passed immediately
+overhead. Jacanas frequented the ponds near by; the peons, with a
+familiarity which to us seems sacrilegious, but to them was entirely
+inoffensive and matter of course, called them "the Jesus Christ
+birds," because they walked on the water. There was a wealth of
+strange bird life in the neighborhood. There were large papyrus-
+marshes, the papyrus not being a fifth, perhaps not a tenth, as high
+as in Africa. In these swamps were many blackbirds. Some uttered notes
+that reminded me of our own redwings. Others, with crimson heads and
+necks and thighs, fairly blazed; often a dozen sat together on a
+swaying papyrus-stem which their weight bent over. There were all
+kinds of extraordinary bird's-nests in the trees. There is still need
+for the work of the collector in South America. But I believe that
+already, so far as birds are concerned, there is infinitely more need
+for the work of the careful observer, who to the power of appreciation
+and observation adds the power of vivid, truthful, and interesting
+narration--which means, as scientists no less than historians should
+note, that training in the writing of good English is indispensable to
+any learned man who expects to make his learning count for what it
+ought to count in the effect on his fellow men. The outdoor
+naturalist, the faunal naturalist, who devotes himself primarily to a
+study of the habits and of the life-histories of birds, beasts, fish,
+and reptiles, and who can portray truthfully and vividly what he has
+seen, could do work of more usefulness than any mere collector, in
+this upper Paraguay country. The work of the collector is
+indispensable; but it is only a small part of the work that ought to
+be done; and after collecting has reached a certain point the work of
+the field observer with the gift for recording what he has seen
+becomes of far more importance.
+
+The long days spent riding through the swamp, the "pantanal," were
+pleasant and interesting. Several times we saw the tamandua bandeira,
+the giant ant-bear. Kermit shot one, because the naturalists eagerly
+wished for a second specimen; afterward we were relieved of all
+necessity to molest the strange, out-of-date creatures. It was a
+surprise to us to find them habitually frequenting the open marsh.
+They were always on muddy ground, and in the papyrus-swamp we found
+them in several inches of water. The stomach is thick-walled, like a
+gizzard; the stomachs of those we shot contained adult and larval
+ants, chiefly termites, together with plenty of black mould and
+fragments of leaves, both green and dry. Doubtless the earth and the
+vegetable matter had merely been taken incidentally, adhering to the
+viscid tongue when it was thrust into the ant masses. Out in the open
+marsh the tamandua could neither avoid observation, nor fight
+effectively, nor make good its escape by flight. It was curious to see
+one lumbering off at a rocking canter, the big bushy tail held aloft.
+One, while fighting the dogs, suddenly threw itself on its back,
+evidently hoping to grasp a dog with its paws; and it now and then
+reared, in order to strike at its assailants. In one patch of thick
+jungle we saw a black howler monkey sitting motionless in a tree top.
+We also saw the swamp-deer, about the size of our blacktail. It is a
+real swamp animal, for we found it often in the papyrus-swamps, and
+out in the open marsh, knee-deep in the water, among the aquatic
+plants.
+
+The tough little horses bore us well through the marsh. Often in
+crossing bayous and ponds the water rose almost to their backs; but
+they splashed and waded and if necessary swam through. The dogs were a
+wild-looking set. Some were of distinctly wolfish appearance. These,
+we were assured, were descended in part from the big red wolf of the
+neighborhood, a tall, lank animal, with much smaller teeth than a big
+northern wolf. The domestic dog is undoubtedly descended from at least
+a dozen different species of wild dogs, wolves, and jackals, some of
+them probably belonging to what we style different genera. The degree
+of fecundity or lack of fecundity between different species varies in
+extraordinary and inexplicable fashion in different families of
+mammals. In the horse family, for instance, the species are not
+fertile inter se; whereas among the oxen, species seemingly at least
+as widely separated as the horse, ass, and zebra species such as the
+domestic ox, bison, yak, and gaur breed freely together and their
+offspring are fertile; the lion and tiger also breed together, and
+produce offspring which will breed with either parent stock; and tame
+dogs in different quarters of the world, although all of them fertile
+inter se, are in many cases obviously blood kin to the neighboring
+wild, wolf-like or jackal-like creatures which are specifically, and
+possibly even generically, distinct from one another. The big red wolf
+of the South American plains is not closely related to the northern
+wolves; and it was to me unexpected to find it interbreeding with
+ordinary domestic dogs.
+
+In the evenings after dinner we sat in the bare ranch dining-room, or
+out under the trees in the hot darkness, and talked of many things:
+natural history with the naturalists, and all kinds of other subjects
+both with them and with our Brazilian friends. Colonel Rondon is not
+simply "an officer and a gentleman" in the sense that is honorably
+true of the best army officers in every good military service. He is
+also a peculiarly hardy and competent explorer, a good field
+naturalist and scientific man, a student and a philosopher. With him
+the conversation ranged from jaguar-hunting and the perils of
+exploration in the "Matto Grosso," the great wilderness, to Indian
+anthropology, to the dangers of a purely materialistic industrial
+civilization, and to Positivist morality. The colonel's Positivism was
+in very fact to him a religion of humanity, a creed which bade him be
+just and kindly and useful to his fellow men, to live his life
+bravely, and no less bravely to face death, without reference to what
+he believed, or did not believe, or to what the unknown hereafter
+might hold for him.
+
+The native hunters who accompanied us were swarthy men of mixed blood.
+They were barefooted and scantily clad, and each carried a long,
+clumsy spear and a keen machete, in the use of which he was an expert.
+Now and then, in thick jungle, we had to cut out a path, and it was
+interesting to see one of them, although cumbered by his unwieldy
+spear, handling his half-broken little horse with complete ease while
+he hacked at limbs and branches. Of the two ordinarily with us one was
+much the younger; and whenever we came to an unusually doubtful-
+looking ford or piece of boggy ground the elder man always sent the
+younger one on and sat on the bank until he saw what befell the
+experimenter. In that rather preposterous book of our youth, the
+"Swiss Family Robinson," mention is made of a tame monkey called Nips,
+which was used to test all edible-looking things as to the
+healthfulness of which the adventurers felt doubtful; and because of
+the obvious resemblance of function we christened this younger hunter
+Nips. Our guides were not only hunters but cattle-herders. The coarse
+dead grass is burned to make room for the green young grass on which
+the cattle thrive. Every now and then one of the men, as he rode ahead
+of us, without leaving the saddle, would drop a lighted match into a
+tussock of tall dead blades; and even as we who were behind rode by
+tongues of hot flame would be shooting up and a local prairie fire
+would have started.
+
+Kermit took Nips off with him for a solitary hunt one day. He shot two
+of the big marsh-deer, a buck and a doe, and preserved them as museum
+specimens. They were in the papyrus growth, but their stomachs
+contained only the fine marsh-grass which grows in the water and on
+the land along the edges of the swamps; the papyrus was used only for
+cover, not for food. The buck had two big scent-glands beside the
+nostrils; in the doe these were rudimentary. On this day Kermit also
+came across a herd of the big, fierce white-lipped peccary; at the
+sound of their grunting Nips promptly spurred his horse and took to
+his heels, explaining that the peccaries would charge them, hamstring
+the horses, and kill the riders. Kermit went into the jungle after the
+truculent little wild hogs on foot and followed them for an hour, but
+never was able to catch sight of them.
+
+In the afternoon of this same day one of the jaguar-hunters--merely
+ranch hands, who knew something of the chase of the jaguar--who had
+been searching for tracks, rode in with the information that he had
+found fresh sign at a spot in the swamp about nine miles distant. Next
+morning we rose at two, and had started on our jaguar-hunt at three.
+Colonel Rondon, Kermit, and I, with the two trailers or jaguar-
+hunters, made up the party, each on a weedy, undersized marsh pony,
+accustomed to traversing the vast stretches of morass; and we were
+accompanied by a brown boy, with saddle-bags holding our lunch, who
+rode a long-horned trotting steer which he managed by a string through
+its nostril and lip. The two trailers carried each a long, clumsy
+spear. We had a rather poor pack. Besides our own two dogs, neither of
+which was used to jaguar-hunting, there were the ranch dogs, which
+were well-nigh worthless, and then two jaguar hounds borrowed for the
+occasion from a ranch six or eight leagues distant. These were the
+only hounds on which we could place any trust, and they were led in
+leashes by the two trailers. One was a white bitch, the other, the
+best one we had, was a gelded black dog. They were lean, half-starved
+creatures with prick ears and a look of furtive wildness.
+
+As our shabby little horses shuffled away from the ranch-house the
+stars were brilliant and the Southern Cross hung well up in the
+heavens, tilted to the right. The landscape was spectral in the light
+of the waning moon. At the first shallow ford, as horses and dogs
+splashed across, an alligator, the jacare-tinga, some five feet long,
+floated unconcernedly among the splashing hoofs and paws; evidently at
+night it did not fear us. Hour after hour we slogged along. Then the
+night grew ghostly with the first dim gray of the dawn. The sky had
+become overcast. The sun rose red and angry through broken clouds; his
+disk flamed behind the tall, slender columns of the palms, and lit the
+waste fields of papyrus. The black monkeys howled mournfully. The
+birds awoke. Macaws, parrots, parakeets screamed at us and chattered
+at us as we rode by. Ibis called with wailing voices, and the plovers
+shrieked as they wheeled in the air. We waded across bayous and ponds,
+where white lilies floated on the water and thronging lilac-flowers
+splashed the green marsh with color.
+
+At last, on the edge of a patch of jungle, in wet ground, we came on
+fresh jaguar tracks. Both the jaguar hounds challenged the sign. They
+were unleashed and galloped along the trail, while the other dogs
+noisily accompanied them. The hunt led right through the marsh.
+Evidently the jaguar had not the least distaste for water. Probably it
+had been hunting for capybaras or tapirs, and it had gone straight
+through ponds and long, winding, narrow ditches or bayous, where it
+must now and then have had to swim for a stroke or two. It had also
+wandered through the island-like stretches of tree-covered land, the
+trees at this point being mostly palms and tarumans; the taruman is
+almost as big as a live-oak, with glossy foliage and a fruit like an
+olive. The pace quickened, the motley pack burst into yelling and
+howling; and then a sudden quickening of the note showed that the game
+had either climbed a tree or turned to bay in a thicket. The former
+proved to be the case. The dogs had entered a patch of tall tree
+jungle, and as we cantered up through the marsh we saw the jaguar high
+among the forked limbs of a taruman tree. It was a beautiful picture--
+the spotted coat of the big, lithe, formidable cat fairly shone as it
+snarled defiance at the pack below. I did not trust the pack; the dogs
+were not stanch, and if the jaguar came down and started I feared we
+might lose it. So I fired at once, from a distance of seventy yards. I
+was using my favorite rifle, the little Springfield with which I have
+killed most kinds of African game, from the lion and elephant down;
+the bullets were the sharp, pointed kind, with the end of naked lead.
+At the shot the jaguar fell like a sack of sand through the branches,
+and although it staggered to its feet it went but a score of yards
+before it sank down, and when I came up it was dead under the palms,
+with three or four of the bolder dogs riving at it.
+
+The jaguar is the king of South American game, ranking on an equality
+with the noblest beasts of the chase of North America, and behind only
+the huge and fierce creatures which stand at the head of the big game
+of Africa and Asia. This one was an adult female. It was heavier and
+more powerful than a full-grown male cougar, or African panther or
+leopard. It was a big, powerfully built creature, giving the same
+effect of strength that a tiger or lion does, and that the lithe
+leopards and pumas do not. Its flesh, by the way, proved good eating,
+when we had it for supper, although it was not cooked in the way it
+ought to have been. I tried it because I had found cougars such good
+eating; I have always regretted that in Africa I did not try lion's
+flesh, which I am sure must be excellent.
+
+Next day came Kermit's turn. We had the miscellaneous pack with us,
+all much enjoying themselves; but, although they could help in a
+jaguar-hunt to the extent of giving tongue and following the chase for
+half a mile, cowing the quarry by their clamor, they were not
+sufficiently stanch to be of use if there was any difficulty in the
+hunt. The only two dogs we could trust were the two borrowed jaguar
+hounds. This was the black dog's day. About ten in the morning we came
+to a long, deep, winding bayou. On the opposite bank stood a capybara,
+looking like a blunt-nosed pig, its wet hide shining black. I killed
+it, and it slid into the water. Then I found that the bayou extended
+for a mile or two in each direction, and the two hunter-guides said
+they did not wish to swim across for fear of the piranhas. Just at
+this moment we came across fresh jaguar tracks. It was hot, we had
+been travelling for five hours, and the dogs were much exhausted. The
+black hound in particular was nearly done up, for he had been led in a
+leash by one of the horsemen. He lay flat on the ground, panting,
+unable to catch the scent. Kermit threw water over him, and when he
+was thoroughly drenched and freshened, thrust his nose into the
+jaguar's footprints. The game old hound at once and eagerly responded.
+As he snuffed the scent he challenged loudly, while still lying down.
+Then he staggered to his feet and started on the trail, going stronger
+with every leap. Evidently the big cat was not far distant. Soon we
+found where it had swum across the bayou. Piranhas or no piranhas, we
+now intended to get across; and we tried to force our horses in at
+what seemed a likely spot. The matted growth of water-plants, with
+their leathery, slippery stems, formed an unpleasant barrier, as the
+water was swimming-deep for the horses. The latter were very unwilling
+to attempt the passage. Kermit finally forced his horse through the
+tangled mass, swimming, plunging, and struggling. He left a lane of
+clear water, through which we swam after him. The dogs splashed and
+swam behind us. On the other bank they struck the fresh trail and
+followed it at a run. It led into a long belt of timber, chiefly
+composed of low-growing nacury palms, with long, drooping, many-
+fronded branches. In silhouette they suggest coarse bamboos; the nuts
+hang in big clusters and look like bunches of small, unripe bananas.
+Among the lower palms were scattered some big ordinary trees. We
+cantered along outside the timber belt, listening to the dogs within;
+and in a moment a burst of yelling clamor from the pack told that the
+jaguar was afoot. These few minutes are the really exciting moments in
+the chase, with hounds, of any big cat that will tree. The furious
+baying of the pack, the shouts and cheers of encouragement from the
+galloping horsemen, the wilderness surroundings, the knowledge of what
+the quarry is--all combine to make the moment one of fierce and
+thrilling excitement. Besides, in this case there was the possibility
+the jaguar might come to bay on the ground, in which event there would
+be a slight element of risk, as it might need straight shooting to
+stop a charge. However, about as soon as the long-drawn howling and
+eager yelping showed that the jaguar had been overtaken, we saw him, a
+huge male, up in the branches of a great fig-tree. A bullet behind the
+shoulder, from Kermit's 405 Winchester, brought him dead to the
+ground. He was heavier than the very big male horse-killing cougar I
+shot in Colorado, whose skull Hart Merriam reported as the biggest he
+had ever seen; he was very nearly double the weight of any of the male
+African leopards we shot; he was nearly or quite the weight of the
+smallest of the adult African lionesses we shot while in Africa. He
+had the big bones, the stout frame, and the heavy muscular build of a
+small lion; he was not lithe and slender and long like a cougar or
+leopard; the tail, as with all jaguars, was short, while the girth of
+the body was great; his coat was beautiful, with a satiny gloss, and
+the dark-brown spots on the gold of his back, head, and sides were
+hardly as conspicuous as the black of the equally well-marked spots
+against his white belly.
+
+This was a well-known jaguar. He had occasionally indulged in cattle-
+killing; on one occasion during the floods he had taken up his abode
+near the ranch-house and had killed a couple of cows and a young
+steer. The hunters had followed him, but he had made his escape, and
+for the time being had abandoned the neighborhood. In these marshes
+each jaguar had a wide irregular range and travelled a good deal,
+perhaps only passing a day or two in a given locality, perhaps
+spending a week where game was plentiful. Jaguars love the water. They
+drink greedily and swim freely. In this country they rambled through
+the night across the marshes and prowled along the edges of the ponds
+and bayous, catching the capybaras and the caymans; for these small
+pond caymans, the jacare-tinga, form part of their habitual food, and
+a big jaguar when hungry will attack and kill large caymans and
+crocodiles if he can get them a few yards from the water. On these
+marshes the jaguars also followed the peccary herds; it is said that
+they always strike the hindmost of a band of the fierce little wild
+pigs. Elsewhere they often prey on the tapir. If in timber, however,
+the jaguar must kill it at once, for the squat, thick-skinned, wedge-
+shaped tapir has no respect for timber, as Colonel Rondon phrased it,
+and rushes with such blind, headlong speed through and among branches
+and trunks that if not immediately killed it brushes the jaguar off,
+the claws leaving long raking scars in the tough hide. Cattle are
+often killed. The jaguar will not meddle with a big bull; and is
+cautious about attacking a herd accompanied by a bull; but it will at
+times, where wild game is scarce, kill every other domestic animal. It
+is a thirsty brute, and if it kills far from water will often drag its
+victim a long distance toward a pond or stream; Colonel Rondon had
+once come across a horse which a jaguar had thus killed and dragged
+for over a mile. Jaguars also stalk and kill the deer; in this
+neighborhood they seemed to be less habitual deer-hunters than the
+cougars; whether this is generally the case I cannot say. They have
+been known to pounce on and devour good-sized anacondas.
+
+In this particular neighborhood the ordinary jaguars molested the
+cattle and horses hardly at all except now and then to kill calves. It
+was only occasionally that under special circumstances some old male
+took to cattle-killing. There were plenty of capybaras and deer, and
+evidently the big spotted cats preferred the easier prey when it was
+available; exactly as in East Africa we found the lions living almost
+exclusively on zebra and antelope, and not molesting the buffalo and
+domestic cattle, which in other parts of Africa furnish their habitual
+prey. In some other neighborhoods, not far distant, our hosts informed
+us that the jaguars lived almost exclusively on horses and cattle.
+They also told us that the cougars had the same habits as the jaguars
+except that they did not prey on such big animals. The cougars on this
+ranch never molested the foals, a fact which astonished me, as in the
+Rockies they are the worst enemies of foals. It was interesting to
+find that my hosts, and the mixed-blood hunters and ranch workers,
+combined special knowledge of many of the habits of these big cats
+with a curious ignorance of other matters concerning them and a
+readiness to believe fables about them. This was precisely what I had
+found to be the case with the old-time North American hunters in
+discussing the puma, bear, and wolf, and with the English and Boer
+hunters of Africa when they spoke of the lion and rhinoceros. Until
+the habit of scientific accuracy in observation and record is achieved
+and until specimens are preserved and carefully compared, entirely
+truthful men, at home in the wilderness, will whole-heartedly accept,
+and repeat as matters of gospel faith, theories which split the
+grizzly and black bears of each locality in the United States, and the
+lions and black rhinos of South Africa, or the jaguars and pumas of
+any portion of South America, into several different species, all with
+widely different habits. They will, moreover, describe these imaginary
+habits with such sincerity and minuteness that they deceive most
+listeners; and the result sometimes is that an otherwise good
+naturalist will perpetuate these fables, as Hudson did when he wrote
+of the puma. Hudson was a capital observer and writer when he dealt
+with the ordinary birds and mammals of the well-settled districts near
+Buenos Aires and at the mouth of the Rio Negro; but he knew nothing of
+the wilderness. This is no reflection on him; his books are great
+favorites of mine, and are to a large degree models of what such books
+should be; I only wish that there were hundreds of such writers and
+observers who would give us similar books for all parts of America.
+But it is a mistake to accept him as an authority on that concerning
+which he was ignorant.
+
+An interesting incident occurred on the day we killed our first
+jaguar. We took our lunch beside a small but deep and obviously
+permanent pond. I went to the edge to dip up some water, and something
+growled or bellowed at me only a few feet away. It was a jacare-tinga
+or small cayman about five feet long. I paid no heed to it at the
+moment. But shortly afterward when our horses went down to drink it
+threatened them and frightened them; and then Colonel Rondon and
+Kermit called me to watch it. It lay on the surface of the water only
+a few feet distant from us and threatened us; we threw cakes of mud at
+it, whereupon it clashed its jaws and made short rushes at us, and
+when we threw sticks it seized them and crunched them. We could not
+drive it away. Why it should have shown such truculence and
+heedlessness I cannot imagine, unless perhaps it was a female, with
+eggs near by. In another little pond a jacare-tinga showed no less
+anger when another of my companions approached. It bellowed, opened
+its jaws, and lashed its tail. Yet these pond jacares never actually
+molested even our dogs in the ponds, far less us on our horses.
+
+This same day others of our party had an interesting experience with
+the creatures in another pond. One of them was Commander da Cunha (of
+the Brazilian Navy), a capital sportsman and delightful companion.
+They found a deepish pond a hundred yards or so long and thirty or
+forty across. It was tenanted by the small caymans and by capybaras--
+the largest known rodent, a huge aquatic guinea-pig, the size of a
+small sheep. It also swarmed with piranhas, the ravenous fish of which
+I have so often spoken. Undoubtedly the caymans were subsisting
+largely on these piranhas. But the tables were readily turned if any
+caymans were injured. When a capybara was shot and sank in the water,
+the piranhas at once attacked it, and had eaten half the carcass ten
+minutes later. But much more extraordinary was the fact that when a
+cayman about five feet long was wounded the piranhas attacked and tore
+it, and actually drove it out on the bank to face its human foes. The
+fish first attacked the wound; then, as the blood maddened them, they
+attacked all the soft parts, their terrible teeth cutting out chunks
+of tough hide and flesh. Evidently they did not molest either cayman
+or capybara while it was unwounded; but blood excited them to frenzy.
+Their habits are in some ways inexplicable. We saw men frequently
+bathing unmolested; but there are places where this is never safe, and
+in any place if a school of the fish appear swimmers are in danger;
+and a wounded man or beast is in deadly peril if piranhas are in the
+neighborhood. Ordinarily it appears that an unwounded man is attacked
+only by accident. Such accidents are rare; but they happen with
+sufficient frequency to justify much caution in entering water where
+piranhas abound.
+
+We frequently came across ponds tenanted by numbers of capybaras. The
+huge, pig-like rodents are said to be shy elsewhere. Here they were
+tame. The water was their home and refuge. They usually went ashore to
+feed on the grass, and made well-beaten trails in the marsh
+immediately around the water; but they must have travelled these at
+night, for we never saw them more than a few feet away from the water
+in the daytime. Even at midday we often came on them standing beside a
+bayou or pond. The dogs would rush wildly at such a standing beast,
+which would wait until they were only a few yards off and then dash
+into and under the water. The dogs would also run full tilt into the
+water, and it was then really funny to see their surprise and
+disappointment at the sudden and complete disappearance of their
+quarry. Often a capybara would stand or sit on its haunches in the
+water, with only its blunt, short-eared head above the surface, quite
+heedless of our presence. But if alarmed it would dive, for capybaras
+swim with equal facility on or below the surface; and if they wish to
+hide they rise gently among the rushes or water-lily leaves with only
+their nostrils exposed. In these waters the capybaras and small
+caymans paid no attention to one another, swimming and resting in
+close proximity. They both had the same enemy, the jaguar. The
+capybara is a game animal only in the sense that a hare or rabbit is.
+The flesh is good to eat, and its amphibious habits and queer nature
+and surroundings make it interesting. In some of the ponds the water
+had about gone, and the capybaras had become for the time being beasts
+of the marsh and the mud; although they could always find little slimy
+pools, under a mass of water-lilies, in which to lie and hide.
+
+Our whole stay on this ranch was delightful. On the long rides we
+always saw something of interest, and often it was something entirely
+new to us. Early one morning we came across two armadillos--the big,
+nine-banded armadillo. We were riding with the pack through a dry,
+sandy pasture country, dotted with clumps of palms, round the trunks
+of which grew a dense jungle of thorns and Spanish bayonets. The
+armadillos were feeding in an open space between two of these jungle
+clumps, which were about a hundred yards apart. One was on all fours;
+the other was in a squatting position, with its fore legs off the
+ground. Their long ears were very prominent. The dogs raced at them. I
+had always supposed that armadillos merely shuffled along, and curled
+up for protection when menaced; and I was almost as surprised as if I
+had seen a turtle gallop when these two armadillos bounded off at a
+run, going as fast as rabbits. One headed back for the nearest patch
+of jungle, which it reached. The other ran at full speed--and ran
+really fast, too--until it nearly reached the other patch, a hundred
+yards distant, the dogs in full cry immediately behind it. Then it
+suddenly changed its mind, wheeled in its tracks, and came back like a
+bullet right through the pack. Dog after dog tried to seize it or stop
+it and turned to pursue it; but its wedge-shaped snout and armored
+body, joined to the speed at which it was galloping, enabled it to
+drive straight ahead through its pursuers, not one of which could halt
+it or grasp it, and it reached in safety its thorny haven of refuge.
+It had run at speed about a hundred and fifty yards. I was much
+impressed by this unexpected exhibition; evidently this species of
+armadillo only curls up as a last resort, and ordinarily trusts to its
+speed, and to the protection its build and its armor give it while
+running, in order to reach its burrow or other place of safety. Twice,
+while laying railway tracks near Sao Paulo, Kermit had accidentally
+dug up armadillos with a steam-shovel.
+
+There were big ant-hills, some of them of huge dimensions, scattered
+through the country. Sometimes they were built against the stems of
+trees. We did not here come across any of the poisonous or biting ants
+which, when sufficiently numerous, render certain districts
+uninhabitable. They are ordinarily not very numerous. Those of them
+that march in large bodies kill nestling birds, and at once destroy
+any big animal unable to get out of their way. It has been suggested
+that nestlings in their nests are in some way immune from the attack
+of these ants. The experiments of our naturalists tended to show that
+this was not the case. They plundered any nest they came across and
+could get at.
+
+Once we saw a small herd of peccaries, one a sow followed by three
+little pigs--they are said to have only two young, but we saw three,
+although of course it is possible one belonged to another sow. The
+herd galloped into a mass of thorny cover the hounds could not
+penetrate; and when they were in safety we heard them utter, from the
+depths of the jungle, a curious moaning sound.
+
+On one ride we passed a clump of palms which were fairly ablaze with
+bird color. There were magnificent hyacinth macaws; green parrots with
+red splashes; toucans with varied plumage, black, white, red, yellow;
+green jacmars; flaming orioles and both blue and dark-red tanagers. It
+was an extraordinary collection. All were noisy. Perhaps there was a
+snake that had drawn them by its presence; but we could find no snake.
+The assembly dispersed as we rode up; the huge blue macaws departed in
+pairs, uttering their hoarse "ar-rah-h, ar-rah-h." It has been said
+that parrots in the wilderness are only noisy on the wing. They are
+certainly noisy on the wing; and those that we saw were quiet while
+they were feeding; but ordinarily when they were perched among the
+branches, and especially when, as in the case of the little parakeets
+near the house, they were gathering materials for nest-building, they
+were just as noisy as while flying.
+
+The water-birds were always a delight. We shot merely the two or three
+specimens the naturalists needed for the museum. I killed a wood-ibis
+on the wing with the handy little Springfield, and then lost all the
+credit I had thus gained by a series of inexcusable misses, at long
+range, before I finally killed a jabiru. Kermit shot a jabiru with the
+Luger automatic. The great, splendid birds, standing about as tall as
+a man, show fight when wounded, and advance against their assailants,
+clattering their formidable bills. One day we found the nest of a
+jabiru in a mighty fig-tree, on the edge of a patch of jungle. It was
+a big platform of sticks, placed on a horizontal branch. There were
+four half-grown young standing on it. We passed it in the morning,
+when both parents were also perched alongside; the sky was then
+overcast, and it was not possible to photograph it with the small
+camera. In the early afternoon when we again passed it the sun was
+out, and we tried to get photographs. Only one parent bird was present
+at this time. It showed no fear. I noticed that, as it stood on a
+branch near the nest, its bill was slightly open. It was very hot, and
+I suppose it had opened its bill just as a hen opens her bill in hot
+weather. As we rode away the old bird and the four young birds were
+standing motionless, and with gliding flight the other old bird was
+returning to the nest. It is hard to give an adequate idea of the
+wealth of bird life in these marshes. A naturalist could with the
+utmost advantage spend six months on such a branch as that we visited.
+He would have to do some collecting, but only a little. Exhaustive
+observation in the field is what is now most needed. Most of this
+wonderful and harmless bird life should be protected by law; and the
+mammals should receive reasonable protection. The books now most
+needed are those dealing with the life-histories of wild creatures.
+
+Near the ranch-house, walking familiarly among the cattle, we saw the
+big, deep-billed Ani blackbirds. They feed on the insects disturbed by
+the hoofs of the cattle, and often cling to them and pick off the
+ticks. It was the end of the nesting season, and we did not find their
+curious communal nests, in which half a dozen females lay their eggs
+indiscriminately. The common ibises in the ponds near by--which
+usually went in pairs, instead of in flocks like the wood ibis--were
+very tame, and so were the night herons and all the small herons. In
+flying, the ibises and storks stretch the neck straight in front of
+them. The jabiru--a splendid bird on the wing--also stretches his neck
+out in front, but there appears to be a slight downward curve at the
+base of the neck, which may be due merely to the craw. The big slender
+herons, on the contrary, bend the long neck back in a beautiful curve,
+so that the head is nearly between the shoulders. One day I saw what I
+at first thought was a small yellow-bellied kingfisher hovering over a
+pond, and finally plunging down to the surface of the water after a
+school of tiny young fish; but it proved to be a bien-te-vì king-bird.
+Curved-bill wood-hewers, birds the size and somewhat the coloration of
+veeries, but with long, slender sickle-bills, were common in the
+little garden back of the house; their habits were those of creepers,
+and they scrambled with agility up, along, and under the trunks and
+branches, and along the posts and rails of the fence, thrusting the
+bill into crevices for insects. The oven-birds, which had the carriage
+and somewhat the look of wood-thrushes, I am sure would prove
+delightful friends on a close acquaintance; they are very individual,
+not only in the extraordinary domed mud nests they build, but in all
+their ways, in their bright alertness; their interest in and curiosity
+about whatever goes on, their rather jerky quickness of movement, and
+their loud and varied calls. With a little encouragement they become
+tame and familiar. The parakeets were too noisy, but otherwise were
+most attractive little birds, as they flew to and fro and scrambled
+about in the top of the palm behind the house. There was one showy
+kind of king-bird or tyrant flycatcher, lustrous black with a white
+head.
+
+One afternoon several score cattle were driven into a big square
+corral near the house, in order to brand the calves and a number of
+unbranded yearlings and two-year-olds. A special element of excitement
+was added by the presence of a dozen big bulls which were to be turned
+into draught-oxen. The agility, nerve, and prowess of the ranch
+workmen, the herders or gauchos, were noteworthy. The dark-skinned men
+were obviously mainly of Indian and negro descent, although some of
+them also showed a strong strain of white blood. They wore the usual
+shirt, trousers, and fringed leather apron, with jim-crow hats. Their
+bare feet must have been literally as tough as horn; for when one of
+them roped a big bull he would brace himself, bending back until he
+was almost sitting down and digging his heels into the ground, and the
+galloping beast would be stopped short and whirled completely round
+when the rope tautened. The maddened bulls, and an occasional steer or
+cow, charged again and again with furious wrath; but two or three
+ropes would settle on the doomed beast, and down it would go; and when
+it was released and rose and charged once more, with greater fury than
+ever, the men, shouting with laughter, would leap up the sides of the
+heavy stockade.
+
+We stayed at the ranch until a couple of days before Christmas.
+Hitherto the weather had been lovely. The night before we left there
+was a torrential tropic downpour. It was not unexpected, for we had
+been told that the rainy season was overdue. The following forenoon
+the baggage started, in a couple of two-wheeled ox-carts, for the
+landing where the steamboat awaited us. Each cart was drawn by eight
+oxen. The huge wheels were over seven feet high. Early in the
+afternoon we followed on horseback, and overtook the carts as darkness
+fell, just before we reached the landing on the river's bank. The last
+few miles, after the final reaches of higher, tree-clad ground had
+been passed, were across a level plain of low ground on which the
+water stood, sometimes only up to the ankles of a man on foot,
+sometimes as high as his waist. Directly in front of us, many leagues
+distant, rose the bold mountains that lie west of Corumba. Behind them
+the sun was setting and kindled the overcast heavens with lurid
+splendor. Then the last rose tints faded from the sky; the horses
+plodded wearily through the water; on every side stretched the marsh,
+vast, lonely, desolate in the gray of the half-light. We overtook the
+ox-carts. The cattle strained in the yokes; the drivers wading
+alongside cracked their whips and uttered strange cries; the carts
+rocked and swayed as the huge wheels churned through the mud and
+water. As the last light faded we reached the small patches of dry
+land at the landing, where the flat-bottomed side-wheel steamboat was
+moored to the bank. The tired horses and oxen were turned loose to
+graze. Water stood in the corrals, but the open shed was on dry
+ground. Under it the half-clad, wild-looking ox-drivers and horse-
+herders slung their hammocks; and close by they lit a fire and
+roasted, or scorched, slabs and legs of mutton, spitted on sticks and
+propped above the smouldering flame.
+
+Next morning, with real regret, we waved good-by to our dusky
+attendants, as they stood on the bank, grouped around a little fire,
+beside the big, empty ox-carts. A dozen miles down-stream a rowboat
+fitted for a sprit-sail put off from the bank. The owner, a countryman
+from a small ranch, asked for a tow to Corumba, which we gave. He had
+with him in the boat his comely brown wife--who was smoking a very
+large cigar--their two children, a young man, and a couple of trunks
+and various other belongings. On Christmas eve we reached Corumba, and
+rejoined the other members of the expedition.
+
+
+
+                  IV. THE HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY
+
+At Corumba our entire party, and all their belongings, came aboard our
+good little river boat, the Nyoac. Christmas Day saw us making our way
+steadily up-stream against the strong current, and between the green
+and beautiful banks of the upper Paraguay. The shallow little steamer
+was jammed with men, dogs, rifles, partially cured skins, boxes of
+provisions, ammunition, tools, and photographic supplies, bags
+containing tents, cots, bedding, and clothes, saddles, hammocks, and
+the other necessaries for a trip through the "great wilderness," the
+"Matto Grosso" of western Brazil.
+
+It was a brilliantly clear day, and, although of course in that
+latitude and at that season the heat was intense later on, it was cool
+and pleasant in the early morning. We sat on the forward deck,
+admiring the trees on the brink of the sheer river banks, the lush,
+rank grass of the marshes, and the many water-birds. The two pilots,
+one black and one white, stood at the wheel. Colonel Rondon read
+Thomas a Kempis. Kermit, Cherrie, and Miller squatted outside the
+railing on the deck over one paddle-wheel and put the final touches on
+the jaguar skins. Fiala satisfied himself that the boxes and bags were
+in place. It was probable that hardship lay in the future; but the day
+was our own, and the day was pleasant. In the evening the after-deck,
+open all around, where we dined, was decorated with green boughs and
+rushes, and we drank the health of the President of the United States
+and of the President of Brazil.
+
+Now and then we passed little ranches on the river's edge. This is a
+fertile land, pleasant to live in, and any settler who is willing to
+work can earn his living. There are mines; there is water-power; there
+is abundance of rich soil. The country will soon be opened by rail. It
+offers a fine field for immigration and for agricultural, mining, and
+business development; and it has a great future.
+
+Cherrie and Miller had secured a little owl a month before in the
+Chaco, and it was travelling with them in a basket. It was a dear
+little bird, very tame and affectionate. It liked to be handled and
+petted; and when Miller, its especial protector, came into the cabin,
+it would make queer little noises as a signal that it wished to be
+taken up and perched on his hand. Cherrie and Miller had trapped many
+mammals. Among them was a tayra weasel, whitish above and black below,
+as big and blood-thirsty as a fisher-martin; and a tiny opossum no
+bigger than a mouse. They had taken four species of opossum, but they
+had not found the curious water-opossum which they had obtained on the
+rivers flowing into the Caribbean Sea. This opossum, which is black
+and white, swims in the streams like a muskrat or otter, catching fish
+and living in burrows which open under water. Miller and Cherrie were
+puzzled to know why the young throve, leading such an existence of
+constant immersion; one of them once found a female swimming and
+diving freely with four quite well-grown young in her pouch.
+
+We saw on the banks screamers--big, crested waders of archaic type,
+with spurred wings, rather short bills, and no especial affinities
+with other modern birds. In one meadow by a pond we saw three marsh-
+deer, a buck and two does. They stared at us, with their thickly
+haired tails raised on end. These tails are black underneath, instead
+of white as in our whitetail deer. One of the vagaries of the
+ultraconcealing-colorationists has been to uphold the (incidentally
+quite preposterous) theory that the tail of our deer is colored white
+beneath so as to harmonize with the sky and thereby mislead the cougar
+or wolf at the critical moment when it makes its spring; but this
+marsh-deer shows a black instead of a white flag, and yet has just as
+much need of protection from its enemies, the jaguar and the cougar.
+In South America concealing coloration plays no more part in the lives
+of the adult deer, the tamandua, the tapir, the peccary, the jaguar,
+and the puma than it plays in Africa in the lives of such animals as
+the zebra, the sable antelope, the wildebeeste, the lion, and the
+hunting hyena.
+
+Next day we spent ascending the Sao Lourenco. It was narrower than the
+Paraguay, naturally, and the swirling brown current was, if anything,
+more rapid. The strange tropical trees, standing densely on the banks,
+were matted together by long bush ropes--lianas, or vines, some very
+slender and very long. Sometimes we saw brilliant red or blue flowers,
+or masses of scarlet berries on a queer palm-like tree, or an array of
+great white blossoms on a much larger tree. In a lagoon bordered by
+the taquara bamboo a school of big otters were playing; when they came
+to the surface, they opened their mouths like seals, and made a loud
+hissing noise. The crested screamers, dark gray and as large as
+turkeys, perched on the very topmost branches of the tallest trees.
+Hyacinth macaws screamed harshly as they flew across the river. Among
+the trees was the guan, another peculiar bird as big as a big grouse,
+and with certain habits of the wood-grouse, but not akin to any
+northern game-bird. The windpipe of the male is very long, extending
+down to the end of the breast-bone, and the bird utters queer guttural
+screams. A dead cayman floated down-stream, with a black vulture
+devouring it. Capybaras stood or squatted on the banks; sometimes they
+stared stupidly at us; sometimes they plunged into the river at our
+approach. At long intervals we passed little clearings. In each stood
+a house of palm-logs, with a steeply pitched roof of palm thatch; and
+near by were patches of corn and mandioc. The dusky owner, and perhaps
+his family, came out on the bank to watch us as we passed. It was a
+hot day--the thermometer on the deck in the shade stood at nearly 100
+degrees Fahrenheit. Biting flies came aboard even when we were in
+midstream.
+
+Next day we were ascending the Cuyaba River. It had begun raining in
+the night, and the heavy downpour continued throughout the forenoon.
+In the morning we halted at a big cattle-ranch to get fresh milk and
+beef. There were various houses, sheds, and corrals near the river's
+edge, and fifty or sixty milch cows were gathered in one corral.
+Spurred plover, or lapwings, strolled familiarly among the hens.
+Parakeets and red-headed tanagers lit in the trees over our heads. A
+kind of primitive houseboat was moored at the bank. A woman was
+cooking breakfast over a little stove at one end. The crew were
+ashore. The boat was one of those which are really stores, and which
+travel up and down these rivers, laden with what the natives most
+need, and stopping wherever there is a ranch. They are the only stores
+which many of the country-dwellers see from year's end to year's end.
+They float down-stream, and up-stream are poled by their crew, or now
+and then get a tow from a steamer. This one had a house with a tin
+roof; others bear houses with thatched roofs, or with roofs made of
+hides. The river wound through vast marshes broken by belts of
+woodland.
+
+Always the two naturalists had something of interest to tell of their
+past experience, suggested by some bird or beast we came across. Black
+and golden orioles, slightly crested, of two different species were
+found along the river; they nest in colonies, and often we passed such
+colonies, the long pendulous nests hanging from the boughs of trees
+directly over the water. Cherrie told us of finding such a colony
+built round a big wasp-nest, several feet in diameter. These wasps are
+venomous and irritable, and few foes would dare venture near bird's-
+nests that were under such formidable shelter; but the birds
+themselves were entirely unafraid, and obviously were not in any
+danger of disagreement with their dangerous protectors. We saw a dark
+ibis flying across the bow of the boat, uttering his deep, two-
+syllabled note. Miller told how on the Orinoco these ibises plunder
+the nests of the big river-turtles. They are very skilful in finding
+where the female turtle has laid her eggs, scratch them out of the
+sand, break the shells, and suck the contents.
+
+It was astonishing to find so few mosquitoes on these marshes. They
+did not in any way compare as pests with the mosquitoes on the lower
+Mississippi, the New Jersey coast, the Red River of the North, or the
+Kootenay. Back in the forest near Corumba the naturalists had found
+them very bad indeed. Cherrie had spent two or three days on a
+mountain-top which was bare of forest; he had thought there would be
+few mosquitoes, but the long grass harbored them (they often swarm in
+long grass and bush, even where there is no water), and at night they
+were such a torment that as soon as the sun set he had to go to bed
+under his mosquito-netting. Yet on the vast marshes they were not
+seriously troublesome in most places. I was informed that they were
+not in any way a bother on the grassy uplands, the high country north
+of Cuyaba, which from thence stretches eastward to the coastal region.
+It is at any rate certain that this inland region of Brazil, including
+the state of Matto Grosso, which we were traversing, is a healthy
+region, excellently adapted to settlement; railroads will speedily
+penetrate it, and then it will witness an astonishing development.
+
+On the morning of the 28th we reached the home buildings of the great
+Sao Joao fazenda, the ranch of Senhor Joao da Costa Marques. Our host
+himself, and his son, Dom Joao the younger, who was state secretary of
+agriculture, and the latter's charming wife, and the president of
+Matto Grosso, and several other ladies and gentlemen, had come down
+the river to greet us, from the city of Cuyaba, several hundred miles
+farther up-stream. As usual, we were treated with whole-hearted and
+generous hospitality. Some miles below the ranch-house the party met
+us, on a stern-wheel steamboat and a launch, both decked with many
+flags. The handsome white ranch-house stood only a few rods back from
+the river's brink, in a grassy opening dotted with those noble trees,
+the royal palms. Other trees, buildings of all kinds, flower-gardens,
+vegetable-gardens, fields, corrals, and enclosures with high white
+walls stood near the house. A detachment of soldiers or state police,
+with a band, were in front of the house, and two flagpoles, one with
+the Brazilian flag already hoisted. The American flag was run up on
+the other as I stepped ashore, while the band played the national
+anthems of the two countries. The house held much comfort; and the
+comfort was all the more appreciated because even indoors the
+thermometer stood at 97 degrees F. In the late afternoon heavy rain
+fell, and cooled the air. We were riding at the time. Around the house
+the birds were tame: the parrots and parakeets crowded and chattered
+in the tree tops; jacanas played in the wet ground just back of the
+garden; ibises and screamers called loudly in the swamps a little
+distance off.
+
+Until we came actually in sight of this great ranch-house we had been
+passing through a hot, fertile, pleasant wilderness, where the few
+small palm-roofed houses, each in its little patch of sugar-cane,
+corn, and mandioc, stood very many miles apart. One of these little
+houses stood on an old Indian mound, exactly like the mounds which
+form the only hillocks along the lower Mississippi, and which are also
+of Indian origin. These occasional Indian mounds, made ages ago, are
+the highest bits of ground in the immense swamps of the upper Paraguay
+region. There are still Indian tribes in this neighborhood. We passed
+an Indian fishing village on the edge of the river, with huts,
+scaffoldings for drying the fish, hammocks, and rude tables. They
+cultivated patches of bananas and sugar-cane. Out in a shallow place
+in the river was a scaffolding on which the Indians stood to spear
+fish. The Indians were friendly, peaceable souls, for the most part
+dressed like the poorer classes among the Brazilians.
+
+Next morning there was to have been a great rodeo or round-up, and we
+determined to have a hunt first, as there were still several kinds of
+beasts of the chase, notably tapirs and peccaries, of which the
+naturalists desired specimens. Dom Joao, our host, and his son
+accompanied us. Theirs is a noteworthy family. Born in Matto Grosso,
+in the tropics, our host had the look of a northerner and, although a
+grandfather, he possessed an abounding vigor and energy such as very
+few men of any climate or surroundings do possess. All of his sons are
+doing well. The son who was with us was a stalwart, powerful man, a
+pleasant companion, an able public servant, a finished horseman, and a
+skilled hunter. He carried a sharp spear, not a rifle, for in Matto
+Grosso it is the custom in hunting the jaguar for riflemen and
+spearmen to go in at him together when he turns at bay, the spearman
+holding him off if the first shot fails to stop him, so that another
+shot can be put in. Altogether, our host and his son reminded one of
+the best type of American ranchmen and planters, of those planters and
+ranchmen who are adepts in bold and manly field sports, who are
+capital men of business, and who also often supply to the state
+skilled and faithful public servants. The hospitality the father and
+son extended to us was patriarchal: neither, for instance, would sit
+at table with their guests at the beginning of the formal meals;
+instead they exercised a close personal supervision over the feast.
+Our charming hostess, however, sat at the head of the table.
+
+At six in the morning we started, all of us on fine horses. The day
+was lowering and overcast. A dozen dogs were with us, but only one or
+two were worth anything. Three or four ordinary countrymen, the ranch
+hands, or vaqueiros, accompanied us; they were mainly of Indian blood,
+and would have been called peons, or caboclos, in other parts of
+Brazil, but here were always spoken to and of as "camaradas." They
+were, of course, chosen from among the men who were hunters, and each
+carried his long, rather heavy and clumsy jaguar-spear. In front rode
+our vigorous host and his strapping son, the latter also carrying a
+jaguar-spear. The bridles and saddles of the big ranchmen and of the
+gentlefolk generally were handsome and were elaborately ornamented
+with silver. The stirrups, for instance, were not only of silver, but
+contained so much extra metal in ornamented bars and rings that they
+would have been awkward for less-practised riders. Indeed, as it was,
+they were adapted only for the tips of boots with long, pointed toes,
+and were impossible for our feet; our hosts' stirrups were long,
+narrow silver slippers. The camaradas, on the other hand, had jim-crow
+saddles and bridles, and rusty little iron stirrups into which they
+thrust their naked toes. But all, gentry and commonalty alike, rode
+equally well and with the same skill and fearlessness. To see our
+hosts gallop at headlong speed over any kind of country toward the
+sound of the dogs with their quarry at bay, or to see them handle
+their horses in a morass, was a pleasure. It was equally a pleasure to
+see a camarada carrying his heavy spear, leading a hound in a leash,
+and using his machete to cut his way through the tangled vine-ropes of
+a jungle, all at the same time and all without the slightest reference
+to the plunges, and the odd and exceedingly jerky behavior, of his
+wild, half-broken horse--for on such a ranch most of the horses are
+apt to come in the categories of half-broken or else of broken-down.
+One dusky tatterdemalion wore a pair of boots from which he had
+removed the soles, his bare, spur-clad feet projecting from beneath
+the uppers. He was on a little devil of a stallion, which he rode
+blindfold for a couple of miles, and there was a regular circus when
+he removed the bandage; but evidently it never occurred to him that
+the animal was hardly a comfortable riding-horse for a man going out
+hunting and encumbered with a spear, a machete, and other belongings.
+
+The eight hours that we were out we spent chiefly in splashing across
+the marshes, with excursions now and then into vine-tangled belts and
+clumps of timber. Some of the bayous we had to cross were
+uncomfortably boggy. We had to lead the horses through one, wading
+ahead of them; and even so two of them mired down, and their saddles
+had to be taken off before they could be gotten out. Among the marsh
+plants were fields and strips of the great caete rush. These caete
+flags towered above the other and lesser marsh plants. They were
+higher than the heads of the horsemen. Their two or three huge banana-
+like leaves stood straight up on end. The large brilliant flowers--
+orange, red, and yellow--were joined into a singularly shaped and
+solid string or cluster. Humming-birds buzzed round these flowers; one
+species, the sickle-billed hummer, has its bill especially adapted for
+use in these queerly shaped blossoms and gets its food only from them,
+never appearing around any other plant.
+
+The birds were tame, even those striking and beautiful birds which
+under man's persecution are so apt to become scarce and shy. The huge
+jabiru storks, stalking through the water with stately dignity,
+sometimes refused to fly until we were only a hundred yards off; one
+of them flew over our heads at a distance of thirty or forty yards.
+The screamers, crying curu-curu, and the ibises, wailing dolefully,
+came even closer. The wonderful hyacinth macaws, in twos and threes,
+accompanied us at times for several hundred yards, hovering over our
+heads and uttering their rasping screams. In one wood we came on the
+black howler monkey. The place smelt almost like a menagerie. Not
+watching with sufficient care I brushed against a sapling on which the
+venomous fire-ants swarmed. They burnt the skin like red-hot cinders,
+and left little sores. More than once in the drier parts of the marsh
+we met small caymans making their way from one pool to another. My
+horse stepped over one before I saw it. The dead carcasses of others
+showed that on their wanderings they had encountered jaguars or human
+foes.
+
+We had been out about three hours when one of the dogs gave tongue in
+a large belt of woodland and jungle to the left of our line of march
+through the marsh. The other dogs ran to the sound, and after a while
+the long barking told that the thing, whatever it was, was at bay or
+else in some refuge. We made our way toward the place on foot. The
+dogs were baying excitedly at the mouth of a huge hollow log, and very
+short examination showed us that there were two peccaries within,
+doubtless a boar and sow. However, just at this moment the peccaries
+bolted from an unsuspected opening at the other end of the log, dove
+into the tangle, and instantly disappeared with the hounds in full cry
+after them. It was twenty minutes later before we again heard the pack
+baying. With much difficulty, and by the incessant swinging of the
+machetes, we opened a trail through the network of vines and branches.
+This time there was only one peccary, the boar. He was at bay in a
+half-hollow stump. The dogs were about his head, raving with
+excitement, and it was not possible to use the rifle; so I borrowed
+the spear of Dom Joao the younger, and killed the fierce little boar
+therewith.
+
+This was an animal akin to our collared peccary, smaller and less
+fierce than its white-jawed kinsfolk. It is a valiant and truculent
+little beast, nevertheless, and if given the chance will bite a piece
+the size of a teacup out of either man or dog. It is found singly or
+in small parties, feeds on roots, fruits, grass, and delights to make
+its home in hollow logs. If taken young it makes an affectionate and
+entertaining pet. When the two were in the hollow log we heard them
+utter a kind of moaning, or menacing, grunt, long drawn.
+
+An hour or two afterward we unexpectedly struck the fresh tracks of
+two jaguars and at once loosed the dogs, who tore off yelling, on the
+line of the scent. Unfortunately, just at this moment the clouds burst
+and a deluge of rain drove in our faces. So heavy was the downpour
+that the dogs lost the trail and we lost the dogs. We found them again
+only owing to one of our caboclos; an Indian with a queer Mongolian
+face, and no brain at all that I could discover, apart from his
+special dealings with wild creatures, cattle, and horses. He rode in a
+huddle of rags; but nothing escaped his eyes, and he rode anything
+anywhere. The downpour continued so heavily that we knew the rodeo had
+been abandoned, and we turned our faces for the long, dripping,
+splashing ride homeward. Through the gusts of driving rain we could
+hardly see the way. Once the rain lightened, and half a mile away the
+sunshine gleamed through a rift in the leaden cloud-mass. Suddenly in
+this rift of shimmering brightness there appeared a flock of beautiful
+white egrets. With strong, graceful wing-beats the birds urged their
+flight, their plumage flashing in the sun. They then crossed the rift
+and were swallowed in the gray gloom of the day.
+
+On the marsh the dogs several times roused capybaras. Where there were
+no ponds of sufficient size the capybaras sought refuge in flight
+through the tangled marsh. They ran well. Kermit and Fiala went after
+one on foot, full-speed, for a mile and a half, with two hounds which
+then bayed it--literally bayed it, for the capybara fought with the
+courage of a gigantic woodchuck. If the pack overtook a capybara, they
+of course speedily finished it; but a single dog of our not very
+valorous outfit was not able to overmatch its shrill-squeaking
+opponent.
+
+Near the ranch-house, about forty feet up in a big tree, was a
+jabiru's nest containing young jabirus. The young birds exercised
+themselves by walking solemnly round the edge of the nest and opening
+and shutting their wings. Their heads and necks were down-covered,
+instead of being naked like those of their parents. Fiala wished to
+take a moving-picture of them while thus engaged, and so, after
+arranging his machine, he asked Harper to rouse the young birds by
+throwing a stick up to the nest. He did so, whereupon one young jabiru
+hastily opened its wings in the desired fashion, at the same time
+seizing the stick in its bill! It dropped it at once, with an air of
+comic disappointment, when it found that the stick was not edible.
+
+There were many strange birds round about. Toucans were not uncommon.
+I have never seen any other bird take such grotesque and comic
+attitudes as the toucan. This day I saw one standing in the top of a
+tree with the big bill pointing straight into the air and the tail
+also cocked perpendicularly. The toucan is a born comedian. On the
+river and in the ponds we saw the finfoot, a bird with feet like a
+grebe and bill and tail like those of a darter, but, like so many
+South American birds, with no close affiliations among other species.
+The exceedingly rich bird fauna of South America contains many species
+which seem to be survivals from a very remote geologic past, whose
+kinsfolk have perished under the changed conditions of recent ages;
+and in the case of many, like the hoatzin and screamer, their like is
+not known elsewhere. Herons of many species swarmed in this
+neighborhood. The handsomest was the richly colored tiger bittern. Two
+other species were so unlike ordinary herons that I did not recognize
+them as herons at all until Cherrie told me what they were. One had a
+dark body, a white-speckled or ocellated neck, and a bill almost like
+that of an ibis. The other looked white, but was really mauve-colored,
+with black on the head. When perched on a tree it stood like an ibis;
+and instead of the measured wing-beats characteristic of a heron's
+flight, it flew with a quick, vigorous flapping of the wings. There
+were queer mammals, too, as well as birds. In the fields Miller
+trapped mice of a kind entirely new.
+
+Next morning the sky was leaden, and a drenching rain fell as we began
+our descent of the river. The rainy season had fairly begun. For our
+good fortune we were still where we had the cabins aboard the boat,
+and the ranch-house, in which to dry our clothes and soggy shoes; but
+in the intensely humid atmosphere, hot and steaming, they stayed wet a
+long time, and were still moist when we put them on again. Before we
+left the house where we had been treated with such courteous
+hospitality--the finest ranch-house in Matto Grosso, on a huge ranch
+where there are some sixty thousand head of horned cattle--the son of
+our host, Dom Joao the younger, the jaguar-hunter, presented me with
+two magnificent volumes on the palms of Brazil, the work of Doctor
+Barboso Rodriguez, one-time director of the Botanical Gardens at Rio
+Janeiro. The two folios were in a box of native cedar. No gift more
+appropriate, none that I would in the future value more as a reminder
+of my stay in Matto Grosso, could have been given me.
+
+All that afternoon the rain continued. It was still pouring in
+torrents when we left the Cuyaba for the Sao Lourenco and steamed up
+the latter a few miles before anchoring; Dom Joao the younger had
+accompanied us in his launch. The little river steamer was of very
+open build, as is necessary in such a hot climate; and to keep things
+dry necessitated also keeping the atmosphere stifling. The German
+taxidermist who was with Colonel Rondon's party, Reinisch, a very good
+fellow from Vienna, sat on a stool, alternately drenched with rain and
+sweltering with heat, and muttered to himself: "Ach, Schweinerei!"
+
+Two small caymans, of the common species, with prominent eyes, were at
+the bank where we moored, and betrayed an astonishing and stupid
+tameness. Neither the size of the boat nor the commotion caused by the
+paddles in any way affected them. They lay inshore, not twenty feet
+from us, half out of water; they paid not the slightest heed to our
+presence, and only reluctantly left when repeatedly poked at, and
+after having been repeatedly hit with clods of mud and sticks; and
+even then one first crawled up on shore, to find out if thereby he
+could not rid himself of the annoyance we caused him.
+
+Next morning it was still raining, but we set off on a hunt,
+anyway, going afoot. A couple of brown camaradas led the way, and
+Colonel Rondon, Dom Joao, Kermit, and I followed. The incessant
+downpour speedily wet us to the skin. We made our way slowly through
+the forest, the machetes playing right and left, up and down, at every
+step, for the trees were tangled in a network of vines and creepers.
+Some of the vines were as thick as a man's leg. Mosquitoes hummed
+about us, the venomous fire-ants stung us, the sharp spines of a small
+palm tore our hands--afterward some of the wounds festered. Hour after
+hour we thus walked on through the Brazilian forest. We saw monkeys,
+the common yellowish kind, a species of cebus; a couple were shot for
+the museum and the others raced off among the upper branches of the
+trees. Then we came on a party of coatis, which look like reddish,
+long-snouted, long-tailed, lanky raccoons. They were in the top of a
+big tree. One, when shot at and missed, bounced down to the ground,
+and ran off through the bushes; Kermit ran after it and secured it. He
+came back, to find us peering hopelessly up into the tree top, trying
+to place where the other coatis were. Kermit solved the difficulty by
+going up along some huge twisted lianas for forty or fifty feet and
+exploring the upper branches; whereupon down came three other coatis
+through the branches, one being caught by the dogs and the other two
+escaping. Coatis fight savagely with both teeth and claws. Miller told
+us that he once saw one of them kill a dog. They feed on all small
+mammals, birds, and reptiles, and even on some large ones; they kill
+iguanas; Cherrie saw a rattling chase through the trees, a coati
+following an iguana at full speed. We heard the rush of a couple of
+tapirs, as they broke away in the jungle in front of the dogs and
+headed, according to their custom, for the river; but we never saw
+them. One of the party shot a bush deer--a very pretty, graceful
+creature, smaller than our whitetail deer, but kin to it and doubtless
+the southernmost representative of the whitetail group.
+
+The whitetail deer--using the word to designate a group of deer which
+can neither be called a subgenus with many species, nor a widely
+spread species diverging into many varieties--is the only North
+American species which has spread down into and has outlying
+representatives in South America. It has been contended that the
+species has spread from South America northward. I do not think so;
+and the specimen thus obtained furnished a probable refutation of the
+theory. It was a buck, and had just shed its small antlers. The
+antlers are, therefore, shed at the same time as in the north, and it
+appears that they are grown at the same time as in the north. Yet this
+variety now dwells in the tropics south of the equator, where the
+spring, and the breeding season for most birds, comes at the time of
+the northern fall in September, October, and November. That the deer
+is an intrusive immigrant, and that it has not yet been in South
+America long enough to change its mating season in accordance with the
+climate, as the birds--geologically doubtless very old residents--have
+changed their breeding season, is rendered probable by the fact that
+it conforms so exactly in the time of its antler growth to the
+universal rule which obtains in the great arctogeal realm, where deer
+of many species abound and where the fossil forms show that they have
+long existed. The marsh-deer, which has diverged much further from the
+northern type than this bush deer (its horns show a likeness to those
+of a blacktail), often keeps its antlers until June or July, although
+it begins to grow them again in August; however, too much stress must
+not be laid on this fact, inasmuch as the wapiti and the cow caribou
+both keep their antlers until spring. The specialization of the marsh-
+deer, by the way, is further shown in its hoofs, which, thanks to its
+semi-aquatic mode of life, have grown long, like those of such African
+swamp antelopes as the lechwe and situtunga.
+
+Miller, when we presented the monkeys to him, told us that the females
+both of these monkeys and of the howlers themselves took care of the
+young, the males not assisting them, and moreover that when the young
+one was a male he had always found the mother keeping by herself, away
+from the old males. On the other hand, among the marmosets he found
+the fathers taking as much care of the young as the mothers; if the
+mother had twins, the father would usually carry one, and sometimes
+both, around with him.
+
+After we had been out four hours our camaradas got lost; three several
+times they travelled round in a complete circle; and we had to set
+them right with the compass. About noon the rain, which had been
+falling almost without interruption for forty-eight hours, let up, and
+in an hour or two the sun came out. We went back to the river, and
+found our rowboat. In it the hounds--a motley and rather worthless
+lot--and the rest of the party were ferried across to the opposite
+bank, while Colonel Rondon and I stayed in the boat, on the chance
+that a tapir might be roused and take to the river. However, no tapir
+was found; Kermit killed a collared peccary, and I shot a capybara
+representing a color-phase the naturalists wished.
+
+Next morning, January 1, 1914, we were up at five and had a good New
+Year's Day breakfast of hardtack, ham, sardines, and coffee before
+setting out on an all day's hunt on foot. I much feared that the pack
+was almost or quite worthless for jaguars, but there were two or three
+of the great spotted cats in the neighborhood and it seemed worth
+while to make a try for them anyhow. After an hour or two we found
+the fresh tracks of two, and after them we went. Our party consisted
+of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Rogaciano--an excellent man, himself a
+native of Matto Grosso, of old Matto Grosso stock--two others of the
+party from the Sao Joao ranch, Kermit, and myself, together with four
+dark-skinned camaradas, cowhands from the same ranch. We soon found
+that the dogs would not by themselves follow the jaguar trail; nor
+would the camaradas, although they carried spears. Kermit was the one
+of our party who possessed the requisite speed, endurance, and
+eyesight, and accordingly he led. Two of the dogs would follow the
+track half a dozen yards ahead of him, but no farther; and two of the
+camaradas could just about keep up with him. For an hour we went
+through thick jungle, where the machetes were constantly at work. Then
+the trail struck off straight across the marshes, for jaguars swim and
+wade as freely as marsh-deer. It was a hard walk. The sun was out. We
+were drenched with sweat. We were torn by the spines of the
+innumerable clusters of small palms with thorns like needles. We were
+bitten by the hosts of fire-ants, and by the mosquitoes, which we
+scarcely noticed where the fire-ants were found, exactly as all dread
+of the latter vanished when we were menaced by the big red wasps, of
+which a dozen stings will disable a man, and if he is weak or in bad
+health will seriously menace his life. In the marsh we were
+continually wading, now up to our knees, now up to our hips. Twice we
+came to long bayous so deep that we had to swim them, holding our
+rifles above water in our right hands. The floating masses of marsh
+grass, and the slimy stems of the water-plants, doubled our work as we
+swam, cumbered by our clothing and boots and holding our rifles aloft.
+One result of the swim, by the way, was that my watch, a veteran of
+Cuba and Africa, came to an indignant halt. Then on we went, hampered
+by the weight of our drenched clothes while our soggy boots squelched
+as we walked. There was no breeze. In the undimmed sky the sun stood
+almost overhead. The heat beat on us in waves. By noon I could only go
+forward at a slow walk, and two of the party were worse off than I
+was. Kermit, with the dogs and two camaradas close behind him,
+disappeared across the marshes at a trot. At last, when he was out of
+sight, and it was obviously useless to follow him, the rest of us
+turned back toward the boat. The two exhausted members of the party
+gave out, and we left them under a tree. Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant
+Rogaciano were not much tired; I was somewhat tired, but was perfectly
+able to go for several hours more if I did not try to go too fast; and
+we three walked on to the river, reaching it about half past four,
+after eleven hours' stiff walking with nothing to eat. We were soon on
+the boat. A relief party went back for the two men under the tree, and
+soon after it reached them Kermit also turned up with his hounds and
+his camaradas trailing wearily behind him. He had followed the jaguar
+trail until the dogs were so tired that even after he had bathed them,
+and then held their noses in the fresh footprints, they would pay no
+heed to the scent. A hunter of scientific tastes, a hunter-naturalist,
+or even an outdoors naturalist, or faunal naturalist interested in big
+mammals, with a pack of hounds such as those with which Paul Rainey
+hunted lion and leopard in Africa, or such a pack as the packs of
+Johnny Goff and Jake Borah with which I hunted cougar, lynx, and bear
+in the Rockies, or such packs as those of the Mississippi and
+Louisiana planters with whom I have hunted bear, wild-cat, and deer in
+the cane-brakes of the lower Mississippi, would not only enjoy fine
+hunting in these vast marshes of the upper Paraguay, but would also do
+work of real scientific value as regards all the big cats.
+
+Only a limited number of the naturalists who have worked in the
+tropics have had any experience with the big beasts whose life-
+histories possess such peculiar interest. Of all the biologists who
+have seriously studied the South American fauna on the ground, Bates
+probably rendered most service; but he hardly seems even to have seen
+the animals with which the hunter is fairly familiar. His interests,
+and those of the other biologists of his kind, lay in other
+directions. In consequence, in treating of the life-histories of the
+very interesting big game, we have been largely forced to rely either
+on native report, in which acutely accurate observation is invariably
+mixed with wild fable, or else on the chance remarks of travellers or
+mere sportsmen, who had not the training to make them understand even
+what it was desirable to observe. Nowadays there is a growing
+proportion of big-game hunters, of sportsmen, who are of the
+Schilling, Selous, and Shiras type. These men do work of capital value
+for science. The mere big-game butcher is tending to disappear as a
+type. On the other hand, the big-game hunter who is a good observer, a
+good field naturalist, occupies at present a more important position
+than ever before, and it is now recognized that he can do work which
+the closest naturalist cannot do. The big-game hunter of this type and
+the outdoors, faunal naturalist, the student of the life-histories of
+big mammals, have open to them in South America a wonderful field in
+which to work.
+
+The fire-ants, of which I have above spoken, are generally found on a
+species of small tree or sapling, with a greenish trunk. They bend the
+whole body as they bite, the tail and head being thrust downward. A
+few seconds after the bite the poison causes considerable pain; later
+it may make a tiny festering sore. There is certainly the most
+extraordinary diversity in the traits by which nature achieves the
+perpetuation of species. Among the warrior and predaceous insects the
+prowess is in some cases of such type as to render the possessor
+practically immune from danger. In other cases the condition of its
+exercise may normally be the sacrifice of the life of the possessor.
+There are wasps that prey on formidable fighting spiders, which yet
+instinctively so handle themselves that the prey practically never
+succeeds in either defending itself or retaliating, being captured and
+paralyzed with unerring efficiency and with entire security to the
+wasp. The wasp's safety is absolute. On the other hand, these fighting
+ants, including the soldiers even among the termites, are frantically
+eager for a success which generally means their annihilation; the
+condition of their efficiency is absolute indifference to their own
+security. Probably the majority of the ants that actually lay hold on
+a foe suffer death in consequence; certainly they not merely run the
+risk of but eagerly invite death.
+
+The following day we descended the Sao Lourenco to its junction with
+the Paraguay, and once more began the ascent of the latter. At one
+cattle-ranch where we stopped, the troupials, or big black and yellow
+orioles, had built a large colony of their nests on a dead tree near
+the primitive little ranch-house. The birds were breeding; the old
+ones were feeding the young. In this neighborhood the naturalists
+found many birds that were new to them, including a tiny woodpecker no
+bigger than a ruby-crowned kinglet. They had collected two night
+monkeys--nocturnal monkeys, not as agile as the ordinary monkey; these
+two were found at dawn, having stayed out too late.
+
+The early morning was always lovely on these rivers, and at that hour
+many birds and beasts were to be seen. One morning we saw a fine marsh
+buck, holding his head aloft as he stared at us, his red coat vivid
+against the green marsh. Another of these marsh-deer swam the river
+ahead of us; I shot at it as it landed, and ought to have got it, but
+did not. As always with these marsh-deer--and as with so many other
+deer--I was struck by the revealing or advertising quality of its red
+coloration; there was nothing in its normal surroundings with which
+this coloration harmonized; so far as it had any effect whatever it
+was always a revealing and not a concealing effect. When the animal
+fled the black of the erect tail was an additional revealing mark,
+although not of such startlingly advertising quality as the flag of
+the whitetail. The whitetail, in one of its forms, and with the
+ordinary whitetail custom of displaying the white flag as it runs, is
+found in the immediate neighborhood of the swamp-deer. It has the same
+foes. Evidently it is of no survival consequence whether the running
+deer displays a white or a black flag. Any competent observer of big
+game must be struck by the fact that in the great majority of the
+species the coloration is not concealing, and that in many it has a
+highly revealing quality. Moreover, if the spotted or striped young
+represent the ancestral coloration, and if, as seems probable, the
+spots and stripes have, on the whole, some slight concealing value, it
+is evident that in the life history of most of these large mammals,
+both among those that prey and those that are preyed on, concealing
+coloration has not been a survival factor; throughout the ages during
+which they have survived they have gradually lost whatever of
+concealing coloration they may once have had--if any--and have
+developed a coloration which under present conditions has no
+concealing and perhaps even has a revealing quality, and which in all
+probability never would have had a concealing value in any
+"environmental complex" in which the species as a whole lived during
+its ancestral development. Indeed, it seems astonishing, when one
+observes these big beasts--and big waders and other water-birds--in
+their native surroundings, to find how utterly non-harmful their often
+strikingly revealing coloration is. Evidently the various other
+survival factors, such as habit, and in many cases cover, etc., are of
+such overmastering importance that the coloration is generally of no
+consequence whatever, one way or the other, and is only very rarely a
+factor of any serious weight.
+
+The junction of the Sao Lourenco and the Paraguay is a day's journey
+above Corumba. From Corumba there is a regular service by shallow
+steamers to Cuyaba, at the head of one fork, and to Sao Luis de
+Caceres, at the head of the other. The steamers are not powerful and
+the voyage to each little city takes a week. There are other forks
+that are navigable. Above Cuyaba and Caceres launches go up-stream for
+several days' journey, except during the dryest parts of the season.
+North of this marshy plain lies the highland, the Plan Alto, where the
+nights are cool and the climate healthy. But I wish emphatically to
+record my view that these marshy plains, although hot, are also
+healthy; and, moreover, the mosquitoes, in most places, are not in
+sufficient numbers to be a serious pest, although of course there must
+be nets for protection against them at night. The country is
+excellently suited for settlement, and offers a remarkable field for
+cattle-growing. Moreover, it is a paradise for water-birds and for
+many other kinds of birds, and for many mammals. It is literally an
+ideal place in which a field naturalist could spend six months or a
+year. It is readily accessible, it offers an almost virgin field for
+work, and the life would be healthy as well as delightfully
+attractive. The man should have a steam-launch. In it he could with
+comfort cover all parts of the country from south of Corumbra to north
+of Cuyaba and Caceres. There would have to be a good deal of
+collecting (although nothing in the nature of butchery should be
+tolerated), for the region has only been superficially worked,
+especially as regards mammals. But if the man were only a collector he
+would leave undone the part of the work best worth doing. The region
+offers extraordinary opportunities for the study of the life-histories
+of birds which, because of their size, their beauty, or their habits,
+are of exceptional interest. All kinds of problems would be worked
+out. For example, on the morning of the 3rd, as we were ascending the
+Paraguay, we again and again saw in the trees on the bank big nests of
+sticks, into and out of which parakeets were flying by the dozen. Some
+of them had straws or twigs in their bills. In some of the big
+globular nests we could make out several holes of exit or entrance.
+Apparently these parakeets were building or remodelling communal
+nests; but whether they had themselves built these nests, or had taken
+old nests and added to or modified them, we could not tell. There was
+so much of interest all along the banks that we were continually
+longing to stop and spend days where we were. Mixed flocks of scores
+of cormorants and darters covered certain trees, both at sunset and
+after sunrise. Although there was no deep forest, merely belts or
+fringes of trees along the river, or in patches back of it, we
+frequently saw monkeys in this riverine tree-fringe--active common
+monkeys and black howlers of more leisurely gait. We saw caymans and
+capybaras sitting socially near one another on the sandbanks. At night
+we heard the calling of large flights of tree-ducks. These were now
+the most common of all the ducks, although there were many muscovy
+ducks also. The evenings were pleasant and not hot, as we sat on the
+forward deck; there was a waxing moon. The screamers were among the
+most noticeable birds. They were noisy; they perched on the very tops
+of the trees, not down among the branches; and they were not shy. They
+should be carefully protected by law, for they readily become tame,
+and then come familiarly round the houses. From the steamer we now and
+then saw beautiful orchids in the trees on the river bank.
+
+One afternoon we stopped at the home buildings or headquarters of one
+of the great outlying ranches of the Brazil Land and Cattle Company,
+the Farquahar syndicate, under the management of Murdo Mackenzie--than
+whom we have in the United States no better citizen or more competent
+cattleman. On this ranch there are some seventy thousand head of
+stock. We were warmly greeted by McLean, the head of the ranch, and
+his assistant Ramsey, an old Texan friend. Among the other assistants,
+all equally cordial, were several Belgians and Frenchmen. The hands
+were Paraguayans and Brazilians, and a few Indians--a hard-bit set,
+each of whom always goes armed and knows how to use his arms, for
+there are constant collisions with cattle thieves from across the
+Bolivian border, and the ranch has to protect itself. These cowhands,
+vaqueiros, were of the type with which we were now familiar: dark-
+skinned, lean, hard-faced men, in slouch-hats, worn shirts and
+trousers, and fringed leather aprons, with heavy spurs on their bare
+feet. They are wonderful riders and ropers, and fear neither man nor
+beast. I noticed one Indian vaqueiro standing in exactly the attitude
+of a Shilluk of the White Nile, with the sole of one foot against the
+other leg, above the knee. This is a region with extraordinary
+possibilities of cattle-raising.
+
+At this ranch there was a tannery; a slaughter-house; a cannery; a
+church; buildings of various kinds and all degrees of comfort for the
+thirty or forty families who made the place their headquarters; and
+the handsome, white, two-story big house, standing among lemon-trees
+and flamboyants on the river-brink. There were all kinds of pets
+around the house. The most fascinating was a wee, spotted fawn which
+loved being petted. Half a dozen curassows of different species
+strolled through the rooms; there were also parrots of several
+different species, and immediately outside the house four or five
+herons, with unclipped wings, which would let us come within a few
+feet and then fly gracefully off, shortly afterward returning to the
+same spot. They included big and little white egrets and also the
+mauve and pearl-colored heron, with a partially black head and many-
+colored bill, which flies with quick, repeated wing-flappings, instead
+of the usual slow heron wing-beats.
+
+In the warehouse were scores of skins of jaguar, puma, ocelot, and
+jaguarundi, and one skin of the big, small-toothed red wolf. These
+were all brought in by the cowhands and by friendly Indians, a price
+being put on each, as they destroyed the stock. The jaguars
+occasionally killed horses and full-grown cows, but not bulls. The
+pumas killed the calves. The others killed an occasional very young
+calf, but ordinarily only sheep, little pigs, and chickens. There was
+one black jaguar-skin; melanism is much more common among jaguars than
+pumas, although once Miller saw a black puma that had been killed by
+Indians. The patterns of the jaguar-skins, and even more of the
+ocelot-skins, showed wide variation, no two being alike. The pumas
+were for the most part bright red, but some were reddish gray, there
+being much the same dichromatism that I found among their Colorado
+kinsfolk. The jaguarundis were dark brownish gray. All these animals,
+the spotted jaguars and ocelots, the monochrome black jaguars, red
+pumas, and dark-gray jaguarundis, were killed in the same locality,
+with the same environment. A glance at the skins and a moment's
+serious thought would have been enough to show any sincere thinker that
+in these cats the coloration pattern, whether concealing or revealing,
+is of no consequence one way or the other as a survival factor. The
+spotted patterns conferred no benefit as compared with the nearly or
+quite monochrome blacks, reds, and dark grays. The bodily condition of
+the various beasts was equally good, showing that their success in
+life, that is, their ability to catch their prey, was unaffected by
+their several color schemes. Except white, there is no color so
+conspicuously advertising as black; yet the black jaguar had been a
+fine, well-fed, powerful beast. The spotted patterns in the forests,
+and perhaps even in the marshes which the jaguars so frequently
+traversed, are probably a shade less conspicuous than the monochrome
+red and gray, but the puma and jaguarundi are just as hard to see, and
+evidently find it just as easy to catch prey, as the jaguar and
+ocelot. The little fawn which we saw was spotted; the grown deer had
+lost the spots; if the spots do really help to conceal the wearer, it
+is evident that the deer has found the original concealing coloration
+of so little value that it has actually been lost in the course of the
+development of the species. When these big cats and the deer are
+considered, together with the dogs, tapirs, peccaries, capybaras, and
+big ant-eaters which live in the same environment, and when we also
+consider the difference between the young and the adult deer and
+tapirs (both of which when adult have substituted a complete or
+partial monochrome for the ancestral spots and streaks), it is evident
+that in the present life and in the ancestral development of the big
+mammals of South America coloration is not and has not been a survival
+factor; any pattern and any color may accompany the persistence and
+development of the qualities and attributes which are survival
+factors. Indeed, it seems hard to believe that in their ordinary
+environments such color schemes as the bright red of the marsh-deer,
+the black of the black jaguar, and the black with white stripes of the
+great tamandua, are not positive detriments to the wearers. Yet such
+is evidently not the case. Evidently the other factors in species-
+survival are of such overwhelming importance that the coloration
+becomes negligible from this standpoint, whether it be concealing or
+revealing. The cats mould themselves to the ground as they crouch or
+crawl. They take advantage of the tiniest scrap of cover. They move
+with extraordinary stealth and patience. The other animals which try
+to sneak off in such manner as to escape observation approach more or
+less closely to the ideal which the cats most nearly realize.
+Wariness, sharp senses, the habit of being rigidly motionless when
+there is the least suspicion of danger, and ability to take advantage
+of cover, all count. On the bare, open, treeless plain, whether marsh,
+meadow, or upland, anything above the level of the grass is seen at
+once. A marsh-deer out in the open makes no effort to avoid
+observation; its concern is purely to see its foes in time to leave a
+dangerous neighborhood. The deer of the neighboring forest skulk and
+hide and lie still in dense cover to avoid being seen. The white-
+lipped peccaries make no effort to escape observation by being either
+noiseless or motionless; they trust for defence to their
+gregariousness and truculence. The collared peccary also trusts to its
+truculence, but seeks refuge in a hole where it can face any opponent
+with its formidable biting apparatus. As for the giant tamandua, in
+spite of its fighting prowess I am wholly unable to understand how
+such a slow and clumsy beast has been able through the ages to exist
+and thrive surrounded by jaguars and pumas. Speaking generally, the
+animals that seek to escape observation trust primarily to smell to
+discover their foes or their prey, and see whatever moves and do not
+see whatever is motionless.
+
+By the morning of January 5 we had left the marsh region. There were
+low hills here and there, and the land was covered with dense forest.
+From time to time we passed little clearings with palm-thatched
+houses. We were approaching Caceres, where the easiest part of our
+trip would end. We had lived in much comfort on the little steamer.
+The food was plentiful and the cooking good. At night we slept on deck
+in cots or hammocks. The mosquitoes were rarely troublesome, although
+in the daytime we were sometimes bothered by numbers of biting horse-
+flies. The bird life was wonderful. One of the characteristic sights
+we were always seeing was that of a number of heads and necks of
+cormorants and snake-birds, without any bodies, projecting above
+water, and disappearing as the steamer approached. Skimmers and thick-
+billed tern were plentiful here right in the heart of the continent.
+In addition to the spurred lapwing, characteristic and most
+interesting resident of most of South America, we found tiny red-
+legged plover which also breed and are at home in the tropics. The
+contrasts in habits between closely allied species are wonderful.
+Among the plovers and bay snipe there are species that live all the
+year round in almost the same places, in tropical and subtropical
+lands; and other related forms which wander over the whole earth, and
+spend nearly all their time, now in the arctic and cold temperate
+regions of the far north, now in the cold temperate regions of the
+south. These latter wide-wandering birds of the seashore and the river
+bank pass most of their lives in regions of almost perpetual sunlight.
+They spend the breeding season, the northern summer, in the land of
+the midnight sun, during the long arctic day. They then fly for
+endless distances down across the north temperate zone, across the
+equator, through the lands where the days and nights are always of
+equal length, into another hemisphere, and spend another summer of
+long days and long twilights in the far south, where the Antarctic
+winds cool them, while their nesting home, at the other end of the
+world, is shrouded beneath the iron desolation of the polar night.
+
+In the late afternoon of the 5th we reached the quaint old-fashioned
+little town of Sao Luis de Caceres, on the outermost fringe of the
+settled region of the state of Matto Grosso, the last town we should
+see before reaching the villages of the Amazon. As we approached we
+passed half-clad black washerwomen on the river's edge. The men, with
+the local band, were gathered at the steeply sloping foot of the main
+street, where the steamer came to her moorings. Groups of women and
+girls, white and brown, watched us from the low bluff; their skirts
+and bodices were red, blue, green, of all colors. Sigg had gone ahead
+with much of the baggage; he met us in an improvised motor-boat,
+consisting of a dugout to the side of which he had clamped our
+Evinrude motor; he was giving several of the local citizens of
+prominence a ride, to their huge enjoyment. The streets of the little
+town were unpaved, with narrow brick sidewalks. The one-story houses
+were white or blue, with roofs of red tiles and window-shutters of
+latticed woodwork, come down from colonial days and tracing back
+through Christian and Moorish Portugal to a remote Arab ancestry.
+Pretty faces, some dark, some light, looked out from these windows;
+their mothers' mothers, for generations past, must thus have looked
+out of similar windows in the vanished colonial days. But now even
+here in Caceres the spirit of the new Brazil is moving; a fine new
+government school has been started, and we met its principal, an
+earnest man doing excellent work, one of the many teachers who, during
+the last few years, have been brought to Matto Grosso from Sao Paulo,
+a centre of the new educational movement which will do so much for
+Brazil.
+
+Father Zahm went to spend the night with some French Franciscan
+friars, capital fellows. I spent the night at the comfortable house of
+Lieutenant Lyra; a hot-weather house with thick walls, big doors, and
+an open patio bordered by a gallery. Lieutenant Lyra was to accompany
+us; he was an old companion of Colonel Rondon's explorations. We
+visited one or two of the stores to make some final purchases, and in
+the evening strolled through the dusky streets and under the trees of
+the plaza; the women and girls sat in groups in the doorways or at the
+windows, and here and there a stringed instrument tinkled in the
+darkness.
+
+From Caceres onward we were entering the scene of Colonel Rondon's
+explorations. For some eighteen years he was occupied in exploring and
+in opening telegraph lines through the eastern or north middle part of
+the great forest state, the wilderness state of the "Matto Grosso"--
+the "great wilderness," or, as Australians would call it, "the bush."
+Then, in 1907, he began to penetrate the unknown region lying to the
+north and west. He was the head of the exploring expeditions sent out
+by the Brazilian Government to traverse for the first time this
+unknown land; to map for the first time the courses of the rivers
+which from the same divide run into the upper portions of the Tapajos
+and the Madeira, two of the mighty affluents of the Amazon, and to
+build telegraph-lines across to the Madeira, where a line of Brazilian
+settlements, connected by steamboat lines and a railroad, again
+occurs. Three times he penetrated into this absolutely unknown,
+Indian-haunted wilderness, being absent for a year or two at a time
+and suffering every imaginable hardship, before he made his way
+through to the Madeira and completed the telegraph-line across. The
+officers and men of the Brazilian Army and the civilian scientists who
+followed him shared the toil and the credit of the task. Some of his
+men died of beriberi; some were killed or wounded by the Indians; he
+himself almost died of fever; again and again his whole party was
+reduced almost to the last extremity by starvation, disease, hardship,
+and the over-exhaustion due to wearing fatigues. In dealing with the
+wild, naked savages he showed a combination of fearlessness, wariness,
+good judgment, and resolute patience and kindliness. The result was
+that they ultimately became his firm friends, guarded the telegraph-
+lines, and helped the few soldiers left at the isolated, widely
+separated little posts. He and his assistants explored, and mapped for
+the first time, the Juruena and the Gy-Parana, two important affluents
+of the Tapajos and the Madeira respectively. The Tapajos and the
+Madeira, like the Orinoco and Rio Negro, have been highways of travel
+for a couple of centuries. The Madeira (as later the Tapajos) was the
+chief means of ingress, a century and a half ago, to the little
+Portuguese settlements of this far interior region of Brazil; one of
+these little towns, named Matto Grosso, being the original capital of
+the province. It has long been abandoned by the government, and
+practically so by its inhabitants, the ruins of palace, fortress, and
+church now rising amid the rank tropical luxuriance of the wild
+forest. The mouths of the main affluents of these highway rivers were
+as a rule well known. But in many cases nothing but the mouth was
+known. The river itself was not known, and it was placed on the map by
+guesswork. Colonel Rondon found, for example, that the course of the
+Gy-Parana was put down on the map two degrees out of its proper place.
+He, with his party, was the first to find out its sources, the first
+to traverse its upper course, the first to map its length. He and his
+assistants performed a similar service for the Juruena, discovering
+the sources, discovering and descending some of the branches, and for
+the first time making a trustworthy map of the main river itself,
+until its junction with the Tapajos. Near the watershed between the
+Juruena and the Gy-Parana he established his farthest station to the
+westward, named Jose Bonofacio, after one of the chief republican
+patriots of Brazil. A couple of days' march northwestward from this
+station, he in 1909 came across a part of the stream of a river
+running northward between the Gy-Parana and the Juruena; he could only
+guess where it debouched, believing it to be into the Madeira,
+although it was possible that it entered the Gy-Parana or Tapajos. The
+region through which it flows was unknown, no civilized man having
+ever penetrated it; and as all conjecture as to what the river was, as
+to its length, and as to its place of entering into some highway
+river, was mere guess-work, he had entered it on his sketch maps as
+the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Among the officers of the
+Brazilian Army and the scientific civilians who have accompanied him
+there have been not only expert cartographers, photographers, and
+telegraphists, but astronomers, geologists, botanists, and zoologists.
+Their reports, published in excellent shape by the Brazilian
+Government, make an invaluable series of volumes, reflecting the
+highest credit on the explorers, and on the government itself. Colonel
+Rondon's own accounts of his explorations, of the Indian tribes he has
+visited, and of the beautiful and wonderful things he has seen,
+possess a peculiar interest.
+
+
+
+                      V. UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS
+
+After leaving Caceres we went up the Sepotuba, which in the local
+Indian dialect means River of Tapirs. This river is only navigable for
+boats of size when the water is high. It is a swift, fairly clear
+stream, rushing down from the Plan Alto, the high uplands, through the
+tropical lowland forest. On the right hand, or western bank, and here
+and there on the left bank, the forest is broken by natural pastures
+and meadows, and at one of these places, known as Porto Campo, sixty
+or seventy miles above the mouth, there is a good-sized cattle-ranch.
+Here we halted, because the launch, and the two pranchas--native
+trading-boats with houses on their decks--which it towed, could not
+carry our entire party and outfit. Accordingly most of the baggage and
+some of the party were sent ahead to where we were to meet our pack-
+train, at Tapirapoan. Meanwhile the rest of us made our first camp
+under tents at Porto Campo, to wait the return of the boats. The tents
+were placed in a line, with the tent of Colonel Rondon and the tent in
+which Kermit and I slept, in the middle, beside one another. In front
+of these two, on tall poles, stood the Brazilian and American flags;
+and at sunrise and sunset the flags were hoisted and hauled down while
+the trumpet sounded and all of us stood at attention. Camp was pitched
+beside the ranch buildings. In the trees near the tents grew wonderful
+violet orchids.
+
+Many birds were around us; I saw some of them, and Cherrie and Miller
+many, many more. They ranged from party-colored macaws, green parrots,
+and big gregarious cuckoos down to a brilliant green-and-chestnut
+kingfisher, five and a quarter inches long, and a tiny orange-and-
+green manakin, smaller than any bird I have ever seen except a hummer.
+We also saw a bird that really was protectively colored; a kind of
+whippoorwill which even the sharp-eyed naturalists could only make out
+because it moved its head. We saw orange-bellied squirrels with showy
+orange tails. Lizards were common. We killed our first poisonous snake
+(the second we had seen), an evil lance-headed jararaca that was
+swimming the river. We also saw a black-and-orange harmless snake,
+nearly eight feet long, which we were told was akin to the mussurama;
+and various other snakes. One day while paddling in a canoe on the
+river, hoping that the dogs might drive a tapir to us, they drove into
+the water a couple of small bush deer instead. There was no point in
+shooting them; we caught them with ropes thrown over their heads; for
+the naturalists needed them as specimens, and all of us needed the
+meat. One of the men was stung by a single big red maribundi wasp. For
+twenty-four hours he was in great pain and incapacitated for work. In
+a lagoon two of the dogs had the tips of their tails bitten off by
+piranhas as they swam, and the ranch hands told us that in this lagoon
+one of their hounds had been torn to pieces and completely devoured by
+the ravenous fish. It was a further illustration of the uncertainty of
+temper and behavior of these ferocious little monsters. In other
+lagoons they had again and again left us and our dogs unmolested. They
+vary locally in aggressiveness just as sharks and crocodiles in
+different seas and rivers vary.
+
+On the morning of January 9th we started out for a tapir-hunt. Tapirs
+are hunted with canoes, as they dwell in thick jungle and take to the
+water when hounds follow them. In this region there were extensive
+papyrus-swamps and big lagoons, back from the river, and often the
+tapirs fled to these for refuge, throwing off the hounds. In these
+places it was exceedingly difficult to get them; our best chance was
+to keep to the river in canoes, and paddle toward the spot in the
+direction of which the hounds, by the noise, seemed to be heading. We
+started in four canoes. Three of them were Indian dugouts, very low in
+the water. The fourth was our Canadian canoe, a beauty; light, safe,
+roomy, made of thin slats of wood and cement-covered canvas. Colonel
+Rondon, Fiala with his camera, and I went in this canoe, together with
+two paddlers. The paddlers were natives of the poorer class. They were
+good men. The bowsman was of nearly pure white blood; the steersman
+was of nearly pure negro blood, and was evidently the stronger
+character and better man of the two. The other canoes carried a couple
+of fazendeiros, ranchmen, who had come up from Caceres with their
+dogs. These dugouts were manned by Indian and half-caste paddlers, and
+the fazendeiros, who were of nearly pure white blood, also at times
+paddled vigorously. All were dressed in substantially similar clothes,
+the difference being that those of the camaradas, the poorer men or
+laborers, were in tatters. In the canoes no man wore anything save a
+shirt, trousers, and hat, the feet being bare. On horseback they wore
+long leather leggings which were really simply high, rather flexible
+boots with the soles off; their spurs were on their tough bare feet.
+There was every gradation between and among the nearly pure whites,
+negroes, and Indians. On the whole, there was the most white blood in the
+upper ranks, and most Indian and negro blood among the camaradas; but
+there were exceptions in both classes, and there was no discrimination
+on account of color. All alike were courteous and friendly.
+
+The hounds were at first carried in two of the dugouts, and then let
+loose on the banks. We went up-stream for a couple of hours against
+the swift current, the paddlers making good headway with their pointed
+paddles--the broad blade of each paddle was tipped with a long point,
+so that it could be thrust into the mud to keep the low dugout against
+the bank. The tropical forest came down almost like a wall, the tall
+trees laced together with vines, and the spaces between their trunks
+filled with a low, dense jungle. In most places it could only be
+penetrated by a man with a machete. With few exceptions the trees were
+unknown to me, and their native names told me nothing. On most of them
+the foliage was thick; among the exceptions were the cecropias,
+growing by preference on new-formed alluvial soil bare of other trees,
+whose rather scanty leaf bunches were, as I was informed, the favorite
+food of sloths. We saw one or two squirrels among the trees, and a
+family of monkeys. There were few sand-banks in the river, and no
+water-fowl save an occasional cormorant. But as we pushed along near
+the shore, where the branches overhung and dipped in the swirling
+water, we continually roused little flocks of bats. They were hanging
+from the boughs right over the river, and when our approach roused
+them they zigzagged rapidly in front of us for a few rods, and then
+again dove in among the branches.
+
+At last we landed at a point of ground where there was little jungle,
+and where the forest was composed of palms and was fairly open. It was
+a lovely bit of forest. The colonel strolled off in one direction,
+returning an hour later with a squirrel for the naturalists. Meanwhile
+Fiala and I went through the palm wood to a papyrus-swamp. Many trails
+led through the woods, and especially along the borders of the swamp;
+and, although their principal makers had evidently been cattle, yet
+there were in them footprints of both tapir and deer. The tapir makes
+a footprint much like that of a small rhinoceros, being one of the
+odd-toed ungulates. We could hear the dogs now and then, evidently
+scattered and running on various trails. They were a worthless lot of
+cur-hounds. They would chase tapir or deer or anything else that ran
+away from them as long as the trail was easy to follow; but they were
+not stanch, even after animals that fled, and they would have nothing
+whatever to do with animals that were formidable.
+
+While standing by the marsh we heard something coming along one of the
+game paths. In a moment a buck of the bigger species of bush deer
+appeared, a very pretty and graceful creature. It stopped and darted
+back as soon as it saw us, giving us no chance for a shot; but in
+another moment we caught glimpses of it running by at full speed, back
+among the palms. I covered an opening between two tree-trunks. By good
+luck the buck appeared in the right place, giving me just time to hold
+well ahead of him and fire. At the report he went down in a heap, the
+"umbrella-pointed" bullet going in at one shoulder, and ranging
+forward, breaking the neck. The leaden portion of the bullet, in the
+proper mushroom or umbrella shape, stopped under the neck skin on the
+farther side. It is a very effective bullet.
+
+Miller particularly wished specimens of these various species of bush
+deer, because their mutual relationships have not yet been
+satisfactorily worked out. This was an old buck. The antlers were
+single spikes, five or six inches long; they were old and white and
+would soon have been shed. In the stomach were the remains of both
+leaves and grasses, but especially the former; the buck was both a
+browser and grazer. There were also seeds, but no berries or nuts such
+as I have sometimes found in deer's stomachs. This species, which is
+abundant in this neighborhood, is solitary in its habits, not going in
+herds. At this time the rut was past, the bucks no longer sought the
+does, the fawns had not been born, and the yearlings had left their
+mothers; so that each animal usually went by itself. When chased they
+were very apt to take to the water. This instinct of taking to the
+water, by the way, is quite explicable as regards both deer and tapir,
+for it affords them refuge against their present day natural foes, but
+it is a little puzzling to see the jaguar readily climbing trees to
+escape dogs; for ages have passed since there were in its habitat any
+natural foes from which it needed to seek safety in trees. But it is
+possible that the habit has been kept alive by its seeking refuge in
+them on occasion from the big peccaries, which are among the beasts on
+which it ordinarily preys.
+
+We hung the buck in a tree. The colonel returned, and not long
+afterward one of the paddlers who had been watching the river called
+out to us that there was a tapir in the water, a good distance up-
+stream, and that two of the other boats were after it. We jumped into
+the canoe and the two paddlers dug their blades in the water as they
+drove her against the strong current, edging over for the opposite
+bank. The tapir was coming down-stream at a great rate, only its queer
+head above water, while the dugouts were closing rapidly on it, the
+paddlers uttering loud cries. As the tapir turned slightly to one side
+or the other the long, slightly upturned snout and the strongly
+pronounced arch of the crest along the head and upper neck gave it a
+marked and unusual aspect. I could not shoot, for it was directly in
+line with one of the pursuing dugouts. Suddenly it dived, the snout
+being slightly curved downward as it did so. There was no trace of it;
+we gazed eagerly in all directions; the dugout in front came alongside
+our canoe and the paddlers rested, their paddles ready. Then we made
+out the tapir clambering up the bank. It had dived at right angles to
+the course it was following and swum under water to the very edge of
+the shore, rising under the overhanging tree-branches at a point where
+a drinking-trail for game led down a break in the bank. The branches
+partially hid it, and it was in deep shadow, so that it did not offer
+a very good shot. My bullet went into its body too far back, and the
+tapir disappeared in the forest at a gallop as if unhurt, although the
+bullet really secured it, by making it unwilling to trust to its speed
+and leave the neighborhood of the water. Three or four of the hounds
+were by this time swimming the river, leaving the others yelling on
+the opposite side; and as soon as the swimmers reached the shore they
+were put on the tapir's trail and galloped after it, giving tongue. In
+a couple of minutes we saw the tapir take to the water far up-stream,
+and after it we went as fast as the paddles could urge us through the
+water. We were not in time to head it, but fortunately some of the
+dogs had come down to the river's edge at the very point where the
+tapir was about to land, and turned it back. Two or three of the dogs
+were swimming. We were more than half the breadth of the river away
+from the tapir, and somewhat down-stream, when it dived. It made an
+astonishingly long swim beneath the water this time, almost as if it
+had been a hippopotamus, for it passed completely under our canoe and
+rose between us and the hither bank. I shot it, the bullet going into
+its brain, while it was thirty or forty yards from shore. It sank at
+once.
+
+There was now nothing to do but wait until the body floated. I feared
+that the strong current would roll it down-stream over the river bed,
+but my companions assured me that this was not so, and that the body
+would remain where it was until it rose, which would be in an hour or
+two. They were right, except as to the time. For over a couple of
+hours we paddled, or anchored ourselves by clutching branches close to
+the spot, or else drifted down a mile and paddled up again near the
+shore, to see if the body had caught anywhere. Then we crossed the
+river and had lunch at the lovely natural picnic-ground where the buck
+was hung up. We had very nearly given up the tapir when it suddenly
+floated only a few rods from where it had sunk. With no little
+difficulty the big, round black body was hoisted into the canoe, and
+we all turned our prows down-stream. The skies had been lowering for
+some time, and now--too late to interfere with the hunt or cause us
+any annoyance--a heavy downpour of rain came on and beat upon us.
+Little we cared, as the canoe raced forward, with the tapir and the
+buck lying in the bottom, and a dry, comfortable camp ahead of us.
+
+When we reached camp, and Father Zahm saw the tapir, he reminded me of
+something I had completely forgotten. When, some six years previously,
+he had spoken to me in the White House about taking this South
+American trip, I had answered that I could not, as I intended to go to
+Africa, but added that I hoped some day to go to South America and
+that if I did so I should try to shoot both a jaguar and a tapir, as
+they were the characteristic big-game animals of the country. "Well,"
+said Father Zahm, "now you've shot them both!" The storm continued
+heavy until after sunset. Then the rain stopped and the full moon
+broke through the cloud-rack. Father Zahm and I walked up and down in
+the moonlight, talking of many things, from Dante, and our own plans
+for the future, to the deeds and the wanderings of the old-time
+Spanish conquistadores in their search for the Gilded King, and of the
+Portuguese adventurers who then divided with them the mastery of the
+oceans and of the unknown continents beyond.
+
+This was an attractive and interesting camp in more ways than one. The
+vaqueiros with their wives and families were housed on the two sides
+of the field in which our tents were pitched. On one side was a big,
+whitewashed, tile-roofed house in which the foreman dwelt--an olive-
+skinned, slightly built, wiry man, with an olive-skinned wife and
+eight as pretty, fair-haired children as one could wish to see. He
+usually went barefoot, and his manners were not merely good but
+distinguished. Corrals and outbuildings were near this big house. On
+the opposite side of the field stood the row of steep-roofed, palm-
+thatched huts in which the ordinary cowhands lived with their dusky
+helpmeets and children. Each night from these palm-thatched quarters
+we heard the faint sounds of a music that went far back of
+civilization to a savage ancestry near by in point of time and
+otherwise immeasurably remote; for through the still, hot air, under
+the brilliant moonlight, we heard the monotonous throbbing of a tomtom
+drum, and the twanging of some old stringed instrument. The small
+black turkey-buzzards, here always called crows, were as tame as
+chickens near the big house, walking on the ground or perched in the
+trees beside the corral, waiting for the offal of the slaughtered
+cattle. Two palm-trees near our tent were crowded with the long,
+hanging nests of one of the cacique orioles. We lived well, with
+plenty of tapir beef, which was good, and venison of the bush deer,
+which was excellent; and as much ordinary beef as we wished, and fresh
+milk, too--a rarity in this country. There were very few mosquitoes,
+and everything was as comfortable as possible.
+
+The tapir I killed was a big one. I did not wish to kill another,
+unless, of course, it became advisable to do so for food; whereas I
+did wish to get some specimens of the big, white-lipped peccary, the
+"queixa" (pronounced "cashada") of the Brazilians, which would make
+our collection of the big mammals of the Brazilian forests almost
+complete. The remaining members of the party killed two or three more
+tapirs. One was a bull, full grown but very much smaller than the
+animal I had killed. The hunters said that this was a distinct kind.
+The skull and skin were sent back with the other specimens to the
+American Museum, where after due examination and comparison its
+specific identify will be established. Tapirs are solitary beasts. Two
+are rarely found together, except in the case of a cow and its spotted
+and streaked calf. They live in dense cover, usually lying down in the
+daytime and at night coming out to feed, and going to the river or to
+some lagoon to bathe and swim. From this camp Sigg took Lieutenant
+Lyra back to Caceres to get something that had been overlooked. They
+went in a rowboat to which the motor had been attached, and at night
+on the way back almost ran over a tapir that was swimming. But in
+unfrequented places tapirs both feed and bathe during the day. The
+stomach of the one I shot contained big palm-nuts; they had been
+swallowed without enough mastication to break the kernel, the outer
+pulp being what the tapir prized. Tapirs gallop well, and their tough
+hide and wedge shape enable them to go at speed through very dense
+cover. They try to stamp on, and even to bite, a foe, but are only
+clumsy fighters.
+
+The tapir is a very archaic type of ungulate, not unlike the non-
+specialized beasts of the Oligocene. From some such ancestral type the
+highly specialized one-toed modern horse has evolved, while during the
+uncounted ages that saw the horse thus develop the tapir has continued
+substantially unchanged. Originally the tapirs dwelt in the northern
+hemisphere, but there they gradually died out, the more specialized
+horse, and even for long ages the rhinoceros, persisting after they
+had vanished; and nowadays the surviving tapirs are found in Malaysia
+and South America, far from their original home. The relations of the
+horse and tapir in the paleontological history of South America are
+very curious. Both were, geologically speaking, comparatively recent
+immigrants, and if they came at different dates it is almost certain
+that the horse came later. The horse for an age or two, certainly for
+many hundreds of thousands of years, throve greatly and developed not
+only several different species but even different genera. It was much
+the most highly specialized of the two, and in the other continental
+regions where both were found the horse outlasted the tapir. But in
+South America the tapir outlasted the horse. From unknown causes the
+various genera and species of horses died out, while the tapir has
+persisted. The highly specialized, highly developed beasts, which
+represented such a full evolutionary development, died out, while
+their less specialized remote kinsfolk, which had not developed, clung
+to life and throve; and this although the direct reverse was occurring
+in North America and in the Old World. It is one of the innumerable
+and at present insoluble problems in the history of life on our
+planet.
+
+I spent a couple of days of hard work in getting the big white-lipped
+peccaries--white-lipped being rather a misnomer, as the entire under
+jaw and lower cheek are white. They were said to be found on the other
+side of, and some distance back from, the river. Colonel Rondon had
+sent out one of our attendants, an old follower of his, a full-blood
+Parecis Indian, to look for tracks. This was an excellent man, who
+dressed and behaved just like the other good men we had, and was
+called Antonio Parecis. He found the tracks of a herd of thirty or
+forty cashadas, and the following morning we started after them.
+
+On the first day we killed nothing. We were rather too large a party,
+for one or two of the visiting fazendeiros came along with their dogs.
+I doubt whether these men very much wished to overtake our game, for
+the big peccary is a murderous foe of dogs (and is sometimes dangerous
+to men). One of their number frankly refused to come or to let his
+dogs come, explaining that the fierce wild swine were "very badly
+brought up" (a literal translation of his words) and that respectable
+dogs and men ought not to go near them. The other fazendeiros merely
+feared for their dogs; a groundless fear, I believe, as I do not think
+that the dogs could by any exertion have been dragged into dangerous
+proximity with such foes. The ranch foreman, Benedetto, came with us,
+and two or three other camaradas, including Antonio, the Parecis
+Indian. The horses were swum across the river, each being led beside a
+dugout. Then we crossed with the dogs; our horses were saddled, and we
+started.
+
+It was a picturesque cavalcade. The native hunters, of every shade
+from white to dark copper, all wore leather leggings that left the
+soles of their feet bare, and on their bare heels wore spurs with
+wheels four inches across. They went in single file, for no other mode
+of travel was possible; and the two or three leading men kept their
+machetes out, and had to cut every yard of our way while we were in
+the forest. The hunters rode little stallions, and their hounds were
+gelded.
+
+Most of the time we were in forest or swampy jungle. Part of the time
+we crossed or skirted marshy plains. In one of them a herd of half-
+wild cattle was feeding. Herons, storks, ducks, and ibises were in
+these marshes, and we saw one flock of lovely roseate spoonbills.
+
+In one grove the fig-trees were killing the palms, just as in Africa
+they kill the sandalwood-trees. In the gloom of this grove there were
+no flowers, no bushes; the air was heavy; the ground was brown with
+mouldering leaves. Almost every palm was serving as a prop for a fig-
+tree. The fig-trees were in every stage of growth. The youngest ones
+merely ran up the palms as vines. In the next stage the vine had
+thickened and was sending out shoots, wrapping the palm stem in a
+deadly hold. Some of the shoots were thrown round the stem like the
+tentacles of an immense cuttlefish. Others looked like claws, that
+were hooked into every crevice, and round every projection. In the
+stage beyond this the palm had been killed, and its dead carcass
+appeared between the big, winding vine-trunks; and later the palm had
+disappeared and the vines had united into a great fig-tree. Water
+stood in black pools at the foot of the murdered trees, and of the
+trees that had murdered them. There was something sinister and evil in
+the dark stillness of the grove; it seemed as if sentient beings had
+writhed themselves round and were strangling other sentient beings.
+
+We passed through wonderfully beautiful woods of tall palms, the
+ouaouaca palm--wawasa palm, as it should be spelled in English. The
+trunks rose tall and strong and slender, and the fronds were branches
+twenty or thirty feet long, with the many long, narrow green blades
+starting from the midrib at right angles in pairs. Round the ponds
+stood stately burity palms, rising like huge columns, with great
+branches that looked like fans, as the long, stiff blades radiated
+from the end of the midrib. One tree was gorgeous with the brilliant
+hues of a flock of party-colored macaws. Green parrots flew shrieking
+overhead.
+
+Now and then we were bitten and stung by the venomous fire-ants, and
+ticks crawled upon us. Once we were assailed by more serious foes, in
+the shape of a nest of maribundi wasps, not the biggest kind, but
+about the size of our hornets. We were at the time passing through
+dense jungle, under tall trees, in a spot where the down timber,
+holes, tangled creepers, and thorns made the going difficult. The
+leading men were not assailed, although they were now and then cutting
+the trail. Colonel Rondon and I were in the middle of the column, and
+the swarm attacked us; both of us were badly stung on the face, neck,
+and hands, the colonel even more severely than I was. He wheeled and
+rode to the rear and I to the front; our horses were stung too; and we
+went at a rate that a moment previously I would have deemed impossible
+over such ground.
+
+At the close of the day, when we were almost back at the river, the
+dogs killed a jaguar kitten. There was no trace of the mother. Some
+accident must have befallen her, and the kitten was trying to shift
+for herself. She was very emaciated. In her stomach were the remains
+of a pigeon and some tendons from the skeleton or dried carcass of
+some big animal. The loathsome berni flies, which deposit eggs in
+living beings--cattle, dogs, monkeys, rodents, men--had been at it.
+There were seven huge, white grubs making big abscess-like swellings
+over its eyes. These flies deposit their grubs in men. In 1909, on
+Colonel Rondon's hardest trip, every man of the party had from one to
+five grubs deposited in him, the fly acting with great speed, and
+driving its ovipositor through clothing. The grubs cause torture; but
+a couple of cross cuts with a lancet permit the loathsome creatures to
+be squeezed out.
+
+In these forests the multitude of insects that bite, sting, devour,
+and prey upon other creatures, often with accompaniments of atrocious
+suffering, passes belief. The very pathetic myth of "beneficent
+nature" could not deceive even the least wise being if he once saw for
+himself the iron cruelty of life in the tropics. Of course "nature"--
+in common parlance a wholly inaccurate term, by the way, especially
+when used as if to express a single entity--is entirely ruthless, no
+less so as regards types than as regards individuals, and entirely
+indifferent to good or evil, and works out her ends or no ends with
+utter disregard of pain and woe.
+
+The following morning at sunrise we started again. This time only
+Colonel Rondon and I went with Benedetto and Antonio the Indian. We
+brought along four dogs which it was fondly hoped might chase the
+cashadas. Two of them disappeared on the track of a tapir and we saw
+them no more; one of the others promptly fled when we came across the
+tracks of our game, and would not even venture after them in our
+company; the remaining one did not actually run away and occasionally
+gave tongue, but could not be persuaded to advance unless there was a
+man ahead of him. However, Colonel Rondon, Benedetto, and Antonio
+formed a trio of hunters who could do fairly well without dogs.
+
+After four hours of riding, Benedetto, who was in the lead, suddenly
+stopped and pointed downward. We were riding along a grassy intervale
+between masses of forest, and he had found the fresh track of a herd
+of big peccaries crossing from left to right. There were apparently
+thirty or forty in the herd. The small peccaries go singly or in small
+parties, and when chased take refuge in holes or hollow logs, where
+they show valiant fight; but the big peccaries go in herds of
+considerable size, and are so truculent that they are reluctant to
+run, and prefer either to move slowly off chattering their tusks and
+grunting, or else actually to charge. Where much persecuted the
+survivors gradually grow more willing to run, but their instinct is
+not to run but to trust to their truculence and their mass-action for
+safety. They inflict a fearful bite and frequently kill dogs. They
+often charge the hunters and I have heard of men being badly wounded
+by them, while almost every man who hunts them often is occasionally
+forced to scramble up a tree to avoid a charge. But I have never heard
+of a man being killed by them. They sometimes surround the tree in
+which the man has taken refuge and keep him up it. Cherrie, on one
+occasion in Costa Rica, was thus kept up a tree for several hours by a
+great herd of three or four hundred of these peccaries; and this
+although he killed several of them. Ordinarily, however, after making
+their charge they do not turn, but pass on out of sight. Their great
+foe is the jaguar, but unless he exercises much caution they will turn
+the tables on him. Cherrie, also in Costa Rica, came on the body of a
+jaguar which had evidently been killed by a herd of peccaries some
+twenty-four hours previously. The ground was trampled up by their
+hoofs, and the carcass was rent and slit into pieces.
+
+Benedetto, as soon as we discovered the tracks, slipped off his horse,
+changed his leggings for sandals, threw his rifle over his arm, and
+took the trail of the herd, followed by the only dog which would
+accompany him. The peccaries had gone into a broad belt of forest,
+with a marsh on the farther side. At first Antonio led the colonel and
+me, all of us on horseback, at a canter round this belt to the marsh
+side, thinking the peccaries had gone almost through it. But we could
+hear nothing. The dog only occasionally barked, and then not loudly.
+Finally we heard a shot. Benedetto had found the herd, which showed no
+fear of him; he had backed out and fired a signal shot. We all three
+went into the forest on foot toward where the shot had been fired. It
+was dense jungle and stiflingly hot. We could not see clearly for more
+than a few feet, or move easily without free use of the machetes. Soon
+we heard the ominous groaning of the herd, in front of us, and almost
+on each side. Then Benedetto joined us, and the dog appeared in the
+rear. We moved slowly forward, toward the sound of the fierce moaning
+grunts which were varied at times by a castanet chattering of the
+tusks. Then we dimly made out the dark forms of the peccaries moving
+very slowly to the left. My companions each chose a tree to climb at
+need and pointed out one for me. I fired at the half-seen form of a
+hog, through the vines, leaves, and branches; the colonel fired; I
+fired three more shots at other hogs; and the Indian also fired. The
+peccaries did not charge; walking and trotting, with bristles erect,
+groaning and clacking their tusks, they disappeared into the jungle.
+We could not see one of them clearly; and not one was left dead. But a
+few paces on we came across one of my wounded ones, standing at bay by
+a palm trunk; and I killed it forthwith. The dog would not even trail
+the wounded ones; but here Antonio came to the front. With eyes almost
+as quick and sure as those of a wild beast he had watched after every
+shot, and was able to tell the results in each case. He said that in
+addition to the one I had just killed I had wounded two others so
+seriously that he did not think they would go far, and that Colonel
+Rondon and he himself had each badly wounded one; and, moreover, he
+showed the trails each wounded animal had taken. The event justified
+him. In a few minutes we found my second one dead. Then we found
+Antonio's. Then we found my third one alive and at bay, and I killed
+it with another bullet. Finally we found the colonel's. I told him I
+should ask the authorities of the American Museum to mount his and one
+or two of mine in a group, to commemorate our hunting together.
+
+If we had not used crippling rifles the peccaries might have gotten
+away, for in the dark jungle, with the masses of intervening leaves
+and branches, it was impossible to be sure of placing each bullet
+properly in the half-seen moving beast. We found where the herd had
+wallowed in the mud. The stomachs of the peccaries we killed contained
+wild figs, palm nuts, and bundles of root fibres. The dead beasts were
+covered with ticks. They were at least twice the weight of the smaller
+peccaries.
+
+On the ride home we saw a buck of the small species of bush deer, not
+half the size of the kind I had already shot. It was only a patch of
+red in the bush, a good distance off, but I was lucky enough to hit
+it. In spite of its small size it was a full-grown male, of a species
+we had not yet obtained. The antlers had recently been shed, and the
+new antler growth had just begun. A great jabiru stork let us ride by
+him a hundred and fifty yards off without thinking it worth while to
+take flight. This day we saw many of the beautiful violet orchids; and
+in the swamps were multitudes of flowers, red, yellow, lilac, of which
+I did not know the names.
+
+I alluded above to the queer custom these people in the interior of
+Brazil have of gelding their hunting-dogs. This absurd habit is
+doubtless the chief reason why there are so few hounds worth their
+salt in the more serious kinds of hunting, where the quarry is the
+jaguar or big peccary. Thus far we had seen but one dog as good as the
+ordinary cougar hound or bear hound in such packs as those with which
+I had hunted in the Rockies and in the cane-brakes of the lower
+Mississippi. It can hardly be otherwise when every dog that shows
+himself worth anything is promptly put out of the category of
+breeders--the theory apparently being that the dog will then last
+longer. All the breeding is from worthless dogs, and no dog of proved
+worth leaves descendants.
+
+The country along this river is a fine natural cattle country, and
+some day it will surely see a great development. It was opened to
+development by Colonel Rondon only five or six years ago. Already an
+occasional cattle ranch is to be found along the banks. When railroads
+are built into these interior portions of Matto Grosso the whole
+region will grow and thrive amazingly--and so will the railroads. The
+growth will not be merely material. An immense amount will be done in
+education; using the word education in its broadest and most accurate
+sense, as applying to both mind and spirit, to both the child and the
+man. Colonel Rondon is not merely an explorer. He has been and is now
+a leader in the movement for the vital betterment of his people, the
+people of Matto Grosso. The poorer people of the back country
+everywhere suffer because of the harsh and improper laws of debt. In
+practice these laws have resulted in establishing a system of peonage,
+such as has grown up here and there in our own nation. A radical
+change is needed in this matter; and the colonel is fighting for the
+change. In school matters the colonel has precisely the ideas of our
+wisest and most advanced men and women in the United States. Cherrie--
+who is not only an exceedingly efficient naturalist and explorer in
+the tropics, but is also a thoroughly good citizen at home--is the
+chairman of the school board of the town of Newfane, in Vermont. He
+and the colonel, and Kermit and I, talked over school matters at
+length, and were in hearty accord as to the vital educational needs of
+both Brazil and the United States: the need of combining industrial
+with purely mental training, and the need of having the wide-spread
+popular education, which is and must be supported and paid for by the
+government, made a purely governmental and absolutely nonsectarian
+function, administered by the state alone, without interference with,
+nor furtherance of, the beliefs of any reputable church. The colonel
+is also head of the Indian service of Brazil, being what corresponds
+roughly with our commissioner of Indian affairs. Here also he is
+taking the exact view that is taken in the United States by the
+staunchest and wisest friends of the Indians. The Indians must be
+treated with intelligent and sympathetic understanding, no less than
+with justice and firmness; and until they become citizens, absorbed
+into the general body politic, they must be the wards of the nation,
+and not of any private association, lay or clerical, no matter how
+well-meaning.
+
+The Sepotuba River was scientifically explored and mapped for the
+first time by Colonel Rondon in 1908, as head of the Brazilian
+Telegraphic Commission. This was during the second year of his
+exploration and opening of the unknown northwestern wilderness of
+Matto Grosso. Most of this wilderness had never previously been
+trodden by the foot of a civilized man. Not only were careful maps
+made and much other scientific work accomplished, but posts were
+established and telegraph-lines constructed. When Colonel Rondon began
+the work he was a major. He was given two promotions, to lieutenant-
+colonel and colonel, while absent in the wilderness. His longest and
+most important exploring trip, and the one fraught with most danger
+and hardship, was begun by him in 1909, on May 3rd, the anniversary of
+the discovery of Brazil. He left Tapirapoan on that day, and he
+reached the Madeira River on Christmas, December 25, of the same year,
+having descended the Gy-Parana. The mouth of this river had long been
+known, but its upper course for half its length was absolutely unknown
+when Rondon descended it. Among those who took part under him in this
+piece of exploration were the present Captain Amilcar and Lieutenant
+Lyra; and two better or more efficient men for such wilderness work it
+would be impossible to find. They acted as his two chief assistants on
+our trip. In 1909 the party exhausted all their food, including even
+the salt, by August. For the last four months they lived exclusively
+on the game they killed, on fruits, and on wild honey. Their equipage
+was what the men could carry on their backs. By the time the party
+reached the Madeira they were worn out by fatigue, exposure, and semi-
+starvation, and their enfeebled bodies were racked by fever.
+
+The work of exploration accomplished by Colonel Rondon and his
+associates during these years was as remarkable as, and in its results
+even more important than, any similar work undertaken elsewhere on the
+globe at or about the same time. Its value was recognized in Brazil.
+It received no recognition by the geographical societies of Europe or
+the United States.
+
+The work done by the original explorers of such a wilderness
+necessitates the undergoing of untold hardship and danger. Their
+successors, even their immediate successors, have a relatively easy
+time. Soon the road becomes so well beaten that it can be traversed
+without hardship by any man who does not venture from it--although if
+he goes off into the wilderness for even a day, hunting or collecting,
+he will have a slight taste of what his predecessors endured. The
+wilderness explored by Colonel Rondon is not yet wholly subdued, and
+still holds menace to human life. At Caceres he received notice of the
+death of one of his gallant subordinates, Captain Cardozo. He died
+from beriberi, far out in the wilderness along our proposed line of
+march. Colonel Rondon also received news that a boat ascending the Gy-
+Parana, to carry provisions to meet those of our party who were to
+descend that stream, had been upset, the provisions lost, and three
+men drowned. The risk and hardship are such that the ordinary men, the
+camaradas, do not like to go into the wilderness. The men who go with
+the Telegraphic Commission on the rougher and wilder work are paid
+seven times as much as they earn in civilization. On this trip of ours
+Colonel Rondon met with much difficulty in securing some one who could
+cook. He asked the cook on the little steamer Nyoac to go with us; but
+the cook with unaffected horror responded: "Senhor, I have never done
+anything to deserve punishment!"
+
+Five days after leaving us, the launch, with one of the native
+trading-boats lashed alongside, returned. On the 13th we broke camp,
+loaded ourselves and all our belongings on the launch and the house-
+boat, and started up-stream for Tapirapoan. All told there were about
+thirty men, with five dogs and tents, bedding and provisions; fresh
+beef, growing rapidly less fresh; skins--all and everything jammed
+together.
+
+It rained most of the first day and part of the first night. After
+that the weather was generally overcast and pleasant for travelling;
+but sometimes rain and torrid sunshine alternated. The cooking--and it
+was good cooking--was done at a funny little open-air fireplace, with
+two or three cooking-pots placed at the stern of the house-boat.
+
+The fireplace was a platform of earth, taken from anthills, and heaped
+and spread on the boards of the boat. Around it the dusky cook worked
+with philosophic solemnity in rain and shine. Our attendants, friendly
+souls with skins of every shade and hue, slept most of the time,
+curled up among boxes, bundles, and slabs of beef. An enormous land
+turtle was tethered toward the bow of the house-boat. When the men
+slept too near it, it made futile efforts to scramble over them; and
+in return now and then one of them gravely used it for a seat.
+
+Slowly the throbbing engine drove the launch and its unwieldy side-
+partner against the swift current. The river had risen. We made about
+a mile and a half an hour. Ahead of us the brown water street
+stretched in curves between endless walls of dense tropical forest. It
+was like passing through a gigantic greenhouse. Wawasa and burity
+palms, cecropias, huge figs, feathery bamboos, strange yellow-stemmed
+trees, low trees with enormous leaves, tall trees with foliage as
+delicate as lace, trees with buttressed trunks, trees with boles
+rising smooth and straight to lofty heights, all woven together by a
+tangle of vines, crowded down to the edge of the river. Their drooping
+branches hung down to the water, forming a screen through which it was
+impossible to see the bank, and exceedingly difficult to penetrate to
+the bank. Rarely one of them showed flowers--large white blossoms, or
+small red or yellow blossoms. More often the lilac flowers of the
+begonia-vine made large patches of color. Innumerable epiphytes
+covered the limbs, and even grew on the roughened trunks. We saw
+little bird life--a darter now and then, and kingfishers flitting from
+perch to perch. At long intervals we passed a ranch. At one the large,
+red-tiled, whitewashed house stood on a grassy slope behind mango-
+trees. The wooden shutters were thrown back from the unglazed windows,
+and the big rooms were utterly bare--not a book, not an ornament. A
+palm, loaded with scores of the pendulous nests of the troupials,
+stood near the door. Behind were orange-trees and coffee-plants, and
+near by fields of bananas, rice, and tobacco. The sallow foreman was
+courteous and hospitable. His dark-skinned women-folk kept in the
+furtive background. Like most of the ranches, it was owned by a
+company with headquarters at Caceres.
+
+The trip was pleasant and interesting, although there was not much to
+do on the boat. It was too crowded to move around save with a definite
+purpose. We enjoyed the scenery; we talked--in English, Portuguese,
+bad French, and broken German. Some of us wrote. Fiala made sketches
+of improved tents, hammocks, and other field equipment, suggested by
+what he had already seen. Some of us read books. Colonel Rondon, neat,
+trim, alert, and soldierly, studied a standard work on applied
+geographical astronomy. Father Zahm read a novel by Fogazzaro. Kermit
+read Camoens and a couple of Brazilian novels, "O Guarani" and
+"Innocencia." My own reading varied from "Quentin Durward" and Gibbon
+to the "Chanson de Roland." Miller took out his little pet owl Moses,
+from the basket in which Moses dwelt, and gave him food and water.
+Moses crooned and chuckled gratefully when he was stroked and tickled.
+
+Late the first evening we moored to the bank by a little fazenda of
+the poorer type. The houses were of palm-leaves. Even the walls were
+made of the huge fronds or leafy branches of the wawasa palm, stuck
+upright in the ground and the blades plaited together. Some of us went
+ashore. Some stayed on the boats. There were no mosquitoes, the
+weather was not oppressively hot, and we slept well. By five o'clock
+next morning we had each drunk a cup of delicious Brazilian coffee,
+and the boats were under way.
+
+All day we steamed slowly up-stream. We passed two or three fazendas.
+At one, where we halted to get milk, the trees were overgrown with
+pretty little yellow orchids. At dark we moored at a spot where there
+were no branches to prevent our placing the boats directly alongside
+the bank. There were hardly any mosquitoes. Most of the party took
+their hammocks ashore, and the camp was pitched amid singularly
+beautiful surroundings. The trees were wawasa palms, some with the
+fronds cresting very tall trunks, some with the fronds--seemingly
+longer--rising almost from the ground. The fronds were of great
+length; some could not have been less than fifty feet long. Bushes and
+tall grass, dew-drenched and glittering with the green of emeralds,
+grew in the open spaces between. We left at sunrise the following
+morning. One of the sailors had strayed inland. He got turned round
+and could not find the river; and we started before discovering his
+absence. We stopped at once, and with much difficulty he forced his
+way through the vine-laced and thorn-guarded jungle toward the sound
+of the launch's engines and of the bugle which was blown. In this
+dense jungle, when the sun is behind clouds, a man without a compass
+who strays a hundred yards from the river may readily become
+hopelessly lost.
+
+As we ascended the river the wawasa palms became constantly more
+numerous. At this point, for many miles, they gave their own character
+to the forest on the river banks. Everywhere their long, curving
+fronds rose among the other trees, and in places their lofty trunks
+made them hold their heads higher than the other trees. But they were
+never as tall as the giants among the ordinary trees. On one towering
+palm we noticed a mass of beautiful violet orchids growing from the
+side of the trunk, half-way to the top. On another big tree, not a
+palm, which stood in a little opening, there hung well over a hundred
+troupials' nests. Besides two or three small ranches we this day
+passed a large ranch. The various houses and sheds, all palm-thatched,
+stood by the river in a big space of cleared ground, dotted with
+wawasa palms. A native house-boat was moored by the bank. Women and
+children looked from the unglazed windows of the houses; men stood in
+front of them. The biggest house was enclosed by a stockade of palm-
+logs, thrust end-on into the ground. Cows and oxen grazed round about;
+and carts with solid wheels, each wheel made of a single disk of wood,
+were tilted on their poles.
+
+We made our noonday halt on an island where very tall trees grew,
+bearing fruits that were pleasant to the taste. Other trees on the
+island were covered with rich red and yellow blossoms; and masses of
+delicate blue flowers and of star-shaped white flowers grew underfoot.
+Hither and thither across the surface of the river flew swallows, with
+so much white in their plumage that as they flashed in the sun they
+seemed to have snow-white bodies, borne by dark wings. The current of
+the river grew swifter; there were stretches of broken water that were
+almost rapids; the laboring engine strained and sobbed as with
+increasing difficulty it urged forward the launch and her clumsy
+consort. At nightfall we moored beside the bank, where the forest was
+open enough to permit a comfortable camp. That night the ants ate
+large holes in Miller's mosquito-netting, and almost devoured his
+socks and shoe-laces.
+
+At sunrise we again started. There were occasional stretches of swift,
+broken water, almost rapids, in the river; everywhere the current was
+swift, and our progress was slow. The prancha was towed at the end of
+a hawser, and her crew poled. Even thus we only just made the riffle
+in more than one case. Two or three times cormorants and snake-birds,
+perched on snags in the river or on trees alongside it, permitted the
+boat to come within a few yards. In one piece of high forest we saw a
+party of toucans, conspicuous even among the tree tops because of
+their huge bills and the leisurely expertness with which they crawled,
+climbed, and hopped among the branches. We went by several fazendas.
+
+Shortly before noon--January 16--we reached Tapirapoan, the
+headquarters of the Telegraphic Commission. It was an attractive
+place, on the river-front, and it was gayly bedecked with flags, not
+only those of Brazil and the United States, but of all the other
+American republics, in our honor. There was a large, green square,
+with trees standing in the middle of it. On one side of this square
+were the buildings of the Telegraphic Commission, on the other those
+of a big ranch, of which this is the headquarters. In addition, there
+were stables, sheds, outhouses, and corrals; and there were cultivated
+fields near by. Milch cows, beef-cattle, oxen, and mules wandered
+almost at will. There were two or three wagons and carts, and a
+traction automobile, used in the construction of the telegraph-line,
+but not available in the rainy season, at the time of our trip.
+
+Here we were to begin our trip overland, on pack-mules and pack-oxen,
+scores of which had been gathered to meet us. Several days were needed
+to apportion the loads and arrange for the several divisions in which
+it was necessary that so large a party should attempt the long
+wilderness march, through a country where there was not much food for
+man or beast, and where it was always possible to run into a district
+in which fatal cattle or horse diseases were prevalent. Fiala, with
+his usual efficiency, took charge of handling the outfit of the
+American portion of the expedition, with Sigg as an active and useful
+assistant. Harper, who like the others worked with whole-hearted zeal
+and cheerfulness, also helped him, except when he was engaged in
+helping the naturalists. The two latter, Cherrie and Miller, had so
+far done the hardest and the best work of the expedition. They had
+collected about a thousand birds and two hundred and fifty mammals. It
+was not probable that they would do as well during the remainder of
+our trip, for we intended thenceforth to halt as little, and march as
+steadily, as the country, the weather, and the condition of our means
+of transportation permitted. I kept continually wishing that they had
+more time in which to study the absorbingly interesting life-histories
+of the beautiful and wonderful beasts and birds we were all the time
+seeing. Every first-rate museum must still employ competent
+collectors; but I think that a museum could now confer most lasting
+benefit, and could do work of most permanent good, by sending out into
+the immense wildernesses, where wild nature is at her best, trained
+observers with the gift of recording what they have observed. Such men
+should be collectors, for collecting is still necessary; but they
+should also, and indeed primarily, be able themselves to see, and to
+set vividly before the eyes of others, the full life-histories of the
+creatures that dwell in the waste spaces of the world.
+
+At this point both Cherrie and Miller collected a number of mammals
+and birds which they had not previously obtained; whether any were new
+to science could only be determined after the specimens reached the
+American Museum. While making the round of his small mammal traps one
+morning, Miller encountered an army of the formidable foraging ants.
+The species was a large black one, moving with a well-extended front.
+These ants, sometimes called army-ants, like the driver-ants of
+Africa, move in big bodies and destroy or make prey of every living
+thing that is unable or unwilling to get out of their path in time.
+They run fast, and everything runs away from their advance. Insects
+form their chief prey; and the most dangerous and aggressive lower-
+life creatures make astonishingly little resistance to them. Miller's
+attention was first attracted to this army of ants by noticing a big
+centipede, nine or ten inches long, trying to flee before them. A
+number of ants were biting it, and it writhed at each bite, but did
+not try to use its long curved jaws against its assailants. On other
+occasions he saw big scorpions and big hairy spiders trying to escape
+in the same way, and showing the same helpless inability to injure
+their ravenous foes, or to defend themselves. The ants climb trees to
+a great height, much higher than most birds' nests, and at once kill
+and tear to pieces any fledglings in the nests they reach. But they
+are not as common as some writers seem to imagine; days may elapse
+before their armies are encountered, and doubtless most nests are
+never visited or threatened by them. In some instances it seems likely
+that the birds save themselves and their young in other ways. Some
+nests are inaccessible. From others it is probable that the parents
+remove the young. Miller once, in Guiana, had been watching for some
+days a nest of ant-wrens which contained young. Going thither one
+morning, he found the tree, and the nest itself, swarming with
+foraging ants. He at first thought that the fledglings had been
+devoured, but he soon saw the parents, only about thirty yards off,
+with food in their beaks. They were engaged in entering a dense part
+of the jungle, coming out again without food in their beaks, and soon
+reappearing once more with food. Miller never found their new nests,
+but their actions left him certain that they were feeding their young,
+which they must have themselves removed from the old nest. These ant-
+wrens hover in front of and over the columns of foraging ants, feeding
+not only on the other insects aroused by the ants, but on the ants
+themselves. This fact has been doubted; but Miller has shot them with
+the ants in their bills and in their stomachs. Dragon-flies, in
+numbers, often hover over the columns, darting down at them; Miller
+could not be certain he had seen them actually seizing the ants, but
+this was his belief. I have myself seen these ants plunder a nest of
+the dangerous and highly aggressive wasps, while the wasps buzzed
+about in great excitement, but seemed unable effectively to retaliate.
+I have also seen them clear a sapling tenanted by their kinsmen, the
+poisonous red ants, or fire-ants; the fire-ants fought and I have no
+doubt injured or killed some of their swarming and active black foes;
+but the latter quickly did away with them. I have only come across
+black foraging ants; but there are red species. They attack human
+beings precisely as they attack all animals, and precipitate flight is
+the only resort.
+
+Around our camp here butterflies of gorgeous coloring swarmed, and
+there were many fungi as delicately shaped and tinted as flowers. The
+scents in the woods were wonderful. There were many whippoorwills, or
+rather Brazilian birds related to them; they uttered at intervals
+through the night a succession of notes suggesting both those of our
+whippoorwill and those of our big chuck-will's-widow of the Gulf
+States, but not identical with either. There were other birds which
+were nearly akin to familiar birds of the United States: a dull-
+colored catbird, a dull-colored robin, and a sparrow belonging to the
+same genus as our common song-sparrow and sweetheart sparrow; Miller
+had heard this sparrow singing by day and night, fourteen thousand
+feet up on the Andes, and its song suggested the songs of both of our
+sparrows. There were doves and woodpeckers of various species. Other
+birds bore no resemblance to any of ours. One honey-creeper was a
+perfect little gem, with plumage that was black, purple, and
+turquoise, and brilliant scarlet feet. Two of the birds which Cherrie
+and Miller procured were of extraordinary nesting habits. One, a
+nunlet, in shape resembles a short-tailed bluebird. It is plumbeous,
+with a fulvous belly and white tail coverts. It is a stupid little
+bird, and does not like to fly away even when shot at. It catches its
+prey and ordinarily acts like a rather dull flycatcher, perching on
+some dead tree, swooping on insects and then returning to its perch,
+and never going on the ground to feed or run about. But it nests in
+burrows which it digs itself, one bird usually digging, while the
+other bird perches in a bush near by. Sometimes these burrows are in
+the side of a sand-bank, the sand being so loose that it is a marvel
+that it does not cave in. Sometimes the burrows are in the level
+plain, running down about three feet, and then rising at an angle. The
+nest consists of a few leaves and grasses, and the eggs are white. The
+other bird, called a nun or waxbill, is about the size of a thrush,
+grayish in color, with a waxy red bill. It also burrows in the level
+soil, the burrow being five feet long; and over the mouth of the
+burrow it heaps a pile of sticks and leaves.
+
+At this camp the heat was great--from 91 to 104 Fahrenheit--and the
+air very heavy, being saturated with moisture; and there were many
+rain-storms. But there were no mosquitoes, and we were very
+comfortable. Thanks to the neighborhood of the ranch, we fared
+sumptuously, with plenty of beef, chickens, and fresh milk. Two of the
+Brazilian dishes were delicious: canja, a thick soup of chicken and
+rice, the best soup a hungry man ever tasted; and beef chopped in
+rather small pieces and served with a well-flavored but simple gravy.
+The mule allotted me as a riding-beast was a powerful animal, with
+easy gaits. The Brazilian Government had waiting for me a very
+handsome silver-mounted saddle and bridle; I was much pleased with
+both. However, my exceedingly rough and shabby clothing made an
+incongruous contrast.
+
+At Tapirapoan we broke up our baggage--as well as our party. We sent
+forward the Canadian canoe--which, with the motor-engine and some
+kerosene, went in a cart drawn by six oxen--and a hundred sealed tin
+cases of provisions, each containing rations for a day for six men.
+They had been put up in New York under the special direction of Fiala,
+for use when we got where we wished to take good and varied food in
+small compass. All the skins, skulls, and alcoholic specimens, and all
+the baggage not absolutely necessary, were sent back down the Paraguay
+and to New York, in charge of Harper. The separate baggage-trains,
+under the charge of Captain Amilcar, were organized to go in one
+detachment. The main body of the expedition, consisting of the
+American members, and of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, and Doctor
+Cajazeira, with their baggage and provisions, formed another
+detachment.
+
+
+
+        VI. THROUGH THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS OF WESTERN BRAZIL
+
+We were now in the land of the bloodsucking bats, the vampire bats
+that suck the blood of living creatures, clinging to or hovering
+against the shoulder of a horse or cow, or the hand or foot of a
+sleeping man, and making a wound from which the blood continues to
+flow long after the bat's thirst has been satiated. At Tapirapoan
+there were milch cattle; and one of the calves turned up one morning
+weak from loss of blood, which was still trickling from a wound,
+forward of the shoulder, made by a bat. But the bats do little damage
+in this neighborhood compared to what they do in some other places,
+where not only the mules and cattle but the chickens have to be housed
+behind bat-proof protection at night or their lives may pay the
+penalty. The chief and habitual offenders are various species of
+rather small bats; but it is said that other kinds of Brazilian bats
+seem to have become, at least sporadically and locally, affected by
+the evil example and occasionally vary their customary diet by
+draughts of living blood. One of the Brazilian members of our party,
+Hoehne, the botanist, was a zoologist also. He informed me that he had
+known even the big fruit-eating bats to take to bloodsucking. They did
+not, according to his observations, themselves make the original
+wound; but after it had been made by one of the true vampires they
+would lap the flowing blood and enlarge the wound. South America makes
+up for its lack, relatively to Africa and India, of large man-eating
+carnivores by the extraordinary ferocity or bloodthirstiness of
+certain small creatures of which the kinsfolk elsewhere are harmless.
+It is only here that fish no bigger than trout kill swimmers, and bats
+the size of the ordinary "flittermice" of the northern hemisphere
+drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself.
+
+There was not much large mammalian life in the neighborhood. Kermit
+hunted industriously and brought in an occasional armadillo, coati, or
+agouti for the naturalists. Miller trapped rats and a queer opossum
+new to the collection. Cherrie got many birds. Cherrie and Miller
+skinned their specimens in a little open hut or shed. Moses, the small
+pet owl, sat on a cross-bar overhead, an interested spectator, and
+chuckled whenever he was petted. Two wrens, who bred just outside the
+hut, were much excited by the presence of Moses, and paid him visits
+of noisy unfriendliness. The little white-throated sparrows came
+familiarly about the palm cabins and whitewashed houses and trilled on
+the rooftrees. It was a simple song, with just a hint of our northern
+white-throat's sweet and plaintive melody, and of the opening bars of
+our song-sparrow's pleasant, homely lay. It brought back dear memories
+of glorious April mornings on Long Island, when through the singing of
+robin and song-sparrow comes the piercing cadence of the meadowlark;
+and of the far northland woods in June, fragrant with the breath of
+pine and balsam-fir, where sweetheart sparrows sing from wet spruce
+thickets and rapid brooks rush under the drenched and swaying alder-
+boughs.
+
+From Tapirapoan our course lay northward up to and across the Plan
+Alto, the highland wilderness of Brazil. From the edges of this
+highland country, which is geologically very ancient, the affluents of
+the Amazon to the north, and of the Plate to the south, flow, with
+immense and devious loops and windings.
+
+Two days before we ourselves started with our mule-train, a train of
+pack-oxen left, loaded with provisions, tools, and other things, which
+we would not need until, after a month or six weeks, we began our
+descent into the valley of the Amazon. There were about seventy oxen.
+Most of them were well broken, but there were about a score which were
+either not broken at all or else very badly broken. These were loaded
+with much difficulty, and bucked like wild broncos. Again and again
+they scattered their loads over the corral and over the first part of
+the road. The pack-men, however--copper-colored, black, and dusky-
+white--were not only masters of their art, but possessed tempers that
+could not be ruffled; when they showed severity it was because
+severity was needed, and not because they were angry. They finally got
+all their longhorned beasts loaded and started on the trail with them.
+
+On January 21 we ourselves started, with the mule-train. Of course, as
+always in such a journey, there was some confusion before the men and
+the animals of the train settled down to the routine performance of
+duty. In addition to the pack-animals we all had riding-mules. The
+first day we journeyed about twelve miles, then crossing the Sepotuba
+and camping beside it, below a series of falls, or rather rapids. The
+country was level. It was a great natural pasture, covered with a very
+open forest of low, twisted trees, bearing a superficial likeness to
+the cross-timbers of Texas and Oklahoma. It is as well fitted for
+stock-raising as Oklahoma; and there is also much fine agricultural
+land, while the river will ultimately yield electric power. It is a
+fine country for settlement. The heat is great at noon; but the nights
+are not uncomfortable. We were supposed to be in the middle of the
+rainy season, but hitherto most of the days had been fine, varied with
+showers. The astonishing thing was the absence of mosquitoes. Insect
+pests that work by day can be stood, and especially by settlers,
+because they are far less serious foes in the clearings than in the
+woods. The mosquitoes and other night foes offer the really serious
+and unpleasant problem, because they break one's rest. Hitherto,
+during our travels up the Paraguay and its tributaries, in this level,
+marshy tropical region of western Brazil, we had practically not been
+bothered by mosquitoes at all, in our home camps. Out in the woods
+they were at times a serious nuisance, and Cherrie and Miller had been
+subjected to real torment by them during some of their special
+expeditions; but there were practically none on the ranches and in our
+camps in the open fields by the river, even when marshes were close
+by. I was puzzled--and delighted--by their absence. Settlers need not
+be deterred from coming to this region by the fear of insect foes.
+
+This does not mean that there are not such foes. Outside of the
+clearings, and of the beaten tracks of travel, they teem. There are
+ticks, poisonous ants, wasps--of which some species are really serious
+menaces--biting flies and gnats. I merely mean that, unlike so many
+other tropical regions, this particular region is, from the standpoint
+of the settler and the ordinary traveller, relatively free from insect
+pests, and a pleasant place of residence. The original explorer, and
+to an only less degree the hardworking field naturalist or big-game
+hunter, have to face these pests, just as they have to face countless
+risks, hardships, and difficulties. This is inherent in their several
+professions or avocations. Many regions in the United States where
+life is now absolutely comfortable and easygoing offered most
+formidable problems to the first explorers a century or two ago. We
+must not fall into the foolish error of thinking that the first
+explorers need not suffer terrible hardships, merely because the
+ordinary travellers, and even the settlers who come after them, do not
+have to endure such danger, privation, and wearing fatigue--although
+the first among the genuine settlers also have to undergo exceedingly
+trying experiences. The early explorers and adventurers make fairly
+well-beaten trails; but it is incumbent on them neither to boast of
+their own experiences nor to misjudge the efforts of the pioneers
+because, thanks to these very efforts, their own lines fall in
+pleasant places. The ordinary traveller, who never goes off the beaten
+route and who on this beaten route is carried by others, without
+himself doing anything or risking anything, does not need to show much
+more initiative and intelligence than an express package. He does
+nothing; others do all the work, show all the forethought, take all
+the risk--and are entitled to all the credit. He and his valise are
+carried in practically the same fashion; and for each the achievement
+stands about on the same plane. If this kind of traveller is a writer,
+he can of course do admirable work, work of the highest value; but the
+value comes because he is a writer and observer, not because of any
+particular credit that attaches to him as a traveller. We all
+recognize this truth as far as highly civilized regions are concerned:
+when Bryce writes of the American commonwealth, or Lowell of European
+legislative assemblies, our admiration is for the insight and thought
+of the observer, and we are not concerned with his travels. When a man
+travels across Arizona in a Pullman car, we do not think of him as
+having performed a feat bearing even the most remote resemblance to
+the feats of the first explorers of those waterless wastes; whatever
+admiration we feel in connection with his trip is reserved for the
+traffic-superintendent, engineer, fireman, and brakeman. But as
+regards the less-known continents, such as South America, we sometimes
+fail to remember these obvious truths. There yet remains plenty of
+exploring work to be done in South America, as hard, as dangerous, and
+almost as important as any that has already been done; work such as
+has recently been done, or is now being done, by men and women such as
+Haseman, Farrabee, and Miss Snethlage. The collecting naturalists who
+go into the wilds and do first-class work encounter every kind of risk
+and undergo every kind of hardship and exertion. Explorers and
+naturalists of the right type have open to them in South America a
+field of extraordinary attraction and difficulty. But to excavate
+ruins that have already long been known, to visit out-of-the-way towns
+that date from colonial days, to traverse old, even if uncomfortable,
+routes of travel, or to ascend or descend highway rivers like the
+Amazon, the Paraguay, and the lower Orinoco--all of these exploits are
+well worth performing, but they in no sense represent exploration or
+adventure, and they do not entitle the performer, no matter how well
+he writes and no matter how much of real value he contributes to human
+knowledge, to compare himself in anyway with the real wilderness
+wanderer, or to criticise the latter. Such a performance entails no
+hardship or difficulty worth heeding. Its value depends purely on
+observation, not on action. The man does little; he merely records
+what he sees. He is only the man of the beaten routes. The true
+wilderness wanderer, on the contrary, must be a man of action as well
+as of observation. He must have the heart and the body to do and to
+endure, no less than the eye to see and the brain to note and record.
+
+Let me make it clear that I am not depreciating the excellent work of
+so many of the men who have not gone off the beaten trails. I merely
+wish to make it plain that this excellent work must not be put in the
+class with that of the wilderness explorer. It is excellent work,
+nevertheless, and has its place, just as the work of the true explorer
+has its place. Both stand in sharpest contrast with the actions of
+those alleged explorers, among whom Mr. Savage Landor stands in
+unpleasant prominence.
+
+From the Sepotuba rapids our course at the outset lay westward. The
+first day's march away from the river lay through dense tropical
+forest. Away from the broad, beaten route every step of a man's
+progress represented slashing a trail with the machete through the
+tangle of bushes, low trees, thorny scrub, and interlaced creepers.
+There were palms of new kinds, very tall, slender, straight, and
+graceful, with rather short and few fronds. The wild plantains, or
+pacovas, thronged the spaces among the trunks of the tall trees; their
+boles were short, and their broad, erect leaves gigantic; they bore
+brilliant red-and-orange flowers. There were trees whose trunks
+bellied into huge swellings. There were towering trees with buttressed
+trunks, whose leaves made a fretwork against the sky far overhead.
+Gorgeous red-and-green trogons, with long tails, perched motionless on
+the lower branches and uttered a loud, thrice-repeated whistle. We
+heard the calling of the false bellbird, which is gray instead of
+white like the true bellbirds; it keeps among the very topmost
+branches. Heavy rain fell shortly after we reached our camping-place.
+
+Next morning at sunrise we climbed a steep slope to the edge of the
+Parecis plateau, at a level of about two thousand feet above the sea.
+We were on the Plan Alto, the high central plain of Brazil, the
+healthy land of dry air, of cool nights, of clear, running brooks. The
+sun was directly behind us when we topped the rise. Reining in, we
+looked back over the vast Paraguayan marshes, shimmering in the long
+morning lights. Then, turning again, we rode forward, casting shadows
+far before us. It was twenty miles to the next water, and in hot
+weather the journey across this waterless, shadeless, sandy stretch of
+country is hard on the mules and oxen. But on this day the sky
+speedily grew overcast and a cool wind blew in our faces as we
+travelled at a quick, running walk over the immense rolling plain. The
+ground was sandy; it was covered with grass and with a sparse growth
+of stunted, twisted trees, never more than a few feet high. There were
+rheas--ostriches--and small pampas-deer on this plain; the coloration
+of the rheas made it difficult to see them at a distance, whereas the
+bright red coats of the little deer, and their uplifted flags as they
+ran, advertised them afar off. We also saw the footprints of cougars
+and of the small-toothed, big, red wolf. Cougars are the most
+inveterate enemies of these small South American deer, both those of
+the open grassy plain and those of the forest.
+
+It is not nearly as easy to get lost on these open plains as in the
+dense forest; and where there is a long, reasonably straight road or
+river to come back to, a man even without a compass is safe. But in
+these thick South American forests, especially on cloudy days, a
+compass is an absolute necessity. We were struck by the fact that the
+native hunters and ranchmen on such days continually lost themselves
+and, if permitted, travelled for miles through the forest either in
+circles or in exactly the wrong direction. They had no such sense of
+direction as the forest-dwelling 'Ndorobo hunters in Africa had, or as
+the true forest-dwelling Indians of South America are said to have. On
+certainly half a dozen occasions our guides went completely astray,
+and we had to take command, to disregard their assertions, and to lead
+the way aright by sole reliance on our compasses.
+
+On this cool day we travelled well. The air was wonderful; the vast
+open spaces gave a sense of abounding vigor and freedom. Early in the
+afternoon we reached a station made by Colonel Rondon in the course of
+his first explorations. There were several houses with whitewashed
+walls, stone floors, and tiled or thatched roofs. They stood in a
+wide, gently sloping valley. Through it ran a rapid brook of cool
+water, in which we enjoyed delightful baths. The heavy, intensely
+humid atmosphere of the low, marshy plains had gone; the air was clear
+and fresh; the sky was brilliant; far and wide we looked over a
+landscape that seemed limitless; the breeze that blew in our faces
+might have come from our own northern plains. The midday sun was very
+hot; but it was hard to realize that we were in the torrid zone. There
+were no mosquitoes, so that we never put up our nets when we went to
+bed; but wrapped ourselves in our blankets and slept soundly through
+the cool, pleasant nights. Surely in the future this region will be
+the home of a healthy highly civilized population. It is good for
+cattle-raising, and the valleys are fitted for agriculture. From June
+to September the nights are often really cold. Any sound northern race
+could live here; and in such a land, with such a climate, there would
+be much joy of living.
+
+On these plains the Telegraphic Commission uses motor-trucks; and
+these now to relieve the mules and oxen; for some of them, especially
+among the oxen, already showed the effects of the strain. Travelling
+in a wild country with a pack-train is not easy on the pack-animals.
+It was strange to see these big motor-vans out in the wilderness where
+there was not a settler, not a civilized man except the employees of
+the Telegraphic Commission. They were handled by Lieutenant Lauriado,
+who, with Lieutenant Mello, had taken special charge of our transport
+service; both were exceptionally good and competent men.
+
+The following day we again rode on across the Plan Alto. In the early
+afternoon, in the midst of a downpour of rain, we crossed the divide
+between the basins of the Paraguay and the Amazon. That evening we
+camped on a brook whose waters ultimately ran into the Tapajos. The
+rain fell throughout the afternoon, now lightly, now heavily, and the
+mule-train did not get up until dark. But enough tents and flies were
+pitched to shelter all of us. Fires were lit, and--after a fourteen
+hours' fast we feasted royally on beans and rice and pork and beef,
+seated around ox-skins spread upon the ground. The sky cleared; the
+stars blazed down through the cool night; and wrapped in our blankets
+we slept soundly, warm and comfortable.
+
+Next morning the trail had turned, and our course led northward and at
+times east of north. We traversed the same high, rolling plains of
+coarse grass and stunted trees. Kermit, riding a big, iron-mouthed,
+bull-headed white mule, rode off to one side on a hunt, and rejoined
+the line of march carrying two bucks of the little pampas-deer, or
+field deer, behind his saddle. These deer are very pretty and
+graceful, with a tail like that of the Colombian blacktail. Standing
+motionless facing one, in the sparse scrub, they are hard to make out;
+if seen sideways the reddish of their coats, contrasted with the
+greens and grays of the landscape, betrays them; and when they bound
+off the upraised white tail is very conspicuous. They carefully avoid
+the woods in which their cousins the little bush deer are found, and
+go singly or in couples. Their odor can be made out at quite a
+distance, but it is not rank. They still carried their antlers. Their
+venison was delicious.
+
+We came across many queer insects. One red grasshopper when it flew
+seemed as big as a small sparrow; and we passed in some places such
+multitudes of active little green grasshoppers that they frightened
+the mules. At our camping-place we saw an extraordinary colony of
+spiders. It was among some dwarf trees, standing a few yards apart
+from one another by the water. When we reached the camping-place,
+early in the afternoon--the pack-train did not get in until nearly
+sunset, just ahead of the rain--no spiders were out. They were under
+the leaves of the trees. Their webs were tenantless, and indeed for
+the most part were broken down. But at dusk they came out from their
+hiding-places, two or three hundred of them in all, and at once began
+to repair the old and spin new webs. Each spun its own circular web,
+and sat in the middle; and each web was connected on several sides
+with other webs, while those nearest the trees were hung to them by
+spun ropes, so to speak. The result was a kind of sheet of web
+consisting of scores of wheels, in each of which the owner and
+proprietor sat; and there were half a dozen such sheets, each
+extending between two trees. The webs could hardly be seen; and the
+effect was of scores of big, formidable-looking spiders poised in
+midair, equidistant from one another, between each pair of trees. When
+darkness and rain fell they were still out, fixing their webs, and
+pouncing on the occasional insects that blundered into the webs. I
+have no question that they are nocturnal; they certainly hide in the
+daytime, and it seems impossible that they can come out only for a few
+minutes at dusk.
+
+In the evenings, after supper or dinner--it is hard to tell by what
+title the exceedingly movable evening meal should be called--the
+members of the party sometimes told stories of incidents in their past
+lives. Most of them were men of varied experiences. Rondon and Lyra
+told of the hardship and suffering of the first trips through the
+wilderness across which we were going with such comfort. On this very
+plateau they had once lived for weeks on the fruits of the various
+fruit-bearing trees. Naturally they became emaciated and feeble. In
+the forests of the Amazonian basin they did better because they often
+shot birds and plundered the hives of the wild honey-bees. In cutting
+the trail for the telegraph-line through the Juruena basin they lost
+every single one of the hundred and sixty mules with which they had
+started. Those men pay dear who build the first foundations of empire!
+Fiala told of the long polar nights and of white bears that came round
+the snow huts of the explorers, greedy to eat them, and themselves
+destined to be eaten by them. Of all the party Cherrie's experiences
+had covered the widest range. This was partly owing to the fact that
+the latter-day naturalist of the most vigorous type who goes into the
+untrodden wastes of the world must see and do many strange things; and
+still more owing to the character of the man himself. The things he
+had seen and done and undergone often enabled him to cast the light of
+his own past experience on unexpected subjects. Once we were talking
+about the proper weapons for cavalry, and some one mentioned the
+theory that the lance is especially formidable because of the moral
+effect it produces on the enemy. Cherrie nodded emphatically; and a
+little cross-examination elicited the fact that he was speaking from
+lively personal recollection of his own feelings when charged by
+lancers. It was while he was fighting with the Venezuelan insurgents
+in an unsuccessful uprising against the tyranny of Castro. He was on
+foot, with five Venezuelans, all cool men and good shots. In an open
+plain they were charged by twenty of Castro's lancers, who galloped
+out from behind cover two or three hundred yards off. It was a war in
+which neither side gave quarter and in which the wounded and the
+prisoners were butchered--just as President Madero was butchered in
+Mexico. Cherrie knew that it meant death for him and his companions if
+the charge came home; and the sight of the horsemen running in at full
+speed, with their long lances in rest and the blades glittering, left
+an indelible impression on his mind. But he and his companions shot
+deliberately and accurately; ten of the lancers were killed, the
+nearest falling within fifty yards; and the others rode off in
+headlong haste. A cool man with a rifle, if he has mastered his
+weapon, need fear no foe.
+
+At this camp the auto-vans again joined us. They were to go direct to
+the first telegraph station, at the great falls of the Utiarity, on
+the Rio Papagaio. Of course they travelled faster than the mule-train.
+Father Zahm, attended by Sigg, started for the falls in them. Cherrie
+and Miller also went in them, because they had found that it was very
+difficult to collect birds, and especially mammals, when we were
+moving every day, packing up early each morning and the mule-train
+arriving late in the afternoon or not until nightfall. Moreover, there
+was much rain, which made it difficult to work except under the tents.
+Accordingly, the two naturalists desired to get to a place where they
+could spend several days and collect steadily, thereby doing more
+effective work. The rest of us continued with the mule-train, as was
+necessary.
+
+It was always a picturesque sight when camp was broken, and again at
+nightfall when the laden mules came stringing in and their burdens
+were thrown down, while the tents were pitched and the fires lit. We
+breakfasted before leaving camp, the aluminum cups and plates being
+placed on ox-hides, round which we sat, on the ground or on camp-
+stools. We fared well, on rice, beans, and crackers, with canned
+corned beef, and salmon or any game that had been shot, and coffee,
+tea, and matte. I then usually sat down somewhere to write, and when
+the mules were nearly ready I popped my writing-materials into my
+duffel-bag/war-sack, as we would have called it in the old days on the
+plains. I found that the mules usually arrived so late in the
+afternoon or evening that I could not depend upon being able to write
+at that time. Of course, if we made a very early start I could not
+write at all. At night there were no mosquitoes. In the daytime gnats
+and sand-flies and horse-flies sometimes bothered us a little, but not
+much. Small stingless bees lit on us in numbers and crawled over the
+skin, making a slight tickling; but we did not mind them until they
+became very numerous. There was a good deal of rain, but not enough to
+cause any serious annoyance.
+
+Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant Lyra held many discussions as to whither
+the Rio da Duvida flowed, and where its mouth might be. Its
+provisional name--"River of Doubt"--was given it precisely because of
+this ignorance concerning it; an ignorance which it was one of the
+purposes of our trip to dispel. It might go into the Gy-Parana, in
+which case its course must be very short; it might flow into the
+Madeira low down, in which case its course would be very long; or,
+which was unlikely, it might flow into the Tapajos. There was another
+river, of which Colonel Rondon had come across the head-waters, whose
+course was equally doubtful, although in its case there was rather
+more probability of its flowing into the Juruena, by which name the
+Tapajos is known for its upper half. To this unknown river Colonel
+Rondon had given the name Ananas, because when he came across it he
+found a deserted Indian field with pineapples, which the hungry
+explorers ate greedily. Among the things the colonel and I hoped to
+accomplish on the trip was to do a little work in clearing up one or
+the other of these two doubtful geographical points, and thereby to
+push a little forward the knowledge of this region. Originally, as
+described in the first chapter, my trip was undertaken primarily in
+the interest of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, to
+add to our knowledge of the birds and mammals of the far interior of
+the western Brazilian wilderness; and the labels of our baggage and
+scientific equipment, printed by the museum, were entitled "Colonel
+Roosevelt's South American Expedition for the American Museum of
+Natural History." But, as I have already mentioned, at Rio the
+Brazilian Government, through the secretary of foreign affairs, Doctor
+Lauro Muller, suggested that I should combine the expedition with one
+by Colonel Rondon, which they contemplated making, and thereby make
+both expeditions of broader scientific interest. I accepted the
+proposal with much pleasure; and we found, when we joined Colonel
+Rondon and his associates, that their baggage and equipment had been
+labelled by the Brazilian Government "Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt-
+Rondon." This thenceforth became the proper and official title of the
+expedition. Cherrie and Miller did the chief zoological work. The
+geological work was done by a Brazilian member of the expedition,
+Euzebio Oliveira. The astronomical work necessary for obtaining the
+exact geographical location of the rivers and points of note was to be
+done by Lieutenant Lyra, under the supervision of Colonel Rondon; and
+at the telegraph stations this astronomical work would be checked by
+wire communications with one of Colonel Rondon's assistants at Cuyaba,
+Lieutenant Caetano, thereby securing a minutely accurate comparison of
+time. The sketch-maps and surveying and cartographical work generally
+were to be made under the supervision of Colonel Rondon by Lyra, with
+assistance from Fiala and Kermit. Captain Amilcar handled the worst
+problem--transportation; the medical member was Doctor Cajazeira.
+
+At night around the camp-fire my Brazilian companions often spoke of
+the first explorers of this vast wilderness of western Brazil--men
+whose very names are now hardly known, but who did each his part in
+opening the country which will some day see such growth and
+development. Among the most notable of them was a Portuguese, Ricardo
+Franco, who spent forty years at the work, during the last quarter of
+the eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth centuries. He
+ascended for long distances the Xingu and the Tapajos, and went up the
+Madeira and Guapore, crossing to the head-waters of the Paraguay and
+partially exploring there also. He worked among and with the Indians,
+much as Mungo Park worked with the natives of West Africa, having none
+of the aids, instruments, and comforts with which even the hardiest of
+modern explorers are provided. He was one of the men who established
+the beginnings of the province of Matto Grosso. For many years the
+sole method of communication between this remote interior province and
+civilization was by the long, difficult, and perilous route which led
+up the Amazon and Madeira; and its then capital, the town of Matto
+Grosso, the seat of the captain-general, with its palace, cathedral,
+and fortress, was accordingly placed far to the west, near the
+Guapore. When less circuitous lines of communication were established
+farther eastward the old capital was abandoned, and the tropic
+wilderness surged over the lonely little town. The tomb of the old
+colonial explorer still stands in the ruined cathedral, where the
+forest has once more come to its own. But civilization is again
+advancing to reclaim the lost town and to revive the memory of the
+wilderness wanderer who helped to found it. Colonel Rondon has named a
+river after Franco; a range of mountains has also been named after
+him; and the colonel, acting for the Brazilian Government, has
+established a telegraph station in what was once the palace of the
+captain-general.
+
+Our northward trail led along the high ground a league or two to the
+east of the northward-flowing Rio Sacre. Each night we camped on one
+of the small tributary brooks that fed it. Fiala, Kermit, and I
+occupied one tent. In the daytime the "pium" flies, vicious little
+sand-flies, became bad enough to make us finally use gloves and head-
+nets. There were many heavy rains, which made the travelling hard for
+the mules. The soil was more often clay than sand, and it was slippery
+when wet. The weather was overcast, and there was usually no
+oppressive heat even at noon. At intervals along the trail we came on
+the staring skull and bleached skeleton of a mule or ox. Day after day
+we rode forward across endless flats of grass and of low open scrubby
+forest, the trees standing far apart and in most places being but
+little higher than the head of a horseman. Some of them carried
+blossoms, white, orange, yellow, pink; and there were many flowers,
+the most beautiful being the morning-glories. Among the trees were
+bastard rubber-trees, and dwarf palmetto; if the latter grew more than
+a few feet high their tops were torn and dishevelled by the wind.
+There was very little bird or mammal life; there were few long vistas,
+for in most places it was not possible to see far among the gray,
+gnarled trunks of the wind-beaten little trees. Yet the desolate
+landscape had a certain charm of its own, although not a charm that
+would be felt by any man who does not take pleasure in mere space, and
+freedom and wildness, and in plains standing empty to the sun, the
+wind, and the rain. The country bore some resemblance to the country
+west of Redjaf on the White Nile, the home of the giant eland; only
+here there was no big game, no chance of seeing the towering form of
+the giraffe, the black bulk of elephant or buffalo, the herds of
+straw-colored hartebeests, or the ghostly shimmer of the sun glinting
+on the coats of roan and eland as they vanished silently in the gray
+sea of withered scrub.
+
+One feature in common with the African landscape was the abundance of
+ant-hills, some as high as a man. They were red in the clay country,
+gray where it was sandy; and the dirt houses were also in trees, while
+their raised tunnels traversed trees and ground alike. At some of the
+camping-places we had to be on our watch against the swarms of leaf-
+carrying ants. These are so called in the books--the Brazilians call
+them "carregadores," or porters--because they are always carrying bits
+of leaves and blades of grass to their underground homes. They are
+inveterate burden-bearers, and they industriously cut into pieces and
+carry off any garment they can get at; and we had to guard our shoes
+and clothes from them, just as we had often had to guard all our
+belongings against the termites. These ants did not bite us; but we
+encountered huge black ants, an inch and a quarter long, which were
+very vicious, and their bite was not only painful but quite poisonous.
+Praying-mantes were common, and one evening at supper one had a
+comical encounter with a young dog, a jovial near-puppy, of Colonel
+Rondon's, named Cartucho. He had been christened the jolly-cum-pup,
+from a character in one of Frank Stockton's stories, which I suppose
+are now remembered only by elderly people, and by them only if they
+are natives of the United States. Cartucho was lying with his head on
+the ox-hide that served as table, waiting with poorly dissembled
+impatience for his share of the banquet. The mantis flew down on the
+ox-hide and proceeded to crawl over it, taking little flights from one
+corner to another; and whenever it thought itself menaced it assumed
+an attitude of seeming devotion and real defiance. Soon it lit in
+front of Cartucho's nose. Cartucho cocked his big ears forward,
+stretched his neck, and cautiously sniffed at the new arrival, not
+with any hostile design, but merely to find out whether it would prove
+to be a playmate. The mantis promptly assumed an attitude of prayer.
+This struck Cartucho as both novel and interesting, and he thrust his
+sniffing black nose still nearer. The mantis dexterously thrust
+forward first one and then the other armed fore leg, touching the
+intrusive nose, which was instantly jerked back and again slowly and
+inquiringly brought forward. Then the mantis suddenly flew in
+Cartucho's face, whereupon Cartucho, with a smothered yelp of dismay,
+almost turned a back somersault; and the triumphant mantis flew back
+to the middle of the ox-hide, among the plates, where it reared erect
+and defied the laughing and applauding company.
+
+On the morning of the 29th we were rather late in starting, because
+the rain had continued through the night into the morning, drenching
+everything. After nightfall there had been some mosquitoes, and the
+piums were a pest during daylight; where one bites it leaves a tiny
+black spot on the skin which lasts for several weeks. In the slippery
+mud one of the pack-mules fell and injured itself so that it had to be
+abandoned. Soon after starting we came on the telegraph-line, which
+runs from Cuyaba. This was the first time we had seen it. Two Parecis
+Indians joined us, leading a pack-bullock. They were dressed in hat,
+shirt, trousers, and sandals, precisely like the ordinary Brazilian
+caboclos, as the poor backwoods peasants, usually with little white
+blood in them, are colloquially and half-derisively styled--caboclo
+being originally a Guarany word meaning "naked savage." These two
+Indians were in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission, and had been
+patrolling the telegraph-line. The bullock carried their personal
+belongings and the tools with which they could repair a break. The
+commission pays the ordinary Indian worker 66 cents a day; a very good
+worker gets $1, and the chief $1.66. No man gets anything unless he
+works. Colonel Rondon, by just, kindly, and understanding treatment of
+these Indians, who previously had often been exploited and maltreated
+by rubber-gatherers, has made them the loyal friends of the
+government. He has gathered them at the telegraph stations, where they
+cultivate fields of mandioc, beans, potatoes, maize, and other
+vegetables, and where he is introducing them to stock-raising; and the
+entire work of guarding and patrolling the line is theirs.
+
+After six hours' march we came to the crossing of the Rio Sacre at the
+beautiful waterfall appropriately called the Salto Bello. This is the
+end of the automobile road. Here there is a small Parecis village. The
+men of the village work the ferry by which everything is taken across
+the deep and rapid river. The ferry-boat is made of planking placed on
+three dugout canoes, and runs on a trolley. Before crossing we enjoyed
+a good swim in the swift, clear, cool water. The Indian village, where
+we camped, is placed on a jutting tongue of land round which the river
+sweeps just before it leaps from the over-hanging precipice. The falls
+themselves are very lovely. Just above them is a wooded island, but
+the river joins again before it races forward for the final plunge.
+There is a sheer drop of forty or fifty yards, with a breadth two or
+three times as great; and the volume of water is large. On the left or
+hither bank a cliff extends for several hundred yards below the falls.
+Green vines have flung themselves down over its face, and they are met
+by other vines thrusting upward from the mass of vegetation at its
+foot, glistening in the perpetual mist from the cataract, and clothing
+even the rock surfaces in vivid green. The river, after throwing
+itself over the rock wall, rushes off in long curves at the bottom of
+a thickly wooded ravine, the white water churning among the black
+boulders. There is a perpetual rainbow at the foot of the falls. The
+masses of green water that are hurling themselves over the brink
+dissolve into shifting, foaming columns of snowy lace.
+
+On the edge of the cliff below the falls Colonel Rondon had placed
+benches, giving a curious touch of rather conventional tourist-
+civilization to this cataract far out in the lonely wilderness. It is
+well worth visiting for its beauty. It is also of extreme interest
+because of the promise it holds for the future. Lieutenant Lyra
+informed me that they had calculated that this fall would furnish
+thirty-six thousand horse-power. Eight miles off we were to see
+another fall of much greater height and power. There are many rivers
+in this region which would furnish almost unlimited motive force to
+populous manufacturing communities. The country round about is
+healthy. It is an upland region of good climate; we were visiting it
+in the rainy season, the season when the nights are far less cool than
+in the dry season, and yet we found it delightful. There is much
+fertile soil in the neighborhood of the streams, and the teeming
+lowlands of the Amazon and the Paraguay could readily--and with
+immense advantage to both sides--be made tributary to an industrial
+civilization seated on these highlands. A telegraph-line has been
+built to and across them. A rail-road should follow. Such a line could
+be easily built, for there are no serious natural obstacles. In
+advance of its construction a trolley-line could be run from Cuyaba to
+the falls, using the power furnished by the latter. Once this is done
+the land will offer extraordinary opportunities to settlers of the
+right kind: to home-makers and to enterprising business men of
+foresight, coolness, and sagacity who are willing to work with the
+settlers, the immigrants, the home-makers, for an advantage which
+shall be mutual.
+
+The Parecis Indians, whom we met here, were exceedingly interesting.
+They were to all appearance an unusually cheerful, good-humored,
+pleasant-natured people. Their teeth were bad; otherwise they appeared
+strong and vigorous, and there were plenty of children. The colonel
+was received as a valued friend and as a leader who was to be followed
+and obeyed. He is raising them by degrees--the only way by which to
+make the rise permanent. In this village he has got them to substitute
+for the flimsy Indian cabins houses of the type usual among the poorer
+field laborers and back-country dwellers in Brazil. These houses have
+roofs of palm thatch, steeply pitched. They are usually open at the
+sides, consisting merely of a framework of timbers, with a wall at the
+back; but some have the ordinary four walls, of erect palm-logs. The
+hammocks are slung in the houses, and the cooking is also done in
+them, with pots placed on small open fires, or occasionally in a kind
+of clay oven. The big gourds for water, and the wicker baskets, are
+placed on the ground, or hung on the poles.
+
+The men had adopted, and were wearing, shirts and trousers, but the
+women had made little change in their clothing. A few wore print
+dresses, but obviously only for ornament. Most of them, especially the
+girls and young married women, wore nothing but a loin-cloth in
+addition to bead necklaces and bracelets. The nursing mothers--and
+almost all the mothers were nursing--sometimes carried the child slung
+against their side of hip, seated in a cloth belt, or sling, which
+went over the opposite shoulder of the mother. The women seemed to be
+well treated, although polygamy is practised. The children were loved
+by every one; they were petted by both men and women, and they behaved
+well to one another, the boys not seeming to bully the girls or the
+smaller boys. Most of the children were naked, but the girls early
+wore the loin-cloth; and some, both of the little boys and the little
+girls, wore colored print garments, to the evident pride of themselves
+and their parents. In each house there were several families, and life
+went on with no privacy but with good humor, consideration, and
+fundamentally good manners. The man or woman who had nothing to do lay
+in a hammock or squatted on the ground leaning against a post or wall.
+The children played together, or lay in little hammocks, or tagged
+round after their mothers; and when called they came trustfully up to
+us to be petted or given some small trinket; they were friendly little
+souls, and accustomed to good treatment. One woman was weaving a
+cloth, another was making a hammock; others made ready melons and
+other vegetables and cooked them over tiny fires. The men, who had
+come in from work at the ferry or along the telegraph-lines, did some
+work themselves, or played with the children; one cut a small boy's
+hair, and then had his own hair cut by a friend. But the absorbing
+amusement of the men was an extraordinary game of ball.
+
+In our family we have always relished Oliver Herford's nonsense
+rhymes, including the account of Willie's displeasure with his goat:
+
+ "I do not like my billy goat,
+  I wish that he was dead;
+  Because he kicked me, so he did,
+  He kicked me with his head."
+
+Well, these Parecis Indians enthusiastically play football with their
+heads. The game is not only native to them, but I have never heard or
+read of its being played by any other tribe or people. They use a
+light hollow rubber ball, of their own manufacture. It is circular and
+about eight inches in diameter. The players are divided into two
+sides, and stationed much as in association football, and the ball is
+placed on the ground to be put in play as in football. Then a player
+runs forward, throws himself flat on the ground, and butts the ball
+toward the opposite side. This first butt, when the ball is on the
+ground, never lifts it much and it rolls and bounds toward the
+opponents. One or two of the latter run toward it; one throws himself
+flat on his face and butts the ball back. Usually this butt lifts it,
+and it flies back in a curve well up in the air; and an opposite
+player, rushing toward it, catches it on his head with such a swing of
+his brawny neck, and such precision and address that the ball bounds
+back through the air as a football soars after a drop-kick. If the
+ball flies off to one side or the other it is brought back, and again
+put in play. Often it will be sent to and fro a dozen times, from head
+to head, until finally it rises with such a sweep that it passes far
+over the heads of the opposite players and descends behind them. Then
+shrill, rolling cries of good-humored triumph arise from the victors;
+and the game instantly begins again with fresh zest. There are, of
+course, no such rules as in a specialized ball-game of civilization;
+and I saw no disputes. There may be eight or ten, or many more,
+players on each side. The ball is never touched with the hands or
+feet, or with anything except the top of the head. It is hard to decide
+whether to wonder most at the dexterity and strength with which it is
+hit or butted with the head, as it comes down through the air, or at
+the reckless speed and skill with which the players throw themselves
+headlong on the ground to return the ball if it comes low down. Why
+they do not grind off their noses I cannot imagine. Some of the
+players hardly ever failed to catch and return the ball if it came in
+their neighborhood, and with such a vigorous toss of the head that it
+often flew in a great curve for a really astonishing distance.
+
+That night a pack-ox got into the tent in which Kermit and I were
+sleeping, entering first at one end and then at the other. It is
+extraordinary that he did not waken us; but we slept undisturbed while
+the ox deliberately ate our shirts, socks, and underclothes! It chewed
+them into rags. One of my socks escaped, and my undershirt, although
+chewed full of holes, was still good for some weeks' wear; but the
+other things were in fragments.
+
+In the morning Colonel Rondon arranged for us to have breakfast over
+on the benches under the trees by the waterfall, whose roar, lulled to
+a thunderous murmur, had been in our ears before we slept and when we
+waked. There could have been no more picturesque place for the
+breakfast of such a party as ours. All travellers who really care to
+see what is most beautiful and most characteristic of the far interior
+of South America should in their journey visit this region, and see
+the two great waterfalls. They are even now easy of access; and as
+soon as the traffic warrants it they will be made still more so; then,
+from Sao Luis Caceres, they will be speedily reached by light
+steamboat up the Sepotuba and by a day or two's automobile ride, with
+a couple of days on horse-back in between.
+
+The colonel held a very serious council with the Parecis Indians over
+an incident which caused him grave concern. One of the commission's
+employees, a negro, had killed a wild Nhambiquara Indian; but it
+appeared that he had really been urged on and aided by the Parecis, as
+the members of the tribe to which the dead Indian belonged were much
+given to carrying off the Parecis women and in other ways making
+themselves bad neighbors. The colonel tried hard to get at the truth
+of the matter; he went to the biggest Indian house, where he sat in a
+hammock--an Indian child cuddling solemnly up to him, by the way--
+while the Indians sat in other hammocks, and stood round about; but it
+was impossible to get an absolutely frank statement.
+
+It appeared, however, that the Nhambiquaras had made a descent on the
+Parecis village in the momentary absence of the men of the village;
+but the latter, notified by the screaming of the women, had returned
+in time to rescue them. The negro was with them and, having a good
+rifle, he killed one of the aggressors. The Parecis were, of course,
+in the right, but the colonel could not afford to have his men take
+sides in a tribal quarrel.
+
+It was only a two hours' march across to the Papagaio at the Falls of
+Utiarity, so named by their discoverer, Colonel Rondon, after the
+sacred falcon of the Parecis. On the way we passed our Indian friends,
+themselves bound thither; both the men and the women bore burdens--the
+burdens of some of the women, poor things, were heavy--and even the
+small naked children carried the live hens. At Utiarity there is a big
+Parecis settlement and a telegraph station kept by one of the
+employees of the commission. His pretty brown wife is acting as
+schoolmistress to a group of little Parecis girls. The Parecis chief
+has been made a major and wears a uniform accordingly. The commission
+has erected good buildings for its own employees and has superintended
+the erection of good houses for the Indians. Most of the latter still
+prefer the simplicity of the loin-cloth, in their ordinary lives, but
+they proudly wore their civilized clothes in our honor. When in the
+late afternoon the men began to play a regular match game of head-
+ball, with a scorer or umpire to keep count, they soon discarded most
+of their clothes, coming down to nothing but trousers or a loin-cloth.
+Two or three of them had their faces stained with red ochre. Among the
+women and children looking on were a couple of little girls who
+paraded about on stilts.
+
+The great waterfall was half a mile below us. Lovely though we had
+found Salto Bello, these falls were far superior in beauty and
+majesty. They are twice as high and twice as broad; and the lay of the
+land is such that the various landscapes in which the waterfall is a
+feature are more striking. A few hundred yards above the falls the
+river turns at an angle and widens. The broad, rapid shallows are
+crested with whitecaps. Beyond this wide expanse of flecked and
+hurrying water rise the mist columns of the cataract; and as these
+columns are swayed and broken by the wind the forest appears through
+and between them. From below the view is one of singular grandeur. The
+fall is over a shelving ledge of rock which goes in a nearly straight
+line across the river's course. But at the left there is a salient in
+the cliff-line, and here accordingly a great cataract of foaming water
+comes down almost as a separate body, in advance of the line of the
+main fall. I doubt whether, excepting, of course, Niagara, there is a
+waterfall in North America which outranks this if both volume and
+beauty are considered. Above the fall the river flows through a wide
+valley with gently sloping sides. Below, it slips along, a torrent of
+white-green water, at the bottom of a deep gorge; and the sides of the
+gorge are clothed with a towering growth of tropical forest.
+
+Next morning the cacique of these Indians, in his major's uniform,
+came to breakfast, and bore himself with entire propriety. It was
+raining heavily--it rained most of the time--and a few minutes
+previously I had noticed the cacique's two wives, with three or four
+other young women, going out to the mandioc fields. It was a
+picturesque group. The women were all mothers, and each carried a
+nursing child. They wore loin-cloths or short skirts. Each carried on
+her back a wickerwork basket supported by a head-strap which went
+around her forehead. Each carried a belt slung diagonally across her
+body, over her right shoulder; in this the child was carried, against
+and perhaps astride of her left hip. They were comely women, who did
+not look jaded or cowed; and they laughed cheerfully and nodded to us
+as they passed through the rain, on their way to the fields. But the
+contrast between them and the chief in his soldier's uniform seated at
+breakfast was rather too striking; and incidentally it etched in bold
+lines the folly of those who idealize the life of even exceptionally
+good and pleasant-natured savages.
+
+Although it was the rainy season, the trip up to this point had not
+been difficult, and from May to October, when the climate is dry and
+at its best, there would be practically no hardship at all for
+travellers and visitors. This is a healthy plateau. But, of course,
+the men who do the first pioneering, even in country like this,
+encounter dangers and run risks; and they make payment with their
+bodies. At more than one halting-place we had come across the forlorn
+grave of some soldier or laborer of the commission. The grave-mound
+lay within a rude stockade; and an uninscribed wooden cross, gray and
+weather-beaten, marked the last resting-place of the unknown and
+forgotten man beneath, the man who had paid with his humble life the
+cost of pushing the frontier of civilization into the wild savagery of
+the wilderness. Farther west the conditions become less healthy. At
+this station Colonel Rondon received news of sickness and of some
+deaths among the employees of the commission in the country to the
+westward, which we were soon to enter. Beriberi and malignant malarial
+fever were the diseases which claimed the major number of the victims.
+
+Surely these are "the men who do the work for which they draw the
+wage." Kermit had with him the same copy of Kipling's poems which he
+had carried through Africa. At these falls there was one sunset of
+angry splendor; and we contrasted this going down of the sun, through
+broken rain-clouds and over leagues of wet tropical forest, with the
+desert sunsets we had seen in Arizona and Sonora, and along the Guaso
+Nyiro north and west of Mount Kenia, when the barren mountains were
+changed into flaming "ramparts of slaughter and peril" standing above
+"the wine-dark flats below."
+
+It rained during most of the day after our arrival at Utiarity.
+Whenever there was any let-up the men promptly came forth from their
+houses and played head-ball with the utmost vigor; and we would listen
+to their shrill undulating cries of applause and triumph until we also
+grew interested and strolled over to look on. They are more infatuated
+with the game than an American boy is with baseball or football. It is
+an extraordinary thing that this strange and exciting game should be
+played by, and only by, one little tribe of Indians in what is almost
+the very centre of South America. If any traveller or ethnologist
+knows of a tribe elsewhere that plays a similar game, I wish he would
+let me know. To play it demands great activity, vigor, skill, and
+endurance. Looking at the strong, supple bodies of the players, and at
+the number of children roundabout, it seemed as if the tribe must be
+in vigorous health; yet the Parecis have decreased in numbers, for
+measles and smallpox have been fatal to them.
+
+By the evening the rain was coming down more heavily than ever. It was
+not possible to keep the moisture out of our belongings; everything
+became mouldy except what became rusty. It rained all that night; and
+day-light saw the downpour continuing with no prospect of cessation.
+The pack-mules could not have gone on with the march; they were
+already rather done up by their previous ten days' labor through rain
+and mud, and it seemed advisable to wait until the weather became
+better before attempting to go forward. Moreover, there had been no
+chance to take the desired astronomical observations. There was very
+little grass for the mules; but there was abundance of a small-leaved
+plant eight or ten inches high--unfortunately, not very nourishing--on
+which they fed greedily. In such weather and over such muddy trails
+oxen travel better than mules.
+
+In spite of the weather Cherrie and Miller, whom, together with Father
+Zahm and Sigg, we had found awaiting us, made good collections of
+birds and mammals. Among the latter were opossums and mice that were
+new to them. The birds included various forms so unlike our home birds
+that the enumeration of their names would mean nothing. One of the
+most interesting was a large black-and-white woodpecker, the white
+predominating in the plumage. Several of these woodpeckers were
+usually found together. They were showy, noisy, and restless, and
+perched on twigs, in ordinary bird fashion, at least as often as they
+clung to the trunks in orthodox woodpecker style. The prettiest bird
+was a tiny manakin, coal-black, with a red-and-orange head.
+
+On February 2 the rain let up, although the sky remained overcast and
+there were occasional showers. I walked off with my rifle for a couple
+of leagues; at that distance, from a slight hillock, the mist columns
+of the falls were conspicuous in the landscape. The only mammal I saw
+on the walk was a rather hairy armadillo, with a flexible tail, which
+I picked up and brought back to Miller--it showed none of the speed of
+the nine-banded armadillos we met on our jaguar-hunt. Judging by its
+actions, as it trotted about before it saw me, it must be diurnal in
+habits. It was new to the collection.
+
+I spent much of the afternoon by the waterfall. Under the overcast sky
+the great cataract lost the deep green and fleecy-white of the sunlit
+falling waters. Instead it showed opaline hues and tints of topaz and
+amethyst. At all times, and under all lights, it was majestic and
+beautiful.
+
+Colonel Rondon had given the Indians various presents, those for the
+women including calico prints, and, what they especially prized,
+bottles of scented oil, from Paris, for their hair. The men held a
+dance in the late afternoon. For this occasion most, but not all, of
+them cast aside their civilized clothing, and appeared as doubtless
+they would all have appeared had none but themselves been present.
+They were absolutely naked except for a beaded string round the waist.
+Most of them were spotted and dashed with red paint, and on one leg
+wore anklets which rattled. A number carried pipes through which they
+blew a kind of deep stifled whistle in time to the dancing. One of
+them had his pipe leading into a huge gourd, which gave out a hollow,
+moaning boom. Many wore two red or green or yellow macaw feathers in
+their hair, and one had a macaw feather stuck transversely through the
+septum of his nose. They circled slowly round and round, chanting and
+stamping their feet, while the anklet rattles clattered and the pipes
+droned. They advanced to the wall of one of the houses, again and
+again chanting and bowing before it; I was told this was a demand for
+drink. They entered one house and danced in a ring around the cooking-
+fire in the middle of the earth floor; I was told that they were then
+reciting the deeds of mighty hunters and describing how they brought
+in the game. They drank freely from gourds and pannikins of a
+fermented drink made from mandioc which were brought out to them.
+During the first part of the dance the women remained in the houses,
+and all the doors and windows were shut and blankets hung to prevent
+the possibility of seeing out. But during the second part all the
+women and girls came out and looked on. They were themselves to have
+danced when the men had finished, but were overcome with shyness at
+the thought of dancing with so many strangers looking on. The children
+played about with unconcern throughout the ceremony, one of them
+throwing high in the air, and again catching in his hands, a loaded
+feather, a kind of shuttlecock.
+
+In the evening the growing moon shone through the cloud-rack. Anything
+approaching fair weather always put our men in good spirits; and the
+muleteers squatted in a circle, by a fire near a pile of packs, and
+listened to a long monotonously and rather mournfully chanted song
+about a dance and a love-affair. We ourselves worked busily with our
+photographs and our writing. There was so much humidity in the air
+that everything grew damp and stayed damp, and mould gathered quickly.
+At this season it is a country in which writing, taking photographs,
+and preparing specimens are all works of difficulty, at least so far
+as concerns preserving and sending home the results of the labor; and
+a man's clothing is never really dry. From here Father Zahm returned
+to Tapirapoan, accompanied by Sigg.
+
+
+
+            VII. WITH A MULE TRAIN ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND
+
+From this point we were to enter a still wilder region, the land of
+the naked Nhambiquaras. On February 3 the weather cleared and we
+started with the mule-train and two ox-carts. Fiala and Lieutenant
+Lauriado stayed at Utiarity to take canoes and go down the Papagaio,
+which had not been descended by any scientific party, and perhaps by
+no one. They were then to descend the Juruena and Tapajos, thereby
+performing a necessary part of the work of the expedition. Our
+remaining party consisted of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, the
+doctor, Oliveira, Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and myself. On the Juruena
+we expected to meet the pack ox-train with Captain Amilcar and
+Lieutenant Mello; the other Brazilian members of the party had
+returned. We had now begun the difficult part of the expedition. The
+pium flies were becoming a pest. There was much fever and beriberi in
+the country we were entering. The feed for the animals was poor; the
+rains had made the trails slippery and difficult; and many, both of
+the mules and the oxen, were already weak, and some had to be
+abandoned. We left the canoe, the motor, and the gasolene; we had
+hoped to try them on the Amazonian rivers, but we were obliged to cut
+down everything that was not absolutely indispensable.
+
+Before leaving we prepared for shipment back to the museum some of the
+bigger skins, and also some of the weapons and utensils of the
+Indians, which Kermit had collected. These included woven fillets, and
+fillets made of macaw feathers, for use in the dances; woven belts; a
+gourd in which the sacred drink is offered to the god Enoerey;
+wickerwork baskets; flutes or pipes; anklet rattles; hammocks; a belt
+of the kind used by the women in carrying the babies, with the
+weaving-frame. All these were Parecis articles. He also secured from
+the Nhambiquaras wickerwork baskets of a different type and bows and
+arrows. The bows were seven feet long and the arrows five feet. There
+were blunt-headed arrows for birds, arrows with long, sharp wooden
+blades for tapir, deer, and other mammals; and the poisoned war-
+arrows, with sharp barbs, poison-coated and bound on by fine thongs,
+and with a long, hollow wooden guard to slip over the entire point and
+protect it until the time came to use it. When people talk glibly of
+"idle" savages they ignore the immense labor entailed by many of their
+industries, and the really extraordinary amount of work they
+accomplish by the skilful use of their primitive and ineffective
+tools.
+
+It was not until early in the afternoon that we started into the
+"sertao,"[*] as Brazilians call the wilderness. We drove with us a
+herd of oxen for food. After going about fifteen miles we camped
+beside the swampy headwaters of a little brook. It was at the spot
+where nearly seven years previously Rondon and Lyra had camped on the
+trip when they discovered Utiarity Falls and penetrated to the
+Juruena. When they reached this place they had been thirty-six hours
+without food. They killed a bush deer--a small deer--and ate literally
+every particle. The dogs devoured the entire skin. For much of the
+time on this trip they lived on wild fruit, and the two dogs that
+remained alive would wait eagerly under the trees and eat the fruit
+that was shaken down.
+
+[*] Pronounced "sairtown," as nearly as, with our preposterous methods
+    of spelling and pronunciation, I can render it.
+
+In the late afternoon the piums were rather bad at this camp, but we
+had gloves and head-nets, and were not bothered; and although there
+were some mosquitoes we slept well under our mosquito-nets. The frogs
+in the swamp uttered a peculiar, loud shout. Miller told of a little
+tree-frog in Colombia which swelled itself out with air until it
+looked like the frog in Aesop's fables, and then brayed like a mule;
+and Cherrie told of a huge frog in Guiana that uttered a short, loud
+roar.
+
+Next day the weather was still fair. Our march lay through country
+like that which we had been traversing for ten days. Skeletons of
+mules and oxen were more frequent; and once or twice by the wayside we
+passed the graves of officers or men who had died on the road. Barbed
+wire encircled the desolate little mounds. We camped on the west bank
+of the Burity River. Here there is a balsa, or ferry, run by two
+Parecis Indians, as employees of the Telegraphic Commission, under the
+colonel. Each had a thatched house, and each had two wives--all these
+Indians are pagans. All were dressed much like the poorer peasants of
+the Brazilian back country, and all were pleasant and well-behaved.
+The women ran the ferry about as well as the men. They had no
+cultivated fields, and for weeks they had been living only on game and
+honey; and they hailed with joy our advent and the quantities of beans
+and rice which, together with some beef, the colonel left with them.
+They feasted most of the night. Their houses contained their hammocks,
+baskets, and other belongings, and they owned some poultry. In one
+house was a tiny parakeet, very much at home, and familiar, but by no
+means friendly, with strangers. There are wild Nhambiquaras in the
+neighborhood, and recently several of these had menaced the two
+ferrymen with an attack, even shooting arrows at them. The ferrymen
+had driven them off by firing their rifles in the air; and they
+expected and received the colonel's praise for their self-restraint;
+for the colonel is doing all he can to persuade the Indians to stop
+their blood feuds. The rifles were short and light Winchester
+carbines, of the kind so universally used by the rubber-gatherers and
+other adventurous wanderers in the forest wilderness of Brazil. There
+were a number of rubber-trees in the neighborhood, by the way.
+
+We enjoyed a good bath in the Burity, although it was impossible to
+make headway by swimming against the racing current. There were few
+mosquitoes. On the other hand, various kinds of piums were a little
+too abundant; they vary from things like small gnats to things like
+black flies. The small stingless bees have no fear and can hardly be
+frightened away when they light on the hands or face; but they never
+bite, and merely cause a slight tickling as they crawl over the skin.
+There were some big bees, however, which, although they crawled about
+harmlessly after lighting if they were undisturbed, yet stung fiercely
+if they were molested. The insects were not ordinarily a serious
+bother, but there were occasional hours when they were too numerous
+for comfort, and now and then I had to do my writing in a head-net and
+gauntlets.
+
+The night we reached the Burity it rained heavily, and next day the
+rain continued. In the morning the mules were ferried over, while the
+oxen were swum across. Half a dozen of our men--whites, Indians, and
+negroes, all stark naked and uttering wild cries, drove the oxen into
+the river and then, with powerful overhand strokes, swam behind and
+alongside them as they crossed, half breasting the swift current. It
+was a fine sight to see the big, long-horned, staring beasts swimming
+strongly, while the sinewy naked men urged them forward, utterly at
+ease in the rushing water. We made only a short day's journey, for,
+owing to the lack of grass, the mules had to be driven off nearly
+three miles from our line of march, in order to get them feed. We
+camped at the headwaters of a little brook called Huatsui, which is
+Parecis for "monkey."
+
+Accompanying us on this march was a soldier bound for one of the
+remoter posts. With him trudged his wife. They made the whole journey
+on foot. There were two children. One was so young that it had to be
+carried alternately by the father and mother. The other, a small boy
+of eight, and much the best of the party, was already a competent
+wilderness worker. He bore his share of the belongings on the march,
+and when camp was reached sometimes himself put up the family shelter.
+They were mainly of negro blood. Struck by the woman's uncomplaining
+endurance of fatigue, we offered to take her and the baby in the
+automobile, while it accompanied us. But, alas! this proved to be one
+of those melancholy cases where the effort to relieve hardship well
+endured results only in showing that those who endure the adversity
+cannot stand even a slight prosperity. The woman proved a querulous
+traveller in the auto, complaining that she was not made as
+comfortable as apparently she had expected; and after one day the
+husband declared he was not willing to have her go unless he went too;
+and the family resumed their walk.
+
+In this neighborhood there were multitudes of the big, gregarious,
+crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which I have before mentioned. On
+arriving in camp, at about four in the afternoon, I ran into a number
+of remains of their webs, and saw a very few of the spiders themselves
+sitting in the webs midway between trees. I then strolled a couple of
+miles up the road ahead of us under the line of telegraph-poles. It
+was still bright sunlight and no spiders were out; in fact, I did not
+suspect their presence along the line of telegraph-poles, although I
+ought to have done so, for I continually ran into long strings of
+tough fine web, which got across my face or hands or rifle barrel. I
+returned just at sunset and the spiders were out in force. I saw
+dozens of colonies, each of scores or hundreds of individuals. Many
+were among the small trees alongside the broad, cleared trail. But
+most were dependent from the wire itself. Their webs had all been made
+or repaired since I had passed. Each was sitting in the middle of his
+own wheel, and all the wheels were joined to one another; and the
+whole pendent fabric hung by fine ropes from the wire above, and was
+in some cases steadied by guy-ropes, thrown thirty feet off to little
+trees alongside. I watched them until nightfall, and evidently, to
+them, after their day's rest, their day's work had just begun. Next
+morning--owing to a desire to find out what the facts were as regards
+the ox-carts, which were in difficulties--Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and
+I walked back to the Burity River, where Colonel Rondon had spent the
+night. It was a misty, overcast morning, and the spiders in the webs
+that hung from the telegraph-wire were just going to their day homes.
+These were in and under the big white china insulators on the
+telegraph-poles. Hundreds of spiders were already climbing up into
+these. When, two or three hours later, we returned, the sun was out,
+and not a spider was to be seen.
+
+Here we had to cut down our baggage and rearrange the loads for the
+mule-train. Cherrie and Miller had a most workmanlike equipment,
+including a very light tent and two light flies. One fly they gave for
+the kitchen use, one fly was allotted to Kermit and me, and they kept
+only the tent for themselves. Colonel Rondon and Lyra went in one
+tent, the doctor and Oliveira in another. Each of us got rid of
+everything above the sheer necessities. This was necessary because of
+the condition of the baggage-animals. The oxen were so weak that the
+effort to bring on the carts had to be abandoned. Nine of the pack-
+mules had already been left on the road during the three days' march
+from Utiarity. In the first expeditions into this country all the
+baggage animals had died; and even in our case the loss was becoming
+very heavy. This state of affairs is due to the scarcity of forage and
+the type of country. Good grass is scanty, and the endless leagues of
+sparse, scrubby forest render it exceedingly difficult to find the
+animals when they wander. They must be turned absolutely loose to roam
+about and pick up their scanty subsistence, and must be given as long
+a time as possible to feed and rest; even under these conditions most
+of them grow weak when, as in our case, it is impossible to carry
+corn. They cannot be found again until after daylight, and then hours
+must be spent in gathering them; and this means that the march must be
+made chiefly during the heat of the day, the most trying time. Often
+some of the animals would not be brought in until so late that it was
+well on in the forenoon, perhaps midday, before the bulk of the pack-
+train started; and they reached the camping-place as often after night
+fall as before it. Under such conditions many of the mules and oxen
+grew constantly weaker and ultimately gave out; and it was imperative
+to load them as lightly as possible, and discard all luxuries,
+especially heavy or bulky luxuries. Travelling through a wild country
+where there is little food for man or beast is beset with difficulties
+almost inconceivable to the man who does not himself know this kind of
+wilderness, and especially to the man who only knows the ease of
+civilization. A scientific party of some size, with the equipment
+necessary in order to do scientific work, can only go at all if the
+men who actually handle the problems of food and transportation do
+their work thoroughly.
+
+Our march continued through the same type of high, nearly level
+upland, covered with scanty, scrubby forest. It is the kind of country
+known to the Brazilians as chapadao--pronounced almost as if it were a
+French word and spelled shapadon. Our camp on the fourth night was in
+a beautiful spot, an open grassy space, beside a clear, cool, rushing
+little river. We ourselves reached this, and waded our beasts across
+the deep, narrow stream in the late afternoon; and we then enjoyed a
+bath and swim. The loose bullocks arrived at sunset, and with shrill
+cries the mounted herdsmen urged them into and across the swift water.
+The mule-train arrived long after night fall, and it was not deemed
+wise to try to cross the laden animals. Accordingly the loads were
+taken off and brought over on the heads of the men; it was fine to see
+the sinewy, naked figures bearing their burdens through the broken
+moonlit water to the hither bank. The night was cool and pleasant. We
+kindled a fire and sat beside the blaze. Then, healthily hungry, we
+gathered around the ox-hides to a delicious dinner of soup, beef,
+beans, rice, and coffee.
+
+Next day we made a short march, crossed a brook, and camped by another
+clear, deep, rapid little river, swollen by the rains. All these
+rivers that we were crossing run actually into the Juruena, and
+therefore form part of the headwaters of the Tapajos; for the Tapajos
+is a mighty river, and the basin which holds its headwaters covers an
+immense extent of country. This country and the adjacent regions,
+forming the high interior of western Brazil, will surely some day
+support a large industrial population; of which the advent would be
+hastened, although not necessarily in permanently better fashion, if
+Colonel Rondon's anticipations about the development of mining,
+especially gold mining, are realized. In any event the region will be
+a healthy home for a considerable agricultural and pastoral
+population. Above all, the many swift streams with their numerous
+waterfalls, some of great height and volume, offer the chance for the
+upgrowth of a number of big manufacturing communities, knit by rail-
+roads to one another and to the Atlantic coast and the valleys of the
+Paraguay, Madeira, and Amazon, and feeding and being fed by the
+dwellers in the rich, hot, alluvial lowlands that surround this
+elevated territory. The work of Colonel Rondon and his associates of
+the Telegraphic Commission has been to open this great and virgin land
+to the knowledge of the world and to the service of their nation. In
+doing so they have incidentally founded the Brazilian school of
+exploration. Before their day almost all the scientific and regular
+exploration of Brazil was done by foreigners. But, of course, there
+was much exploration and settlement by nameless Brazilians, who were
+merely endeavoring to make new homes or advance their private
+fortunes: in recent years by rubber-gatherers, for instance, and a
+century ago by those bold and restless adventurers, partly of
+Portuguese and partly of Indian blood, the Paolistas, from one of whom
+Colonel Rondon is himself descended on his father's side.
+
+The camp by this river was in some old and grown-up fields, once the
+seat of a rather extensive maize and mandioc cultivation by the
+Nhambiquaras. On this day Cherrie got a number of birds new to the
+collection, and two or three of them probably new to science. We had
+found the birds for the most part in worn plumage, for the breeding
+season, the southern spring and northern fall, was over. But some
+birds were still breeding. In the tropics the breeding season is more
+irregular than in the north. Some birds breed at very different times
+from that chosen by the majority of their fellows; some can hardly be
+said to have any regular season; Cherrie had found one species of
+honey-creeper breeding in every month of the year. Just before sunset
+and just after sunrise big, noisy, blue-and-yellow macaws flew over
+this camp. They were plentiful enough to form a loose flock, but each
+pair kept to itself, the two individuals always close together and
+always separated from the rest. Although not an abundant, it was an
+interesting, fauna which the two naturalists found in this upland
+country, where hitherto no collections of birds and mammals had been
+made. Miller trapped several species of opossums, mice and rats which
+were new to him. Cherrie got many birds which he did not recognize. At
+this camp, among totally strange forms, he found an old and familiar
+acquaintance. Before breakfast he brought in several birds; a dark
+colored flycatcher, with white forehead and rump and two very long
+tail-feathers; a black and slate-blue tanager; a black ant-thrush with
+a concealed white spot on its back, at the base of the neck, and its
+dull-colored mate; and other birds which he believed to be new to
+science, but whose relationships with any of our birds are so remote
+that it is hard to describe them save in technical language. Finally,
+among these unfamiliar forms was a veery, and the sight of the rufous-
+olive back and faintly spotted throat of this singer of our northern
+Junes made us almost homesick.
+
+Next day was brilliantly clear. The mules could not be brought in
+until quite late in the morning, and we had to march twenty miles
+under the burning tropical sun, right in the hottest part of the day.
+From a rise of ground we looked back over the vast, sunlit landscape,
+the endless rolling stretches of low forest. Midway on our journey we
+crossed a brook. The dogs minded the heat much. They continually ran
+off to one side, lay down in a shady place, waited until we were
+several hundred yards ahead, and then raced after us, overtook us, and
+repeated the performance. The pack-train came in about sunset; but we
+ourselves reached the Juruena in the middle of the afternoon.
+
+The Juruena is the name by which the Tapajos goes along its upper
+course. Where we crossed, it was a deep, rapid stream, flowing in a
+heavily wooded valley with rather steep sides. We were ferried across
+on the usual balsa, a platform on three dugouts, running by the force
+of the current on a wire trolley. There was a clearing on each side
+with a few palms, and on the farther bank were the buildings of the
+telegraph station. This is a wild country, and the station was guarded
+by a few soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Marino, a native of
+Rio Grande do Sul, a blond man who looked like an Englishman--an
+agreeable companion, and a good and resolute officer, as all must be
+who do their work in this wilderness. The Juruena was first followed
+at the end of the eighteenth century by the Portuguese explorer
+Franco, and not again until over a hundred years had elapsed, when the
+Telegraphic Commission not only descended, but for the first time
+accurately placed and mapped its course.
+
+There were several houses on the rise of the farther bank, all with
+thatched roofs, some of them with walls of upright tree-trunks, some
+of them daub and wattle. Into one of the latter, with two rooms, we
+took our belongings. The sand-flies were bothersome at night, coming
+through the interstices in the ordinary mosquito-nets. The first night
+they did this I got no sleep until morning, when it was cool enough
+for me to roll myself in my blanket and put on a head-net. Afterward
+we used fine nets of a kind of cheese-cloth. They were hot, but they
+kept out all, or almost all, of the sand-flies and other small
+tormentors.
+
+Here we overtook the rearmost division of Captain Amilcar's bullock-
+train. Our own route had diverged, in order to pass the great falls.
+Captain Amilcar had come direct, overtaking the pack-oxen, which had
+left Tapirapoan before we did, laden with material for the Duvida
+trip. He had brought the oxen through in fine shape, losing only three
+beasts with their loads, and had himself left the Juruena the morning
+of the day we reached there. His weakest animals left that evening, to
+make the march by moonlight; and as it was desirable to give them
+thirty-six hours' start, we halted for a day on the banks of the
+river. It was not a wasted day. In addition to bathing and washing our
+clothes, the naturalists made some valuable additions to the
+collection--including a boldly marked black, blue, and white jay--and
+our photographs were developed and our writing brought abreast of the
+date. Travelling through a tropical wilderness in the rainy season,
+when the amount of baggage that can be taken is strictly limited,
+entails not only a good deal of work, but also the exercise of
+considerable ingenuity if the writing and photographing, and
+especially the preservation, of the specimens are to be done in
+satisfactory shape.
+
+At the telegraph office we received news that the voyage of Lauriado
+and Fiala down the Papagaio had opened with a misadventure. In some
+bad rapids, not many miles below the falls, two of the canoes had been
+upset, half of their provisions and all of Fiala's baggage lost, and
+Fiala himself nearly drowned. The Papagaio is known both at the source
+and the mouth; to descend it did not represent a plunge into the
+unknown, as in the case of the Duvida or the Ananas; but the actual
+water work, over the part that was unexplored, offered the same
+possibilities of mischance and disaster. It is a hazardous thing to
+descend a swift, unknown river rushing through an uninhabited
+wilderness. To descend or ascend the ordinary great highway rivers of
+South America, such as the Amazon, Paraguay, Tapajos, and, in its
+lower course, the Orinoco, is now so safe and easy, whether by steam-
+boat or big, native cargo-boat, that people are apt to forget the very
+serious difficulties offered by the streams, often themselves great
+rivers, which run into or form the upper courses of these same water
+highways. Few things are easier than the former feat, and few more
+difficult than the latter; and experience in ordinary travelling on
+the lower courses of the rivers is of no benefit whatever in enabling
+a man to form a judgement as to what can be done, and how to do it, on
+the upper courses. Failure to remember this fact is one of the
+obstacles in the way of securing a proper appreciation of the needs
+and the results, of South American exploration.
+
+At the Juruena we met a party of Nhambiquaras, very friendly and
+sociable, and very glad to see Colonel Rondon. They were originally
+exceedingly hostile and suspicious, but the colonel's unwearied
+thoughtfulness and good temper, joined with his indomitable
+resolution, enabled him to avoid war and to secure their friendship
+and even their aid. He never killed one. Many of them are known to him
+personally. He is on remarkably good terms with them, and they are
+very fond of him--although this does not prevent them from now and
+then yielding to temptation, even at his expense, and stealing a dog
+or something else which strikes them as offering an irresistible
+attraction. They cannot be employed at steady work; but they do
+occasional odd jobs, and are excellent at hunting up strayed mules or
+oxen; and a few of the men have begun to wear clothes, purely for
+ornament. Their confidence and bold friendliness showed how well they
+had been treated. Probably half of our visitors were men; several were
+small boys; one was a woman with a baby; the others were young married
+women and girls.
+
+Nowhere in Africa did we come across wilder or more absolutely
+primitive savages, although these Indians were pleasanter and better-
+featured than any of the African tribes at the same stage of culture.
+Both sexes were well-made and rather good-looking, with fairly good
+teeth, although some of them seemed to have skin diseases. They were a
+laughing, easy-tempered crew, and the women were as well-fed as the
+men, and were obviously well-treated, from the savage standpoint;
+there was no male brutality like that which forms such a revolting
+feature in the life of the Australian black fellows and, although to a
+somewhat less degree, in the life of so many negro and Indian tribes.
+They were practically absolutely naked. In many savage tribes the men
+go absolutely naked, but the women wear a breech-clout or loincloth.
+In certain tribes we saw near Lake Victoria Nyanza, and on the upper
+White Nile, both men and women were practically naked. Among these
+Nhambiquaras the women were more completely naked than the men,
+although the difference was not essential. The men wore a string
+around the waist. Most of them wore nothing else, but a few had
+loosely hanging from this string in front a scanty tuft of dried
+grass, or a small piece of cloth, which, however, was of purely
+symbolic use so far as either protection or modesty was concerned. The
+women did not wear a stitch of any kind anywhere on their bodies. They
+did not have on so much as a string, or a bead, or even an ornament in
+their hair. They were all, men and women, boys and well-grown young
+girls, as entirely at ease and unconscious as so many friendly
+animals. All of them--men, women, and children, laughing and talking--
+crowded around us, whether we were on horseback or on foot. They
+flocked into the house, and when I sat down to write surrounded me so
+closely that I had to push them gently away. The women and girls often
+stood holding one another's hands, or with their arms over one
+another's shoulders or around one another's waists, offering an
+attractive picture. The men had holes pierced through the septum of
+the nose and through the upper lip, and wore a straw through each
+hole. The women were not marked or mutilated. It seems like a
+contradiction in terms, but it is nevertheless a fact that the
+behavior of these completely naked women and men was entirely modest.
+There was never an indecent look or a consciously indecent gesture.
+They had no blankets or hammocks, and when night came simply lay down
+in the sand. Colonel Rondon stated that they never wore a covering by
+night or by day, and if it was cool slept one on each side of a small
+fire. Their huts were merely slight shelters against the rain.
+
+The moon was nearly full, and after nightfall a few of the Indians
+suddenly held an improvised dance for us in front of our house. There
+were four men, a small boy, and two young women or grown girls. Two of
+the men had been doing some work for the commission, and were dressed,
+one completely and one partially, in ordinary clothes. Two of the men
+and the boy were practically naked, and the two young women were
+absolutely so. All of them danced in a circle, without a touch of
+embarrassment or impropriety. The two girls kept hold of each other's
+hands throughout, dancing among the men as modestly as possible, and
+with the occasional interchange of a laugh or jest, in as good taste
+and temper as in any dance in civilization. The dance consisted in
+slowly going round in a circle, first one way then the other,
+rhythmically beating time with the feet to the music of the song they
+were chanting. The chants--there were three of them, all told--were
+measured and rather slowly uttered melodies, varied with an occasional
+half-subdued shrill cry. The women continually uttered a kind of long-
+drawn wailing or droning; I am not enough of a musician to say whether
+it was an overtone or the sustaining of the burden of the ballad. The
+young boy sang better than any of the others. It was a strange and
+interesting sight to see these utterly wild, friendly savages circling
+in their slow dance, and chanting their immemorial melodies, in the
+brilliant tropical moonlight, with the river rushing by in the
+background, through the lonely heart of the wilderness.
+
+The Indians stayed with us, feasting, dancing, and singing until the
+early hours of the morning. They then suddenly and silently
+disappeared in the darkness, and did not return. In the morning we
+discovered that they had gone off with one of Colonel Rondon's dogs.
+Probably the temptation had proved irresistible to one of their
+number, and the others had been afraid to interfere, and also afraid
+to stay in or return to our neighborhood. We had not time to go after
+them; but Rondon remarked that as soon as he again came to the
+neighborhood he would take some soldiers, hunt up the Indians, and
+reclaim the dog. It has been his mixture of firmness, good nature, and
+good judgment that has enabled him to control these bold, warlike
+savages, and even to reduce the warfare between them and the Parecis.
+In spite of their good nature and laughter, their fearlessness and
+familiarity showed how necessary it was not to let them get the upper
+hand. They are always required to leave all their arms a mile or two
+away before they come into the encampment. They are much wilder and
+more savage, and at a much lower cultural level, than the Parecis.
+
+In the afternoon of the day following our arrival there was a heavy
+rain-storm which drove into the unglazed windows, and here and there
+came through the roof and walls of our daub-and-wattle house. The heat
+was intense and there was much moisture in this valley. During the
+downpour I looked out at the dreary little houses, showing through the
+driving rain, while the sheets of muddy water slid past their door-
+sills; and I felt a sincere respect for the lieutenant and his
+soldiers who were holding this desolate outpost of civilization. It is
+an unhealthy spot; there has been much malarial fever and beriberi--an
+obscure and deadly disease.
+
+Next morning we resumed our march. It soon began to rain and we were
+drenched when, some fifteen miles on, we reached the river where we
+were to camp. After the great heat we felt quite cold in our wet
+clothes, and gladly crowded round a fire which was kindled under a
+thatched shed, beside the cabin of the ferryman. This ferry-boat was
+so small that it could only take one mule, or at most two, at a time.
+The mules and a span of six oxen dragging an ox-cart, which we had
+overtaken, were ferried slowly to the farther side that afternoon, as
+there was no feed on the hither bank, where we ourselves camped. The
+ferryman was a soldier in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission.
+His good-looking, pleasant-mannered wife, evidently of both Indian and
+negro blood, was with him, and was doing all she could do as a
+housekeeper, in the comfortless little cabin, with its primitive
+bareness of furniture and fittings.
+
+Here we saw Captain Amilcar, who had come back to hurry up his rear-
+guard. We stood ankle-deep in mud and water, by the swollen river,
+while the rain beat on us, and enjoyed a few minutes' talk with the
+cool, competent officer who was doing a difficult job with such
+workman-like efficiency. He had no poncho, and was wet through, but
+was much too busy in getting his laden oxen forward to think of
+personal discomfort. He had had a good deal of trouble with his mules,
+but his oxen were still in fair shape.
+
+After leaving the Juruena the ground became somewhat more hilly, and
+the scrubby forest was less open, but otherwise there was no change in
+the monotonous, and yet to me rather attractive, landscape. The ant-
+hills, and the ant-houses in the trees--arboreal ant-hills, so to
+speak were as conspicuous as ever. The architects of some were red
+ants, of others black ants; and others, which were on the whole the
+largest, had been built by the white ants, the termites. The latter
+were not infrequently taller than a horseman's head.
+
+That evening round the camp-fire Colonel Rondon happened to mention
+how the brother of one of the soldiers with us--a Parecis Indian--had
+been killed by a jararaca snake. Cherrie told of a narrow escape he
+had from one while collecting in Guiana. At night he used to set traps
+in camp for small mammals. One night he heard one of these traps go
+off under his hammock. He reached down for it, and as he fumbled for
+the chain he felt a snake strike at him, just missing him in the
+darkness, but actually brushing his hand. He lit a light and saw that
+a big jararaca had been caught in the trap; and he preserved it as a
+specimen. Snakes frequently came into his camp after nightfall. He
+killed one rattlesnake which had swallowed the skinned bodies of four
+mice he had prepared as specimens; which shows that rattlesnakes do
+not always feed only on living prey. Another rattlesnake which he
+killed in Central America had just swallowed an opossum which proved
+to be of a species new to science. Miller told how once on the Orinoco
+he saw on the bank a small anaconda, some ten feet long, killing one
+of the iguanas, big, active, truculent, carnivorous lizards, equally
+at home on the land and in the water. Evidently the iguanas were
+digging out holes in the bank in which to lay their eggs; for there
+were several such holes, and iguanas working at them. The snake had
+crushed its prey to a pulp; and not more than a couple of feet away
+another iguana was still busily, and with entire unconcern, engaged in
+making its burrow. At Miller's approach the anaconda left the dead
+iguana and rushed into the water, and the live iguana promptly
+followed it. Miller also told of the stone gods and altars and temples
+he had seen in the great Colombian forests, monuments of strange
+civilizations which flourished and died out ages ago, and of which all
+memory has vanished. He and Cherrie told of giant rivers and
+waterfalls, and of forests never penetrated, and mountains never
+ascended by civilized man; and of bloody revolutions that devastated
+the settled regions. Listening to them I felt that they could write
+"Tales of Two Naturalists" that would be worth reading.
+
+They were short of literature, by the way--a party such as ours always
+needs books--and as Kermit's reading-matter consisted chiefly of
+Camoens and other Portuguese, or else Brazilian, writers, I strove to
+supply the deficiency with spare volumes of Gibbon. At the end of our
+march we were usually far ahead of the mule-train, and the rain was
+also usually falling. Accordingly we would sit about under trees, or
+under a shed or lean-to, if there was one, each solemnly reading a
+volume of Gibbon--and no better reading can be found. In my own case,
+as I had been having rather a steady course of Gibbon, I varied him
+now and then with a volume of Arsene Lupin lent me by Kermit.
+
+There were many swollen rivers to cross at this point of our journey.
+Some we waded at fords. Some we crossed by rude bridges. The larger
+ones, such as the Juina, we crossed by ferry, and when the approaches
+were swampy, and the river broad and swift, many hours might be
+consumed in getting the mule-train, the loose bullocks, and the ox-
+cart over. We had few accidents, although we once lost a ferry-load of
+provisions, which was quite a misfortune in a country where they could
+not be replaced. The pasturage was poor, and it was impossible to make
+long marches with our weakened animals.
+
+At one camp three Nhambiquaras paid us a visit at breakfast time. They
+left their weapons behind them before they appeared, and shouted
+loudly while they were still hid by the forest, and it was only after
+repeated answering calls of welcome that they approached. Always in
+the wilderness friends proclaim their presence; a silent advance marks
+a foe. Our visitors were men, and stark naked, as usual. One seemed
+sick; he was thin, and his back was scarred with marks of the grub of
+the loathsome berni fly. Indeed, all of them showed scars, chiefly
+from insect wounds. But the other two were in good condition, and,
+although they ate greedily of the food offered them, they had with
+them a big mandioc cake, some honey, and a little fish. One of them
+wore a high helmet of puma-skin, with the tail hanging down his back--
+handsome head-gear, which he gladly bartered for several strings of
+bright coral-red beads. Around the upper arms of two of them were
+bands bound so tightly as to cut into and deform the muscles--a
+singular custom, seemingly not only purposeless but mischievous, which
+is common among this tribe and many others.
+
+The Nhambiquaras are a numerous tribe, covering a large region. But
+they have no general organization. Each group of families acts for
+itself. Half a dozen years previously they had been very hostile, and
+Colonel Rondon had to guard his camp and exercise every precaution to
+guarantee his safety, while at the same time successfully endeavoring
+to avoid the necessity of himself shedding blood. Now they are, for
+the most part, friendly. But there are groups or individuals that are
+not. Several soldiers have been killed at these little lonely
+stations; and while in some cases the attack may have been due to the
+soldiers having meddled with Nhambiquara women, in other cases the
+killing was entirely wanton and unprovoked. Sooner or later these
+criminals or outlaws will have to be brought to justice; it will not
+do to let their crimes go unpunished. Twice soldiers have deserted and
+fled to the Nhambiquaras. The runaways were well received, were given
+wives, and adopted into the tribe.
+
+The country when opened will be a healthy abode for white settlers.
+But pioneering in the wilderness is grim work for both man and beast.
+Continually, as we journeyed onward, under the pitiless glare of the
+sun or through blinding torrents of rain, we passed desolate little
+graves by the roadside. They marked the last resting places of men who
+had died by fever, or dysentery, or Nhambiquara arrows. We raised our
+hats as our mules plodded slowly by through the sand. On each grave
+was a frail wooden cross, and this and the paling round about were
+already stained by the weather as gray as the tree trunks of the
+stunted forest that stretched endlessly on every side.
+
+The skeletons of mules and oxen were frequent along the road. Now and
+then we came across a mule or ox which had been abandoned by Captain
+Amilcar's party, ahead of us. The animal had been left with the hope
+that when night came it would follow along the trail to water.
+Sometimes it did so. Sometimes we found it dead, or standing
+motionless waiting for death. From time to time we had to leave behind
+one of our own mules.
+
+It was not always easy to recognize what pasturage the mules would
+accept as good. One afternoon we pitched camp by a tiny rivulet, in
+the midst of the scrubby upland forest; a camp, by the way, where the
+piums, the small, biting flies, were a torment during the hours of
+daylight, while after dark their places were more than taken by the
+diminutive gnats which the Brazilians expressively term "polvora," or
+powder, and which get through the smallest meshes of a mosquito-net.
+The feed was so scanty, and the cover so dense, at this spot that I
+thought we would have great difficulty in gathering the mules next
+morning. But we did not. A few hours later, in the afternoon, we
+camped by a beautiful open meadow; on one side ran a rapid brook, with
+a waterfall eight feet high, under which we bathed and swam. Here the
+feed looked so good that we all expressed pleasure. But the mules did
+not like it, and after nightfall they hiked back on the trail, and it
+was a long and arduous work to gather them next morning.
+
+I have touched above on the insect pests. Men unused to the South
+American wilderness speak with awe of the danger therein from jaguars,
+crocodiles, and poisonous snakes. In reality, the danger from these
+sources is trivial, much less than the danger of being run down by an
+automobile at home. But at times the torment of insect plagues can
+hardly be exaggerated. There are many different species of mosquitoes,
+some of them bearers of disease. There are many different kinds of
+small, biting flies and gnats, loosely grouped together under various
+titles. The ones more especially called piums by my companions were
+somewhat like our northern black flies. They gorged themselves with
+blood. At the moment their bites did not hurt, but they left an
+itching scar. Head-nets and gloves are a protection, but are not very
+comfortable in stifling hot weather. It is impossible to sleep without
+mosquito-biers. When settlers of the right type come into a new land
+they speedily learn to take the measures necessary to minimize the
+annoyance caused by all these pests. Those that are winged have plenty
+of kinsfolk in so much of the northern continent as has not yet been
+subdued by man. But the most noxious of the South American ants have,
+thank heaven, no representatives in North America. At the camp of the
+piums a column of the carnivorous foraging ants made its appearance
+before nightfall, and for a time we feared it might put us out of our
+tents, for it went straight through camp, between the kitchen-tent and
+our own sleeping tents. However, the column turned neither to the
+right nor the left, streaming uninterruptedly past for several hours,
+and doing no damage except to the legs of any incautious man who
+walked near it.
+
+On the afternoon of February 15 we reached Campos Novos. This place
+was utterly unlike the country we had been traversing. It was a large
+basin, several miles across, traversed by several brooks. The brooks
+ran in deep swampy valleys, occupied by a matted growth of tall
+tropical forest. Between them the ground rose in bold hills, bare of
+forest and covered with grass, on which our jaded animals fed eagerly.
+On one of these rounded hills a number of buildings were ranged in a
+quadrangle, for the pasturage at this spot is so good that it is
+permanently occupied. There were milch cows, and we got delicious
+fresh milk; and there were goats, pigs, turkeys, and chickens. Most of
+the buildings were made of upright poles with roofs of palm thatch.
+One or two were of native brick, plastered with mud, and before these
+there was an enclosure with a few ragged palms, and some pineapple
+plants. Here we halted. Our attendants made two kitchens: one was out
+in the open air, one was under a shelter of ox-hide. The view over the
+surrounding grassy hills, riven by deep wooded valleys, was lovely.
+The air was cool and fresh. We were not bothered by insects, although
+mosquitoes swarmed in every belt of timber. Yet there has been much
+fever at this beautiful and seemingly healthy place. Doubtless when
+settlement is sufficiently advanced a remedy will be developed. The
+geology of this neighborhood was interesting--Oliveira found fossil
+tree-trunks which he believed to be of cretaceous age.
+
+Here we found Amilcar and Mello, who had waited for us with the rear-
+guard of their pack-train, and we enjoyed our meeting with the two
+fine fellows, than whom no military service of any nation could
+produce more efficient men for this kind of difficult and responsible
+work. Next morning they mustered their soldiers, muleteers, and pack-
+ox men and marched off. Reinisch the taxidermist was with them. We
+followed in the late afternoon, camping after a few miles. We left the
+oxcart at Campos Novos; from thence on the trail was only for pack-
+animals.
+
+In this neighborhood the two naturalists found many birds which we had
+not hitherto met. The most conspicuous was a huge oriole, the size of
+a small crow, with a naked face, a black-and-red bill, and gaudily
+variegated plumage of green, yellow, and chestnut. Very interesting
+was the false bellbird, a gray bird with loud, metallic notes. There
+was also a tiny soft-tailed woodpecker, no larger than a kinglet; a
+queer humming-bird with a slightly flexible bill; and many species of
+ant-thrush, tanager, manakin, and tody. Among these unfamiliar forms
+was a vireo looking much like our solitary vireo. At one camp Cherrie
+collected a dozen perching birds; Miller a beautiful little rail; and
+Kermit, with the small Luger belt-rifle, a handsome curassow, nearly
+as big as a turkey--out of which, after it had been skinned, the cook
+made a delicious canja, the thick Brazilian soup of fowl and rice than
+which there is nothing better of its kind. All these birds were new to
+the collection--no naturalists had previously worked this region--so
+that the afternoon's work represented nine species new to the
+collection, six new genera, and a most excellent soup.
+
+Two days after leaving Campos Novos we reached Vilhena, where there is
+a telegraph station. We camped once at a small river named by Colonel
+Rondon the "Twelfth of October," because he reached it on the day
+Columbus discovered America--I had never before known what day it
+was!--and once at the foot of a hill which he had named after Lyra,
+his companion in the exploration. The two days' march--really one full
+day and part of two others--was through beautiful country, and we
+enjoyed it thoroughly, although there were occasional driving rain-
+storms, when the rain came in almost level sheets and drenched every
+one and everything. The country was like that around Campos Novos, and
+offered a striking contrast to the level, barren, sandy wastes of the
+chapadao, which is a healthy region, where great industrial centres
+can arise, but not suited for extensive agriculture as are the lowland
+flats. For these forty-eight hours the trail climbed into and out of
+steep valleys and broad basins and up and down hills. In the deep
+valleys were magnificent woods, in which giant rubber-trees towered,
+while the huge leaves of the low-growing pacova, or wild banana, were
+conspicuous in the undergrowth. Great azure butterflies flitted
+through the open, sunny glades, and the bellbirds, sitting
+motionless, uttered their ringing calls from the dark stillness of the
+columned groves. The hillsides were grassy pastures or else covered
+with low, open forest.
+
+A huge frog, brown above, with a light streak down each side, was
+found hiding under some sticks in a damp place in one of the
+improvised kitchens; and another frog, with disks on his toes, was
+caught on one of the tents. A coral-snake puzzled us. Some coral-
+snakes are harmless; others are poisonous, although not aggressive.
+The best authorities give an infallible recipe for distinguishing them
+by the pattern of the colors, but this particular specimen, although
+it corresponded exactly in color pattern with the description of the
+poisonous snakes, nevertheless had no poison-fangs that even after the
+most minute examination we could discover. Miller and one of the dogs
+caught a sariema, a big, long-legged, bustard-like bird, in rather a
+curious way. We were on the march, plodding along through as heavy a
+tropic downpour as it was our ill fortune to encounter. The sariema,
+evidently as drenched and uncomfortable as we were, was hiding under a
+bush to avoid the pelting rain. The dog discovered it, and after the
+bird valiantly repelled him, Miller was able to seize it. Its stomach
+contained about half a pint of grass-hoppers and beetles and young
+leaves. At Vilhena there was a tame sariema, much more familiar and at
+home than any of the poultry. It was without the least fear of man or
+dog. The sariema (like the screamer and the curassow) ought to be
+introduced into our barnyards and on our lawns, at any rate in the
+Southern States; it is a good-looking, friendly, and attractive bird.
+Another bird we met is in some places far more intimate, and
+domesticates itself. This is the pretty little honey-creeper. In
+Colombia Miller found the honey-creepers habitually coming inside the
+houses and hotels at meal-times, hopping about the table, and climbing
+into the sugar-bowl.
+
+Along this part of our march there was much of what at a hasty glance
+seemed to be volcanic rock; but Oliveira showed me that it was a kind
+of conglomerate, with bubbles or hollows in it, made of sand and iron-
+bearing earth. He said it was a superficial quaternary deposit formed
+by erosion from the cretaceous rocks, and that there were here no
+tertiary deposits. He described the geological structure of the lands
+through which we had passed as follows: The pantanals were of
+Pleistocene age. Along the upper Sepotuba, in the region of the
+rapids, there were sandstones, shales, and clays of Permian age. The
+rolling country east of this contained eruptive rocks--a porphyritic
+disbase, with zeolite, quartz, and agate of Triassic age. With the
+chapadao of the Parecis plateau we came to a land of sand and clay,
+dotted with lumps of sandstone and pieces of petrified wood; this,
+according to Oliveira, is of Mesozoic age, possibly cretaceous and
+similar to the South African formation. There are geologists who
+consider it as of Permian age.
+
+At Vilhena we were on a watershed which drained into the Gy-Parana,
+which itself runs into the Madeira nearly midway between its sources
+and its mouth. A little farther along and northward we again came to
+streams running ultimately into the Tapajos; and between them, and
+close to them, were streamlets which drained into the Duvida and
+Ananas, whose courses and outlets were unknown. This point is part of
+the divide between the basins of the Madeira and Tapajos. A singular
+topographical feature of the Plan Alto, the great interior sandy
+plateau of Brazil, is that at its westernmost end the southward
+flowing streams, instead of running into the Paraguay as they do
+farther east, form the headwaters of the Guapore, which may, perhaps,
+be called the upper main stream of the Madeira. These westernmost
+streams from the southern edge of the plateau, therefore, begin by
+flowing south; then for a long stretch they flow southwest; then
+north, and finally northeast into the Amazon. According to some
+exceptionally good geological observers, this is probably due to the
+fact that in a remote geologic past the ocean sent in an arm from the
+south, between the Plan Alto and what is now the Andean chain. These
+rivers then emptied into the Andean Sea. The gradual upheaval of the
+soil has resulted in substituting dry land for this arm of the ocean
+and in reversing the course of what is now the Madeira, just as,
+according to these geologists, in somewhat familiar fashion the Amazon
+has been reversed, it having once been, at least for the upper two
+thirds of its course, an affluent of the Andean Sea.
+
+From Vilhena we travelled in a generally northward direction. For a
+few leagues we went across the chapadao, the sands or clays of the
+nearly level upland plateau, grassy or covered with thin, stunted
+forest, the same type of country that had been predominant ever since
+we ascended the Parecis table-land on the morning of the third day
+after leaving the Sepotuba. Then, at about the point where the trail
+dipped into a basin containing the head-springs of the Ananas, we left
+this type of country and began to march through thick forest, not very
+high. There was little feed for the animals on the Chapadao. There was
+less in the forest. Moreover, the continual heavy rains made the
+travelling difficult and laborious for them, and they weakened.
+However, a couple of marches before we reached Tres Burity, where
+there is a big ranch with hundreds of cattle, we were met by ten fresh
+pack-oxen, and our serious difficulties were over.
+
+There were piums in plenty by day, but neither mosquitoes nor sand-flies
+by night; and for us the trip was very pleasant, save for moments of
+anxiety about the mules. The loose bullocks furnished us abundance of
+fresh beef, although, as was inevitable under the circumstances, of a
+decidedly tough quality. One of the biggest of the bullocks was
+attacked one night by a vampire bat, and next morning his withers were
+literally bathed in blood.
+
+With the chapadao we said good-by to the curious, gregarious, and
+crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which we found so abundant along the
+line of the telegraph wire. They have offered one of the small
+problems with which the commission has had to deal. They are not
+common in the dry season. They swarm during the rains; and, when their
+tough webs are wet, those that lead from the wire to the ground
+sometimes effectually short circuit the wire. They have on various
+occasions caused a good deal of trouble in this manner.
+
+The third night out from Vilhena we emerged for a moment from the
+endless close-growing forest in which our poor animals got such scanty
+pickings, and came to a beautiful open country, where grassy slopes,
+dotted with occasional trees, came down on either side of a little
+brook which was one of the headwaters of the Duvida. It was a pleasure
+to see the mules greedily bury their muzzles in the pasturage. Our
+tents were pitched in the open, near a shady tree, which sent out its
+low branches on every side. At this camp Cherrie shot a lark, very
+characteristic of the open upland country, and Miller found two bats
+in the rotten wood of a dead log. He heard them squeaking and dug them
+out; he could not tell by what method they had gotten in.
+
+Here Kermit, while a couple of miles from our tents, came across an
+encampment of Nhambiquaras. There were twenty or thirty of them--men,
+women, and a few children. Kermit, after the manner of honest folk in
+the wilderness, advanced ostentatiously in the open, calling out to
+give warning of his coming. Like surroundings may cause like manners.
+The early Saxons in England deemed it legal to kill any man who came
+through the woods without shouting or blowing a horn; and in
+Nhambiquara land at the present time it is against etiquette, and may
+be very unhealthy, to come through the woods toward strangers without
+loudly announcing one's presence. The Nhambiquaras received Kermit
+with the utmost cordiality, and gave him pineapple-wine to drink. They
+were stark naked as usual; they had no hammocks or blankets, and their
+huts were flimsy shelters of palm-branches. Yet they were in fine
+condition. Half a dozen of the men and a couple of boys accompanied
+Kermit back to our camp, paying not slightest heed to the rain which
+was falling. They were bold and friendly, good-natured--at least
+superficially--and very inquisitive. In feasting, the long reeds
+thrust through holes in their lips did not seem to bother them, and
+they laughed at the suggestion of removing them; evidently to have
+done so would have been rather bad manners--like using a knife as an
+aid in eating ice-cream. They held two or three dances, and we were
+again struck by the rhythm and weird, haunting melody of their
+chanting. After supper they danced beside the camp-fire; and finally,
+to their delight, most of the members of our own party, Americans and
+Brazilians, enthusiastically joined the dance, while the colonel and I
+furnished an appreciative and applauding audience. Next morning, when
+we were awakened by the chattering and screaming of the numerous
+macaws, parrots, and parakeets, we found that nearly all the Indians,
+men and women, were gathered outside the tent. As far as clothing was
+concerned, they were in the condition of Adam and Eve before the fall.
+One of the women carried a little squirrel monkey. She put it up the
+big tree some distance from the tents; and when she called, it came
+scampering to her across the grass, ran up her, and clung to her neck.
+They would have liked to pilfer; but as they had no clothes it was
+difficult for them to conceal anything. One of the women was observed
+to take a fork; but as she did not possess a rag of clothing of any
+kind all she did do was to try to bury the fork in the sand and then
+sit on it; and it was reclaimed without difficulty. One or two of the
+children wore necklaces and bracelets made of the polished wood of the
+tucum palm, and of the molars of small rodents.
+
+Next day's march led us across a hilly country of good pastureland.
+The valleys were densely wooded, palms of several kinds being
+conspicuous among the other trees; and the brooks at the bottoms we
+crossed at fords or by the usual rude pole bridges. On the open
+pastures were occasional trees, usually slender bacaba palms, with
+heads which the winds had dishevelled until they looked like mops. It
+was evidently a fine natural cattle country, and we soon began to see
+scores, perhaps hundreds, of the cattle belonging to the government
+ranch at Tres Burity, which we reached in the early afternoon. It is
+beautifully situated: the view roundabout is lovely, and certainly the
+land will prove healthy when settlements have been definitely
+established. Here we revelled in abundance of good fresh milk and
+eggs; and for dinner we had chicken canja and fat beef roasted on big
+wooden spits; and we even had watermelons. The latter were from seeds
+brought down by the American engineers who built the Madeira Marmore
+Railroad--a work which stands honorably distinguished among the many
+great and useful works done in the development of the tropics of
+recent years.
+
+Amilcar's pack-oxen, which were nearly worn out, had been left in
+these fertile pastures. Most of the fresh oxen which he took in their
+places were unbroken, and there was a perfect circus before they were
+packed and marched off; in every direction, said the gleeful
+narrators, there were bucking oxen and loads strewed on the ground.
+This cattle ranch is managed by the colonel's uncle, his mother's
+brother, a hale old man of seventy, white-haired but as active and
+vigorous as ever; with a fine, kindly, intelligent face. His name is
+Miguel Evangalista. He is a native of Matto Grosso, of practically
+pure Indian blood, and was dressed in the ordinary costume of the
+Caboclo--hat, shirt, trousers, and no shoes or stockings. Within the
+last year he had killed three jaguars, which had been living on the
+mules; as long as they could get mules they did not at this station
+molest the cattle.
+
+It was with this uncle's father, Colonel Rondon's own grandfather,
+that Colonel Rondon as an orphan spent the first seven years of his
+life. His father died before he was born, and his mother when he was
+only a year old. He lived on his grandfather's cattle-ranch, some
+fifty miles from Cuyaba. Then he went to live in Cuyaba with a kinsman
+on his father's side, from whom he took the name of Rondon; his own
+father's name was DaSilva. He studied in the Cuyaba Government School,
+and at sixteen was inscribed as one of the instructors. Then he went
+to Rio, served for a year in the army as an enlisted man in the ranks,
+and succeeded finally in getting into the military school. After five
+years as pupil he served three years as professor of mathematics in
+this school; and then, as a lieutenant of engineers in the Brazilian
+army, he came back to his home in Matto Grosso and began his life-work
+of exploring the wilderness.
+
+Next day we journeyed to the telegraph station at Bonofacio, through
+alternate spells of glaring sunshine and heavy rain. On the way we
+stopped at an aldea-village of Nhambiquaras. We first met a couple of
+men going to hunt, with bows and arrows longer than themselves. A
+rather comely young woman, carrying on her back a wickerwork basket,
+or creel, supported by a forehead band, and accompanied by a small
+child, was with them. At the village there were a number of men,
+women, and children. Although as completely naked as the others we had
+met, the members of this band were more ornamented with beads, and
+wore earrings made from the inside of mussel-shells or very big snail-
+shells. They were more hairy than the ones we had so far met. The
+women, but not the men, completely remove the hair from their bodies--
+and look more, instead of less, indecent in consequence. The chief,
+whose body was painted red with the juice of a fruit, had what could
+fairly be styled a mustache and imperial; and one old man looked
+somewhat like a hairy Ainu, or perhaps even more like an Australian
+black fellow. My companion told me that this probably represented an
+infusion of negro blood, and possibly of mulatto blood, from runaway
+slaves of the old days, when some of the Matto Grosso mines were
+worked by slave labor. They also thought it possible that this
+infiltration of African negroes might be responsible for the curious
+shape of the bigger huts, which were utterly unlike their flimsy,
+ordinary shelters, and bore no resemblance in shape to those of the
+other Indian tribes of this region; whereas they were not unlike the
+ordinary beehive huts of the agricultural African negroes. There were
+in this village several huts or shelters open at the sides, and two of
+the big huts. These were of closely woven thatch, circular in outline,
+with a rounded dome, and two doors a couple of feet high opposite each
+other, and no other opening. There were fifteen or twenty people to
+each hut. Inside were their implements and utensils, such as wicker
+baskets (some of them filled with pineapples), gourds, fire-sticks,
+wooden knives, wooden mortars, and a board for grating mandioc, made
+of a thick slab of wood inset with sharp points of a harder wood. From
+the Brazilians one or two of them had obtained blankets, and one a
+hammock; and they had also obtained knives, which they sorely needed,
+for they are not even in the stone age. One woman shielded herself
+from the rain by holding a green palm-branch down her back. Another
+had on her head what we at first thought to be a monkey-skin head-
+dress. But it was a little, live, black monkey. It stayed habitually
+with its head above her forehead, and its arms and legs spread so that
+it lay moulded to the shape of her head; but both woman and monkey
+showed some reluctance about having their photographs taken.
+
+Bonofacio consisted of several thatched one-room cabins, connected by
+a stockade which was extended to form an enclosure behind them. A
+number of tame parrots and parakeets, of several different species,
+scrambled over the roofs and entered the houses. In the open pastures
+near by were the curious, extensive burrows of a gopher rat, which ate
+the roots of grass, not emerging to eat the grass but pulling it into
+the burrows by the roots. These burrows bore a close likeness to those
+of our pocket gophers. Miller found the animals difficult to trap.
+Finally, by the aid of Colonel Rondon, several Indians, and two or
+three of our men, he dug one out. From the central shaft several
+surface galleries radiated, running for many rods about a foot below
+the surface, with, at intervals of half a dozen yards, mounds where
+the loose earth had been expelled. The central shaft ran straight down
+for about eight feet, and then laterally for about fifteen feet, to a
+kind of chamber. The animal dug hard to escape, but when taken and put
+on the surface of the ground it moved slowly and awkwardly. It showed
+vicious courage. In looks it closely resembled our pocket gophers, but
+it had no pockets. This was one of the most interesting small mammals
+that we secured.
+
+After breakfast at Bonofacio a number of Nhambiquaras--men, women, and
+children--strolled in. The men gave us an exhibition of not very good
+archery; when the bow was bent, it was at first held so that the arrow
+pointed straight upwards and was then lowered so that the arrow was
+aimed at the target. Several of the women had been taken from other
+tribes, after their husbands or fathers had been killed; for the
+Nhambiquaras are light-hearted robbers and murderers. Two or three
+miserable dogs accompanied them, half-starved and mangy, but each
+decorated with a collar of beads. The headmen had three or four wives
+apiece, and the women were the burden-bearers, but apparently were not
+badly treated. Most of them were dirty, although well-fed looking, and
+their features were of a low type; but some, especially among the
+children, were quite attractive.
+
+From Bonofacio we went about seven miles, across a rolling prairie
+dotted with trees and clumps of shrub. There, on February 24, we
+joined Amilcar, who was camped by a brook which flowed into the
+Duvida. We were only some six miles from our place of embarkation on
+the Duvida, and we divided our party and our belongings. Amilcar,
+Miller, Mello, and Oliveira were to march three days to the Gy-Parana,
+and then descend it, and continue down the Madeira to Manaos. Rondon,
+Lyra, the doctor, Cherrie, Kermit, and I, with sixteen paddlers, in
+seven canoes, were to descend the Duvida, and find out whether it led
+into the Gy-Parana, our purpose was to return and descend the Ananas,
+whose outlet was also unknown. Having this in view, we left a
+fortnight's provisions for our party of six at Bonofacio. We took with
+us provisions for about fifty days; not full rations, for we hoped in
+part to live on the country--on fish, game, nuts, and palm-tops. Our
+personal baggage was already well cut down: Cherrie, Kermit, and I
+took the naturalist's fly to sleep under, and a very light little tent
+extra for any one who might fall sick. Rondon, Lyra, and the doctor
+took one of their own tents. The things that we carried were
+necessities--food, medicines, bedding, instruments for determining the
+altitude and longitude and latitude--except a few books, each in small
+compass: Lyra's were in German, consisting of two tiny volumes of
+Goethe and Schiller; Kermit's were in Portuguese; mine, all in
+English, included the last two volumes of Gibbon, the plays of
+Sophocles, More's "Utopia," Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, the two
+latter lent me by a friend, Major Shipton of the regulars, our
+military attaché at Buenos Aires.
+
+If our canoe voyage was prosperous we would gradually lighten the
+loads by eating the provisions. If we met with accidents, such as
+losing canoes and men in the rapids, or losing men in encounters with
+Indians, or if we encountered overmuch fever and dysentery, the loads
+would lighten themselves. We were all armed. We took no cartridges for
+sport. Cherrie had some to be used sparingly for collecting specimens.
+The others were to be used--unless in the unlikely event of having to
+repel an attack--only to procure food. The food and the arms we
+carried represented all reasonable precautions against suffering and
+starvation; but, of course, if the course of the river proved very
+long and difficult, if we lost our boats over falls or in rapids, or
+had to make too many and too long portages, or were brought to a halt
+by impassable swamps, then we would have to reckon with starvation as
+a possibility. Anything might happen. We were about to go into the
+unknown, and no one could say what it held.
+
+  NOTE:
+  The first four days, before we struck the upper rapids, and during
+  which we made nearly seventy kilometres, are of course not included
+  when I speak of our making our way down the rapids.
+
+I hope that this year the Ananas, or Pineapple, will also be put on
+the map. One of Colonel Rondon's subordinates is to attempt the
+descent of the river. We passed the headwaters of the Pineapple on the
+high plateau, very possibly we passed its mouth, although it is also
+possible that it empties into the Canama or Tapajos. But it will not
+be "put on the map" until some one descends and finds out where, as a
+matter of fact, it really does go.
+
+It would be well if a geographical society of standing would
+investigate the formal and official charges made by Colonel Rondon, an
+officer and gentleman of the highest repute, against Mr. Savage
+Landor. Colonel Rondon, in an official report to the Brazilian
+Government, has written a scathing review of Mr. Landor. He states
+that Mr. Savage Landor did not perform, and did not even attempt to
+perform, the work he had contracted to do in exploration for the
+Brazilian Government. Mr. Landor had asserted and promised that he
+would go through unknown country along the line of eleven degrees
+latitude south, and, as Colonel Rondon states, it was because of this
+proposal of his that the Brazilian Government gave him material
+financial assistance in advance. However, Colonel Rondon sets forth
+that Mr. Landor did not keep his word or make any serious effort to
+fulfil his moral obligation to do as he had said he would do. In a
+letter to me under date of May 1, 1914--a letter which has been
+published in full in France--Colonel Rondon goes at length into the
+question of what territory Mr. Landor had traversed. Colonel Rondon
+states that--excepting on one occasion, when Mr. Landor, wandering off
+a beaten trail, immediately got lost and shortly returned to his
+starting-point without making any discoveries--he kept to old, well-
+travelled routes. One sentence of the colonel's letter to me runs as
+follows: "I can guarantee to you that in Brazil Mr. Landor did not
+cross a hand's breadth of land that had not been explored, the greater
+part of it many centuries ago." As regards Mr. Landor's sole and brief
+experience in leaving a beaten route, Colonel Rondon states that at
+Sao Manoel Mr. Landor engaged from Senhor Jose Sotero Barreto (the
+revenue officer of Matto Grosso, at Sao Manoel) a guide to lead him
+across a well-travelled trail which connects the Tapajos with the
+Madeira via the Canama. The guide, however, got lost, and after a few
+days they all returned to the point of departure instead of going
+through to the Canama.
+
+Senhor Barreto, a gentleman of high standing, related this last
+incident to Fiala when Fiala descended the Tapajos (and, by the way,
+Fiala's trip down the Papagaio, Juruena, and Tapajos was infinitely
+more important than all the work Mr. Landor did in South America put
+together). Lieutenants Pyrineus and Mello, mentioned in the body of
+this work, informed me that they accompanied Mr. Landor on most of his
+overland trip before he embarked on the Arinos, and that he simply
+followed the highroad or else the telegraph-line, and furthermore,
+Colonel Rondon states that the Indians whom Mr. Landor encountered and
+photographed were those educated at the missions.
+
+Colonel Rondon's official report to the Brazilian Government and his
+letter to me are of interest to all geographers and other scientific
+men who have any concern with the alleged discoveries of Mr. Landor.
+They contain very grave charges, with which it is not necessary for me
+to deal. Suffice it to say that Mr. Landor's accounts of his alleged
+exploration cannot be considered as entitled to the slightest serious
+consideration until he has satisfactorily and in detail answered
+Colonel Rondon; and this he has thus far signally failed to do.
+
+Fortunately, there are numerous examples of exactly the opposite type
+of work. From the days of Humboldt and Spix and Martius to the present
+time, German explorers have borne a conspicuous part in the
+exploration of South America. As representatives of the men and women
+who have done such capital work, who have fronted every hazard and
+hardship and labored in the scientific spirit, and who have added
+greatly to our fund of geographic, biologic, and ethnographic
+knowledge, I may mention Miss Snethlage and Herr Karl von den Steinen.
+
+
+
+                       VIII. THE RIVER OF DOUBT
+
+On February 27, 1914, shortly after midday, we started down the River
+of Doubt into the unknown. We were quite uncertain whether after a
+week we should find ourselves in the Gy-Parana, or after six weeks in
+the Madeira, or after three months we knew not where. That was why the
+river was rightly christened the Duvida.
+
+We had been camped close to the river, where the trail that follows
+the telegraph line crosses it by a rough bridge. As our laden dugouts
+swung into the stream, Amilcar and Miller and all the others of the
+Gy-Parana party were on the banks and the bridge to wave farewell and
+wish us good-by and good luck. It was the height of the rainy season,
+and the swollen torrent was swift and brown. Our camp was at about 12
+degrees 1 minute latitude south and 60 degrees 15 minutes longitude
+west of Greenwich. Our general course was to be northward toward the
+equator, by waterway through the vast forest.
+
+We had seven canoes, all of them dugouts. One was small, one was
+cranky, and two were old, waterlogged, and leaky. The other three were
+good. The two old canoes were lashed together, and the cranky one was
+lashed to one of the others. Kermit with two paddlers went in the
+smallest of the good canoes; Colonel Rondon and Lyra with three other
+paddlers in the next largest; and the doctor, Cherrie, and I in the
+largest with three paddlers. The remaining eight camaradas--there were
+sixteen in all--were equally divided between our two pairs of lashed
+canoes. Although our personal baggage was cut down to the limit
+necessary for health and efficiency, yet on such a trip as ours, where
+scientific work has to be done and where food for twenty-two men for
+an unknown period of time has to be carried, it is impossible not to
+take a good deal of stuff; and the seven dugouts were too heavily
+laden.
+
+The paddlers were a strapping set. They were expert rivermen and men
+of the forest, skilled veterans in wilderness work. They were lithe as
+panthers and brawny as bears. They swam like waterdogs. They were
+equally at home with pole and paddle, with axe and machete; and one
+was a good cook and others were good men around camp. They looked like
+pirates in the pictures of Howard Pyle or Maxfield Parrish; one or two
+of them were pirates, and one worse than a pirate; but most of them
+were hard-working, willing, and cheerful. They were white,--or,
+rather, the olive of southern Europe,--black, copper-colored, and of
+all intermediate shades. In my canoe Luiz the steersman, the headman,
+was a Matto Grosso negro; Julio the bowsman was from Bahia and of pure
+Portuguese blood; and the third man, Antonio, was a Parecis Indian.
+
+The actual surveying of the river was done by Colonel Rondon and Lyra,
+with Kermit as their assistant. Kermit went first in his little canoe
+with the sighting-rod, on which two disks, one red and one white, were
+placed a metre apart. He selected a place which commanded as long
+vistas as possible up-stream and down, and which therefore might be at
+the angle of a bend; landed; cut away the branches which obstructed
+the view; and set up the sighting-pole--incidentally encountering
+maribundi wasps and swarms of biting and stinging ants. Lyra, from his
+station up-stream, with his telemetre established the distance, while
+Colonel Rondon with the compass took the direction, and made the
+records. Then they moved on to the point Kermit had left, and Kermit
+established a new point within their sight. The first half-day's work
+was slow. The general course of the stream was a trifle east of north,
+but at short intervals it bent and curved literally toward every point
+of the compass. Kermit landed nearly a hundred times, and we made but
+nine and a third kilometres.
+
+My canoe ran ahead of the surveying canoes. The height of the water
+made the going easy, for most of the snags and fallen trees were well
+beneath the surface. Now and then, however, the swift water hurried us
+toward ripples that marked ugly spikes of sunken timber, or toward
+uprooted trees that stretched almost across the stream. Then the
+muscles stood out on the backs and arms of the paddlers as stroke on
+stroke they urged us away from and past the obstacle. If the leaning
+or fallen trees were the thorny, slender-stemmed boritana palms, which
+love the wet, they were often, although plunged beneath the river, in
+full and vigorous growth, their stems curving upward, and their frond-
+crowned tops shaken by the rushing water. It was interesting work, for
+no civilized man, no white man, had ever gone down or up this river or
+seen the country through which we were passing. The lofty and matted
+forest rose like a green wall on either hand. The trees were stately
+and beautiful. The looped and twisted vines hung from them like great
+ropes. Masses of epiphytes grew both on the dead trees and the living;
+some had huge leaves like elephants' ears. Now and then fragrant
+scents were blown to us from flowers on the banks. There were not many
+birds, and for the most part the forest was silent; rarely we heard
+strange calls from the depths of the woods, or saw a cormorant or
+ibis.
+
+My canoe ran only a couple of hours. Then we halted to wait for the
+others. After a couple of hours more, as the surveyors had not turned
+up, we landed and made camp at a spot where the bank rose sharply for
+a hundred yards to a level stretch of ground. Our canoes were moored
+to trees. The axemen cleared a space for the tents; they were pitched,
+the baggage was brought up, and fires were kindled. The woods were
+almost soundless. Through them ran old tapir trails, but there was no
+fresh sign. Before nightfall the surveyors arrived. There were a few
+piums and gnats, and a few mosquitoes after dark, but not enough to
+make us uncomfortable. The small stingless bees, of slightly aromatic
+odor, swarmed while daylight lasted and crawled over our faces and
+hands; they were such tame, harmless little things that when they
+tickled too much I always tried to brush them away without hurting
+them. But they became a great nuisance after a while. It had been
+raining at intervals, and the weather was overcast; but after the sun
+went down the sky cleared. The stars were brilliant overhead, and the
+new moon hung in the west. It was a pleasant night, the air almost
+cool, and we slept soundly.
+
+Next morning the two surveying canoes left immediately after
+breakfast. An hour later the two pairs of lashed canoes pushed off. I
+kept our canoe to let Cherrie collect, for in the early hours we could
+hear a number of birds in the woods near by. The most interesting
+birds he shot were a cotinga, brilliant turquoise-blue with a magenta-
+purple throat, and a big woodpecker, black above and cinnamon below
+with an entirely red head and neck. It was almost noon before we
+started. We saw a few more birds; there were fresh tapir and paca
+tracks at one point where we landed; once we heard howler monkeys from
+the depth of the forest, and once we saw a big otter in midstream. As
+we drifted and paddled down the swirling brown current, through the
+vivid rain-drenched green of the tropic forest, the trees leaned over
+the river from both banks. When those that had fallen in the river at
+some narrow point were very tall, or where it happened that two fell
+opposite each other, they formed barriers which the men in the leading
+canoes cleared with their axes. There were many palms, both the burity
+with its stiff fronds like enormous fans, and a handsome species of
+bacaba, with very long, gracefully curving fronds. In places the palms
+stood close together, towering and slender, their stems a stately
+colonnade, their fronds an arched fretwork against the sky.
+Butterflies of many hues fluttered over the river. The day was
+overcast, with showers of rain. When the sun broke through rifts in
+the clouds, his shafts turned the forest to gold.
+
+In mid-afternoon we came to the mouth of a big and swift affluent
+entering from the right. It was undoubtedly the Bandeira, which we had
+crossed well toward its head, some ten days before, on our road to
+Bonofacio. The Nhambiquaras had then told Colonel Rondon that it
+flowed into the Duvida. After its junction, with the added volume of
+water, the river widened without losing its depth. It was so high that
+it had overflowed and stood among the trees on the lower levels. Only
+the higher stretches were dry. On the sheer banks where we landed we
+had to push the canoes for yards or rods through the branches of the
+submerged trees, hacking and hewing. There were occasional bays and
+ox-bows from which the current had shifted. In these the coarse marsh
+grass grew tall.
+
+This evening we made camp on a flat of dry ground, densely wooded, of
+course, directly on the edge of the river and five feet above it. It
+was fine to see the speed and sinewy ease with which the choppers
+cleared an open space for the tents. Next morning, when we bathed
+before sunrise, we dived into deep water right from the shore, and
+from the moored canoes. This second day we made sixteen and a half
+kilometres along the course of the river, and nine kilometres in a
+straight line almost due north.
+
+The following day, March 1, there was much rain--sometimes showers,
+sometimes vertical sheets of water. Our course was somewhat west of
+north and we made twenty and a half kilometres. We passed signs of
+Indian habitation. There were abandoned palm-leaf shelters on both
+banks. On the left bank we came to two or three old Indian fields,
+grown up with coarse fern and studded with the burned skeletons of
+trees. At the mouth of a brook which entered from the right some
+sticks stood in the water, marking the site of an old fish-trap. At
+one point we found the tough vine hand-rail of an Indian bridge
+running right across the river, a couple of feet above it. Evidently
+the bridge had been built at low water. Three stout poles had been
+driven into the stream-bed in a line at right angles to the current.
+The bridge had consisted of poles fastened to these supports, leading
+between them and from the support at each end to the banks. The rope
+of tough vines had been stretched as a hand-rail, necessary with such
+precarious footing. The rise of the river had swept away the bridge,
+but the props and the rope hand-rail remained. In the afternoon, from
+the boat, Cherrie shot a large dark-gray monkey with a prehensile
+tail. It was very good eating.
+
+We camped on a dry level space, but a few feet above, and close
+beside, the river--so that our swimming-bath was handy. The trees were
+cleared and camp was made with orderly hurry. One of the men almost
+stepped on a poisonous coral-snake, which would have been a serious
+thing, as his feet were bare. But I had on stout shoes, and the fangs
+of these serpents--unlike those of the pit-vipers--are too short to
+penetrate good leather. I promptly put my foot on him, and he bit my
+shoe with harmless venom. It has been said that the brilliant hues of
+the coral-snake when in its native haunts really confer on it a
+concealing coloration. In the dark and tangled woods, and to an only
+less extent in the ordinary varied landscape, anything motionless,
+especially if partially hidden, easily eludes the eye. But against the
+dark-brown mould of the forest floor on which we found this coral-
+snake its bright and varied coloration was distinctly revealing;
+infinitely more so than the duller mottling of the jararaca and other
+dangerous snakes of the genus lachecis. In the same place, however, we
+found a striking example of genuine protective or mimetic coloration
+and shape. A rather large insect larva--at least we judged it to be a
+larval form, but we were none of us entomologists--bore a resemblance
+to a partially curled dry leaf which was fairly startling. The tail
+exactly resembled the stem or continuation of the midrib of the dead
+leaf. The flattened body was curled up at the sides, and veined and
+colored precisely like the leaf. The head, colored like the leaf,
+projected in front.
+
+We were still in the Brazilian highlands. The forest did not teem with
+life. It was generally rather silent; we did not hear such a chorus of
+birds and mammals as we had occasionally heard even on our overland
+journey, when more than once we had been awakened at dawn by the
+howling, screaming, yelping, and chattering of monkeys, toucans,
+macaws, parrots, and parakeets. There were, however, from time to
+time, queer sounds from the forest, and after nightfall different
+kinds of frogs and insects uttered strange cries and calls. In volume
+and frequency these seemed to increase until midnight. Then they died
+away and before dawn everything was silent.
+
+At this camp the carregadores ants completely devoured the doctor's
+undershirt, and ate holes in his mosquito-net; and they also ate the
+strap of Lyra's gun-case. The little stingless bees, of many kinds,
+swarmed in such multitudes, and were so persevering, that we had to
+wear our head-nets when we wrote or skinned specimens.
+
+The following day was almost without rain. It was delightful to drift
+and paddle slowly down the beautiful tropical river. Until mid-
+afternoon the current was not very fast, and the broad, deep, placid
+stream bent and curved in every direction, although the general course
+was northwest. The country was flat, and more of the land was under
+than above water. Continually we found ourselves travelling between
+stretches of marshy forest where for miles the water stood or ran
+among the trees. Once we passed a hillock. We saw brilliantly colored
+parakeets and trogons. At last the slow current quickened. Faster it
+went, and faster, until it began to run like a mill-race, and we heard
+the roar of rapids ahead. We pulled to the right bank, moored the
+canoes, and while most of the men pitched camp two or three of them
+accompanied us to examine the rapids. We had made twenty kilometres.
+
+We soon found that the rapids were a serious obstacle. There were many
+curls, and one or two regular falls, perhaps six feet high. It would
+have been impossible to run them, and they stretched for nearly a
+mile. The carry, however, which led through woods and over rocks in a
+nearly straight line, was somewhat shorter. It was not an easy portage
+over which to carry heavy loads and drag heavy dugout canoes. At the
+point where the descent was steepest there were great naked flats of
+friable sandstone and conglomerate. Over parts of these, where there
+was a surface of fine sand, there was a growth of coarse grass. Other
+parts were bare and had been worn by the weather into fantastic
+shapes--one projection looked like an old-fashioned beaver hat upside
+down. In this place, where the naked flats of rock showed the
+projection of the ledge through which the river had cut its course,
+the torrent rushed down a deep, sheer-sided, and extremely narrow
+channel. At one point it was less than two yards across, and for quite
+a distance not more than five or six yards. Yet only a mile or two
+above the rapids the deep, placid river was at least a hundred yards
+wide. It seemed extraordinary, almost impossible, that so broad a
+river could in so short a space of time contract its dimensions to the
+width of the strangled channel through which it now poured its entire
+volume.
+
+This has for long been a station where the Nhambiquaras at intervals
+built their ephemeral villages and tilled the soil with the rude and
+destructive cultivation of savages. There were several abandoned old
+fields, where the dense growth of rank fern hid the tangle of burnt
+and fallen logs. Nor had the Nhambiquaras been long absent. In one
+trail we found what gypsies would have called a "pateran," a couple of
+branches arranged crosswise, eight leaves to a branch; it had some
+special significance, belonging to that class of signals, each with
+some peculiar and often complicated meaning, which are commonly used
+by many wild peoples. The Indians had thrown a simple bridge,
+consisting of four long poles, without a hand-rail, across one of the
+narrowest parts of the rock gorge through which the river foamed in
+its rapid descent. This sub-tribe of Indians was called the Navaite;
+we named the rapids after them, Navaite Rapids. By observation Lyra
+found them to be (in close approximation to) latitude 11 degrees 44
+minutes south and longitude 60 degrees 18 minutes west from Greenwich.
+
+We spent March 3 and 4 and the morning of the 5th in portaging around
+the rapids. The first night we camped in the forest beside the spot
+where we had halted. Next morning we moved the baggage to the foot of
+the rapids, where we intended to launch the canoes, and pitched our
+tents on the open sandstone flat. It rained heavily. The little bees
+were in such swarms as to be a nuisance. Many small stinging bees were
+with them, which stung badly. We were bitten by huge horse-flies, the
+size of bumblebees. More serious annoyance was caused by the pium and
+boroshuda flies during the hours of daylight, and by the polvora, the
+sand-flies, after dark. There were a few mosquitoes. The boroshudas
+were the worst pests; they brought the blood at once, and left marks
+that lasted for weeks. I did my writing in head-net and gauntlets.
+Fortunately we had with us several bottles of "fly dope"--so named on
+the label--put up, with the rest of our medicine, by Doctor Alexander
+Lambert; he had tested it in the north woods and found it excellent. I
+had never before been forced to use such an ointment, and had been
+reluctant to take it with me; but now I was glad enough to have it,
+and we all of us found it exceedingly useful. I would never again go
+into mosquito or sand-fly country without it. The effect of an
+application wears off after half an hour or so, and under many
+conditions, as when one is perspiring freely, it is of no use; but
+there are times when minute mosquitoes and gnats get through head-nets
+and under mosquito-bars, and when the ointments occasionally renewed
+may permit one to get sleep or rest which would otherwise be
+impossible of attainment. The termites got into our tent on the sand-
+flat, ate holes in Cherrie's mosquito-net and poncho, and were
+starting to work at our duffel-bags, when we discovered them.
+
+Packing the loads across was simple. Dragging the heavy dugouts was
+labor. The biggest of the two water-logged ones was the heaviest. Lyra
+and Kermit did the job. All the men were employed at it except the
+cook, and one man who was down with fever. A road was chopped through
+the forest and a couple of hundred stout six-foot poles, or small
+logs, were cut as rollers and placed about two yards apart. With block
+and tackle the seven dugouts were hoisted out of the river up the
+steep banks, and up the rise of ground until the level was reached.
+Then the men harnessed themselves two by two on the drag-rope, while
+one of their number pried behind with a lever, and the canoe, bumping
+and sliding, was twitched through the woods. Over the sandstone flats
+there were some ugly ledges, but on the whole the course was down-hill
+and relatively easy. Looking at the way the work was done, at the
+good-will, the endurance, and the bull-like strength of the camaradas,
+and at the intelligence and the unwearied efforts of their commanders,
+one could but wonder at the ignorance of those who do not realize the
+energy and the power that are so often possessed by, and that may be
+so readily developed in, the men of the tropics. Another subject of
+perpetual wonder is the attitude of certain men who stay at home, and
+still more the attitude of certain men who travel under easy
+conditions, and who belittle the achievements of the real explorers
+of, the real adventures in, the great wilderness. The impostors and
+romancers among explorers or would-be explorers and wilderness
+wanderers have been unusually prominent in connection with South
+America (although the conspicuous ones are not South Americans, by the
+way); and these are fit subjects for condemnation and derision. But
+the work of the genuine explorer and wilderness wanderer is fraught
+with fatigue, hardship, and danger. Many of the men of little
+knowledge talk glibly of portaging as if it were simple and easy. A
+portage over rough and unknown ground is always a work of difficulty
+and of some risk to the canoe; and in the untrodden, or even in the
+unfrequented, wilderness risk to the canoe is a serious matter. This
+particular portage at Navaite Rapids was far from being unusually
+difficult; yet it not only cost two and a half days of severe and
+incessant labor, but it cost something in damage to the canoes. One in
+particular, the one in which I had been journeying, was split in a
+manner which caused us serious uneasiness as to how long, even after
+being patched, it would last. Where the canoes were launched, the bank
+was sheer, and one of the water-logged canoes filled and went to the
+bottom; and there was more work in raising it.
+
+We were still wholly unable to tell where we were going or what lay
+ahead of us. Round the camp-fire, after supper, we held endless
+discussions and hazarded all kinds of guesses on both subjects. The
+river might bend sharply to the west and enter the Gy-Parana high up
+or low down, or go north to the Madeira, or bend eastward and enter
+the Tapajos, or fall into the Canuma and finally through one of its
+mouths enter the Amazon direct. Lyra inclined to the first, and
+Colonel Rondon to the second, of these propositions. We did not know
+whether we had one hundred or eight hundred kilometres to go, whether
+the stream would be fairly smooth or whether we would encounter
+waterfalls, or rapids, or even some big marsh or lake. We could not
+tell whether or not we would meet hostile Indians, although no one of
+us ever went ten yards from camp without his rifle. We had no idea how
+much time the trip would take. We had entered a land of unknown
+possibilities.
+
+We started down-stream again early in the afternoon of March 5. Our
+hands and faces were swollen from the bites and stings of the insect
+pests at the sand-flat camp, and it was a pleasure once more to be in
+the middle of the river, where they did not come, in any numbers,
+while we were in motion. The current was swift, but the river was so
+deep that there were no serious obstructions. Twice we went down over
+slight riffles, which in the dry season were doubtless rapids; and
+once we struck a spot where many whirlpools marked the presence
+underneath of boulders which would have been above water had not the
+river been so swollen by the rains. The distance we covered in a day
+going down-stream would have taken us a week if we had been going up.
+The course wound hither and thither, sometimes in sigmoid curves; but
+the general direction was east of north. As usual, it was very
+beautiful; and we never could tell what might appear around any curve.
+In the forest that rose on either hand were tall rubber-trees. The
+surveying canoes, as usual, went first, while I shepherded the two
+pairs of lashed cargo canoes. I kept them always between me and the
+surveying canoes--ahead of me until I passed the surveying canoes,
+then behind me until, after an hour or so, I had chosen a place to
+camp. There was so much overflowed ground that it took us some little
+time this afternoon before we found a flat place high enough to be
+dry. Just before reaching camp Cherrie shot a jacu, a handsome bird
+somewhat akin to, but much smaller than, a turkey; after Cherrie had
+taken its skin, its body made an excellent canja. We saw parties of
+monkeys; and the false bellbirds uttered their ringing whistles in
+the dense timber around our tents. The giant ants, an inch and a
+quarter long, were rather too plentiful around this camp; one stung
+Kermit; it was almost like the sting of a small scorpion, and pained
+severely for a couple of hours. This half-day we made twelve
+kilometres.
+
+On the following day we made nineteen kilometres, the river twisting
+in every direction, but in its general course running a little west of
+north. Once we stopped at a bee-tree, to get honey. The tree was a
+towering giant, of the kind called milk-tree, because a thick milky
+juice runs freely from any cut. Our camaradas eagerly drank the white
+fluid that flowed from the wounds made by their axes. I tried it. The
+taste was not unpleasant, but it left a sticky feeling in the mouth.
+The helmsman of my boat, Luiz, a powerful negro, chopped into the
+tree, balancing himself with springy ease on a slight scaffolding. The
+honey was in a hollow, and had been made by medium-sized stingless
+bees. At the mouth of the hollow they had built a curious entrance of
+their own, in the shape of a spout of wax about a foot long. At the
+opening the walls of the spout showed the wax formation, but elsewhere
+it had become in color and texture indistinguishable from the bark of
+the tree. The honey was delicious, sweet and yet with a tart flavor.
+The comb differed much from that of our honey-bees. The honey-cells
+were very large, and the brood-cells, which were small, were in a
+single instead of a double row. By this tree I came across an example
+of genuine concealing coloration. A huge tree-toad, the size of a
+bullfrog, was seated upright--not squatted flat--on a big rotten limb.
+It was absolutely motionless; the yellow brown of its back, and its
+dark sides, exactly harmonized in color with the light and dark
+patches on the log; the color was as concealing, here in its natural
+surroundings, as is the color of our common wood-frog among the dead
+leaves of our woods. When I stirred it up it jumped to a small twig,
+catching hold with the disks of its finger-tips, and balancing itself
+with unexpected ease for so big a creature, and then hopped to the
+ground and again stood motionless. Evidently it trusted for safety to
+escaping observation. We saw some monkeys and fresh tapir sign, and
+Kermit shot a jacu for the pot.
+
+At about three o'clock I was in the lead, when the current began to
+run more quickly. We passed over one or two decided ripples, and then
+heard the roar of rapids ahead, while the stream began to race. We
+drove the canoe into the bank, and then went down a tapir trail, which
+led alongside the river, to reconnoiter. A quarter of a mile's walk
+showed us that there were big rapids, down which the canoes could not
+go; and we returned to the landing. All the canoes had gathered there,
+and Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit started down-stream to explore. They
+returned in an hour, with the information that the rapids continued
+for a long distance, with falls and steep pitches of broken water, and
+that the portage would take several days. We made camp just above the
+rapids. Ants swarmed, and some of them bit savagely. Our men, in
+clearing away the forest for our tents, left several very tall and
+slender accashy palms; the bole of this palm is as straight as an
+arrow and is crowned with delicate, gracefully curved fronds. We had
+come along the course of the river almost exactly a hundred
+kilometres; it had twisted so that we were only about fifty-five
+kilometres north of our starting-point. The rock was porphyritic.
+
+The 7th, 8th, and 9th we spent in carrying the loads and dragging and
+floating the dugouts past the series of rapids at whose head we had
+stopped.
+
+The first day we shifted camp a kilometre and a half to the foot of
+this series of rapids. This was a charming and picturesque camp. It
+was at the edge of the river, where there was a little, shallow bay
+with a beach of firm sand. In the water, at the middle point of the
+beach, stood a group of three burity palms, their great trunks rising
+like columns. Round the clearing in which our tents stood were several
+very big trees; two of them were rubber-trees. Kermit went down-stream
+five or six kilometres, and returned, having shot a jacu and found
+that at the point which he had reached there was another rapids,
+almost a fall, which would necessitate our again dragging the canoes
+over a portage. Antonio, the Parecis, shot a big monkey; of this I was
+glad because portaging is hard work, and the men appreciated the
+meat. So far Cherrie had collected sixty birds on the Duvida, all of
+them new to the collection, and some probably new to science. We saw
+the fresh sign of paca, agouti, and the small peccary, and Kermit with
+the dogs roused a tapir, which crossed the river right through the
+rapids; but no one got a shot at it.
+
+Except at one or perhaps two points a very big dugout, lightly loaded,
+could probably run all these rapids. But even in such a canoe it would
+be silly to make the attempt on an exploring expedition, where the
+loss of a canoe or of its contents means disaster; and moreover such a
+canoe could not be taken, for it would be impossible to drag it over
+the portages on the occasions when the portages became inevitable. Our
+canoes would not have lived half a minute in the wild water.
+
+On the second day the canoes and loads were brought down to the foot
+of the first rapids. Lyra cleared the path and laid the logs for
+rollers, while Kermit dragged the dugouts up the bank from the water
+with block and tackle, with strain of rope and muscle. Then they
+joined forces, as over the uneven ground it needed the united strength
+of all their men to get the heavy dugouts along. Meanwhile the colonel
+with one attendant measured the distance, and then went on a long
+hunt, but saw no game. I strolled down beside the river for a couple
+of miles, but also saw nothing. In the dense tropical forest of the
+Amazonian basin hunting is very difficult, especially for men who are
+trying to pass through the country as rapidly as possible. On such a
+trip as ours getting game is largely a matter of chance.
+
+On the following day Lyra and Kermit brought down the canoes and
+loads, with hard labor, to the little beach by the three palms where
+our tents were pitched. Many pacovas grew round about. The men used
+their immense leaves, some of which were twelve feet long and two and
+a half feet broad, to roof the flimsy shelters under which they hung
+their hammocks. I went into the woods, but in the tangle of vegetation
+it would have been a mere hazard had I seen any big animal. Generally
+the woods were silent and empty. Now and then little troops of birds
+of many kinds passed--wood-hewers, ant-thrushes, tanagers,
+flycatchers; as in the spring and fall similar troops of warblers,
+chickadees, and nuthatches pass through our northern woods. On the
+rocks and on the great trees by the river grew beautiful white and
+lilac orchids, the sobralia, of sweet and delicate fragrance. For the
+moment my own books seemed a trifle heavy, and perhaps I would have
+found the day tedious if Kermit had not lent me the Oxford Book of
+French Verse. Eustache Deschamp, Joachim du Bellay, Ronsard, the
+delightful La Fontaine, the delightful but appalling Villon, Victor
+Hugo's "Guitare," Madame Desbordes-Valmore's lines on the little girl
+and her pillow, as dear little verses about a child as ever were
+written--these and many others comforted me much, as I read them in
+head-net and gauntlets, sitting on a log by an unknown river in the
+Amazonian forest.
+
+On the 10th we again embarked and made a kilometre and a half,
+spending most of the time in getting past two more rapids. Near the
+first of these we saw a small cayman, a jacare-tinga. At each set of
+rapids the canoes were unloaded and the loads borne past on the
+shoulders of the camaradas; three of the canoes were paddled down by a
+couple of naked paddlers apiece; and the two sets of double canoes
+were let down by ropes, one of one couple being swamped but rescued
+and brought safely to shore on each occasion. One of the men was upset
+while working in the swift water, and his face was cut against the
+stones. Lyra and Kermit did the actual work with the camaradas.
+Kermit, dressed substantially like the camaradas themselves, worked in
+the water, and, as the overhanging branches were thronged with crowds
+of biting and stinging ants, he was marked and blistered over his
+whole body. Indeed, we all suffered more or less from these ants;
+while the swarms of biting flies grew constantly more numerous. The
+termites ate holes in my helmet and also in the cover of my cot. Every
+one else had a hammock. At this camp we had come down the river about
+102 kilometres, according to the surveying records, and in height had
+descended nearly 100 metres, as shown by the aneroid--although the
+figure in this case is only an approximation, as an aneroid cannot be
+depended on for absolute accuracy of results.
+
+Next morning we found that during the night we had met with a serious
+misfortune. We had halted at the foot of the rapids. The canoes were
+moored to trees on the bank, at the tail of the broken water. The two
+old canoes, although one of them was our biggest cargo-carrier, were
+water-logged and heavy, and one of them was leaking. In the night the
+river rose. The leaky canoe, which at best was too low in the water,
+must have gradually filled from the wash of the waves. It sank,
+dragging down the other; they began to roll, bursting their moorings;
+and in the morning they had disappeared. A canoe was launched to look
+for them; but, rolling over the boulders on the rocky bottom, they had
+at once been riven asunder, and the big fragments that were soon
+found, floating in eddies, or along the shore, showed that it was
+useless to look farther. We called these rapids Broken Canoe Rapids.
+
+It was not pleasant to have to stop for some days; thanks to the
+rapids, we had made slow progress, and with our necessarily limited
+supply of food, and no knowledge whatever of what was ahead of us, it
+was important to make good time. But there was no alternative. We had
+to build either one big canoe or two small ones. It was raining
+heavily as the men started to explore in different directions for good
+canoe trees. Three--which ultimately proved not very good for the
+purpose--were found close to camp; splendid-looking trees, one of them
+five feet in diameter three feet from the ground. The axemen
+immediately attacked this one under the superintendence of Colonel
+Rondon. Lyra and Kermit started in opposite directions to hunt. Lyra
+killed a jacu for us, and Kermit killed two monkeys for the men.
+Toward night fall it cleared. The moon was nearly full, and the
+foaming river gleamed like silver.
+
+Our men were "regional volunteers," that is, they had enlisted in the
+service of the Telegraphic Commission especially to do this wilderness
+work, and were highly paid, as was fitting, in view of the toil,
+hardship, and hazard to life and health. Two of them had been with
+Colonel Rondon during his eight months' exploration in 1909, at which
+time his men were regulars, from his own battalion of engineers. His
+four aides during the closing months of this trip were Lieutenants
+Lyra, Amarante, Alencarliense, and Pyrineus. The naturalist Miranda
+Ribeiro also accompanied him. This was the year when, marching on foot
+through an absolutely unknown wilderness, the colonel and his party
+finally reached the Gy-Parana, which on the maps was then (and on most
+maps is now) placed in an utterly wrong course, and over a degree out
+of its real position. When they reached the affluents of the Gy-Parana
+a third of the members of the party were so weak with fever that they
+could hardly crawl. They had no baggage. Their clothes were in
+tatters, and some of the men were almost naked. For months they had
+had no food except what little game they shot, and especially the wild
+fruits and nuts; if it had not been for the great abundance of the
+Brazil-nuts they would all have died. At the first big stream they
+encountered they built a canoe, and Alencarliense took command of it
+and descended to map the course of the river. With him went Ribeiro,
+the doctor Tanageira, who could no longer walk on account of the
+ulceration of one foot, three men whom the fever had rendered unable
+longer to walk, and six men who were as yet well enough to handle the
+canoe. By the time the remainder of the party came to the next
+navigable river eleven more fever-stricken men had nearly reached the
+end of their tether. Here they ran across a poor devil who had for
+four months been lost in the forest and was dying of slow starvation.
+He had eaten nothing but Brazil-nuts and the grubs of insects. He
+could no longer walk, but could sit erect and totter feebly for a few
+feet. Another canoe was built, and in it Pyrineus started down-stream
+with the eleven fever patients and the starving wanderer. Colonel
+Rondon kept up the morale of his men by still carrying out the forms
+of military discipline. The ragged bugler had his bugle. Lieutenant
+Pyrineus had lost every particle of his clothing except a hat and a
+pair of drawers. The half-naked lieutenant drew up his eleven fever
+patients in line; the bugle sounded; every one came to attention; and
+the haggard colonel read out the orders of the day. Then the dugout
+with its load of sick men started down-stream, and Rondon, Lyra,
+Amarante, and the twelve remaining men resumed their weary march. When
+a fortnight later they finally struck a camp of rubber-gatherers three
+of the men were literally and entirely naked. Meanwhile Amilcar had
+ascended the Jacyparana a month or two previously with provisions to
+meet them; for at that time the maps incorrectly treated this river as
+larger, instead of smaller, than the Gy-Parana, which they were in
+fact descending; and Colonel Rondon had supposed that they were going
+down the former stream. Amilcar returned after himself suffering much
+hardship and danger. The different parties finally met at the mouth of
+the Gy-Parana, where it enters the Madeira. The lost man whom they had
+found seemed on the road to recovery, and they left him at a ranch, on
+the Madeira, where he could be cared for; yet after they had left him
+they heard that he had died.
+
+On the 12th the men were still hard at work hollowing out the hard
+wood of the big tree, with axe and adze, while watch and ward were
+kept over them to see that the idlers did not shirk at the expense of
+the industrious. Kermit and Lyra again hunted; the former shot a
+curassow, which was welcome, as we were endeavoring in all ways to
+economize our food supply. We were using the tops of palms also. I
+spent the day hunting in the woods, for the most part by the river,
+but saw nothing. In the season of the rains game is away from the
+river and fish are scarce and turtles absent. Yet it was pleasant to
+be in the great silent forest. Here and there grew immense trees, and
+on some of them mighty buttresses sprang from the base. The lianas and
+vines were of every size and shape. Some were twisted and some were
+not. Some came down straight and slender from branches a hundred feet
+above. Others curved like long serpents around the trunks. Others were
+like knotted cables. In the shadow there was little noise. The wind
+rarely moved the hot, humid air. There were few flowers or birds.
+Insects were altogether too abundant, and even when travelling slowly
+it was impossible always to avoid them--not to speak of our constant
+companions the bees, mosquitoes, and especially the boroshudas or
+bloodsucking flies. Now while bursting through a tangle I disturbed a
+nest of wasps, whose resentment was active; now I heedlessly stepped
+among the outliers of a small party of the carnivorous foraging ants;
+now, grasping a branch as I stumbled, I shook down a shower of fire-
+ants; and among all these my attention was particularly arrested by
+the bite of one of the giant ants, which stung like a hornet, so that
+I felt it for three hours. The camarades generally went barefoot or
+only wore sandals; and their ankles and feet were swollen and inflamed
+from the bites of the boroshudas and ants, some being actually
+incapacitated from work. All of us suffered more or less, our faces
+and hands swelling slightly from the boroshuda bites; and in spite of
+our clothes we were bitten all over our bodies, chiefly by ants and
+the small forest ticks. Because of the rain and the heat our clothes
+were usually wet when we took them off at night, and just as wet when
+we put them on again in the morning.
+
+All day on the 13th the men worked at the canoe, making good progress.
+In rolling and shifting the huge, heavy tree-trunk every one had to
+assist now and then. The work continued until ten in the evening, as
+the weather was clear. After nightfall some of the men held candles
+and the others plied axe or adze, standing within or beside the great,
+half-hollowed logs, while the flicker of the lights showed the tropic
+forest rising in the darkness round about. The night air was hot and
+still and heavy with moisture. The men were stripped to the waist.
+Olive and copper and ebony, their skins glistened as if oiled, and
+rippled with the ceaseless play of the thews beneath.
+
+On the morning of the 14th the work was resumed in a torrential tropic
+downpour. The canoe was finished, dragged down to the water, and
+launched soon after midday, and another hour or so saw us under way.
+The descent was marked, and the swollen river raced along. Several
+times we passed great whirlpools, sometimes shifting, sometimes
+steady. Half a dozen times we ran over rapids, and, although they were
+not high enough to have been obstacles to loaded Canadian canoes, two
+of them were serious to us. Our heavily laden, clumsy dugouts were
+sunk to within three or four inches of the surface of the river, and,
+although they were buoyed on each side with bundles of burity-palm
+branch-stems, they shipped a great deal of water in the rapids. The
+two biggest rapids we only just made, and after each we had hastily to
+push ashore in order to bail. In one set of big ripples or waves my
+canoe was nearly swamped. In a wilderness, where what is ahead is
+absolutely unknown, alike in terms of time, space, and method--for we
+had no idea where we would come out, how we would get out, or when we
+would get out--it is of vital consequence not to lose one's outfit,
+especially the provisions; and yet it is of only less consequence to
+go as rapidly as possible lest all the provisions be exhausted and the
+final stages of the expedition be accomplished by men weakened from
+semi-starvation, and therefore ripe for disaster. On this occasion, of
+the two hazards, we felt it necessary to risk running the rapids; for
+our progress had been so very slow that unless we made up the time, it
+was probable that we would be short of food before we got where we
+could expect to procure any more except what little the country in the
+time of the rains and floods, might yield. We ran until after five, so
+that the work of pitching camp was finished in the dark. We had made
+nearly sixteen kilometres in a direction slightly east of north. This
+evening the air was fresh and cool.
+
+The following morning, the 15th of March, we started in good season.
+For six kilometres we drifted and paddled down the swift river without
+incident. At times we saw lofty Brazil-nut trees rising above the rest
+of the forest on the banks; and back from the river these trees grow
+to enormous proportions, towering like giants. There were great
+rubber-trees also, their leaves always in sets of threes. Then the
+ground on either hand rose into boulder-strewn, forest-clad hills and
+the roar of broken water announced that once more our course was
+checked by dangerous rapids. Round a bend we came on them; a wide
+descent of white water, with an island in the middle, at the upper
+edge. Here grave misfortune befell us, and graver misfortune was
+narrowly escaped.
+
+Kermit, as usual, was leading in his canoe. It was the smallest and
+least seaworthy of all. He had in it little except a week's supply of
+our boxed provisions and a few tools; fortunately none of the food for
+the camaradas. His dog Trigueiro was with him. Besides himself, the
+crew consisted of two men: Joao, the helmsman, or pilot, as he is
+called in Brazil, and Simplicio, the bowsman. Both were negroes and
+exceptionally good men in every way. Kermit halted his canoe on the
+left bank, above the rapids, and waited for the colonel's canoe. Then
+the colonel and Lyra walked down the bank to see what was ahead.
+Kermit took his canoe across to the island to see whether the descent
+could be better accomplished on the other side. Having made his
+investigation, he ordered the men to return to the bank he had left,
+and the dugout was headed up-stream accordingly. Before they had gone
+a dozen yards, the paddlers digging their paddles with all their
+strength into the swift current, one of the shifting whirlpools of
+which I have spoken came down-stream, whirled them around, and swept
+them so close to the rapids that no human power could avoid going over
+them. As they were drifting into them broadside on, Kermit yelled to
+the steersman to turn her head, so as to take them in the only way
+that offered any chance whatever of safety. The water came aboard,
+wave after wave, as they raced down. They reached the bottom with the
+canoe upright, but so full as barely to float, and the paddlers urged
+her toward the shore. They had nearly reached the bank when another
+whirlpool or whirling eddy tore them away and hurried them back to
+midstream, where the dugout filled and turned over. Joao, seizing the
+rope, started to swim ashore; the rope was pulled from his hand, but
+he reached the bank. Poor Simplicio must have been pulled under at
+once and his life beaten out on the boulders beneath the racing
+torrent. He never rose again, nor did we ever recover his body. Kermit
+clutched his rifle, his favorite 405 Winchester with which he had done
+most of his hunting both in Africa and America, and climbed on the
+bottom of the upset boat. In a minute he was swept into the second
+series of rapids, and whirled away from the rolling boat, losing his
+rifle. The water beat his helmet down over his head and face and drove
+him beneath the surface; and when he rose at last he was almost
+drowned, his breath and strength almost spent. He was in swift but
+quiet water, and swam toward an overhanging branch. His jacket
+hindered him, but he knew he was too nearly gone to be able to get it
+off, and, thinking with the curious calm one feels when death is but a
+moment away, he realized that the utmost his failing strength could do
+was to reach the branch. He reached, and clutched it, and then almost
+lacked strength to haul himself out on the land. Good Trigueiro had
+faithfully swum alongside him through the rapids, and now himself
+scrambled ashore. It was a very narrow escape. Kermit was a great
+comfort and help to me on the trip; but the fear of some fatal
+accident befalling him was always a nightmare to me. He was to be
+married as soon as the trip was over; and it did not seem to me that I
+could bear to bring bad tidings to his betrothed and to his mother.
+
+Simplicio was unmarried. Later we sent to his mother all the money
+that would have been his had he lived. The following morning we put on
+one side of the post erected to mark our camping-spot the following
+inscription, in Portuguese:
+
+                "IN THESE RAPIDS DIED POOR SIMPLICIO."
+
+On an expedition such as ours death is one of the accidents that may
+at any time occur, and narrow escapes from death are too common to be
+felt as they would be felt elsewhere. One mourns sincerely, but
+mourning cannot interfere with labor. We immediately proceeded with
+the work of the portage. From the head to the tail of this series of
+rapids the distance was about six hundred yards. A path was cut along
+the bank, over which the loads were brought. The empty canoes ran the
+rapids without mishap, each with two skilled paddlers. One of the
+canoes almost ran into a swimming tapir at the head of the rapids; it
+went down the rapids, and then climbed out of the river. Kermit
+accompanied by Joao, went three or four miles down the river, looking
+for the body of Simplicio and for the sunk canoe. He found neither.
+But he found a box of provisions and a paddle, and salvaged both by
+swimming into midstream after them. He also found that a couple of
+kilometres below there was another stretch of rapids, and following
+them on the left-hand bank to the foot he found that they were worse
+than the ones we had just passed, and impassable for canoes on this
+left-hand side.
+
+We camped at the foot of the rapids we had just passed. There were
+many small birds here, but it was extremely difficult to see or shoot
+them in the lofty tree tops, and to find them in the tangle beneath if
+they were shot. However, Cherrie got four species new to the
+collection. One was a tiny hummer, one of the species known as
+woodstars, with dainty but not brilliant plumage; its kind is never
+found except in the deep, dark woods, not coming out into the
+sunshine. Its crop was filled with ants; when shot it was feeding at a
+cluster of long red flowers. He also got a very handsome trogon and an
+exquisite little tanager, as brilliant as a cluster of jewels; its
+throat was lilac, its breast turquoise, its crown and forehead topaz,
+while above it was glossy purple-black, the lower part of the back
+ruby-red. This tanager was a female; I can hardly imagine that the
+male is more brilliantly colored. The fourth bird was a queer hawk of
+the genus ibycter, black, with a white belly, naked red cheeks and
+throat and red legs and feet. Its crop was filled with the seeds of
+fruits and a few insect remains; an extraordinary diet for a hawk.
+
+The morning of the 16th was dark and gloomy. Through sheets of
+blinding rain we left our camp of misfortune for another camp where
+misfortune also awaited us. Less than half an hour took our dugouts to
+the head of the rapids below. As Kermit had already explored the left-
+hand side, Colonel Rondon and Lyra went down the right-hand side and
+found a channel which led round the worst part, so that they deemed it
+possible to let down the canoes by ropes from the bank. The distance
+to the foot of the rapids was about a kilometre. While the loads were
+being brought down the left bank, Luiz and Antonio Correa, our two
+best watermen, started to take a canoe down the right side, and
+Colonel Rondon walked ahead to see anything he could about the river.
+He was accompanied by one of our three dogs, Lobo. After walking about
+a kilometre he heard ahead a kind of howling noise, which he thought
+was made by spider-monkeys. He walked in the direction of the sound
+and Lobo ran ahead. In a minute he heard Lobo yell with pain, and
+then, still yelping, come toward him, while the creature that was
+howling also approached, evidently in pursuit. In a moment a second
+yell from Lobo, followed by silence, announced that he was dead; and
+the sound of the howling when near convinced Rondon that the dog had
+been killed by an Indian, doubtless with two arrows. Probably the
+Indian was howling to lure the spider-monkeys toward him. Rondon fired
+his rifle in the air, to warn off the Indian or Indians, who in all
+probability had never seen a civilized man, and certainly could not
+imagine that one was in the neighborhood. He then returned to the foot
+of the rapids, where the portage was still going on, and, in company
+with Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Parecis, the Indian, walked back to
+where Lobo's body lay. Sure enough he found him, slain by two arrows.
+One arrow-head was in him, and near by was a strange stick used in the
+very primitive method of fishing of all these Indians. Antonio
+recognized its purpose. The Indians, who were apparently two or three
+in number, had fled. Some beads and trinkets were left on the spot to
+show that we were not angry and were friendly.
+
+Meanwhile Cherrie stayed at the head and I at the foot of the portage
+as guards. Luiz and Antonio Correa brought down one canoe safely. The
+next was the new canoe, which was very large and heavy, being made of
+wood that would not float. In the rapids the rope broke, and the canoe
+was lost, Luiz being nearly drowned.
+
+It was a very bad thing to lose the canoe, but it was even worse to
+lose the rope and pulleys. This meant that it would be physically
+impossible to hoist big canoes up even small hills or rocky hillocks,
+such as had been so frequent beside the many rapids we had
+encountered. It was not wise to spend the four days necessary to build
+new canoes where we were, in danger of attack from the Indians.
+Moreover, new rapids might be very near, in which case the new canoes
+would hamper us. Yet the four remaining canoes would not carry all the
+loads and all the men, no matter how we cut the loads down; and we
+intended to cut everything down at once. We had been gone eighteen
+days. We had used over a third of our food. We had gone only 125
+kilometres, and it was probable that we had at least five times,
+perhaps six or seven times, this distance still to go. We had taken a
+fortnight to descend rapids amounting in the aggregate to less than
+seventy yards of fall; a very few yards of fall makes a dangerous
+rapid when the river is swollen and swift and there are obstructions.
+We had only one aneroid to determine our altitude, and therefore could
+make merely a loose approximation to it, but we probably had between
+two and three times this descent in the aggregate of rapids ahead of
+us. So far the country had offered little in the way of food except
+palm-tops. We had lost four canoes and one man. We were in the country
+of wild Indians, who shot well with their bows. It behooved us to go
+warily, but also to make all speed possible, if we were to avoid
+serious trouble.
+
+The best plan seemed to be to march thirteen men down along the bank,
+while the remaining canoes, lashed two and two, floated down beside
+them. If after two or three days we found no bad rapids, and there
+seemed a reasonable chance of going some distance at decent speed, we
+could then build the new canoes--preferably two small ones, this time,
+instead of one big one. We left all the baggage we could. We were
+already down as far as comfort would permit; but we now struck off
+much of the comfort. Cherrie, Kermit, and I had been sleeping under a
+very light fly; and there was another small light tent for one person,
+kept for possible emergencies. The last was given to me for my cot,
+and all five of the others swung their hammocks under the big fly.
+This meant that we left two big and heavy tents behind. A box of
+surveying instruments was also abandoned. Each of us got his personal
+belongings down to one box or duffel-bag--although there was only a
+small diminution thus made; because we had so little that the only way
+to make a serious diminution was to restrict ourselves to the clothes
+on our backs.
+
+The biting flies and ants were to us a source of discomfort and at
+times of what could fairly be called torment. But to the camaradas,
+most of whom went barefoot or only wore sandals--and they never did or
+would wear shoes--the effect was more serious. They wrapped their legs
+and feet in pieces of canvas or hide; and the feet of three of them
+became so swollen that they were crippled and could not walk any
+distance. The doctor, whose courage and cheerfulness never flagged,
+took excellent care of them. Thanks to him, there had been among them
+hitherto but one or two slight cases of fever. He administered to each
+man daily a half-gram--nearly eight grains--of quinine, and every
+third or fourth day a double dose.
+
+The following morning Colonel Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, Cherrie, and nine
+of the camaradas started in single file down the bank, while the
+doctor and I went in the two double canoes, with six camaradas, three
+of them the invalids with swollen feet. We halted continually, as we
+went about three times as fast as the walkers; and we traced the
+course of the river. After forty minutes' actual going in the boats we
+came to some rapids; the unloaded canoes ran them without difficulty,
+while the loads were portaged. In an hour and a half we were again
+under way, but in ten minutes came to other rapids, where the river
+ran among islands, and there were several big curls. The clumsy,
+heavily laden dugouts, lashed in couples, were unwieldy and hard to
+handle. The rapids came just round a sharp bend, and we got caught in
+the upper part of the swift water and had to run the first set of
+rapids in consequence. We in the leading pair of dugouts were within
+an ace of coming to grief on some big boulders against which we were
+swept by a cross current at the turn. All of us paddling hard--
+scraping and bumping--we got through by the skin of our teeth, and
+managed to make the bank and moor our dugouts. It was a narrow escape
+from grave disaster. The second pair of lashed dugouts profited by our
+experience, and made the run--with risk, but with less risk--and
+moored beside us. Then all the loads were taken out, and the empty
+canoes were run down through the least dangerous channels among the
+islands.
+
+This was a long portage, and we camped at the foot of the rapids,
+having made nearly seven kilometres. Here a little river, a rapid
+stream of volume equal to the Duvida at the point where we first
+embarked, joined from the west. Colonel Rondon and Kermit came to it
+first, and the former named it Rio Kermit. There was in it a waterfall
+about six or eight feet high, just above the junction. Here we found
+plenty of fish. Lyra caught two pacu, good-sized, deep-bodied fish.
+They were delicious eating. Antonio the Parecis said that these fish
+never came up heavy rapids in which there were falls they had to jump.
+We could only hope that he was correct, as in that case the rapids we
+would encounter in the future would rarely be so serious as to
+necessitate our dragging the heavy dugouts overland. Passing the
+rapids we had hitherto encountered had meant severe labor and some
+danger. But the event showed that he was mistaken. The worst rapids
+were ahead of us.
+
+While our course as a whole had been almost due north, and sometimes
+east of north, yet where there were rapids the river had generally,
+although not always, turned westward. This seemed to indicate that to
+the east of us there was a low northward projection of the central
+plateau across which we had travelled on mule-back. This is the kind
+of projection that appears on the maps of this region as a sierra.
+Probably it sent low spurs to the west, and the farthest points of
+these spurs now and then caused rapids in our course (for the rapids
+generally came where there were hills) and for the moment deflected
+the river westward from its general downhill trend to the north. There
+was no longer any question that the Duvida was a big river, a river of
+real importance. It was not a minor affluent of some other affluent.
+But we were still wholly in the dark as to where it came out. It was
+still possible, although exceedingly improbable, that it entered the
+Gy-Parana, as another river of substantially the same size, near its
+mouth. It was much more likely, but not probable, that it entered the
+Tapajos. It was probable, although far from certain, that it entered
+the Madeira low down, near its point of junction with the Amazon. In
+this event it was likely, although again far from certain, that its
+mouth would prove to be the Aripuanan. The Aripuanan does not appear
+on the maps as a river of any size; on a good standard map of South
+America which I had with me its name does not appear at all, although
+a dotted indication of a small river or creek at about the right place
+probably represents it. Nevertheless, from the report of one of his
+lieutenants who had examined its mouth, and from the stories of the
+rubber-gatherers, or seringueiros, Colonel Rondon had come to the
+conclusion that this was the largest affluent of the Madeira, with
+such a body of water that it must have a big drainage basin. He
+thought that the Duvida was probably one of its head streams--although
+every existing map represented the lay of the land to be such as to
+render impossible the existence of such a river system and drainage
+basin. The rubber-gatherers reported that they had gone many days'
+journey up the river, to a point where there was a series of heavy
+rapids with above them the junction point of two large rivers, one
+entering from the west. Beyond this they had difficulties because of
+the hostility of the Indians; and where the junction point was no one
+could say. On the chance Colonel Rondon had directed one of his
+subordinate officers, Lieutenant Pyrineus, to try to meet us, with
+boats and provisions, by ascending the Aripuanan to the point of entry
+of its first big affluent. This was the course followed when Amilcar
+had been directed to try to meet the explorers who in 1909 came down
+the Gy-Parana. At that time the effort was a failure, and the two
+parties never met; but we might have better luck, and in any event the
+chance was worth taking.
+
+On the morning following our camping by the mouth of the Rio Kermit,
+Colonel Rondon took a good deal of pains in getting a big post set up
+at the entry of the smaller river into the Duvida. Then he summoned
+me, and all the others, to attend the ceremony of its erection. We
+found the camaradas drawn up in line, and the colonel preparing to
+read aloud "the orders of the day." To the post was nailed a board
+with "Rio Kermit" on it; and the colonel read the orders reciting that
+by the direction of the Brazilian Government, and inasmuch as the
+unknown river was evidently a great river, he formally christened it
+the Rio Roosevelt. This was a complete surprise to me. Both Lauro
+Miller and Colonel Rondon had spoken to me on the subject, and I had
+urged, and Kermit had urged, as strongly as possible, that the name be
+kept as Rio da Duvida. We felt that the "River of Doubt" was an
+unusually good name; and it is always well to keep a name of this
+character. But my kind friends insisted otherwise, and it would have
+been churlish of me to object longer. I was much touched by their
+action, and by the ceremony itself. At the conclusion of the reading
+Colonel Rondon led in cheers for the United States and then for me and
+for Kermit; and the camaradas cheered with a will. I proposed three
+cheers for Brazil and then for Colonel Rondon, and Lyra, and the
+doctor, and then for all the camaradas. Then Lyra said that everybody
+had been cheered except Cherrie; and so we all gave three cheers for
+Cherrie, and the meeting broke up in high good humor.
+
+Immediately afterward the walkers set off on their march downstream,
+looking for good canoe trees. In a quarter of an hour we followed with
+the canoes. As often as we overtook them we halted until they had
+again gone a good distance ahead. They soon found fresh Indian sign,
+and actually heard the Indians; but the latter fled in panic. They
+came on a little Indian fishing village, just abandoned. The three
+low, oblong huts, of palm leaves, had each an entrance for a man on
+all fours, but no other opening. They were dark inside, doubtless as a
+protection against the swarms of biting flies. On a pole in this
+village an axe, a knife, and some strings of red beads were left, with
+the hope that the Indians would return, find the gifts, and realize
+that we were friendly. We saw further Indian sign on both sides of the
+river.
+
+After about two hours and a half we came on a little river entering
+from the east. It was broad but shallow, and at the point of entrance
+rushed down, green and white, over a sharply inclined sheet of rock.
+It was a lovely sight and we halted to admire it. Then on we went,
+until, when we had covered about eight kilometres, we came on a
+stretch of rapids. The canoes ran them with about a third of the
+loads, the other loads being carried on the men's shoulders. At the
+foot of the rapids we camped, as there were several good canoe trees
+near, and we had decided to build two rather small canoes. After dark
+the stars came out; but in the deep forest the glory of the stars in
+the night of the sky, the serene radiance of the moon, the splendor of
+sunrise and sunset, are never seen as they are seen on the vast open
+plains.
+
+The following day, the 19th, the men began work on the canoes. The
+ill-fated big canoe had been made of wood so hard that it was
+difficult to work, and so heavy that the chips sank like lead in the
+water. But these trees were araputangas, with wood which was easier to
+work, and which floated. Great buttresses, or flanges, jutted out from
+their trunks at the base, and they bore big hard nuts or fruits which
+stood erect at the ends of the branches. The first tree felled proved
+rotten, and moreover it was chopped so that it smashed a number of
+lesser trees into the kitchen, overthrowing everything, but not
+inflicting serious damage. Hardworking, willing, and tough though the
+camaradas were, they naturally did not have the skill of northern
+lumberjacks.
+
+We hoped to finish the two canoes in three days. A space was cleared
+in the forest for our tents. Among the taller trees grew huge-leafed
+pacovas, or wild bananas. We bathed and swam in the river, although in
+it we caught piranhas. Carregadores ants swarmed all around our camp.
+As many of the nearest of their holes as we could we stopped with
+fire; but at night some of them got into our tents and ate things we
+could ill spare. In the early morning a column of foraging ants
+appeared, and we drove them back, also with fire. When the sky was not
+overcast the sun was very hot, and we spread out everything to dry.
+There were many wonderful butterflies round about, but only a few
+birds. Yet in the early morning and late afternoon there was some
+attractive bird music in the woods. The two best performers were our
+old friend the false bellbird, with its series of ringing whistles,
+and a shy, attractive ant-thrush. The latter walked much on the
+ground, with dainty movements, curtseying and raising its tail; and in
+accent and sequence, although not in tone or time, its song resembled
+that of our white-throated sparrow.
+
+It was three weeks since we had started down the River of Doubt. We
+had come along its winding course about 140 kilometres, with a descent
+of somewhere in the neighborhood of 124 metres. It had been slow
+progress. We could not tell what physical obstacles were ahead of us,
+nor whether the Indians would be actively hostile. But a river
+normally describes in its course a parabola, the steep descent being
+in the upper part; and we hoped that in the future we should not have
+to encounter so many and such difficult rapids as we had already
+encountered, and that therefore we would make better time--a hope
+destined to failure.
+
+
+
+         IX. DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER INTO THE EQUATORIAL FOREST
+
+The mightiest river in the world is the Amazon. It runs from west to
+east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from the Andes to the Atlantic.
+The main stream flows almost along the equator, while the basin which
+contains its affluents extends many degrees north and south of the
+equator. The gigantic equatorial river basin is filled with an immense
+forest, the largest in the world, with which no other forest can be
+compared save those of western Africa and Malaysia. We were within the
+southern boundary of this great equatorial forest, on a river which
+was not merely unknown but unguessed at, no geographer having ever
+suspected its existence. This river flowed northward toward the
+equator, but whither it would go, whether it would turn one way or
+another, the length of its course, where it would come out, the
+character of the stream itself, and the character of the dwellers
+along its banks--all these things were yet to be discovered.
+
+One morning while the canoes were being built Kermit and I walked a
+few kilometres down the river and surveyed the next rapids below. The
+vast still forest was almost empty of life. We found old Indian signs.
+There were very few birds, and these in the tops of the tall trees. We
+saw a recent tapir track; and under a cajazeira tree by the bank there
+were the tracks of capybaras which had been eating the fallen fruit.
+This fruit is delicious and would make a valuable addition to our
+orchards. The tree although tropical is hardy, thrives when
+domesticated, and propagates rapidly from shoots. The Department of
+Agriculture should try whether it would not grow in southern
+California and Florida. This was the tree from which the doctor's
+family name was taken. His parental grandfather, although of
+Portuguese blood, was an intensely patriotic Brazilian. He was a very
+young man when the independence of Brazil was declared, and did not
+wish to keep the Portuguese family name; so he changed it to that of
+the fine Brazilian tree in question. Such change of family names is
+common in Brazil. Doctor Vital Brazil, the student of poisonous
+serpents, was given his name by his father, whose own family name was
+entirely different; and his brother's name was again different.
+
+There were tremendous downpours of rain, lasting for a couple of hours
+and accompanied by thunder and lightning. But on the whole it seemed
+as if the rains were less heavy and continuous than they had been. We
+all of us had to help in building the canoes now and then. Kermit,
+accompanied by Antonio the Parecis and Joao, crossed the river and
+walked back to the little river that had entered from the east, so as
+to bring back a report of it to Colonel Rondon. Lyra took
+observations, by the sun and by the stars. We were in about latitude
+11 degrees 2 minutes south, and due north of where we had started. The
+river had wound so that we had gone two miles for every one we made
+northward. Our progress had been very slow; and until we got out of
+the region of incessant rapids, with their attendant labor and hazard,
+it was not likely that we should go much faster.
+
+On the morning of March 22 we started in our six canoes. We made ten
+kilometres. Twenty minutes after starting we came to the first rapids.
+Here every one walked except the three best paddlers, who took the
+canoes down in succession--an hour's job. Soon after this we struck a
+bees' nest in the top of a tree overhanging the river; our steersman
+climbed out and robbed it, but, alas! lost the honey on the way back.
+We came to a small steep fall which we did not dare run in our over-
+laden, clumsy, and cranky dugouts. Fortunately, we were able to follow
+a deep canal which led off for a kilometre, returning just below the
+falls, fifty yards from where it had started. Then, having been in the
+boats and in motion only one hour and a half, we came to a long
+stretch of rapids which it took us six hours to descend, and we camped
+at the foot. Everything was taken out of the canoes, and they were run
+down in succession. At one difficult and perilous place they were let
+down by ropes; and even thus we almost lost one.
+
+We went down the right bank. On the opposite bank was an Indian
+village, evidently inhabited only during the dry season. The marks on
+the stumps of trees showed that these Indians had axes and knives; and
+there were old fields in which maize, beans, and cotton had been
+grown. The forest dripped and steamed. Rubber-trees were plentiful. At
+one point the tops of a group of tall trees were covered with yellow-
+white blossoms. Others bore red blossoms. Many of the big trees, of
+different kinds, were buttressed at the base with great thin walls of
+wood. Others, including both palms and ordinary trees, showed an even
+stranger peculiarity. The trunk, near the base, but sometimes six or
+eight feet from the ground, was split into a dozen or twenty branches
+or small trunks which sloped outward in tent-like shape, each becoming
+a root. The larger trees of this type looked as if their trunks were
+seated on the tops of the pole frames of Indian tepees. At one point
+in the stream, to our great surprise, we saw a flying fish. It skimmed
+the water like a swallow for over twenty yards.
+
+Although we made only ten kilometres we worked hard all day. The last
+canoes were brought down and moored to the bank at nightfall. Our
+tents were pitched in the darkness.
+
+Next day we made thirteen kilometres. We ran, all told, a little over
+an hour and three-quarters. Seven hours were spent in getting past a
+series of rapids at which the portage, over rocky and difficult
+ground, was a kilometre long. The canoes were run down empty--a
+hazardous run, in which one of them upset.
+
+Yet while we were actually on the river, paddling and floating
+downstream along the reaches of swift, smooth water, it was very
+lovely. When we started in the morning the day was overcast and the
+air was heavy with vapor. Ahead of us the shrouded river stretched
+between dim walls of forest, half seen in the mist. Then the sun
+burned up the fog, and loomed through it in a red splendor that
+changed first to gold and then to molten white. In the dazzling light,
+under the brilliant blue of the sky, every detail of the magnificent
+forest was vivid to the eye: the great trees, the network of bush
+ropes, the caverns of greenery, where thick-leaved vines covered all
+things else. Wherever there was a hidden boulder the surface of the
+current was broken by waves. In one place, in midstream, a pyramidal
+rock thrust itself six feet above the surface of the river. On the
+banks we found fresh Indian sign.
+
+At home in Vermont Cherrie is a farmer, with a farm of six hundred
+acres, most of it woodland. As we sat at the foot of the rapids,
+watching for the last dugouts with their naked paddlers to swing into
+sight round the bend through the white water, we talked of the
+northern spring that was just beginning. He sells cream, eggs,
+poultry, potatoes, honey, occasionally pork and veal; but at this
+season it was the time for the maple sugar crop. He has a sugar
+orchard, where he taps twelve hundred trees and hopes soon to tap as
+many more in addition. Said Cherrie: "It's a busy time now for Fred
+Rice"--Fred Rice is the hired man, and in sugar time the Cherrie boys
+help him with enthusiasm, and, moreover, are paid with exact justice
+for the work they do. There is much wild life about the farm, although
+it is near Brattleboro. One night in early spring a bear left his
+tracks near the sugar house; and now and then in summer Cherrie has
+had to sleep in the garden to keep the deer away from the beans,
+cabbages, and beets.
+
+There was not much bird life in the forest, but Cherrie kept getting
+species new to the collection. At this camp he shot an interesting
+little ant-thrush. It was the size of a warbler, jet-black, with white
+under-surfaces of the wings and tail, white on the tail-feathers, and
+a large spot of white on the back, normally almost concealed, the
+feathers on the back being long and fluffy. When he shot the bird, a
+male, it was showing off before a dull-colored little bird, doubtless
+the female; and the chief feature of the display was this white spot
+on the back. The white feathers were raised and displayed so that the
+spot flashed like the "chrysanthemum" on a prongbuck whose curiosity
+has been aroused. In the gloom of the forest the bird was hard to see,
+but the flashing of this patch of white feathers revealed it at once,
+attracting immediate attention. It was an excellent example of a
+coloration mark which served a purely advertising purpose; apparently
+it was part of a courtship display. The bird was about thirty feet up
+in the branches.
+
+In the morning, just before leaving this camp, a tapir swam across
+stream a little way above us; but unfortunately we could not get a
+shot at it. An ample supply of tapir beef would have meant much to us.
+We had started with fifty days' rations; but this by no means meant
+full rations, in the sense of giving every man all he wanted to eat.
+We had two meals a day, and were on rather short commons--both our
+mess and the camaradas'--except when we got plenty of palm-tops. For
+our mess we had the boxes chosen by Fiala, each containing a day's
+rations for six men, our number. But we made each box last a day and a
+half, or at times two days, and in addition we gave some of the food
+to the camaradas. It was only on the rare occasions when we had killed
+some monkeys or curassows, or caught some fish, that everybody had
+enough. We would have welcomed that tapir. So far the game, fish, and
+fruit had been too scarce to be an element of weight in our food
+supply. In an exploring trip like ours, through a difficult and
+utterly unknown country, especially if densely forested, there is
+little time to halt, and game cannot be counted on. It is only in
+lands like our own West thirty years ago, like South Africa in the
+middle of the last century, like East Africa to-day that game can be
+made the chief food supply. On this trip our only substantial food
+supply from the country hitherto had been that furnished by the
+palmtops. Two men were detailed every day to cut down palms for food.
+
+A kilometre and a half after leaving this camp we came on a stretch of
+big rapids. The river here twists in loops, and we had heard the
+roaring of these rapids the previous afternoon. Then we passed out of
+earshot of them; but Antonio Correa, our best waterman, insisted all
+along that the roaring meant rapids worse than any we had encountered
+for some days. "I was brought up in the water, and I know it like a
+fish, and all its sounds," said he. He was right. We had to carry the
+loads nearly a kilometre that afternoon, and the canoes were pulled
+out on the bank so that they might be in readiness to be dragged
+overland next day. Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa explored
+both sides of the river. On the opposite or left bank they found the
+mouth of a considerable river, bigger than the Rio Kermit, flowing in
+from the west and making its entrance in the middle of the rapids.
+This river we christened the Taunay, in honor of a distinguished
+Brazilian, an explorer, a soldier, a senator, who was also a writer of
+note. Kermit had with him two of his novels, and I had read one of his
+books dealing with a disastrous retreat during the Paraguayan
+war.
+
+Next morning, the 25th, the canoes were brought down. A path was
+chopped for them and rollers laid; and half-way down the rapids Lyra
+and Kermit, who were overseeing the work as well as doing their share
+of the pushing and hauling, got them into a canal of smooth water,
+which saved much severe labor. As our food supply lowered we were
+constantly more desirous of economizing the strength of the men. One
+day more would complete a month since we had embarked on the Duvida as
+we had started in February, the lunar and calendar months coincided.
+We had used up over half our provisions. We had come only a trifle
+over 160 kilometres, thanks to the character and number of the rapids.
+We believed we had three or four times the distance yet to go before
+coming to a part of the river where we might hope to meet assistance,
+either from rubber-gatherers, or from Pyrineus, if he were really
+coming up the river which we were going down. If the rapids continued
+to be as they had been it could not be much more than three weeks
+before we were in straits for food, aside from the ever-present danger
+of accident in the rapids; and if our progress were no faster than it
+had been--and we were straining to do our best--we would in such event
+still have several hundreds of kilometres of unknown river before us.
+We could not even hazard a guess at what was in front. The river was
+now a really big river, and it seemed impossible that it could flow
+either into the Gy-Parana or the Tapajos. It was possible that it went
+into the Canuma, a big affluent of the Madeira low down, and next to
+the Tapajos. It was more probable that it was the headwaters of the
+Aripuanan, a river which, as I have said, was not even named on the
+excellent English map of Brazil I carried. Nothing but the mouth had
+been known to any geographer; but the lower course had long been known
+to rubber-gatherers, and recently a commission from the government of
+Amazonas had partway ascended one branch of it--not as far as the
+rubber-gatherers had gone, and, as it turned out, not the branch we
+came down.
+
+Two of our men were down with fever. Another man, Julio, a fellow of
+powerful frame, was utterly worthless, being an inborn, lazy shirk
+with the heart of a ferocious cur in the body of a bullock. The others
+were good men, some of them very good indeed. They were under the
+immediate supervision of Pedrinho Craveiro, who was first-class in
+every way.
+
+This camp was very lovely. It was on the edge of a bay, into which the
+river broadened immediately below the rapids. There was a beach of
+white sand, where we bathed and washed our clothes. All around us, and
+across the bay, and on both sides of the long water-street made by the
+river, rose the splendid forest. There were flocks of parakeets
+colored green, blue, and red. Big toucans called overhead, lustrous
+green-black in color, with white throats, red gorgets, red-and-yellow
+tail coverts, and huge black-and-yellow bills. Here the soil was
+fertile; it will be a fine site for a coffee-plantation when this
+region is open to settlement. Surely such a rich and fertile land
+cannot be permitted to remain idle, to lie as a tenantless wilderness,
+while there are such teeming swarms of human beings in the
+overcrowded, over-peopled countries of the Old World. The very rapids
+and waterfalls which now make the navigation of the river so difficult
+and dangerous would drive electric trolleys up and down its whole
+length and far out on either side, and run mills and factories, and
+lighten the labor on farms. With the incoming of settlement and with
+the steady growth of knowledge how to fight and control tropical
+diseases, fear of danger to health would vanish. A land like this is a
+hard land for the first explorers, and perhaps for their immediate
+followers, but not for the people who come after them.
+
+In mid-afternoon we were once more in the canoes; but we had paddled
+with the current only a few minutes, we had gone only a kilometre,
+when the roar of rapids in front again forced us to haul up to the
+bank. As usual, Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, with Antonio Correa,
+explored both sides while camp was being pitched. The rapids were
+longer and of steeper descent than the last, but on the opposite or
+western side there was a passage down which we thought we could get
+the empty dugouts at the cost of dragging them only a few yards at one
+spot. The loads were to be carried down the hither bank, for a
+kilometre, to the smooth water. The river foamed between great rounded
+masses of rock, and at one point there was a sheer fall of six or
+eight feet. We found and ate wild pineapples. Wild beans were in
+flower. At dinner we had a toucan and a couple of parrots, which were
+very good.
+
+All next day was spent by Lyra in superintending our three best
+watermen as they took the canoes down the west side of the rapids, to
+the foot, at the spot to which the camp had meantime been shifted. In
+the forest some of the huge sipas, or rope vines, which were as big as
+cables, bore clusters of fragrant flowers. The men found several
+honey-trees, and fruits of various kinds, and small cocoanuts; they
+chopped down an ample number of palms, for the palm-cabbage; and, most
+important of all, they gathered a quantity of big Brazil-nuts, which
+when roasted tasted like the best of chestnuts and are nutritious; and
+they caught a number of big piranhas, which were good eating. So we
+all had a feast, and everybody had enough to eat and was happy.
+
+By these rapids, at the fall, Cherrie found some strange carvings on a
+bare mass of rock. They were evidently made by men a long time ago. As
+far as is known, the Indians thereabouts make no such figures now.
+They were in two groups, one on the surface of the rock facing the
+land, the other on that facing the water. The latter were nearly
+obliterated. The former were in good preservation, the figures sharply
+cut into the rock. They consisted, upon the upper flat part of the
+rock, of four multiple circles with a dot in the middle (O), very
+accurately made and about a foot and a half in diameter; and below
+them, on the side of the rock, four multiple m's or inverted w's (M).
+What these curious symbols represented, or who made them, we could
+not, of course, form the slightest idea. It may be that in a very
+remote past some Indian tribes of comparatively advanced culture had
+penetrated to this lovely river, just as we had now come to it. Before
+white men came to South America there had already existed therein
+various semi-civilizations, some rude, others fairly advanced, which
+rose, flourished, and persisted through immemorial ages, and then
+vanished. The vicissitudes in the history of humanity during its stay
+on this southern continent have been as strange, varied, and
+inexplicable as paleontology shows to have been the case, on the same
+continent, in the history of the higher forms of animal life during
+the age of mammals. Colonel Rondon stated that such figures as these
+are not found anywhere else in Matto Grosso where he has been, and
+therefore it was all the more strange to find them in this one place
+on the unknown river, never before visited by white men, which we were
+descending.
+
+Next morning we went about three kilometers before coming to some
+steep hills, beautiful to look upon, clad as they were in dense, tall,
+tropical forest, but ominous of new rapids. Sure enough, at their foot
+we had to haul up and prepare for a long portage. The canoes we ran
+down empty. Even so, we were within an ace of losing two, the lashed
+couple in which I ordinarily journeyed. In a sharp bend of the rapids,
+between two big curls, they were swept among the boulders and under
+the matted branches which stretched out from the bank. They filled,
+and the racing current pinned them where they were, one partly on the
+other. All of us had to help get them clear. Their fastenings were
+chopped asunder with axes. Kermit and half a dozen of the men,
+stripped to the skin, made their way to a small rock island in the
+little falls just above the canoes, and let down a rope which we tied
+to the outermost canoe. The rest of us, up to our armpits and barely
+able to keep our footing as we slipped and stumbled among the boulders
+in the swift current, lifted and shoved while Kermit and his men
+pulled the rope and fastened the slack to a half-submerged tree. Each
+canoe in succession was hauled up the little rock island, baled, and
+then taken down in safety by two paddlers. It was nearly four o'clock
+before we were again ready to start, having been delayed by a rain-
+storm so heavy that we could not see across the river. Ten minutes'
+run took us to the head of another series of rapids; the exploring
+party returned with the news that we had an all day's job ahead of us;
+and we made camp in the rain, which did not matter much, as we were
+already drenched through. It was impossible, with the wet wood, to
+make a fire sufficiently hot to dry all our soggy things, for the rain
+was still falling. A tapir was seen from our boat, but, as at the
+moment we were being whisked round in a complete circle by a
+whirlpool, I did not myself see it in time to shoot.
+
+Next morning we went down a kilometre, and then landed on the other
+side of the river. The canoes were run down, and the loads carried to
+the other side of a little river coming in from the west, which
+Colonel Rondon christened Cherrie River. Across this we went on a
+bridge consisting of a huge tree felled by Macario, one of our best
+men. Here we camped, while Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa
+explored what was ahead. They were absent until mid-afternoon. Then
+they returned with the news that we were among ranges of low
+mountains, utterly different in formation from the high plateau region
+to which the first rapids, those we had come to on the 2nd of March,
+belonged. Through the first range of these mountains the river ran in
+a gorge, some three kilometres long, immediately ahead of us. The
+ground was so rough and steep that it would be impossible to drag the
+canoes over it and difficult enough to carry the loads; and the rapids
+were so bad, containing several falls, one of at least ten metres in
+height, that it was doubtful how many of the canoes we could get down
+them. Kermit, who was the only man with much experience of rope work,
+was the only man who believed we could get the canoes down at all; and
+it was, of course, possible that we should have to build new ones at
+the foot to supply the place of any that were lost or left behind. In
+view of the length and character of the portage, and of all the
+unpleasant possibilities that were ahead, and of the need of keeping
+every pound of food, it was necessary to reduce weight in every
+possible way and to throw away everything except the barest
+necessities.
+
+We thought we had reduced our baggage before; but now we cut to the
+bone. We kept the fly for all six of us to sleep under. Kermit's shoes
+had gone, thanks to the amount of work in the water which he had been
+doing; and he took the pair I had been wearing, while I put on my
+spare pair. In addition to the clothes I wore, I kept one set of
+pajamas, a spare pair of drawers, a spare pair of socks, half a dozen
+handkerchiefs, my wash-kit, my pocket medicine-case, and a little bag
+containing my spare spectacles, gun-grease, some adhesive plaster,
+some needles and thread, the "fly-dope," and my purse and letter of
+credit, to be used at Manaos. All of these went into the bag
+containing my cot, blanket, and mosquito-net. I also carried a
+cartridge-bag containing my cartridges, head-net, and gauntlets.
+Kermit cut down even closer; and the others about as close.
+
+The last three days of March we spent in getting to the foot of the
+rapids in this gorge. Lyra and Kermit, with four of the best watermen,
+handled the empty canoes. The work was not only difficult and
+laborious in the extreme, but hazardous; for the walls of the gorge
+were so sheer that at the worst places they had to cling to narrow
+shelves on the face of the rock, while letting the canoes down with
+ropes. Meanwhile Rondon surveyed and cut a trail for the burden-
+bearers, and superintended the portage of the loads. The rocky sides
+of the gorge were too steep for laden men to attempt to traverse them.
+Accordingly the trail had to go over the top of the mountain, both the
+ascent and the descent of the rock-strewn, forest-clad slopes being
+very steep. It was hard work to carry loads over such a trail. From
+the top of the mountain, through an opening in the trees on the edge
+of a cliff, there was a beautiful view of the country ahead. All
+around and in front of us there were ranges of low mountains about the
+height of the lower ridges of the Alleghenies. Their sides were steep
+and they were covered with the matted growth of the tropical forest.
+Our next camping-place, at the foot of the gorge, was almost beneath
+us, and from thence the river ran in a straight line, flecked with
+white water, for about a kilometre. Then it disappeared behind and
+between mountain ridges, which we supposed meant further rapids. It
+was a view well worth seeing; but, beautiful although the country
+ahead of us was, its character was such as to promise further
+hardships, difficulty, and exhausting labor, and especially further
+delay; and delay was a serious matter to men whose food supply was
+beginning to run short, whose equipment was reduced to the minimum,
+who for a month, with the utmost toil, had made very slow progress,
+and who had no idea of either the distance or the difficulties of the
+route in front of them.
+
+There was not much life in the woods, big or little. Small birds were
+rare, although Cherrie's unwearied efforts were rewarded from time to
+time by a species new to the collection. There were tracks of tapir,
+deer, and agouti; and if we had taken two or three days to devote to
+nothing else than hunting them we might perchance have killed
+something; but the chance was much too uncertain, the work we were
+doing was too hard and wearing, and the need of pressing forward
+altogether too great to permit us to spend any time in such manner.
+The hunting had to come in incidentally. This type of well nigh
+impenetrable forest is the one in which it is most difficult to get
+even what little game exists therein. A couple of curassows and a big
+monkey were killed by the colonel and Kermit. On the day the monkey
+was brought in Lyra, Kermit, and their four associates had spent from
+sunrise to sunset in severe and at moments dangerous toil among the
+rocks and in the swift water, and the fresh meat was appreciated. The
+head, feet, tail, skin, and entrails were boiled for the gaunt and
+ravenous dogs. The flesh gave each of us a few mouthfuls; and how good
+those mouthfuls tasted!
+
+Cherrie, in addition to being out after birds in every spare moment,
+helped in all emergencies. He was a veteran in the work of the tropic
+wilderness. We talked together often, and of many things, for our
+views of life, and of a man's duty to his wife and children, to other
+men, and to women, and to the state in peace and war, were in all
+essentials the same. His father had served all through the Civil War,
+entering an Iowa cavalry regiment as a private and coming out as a
+captain; his breast-bone was shattered by a blow from a musket-butt,
+in hand-to-hand fighting at Shiloh.
+
+During this portage the weather favored us. We were coming toward the
+close of the rainy season. On the last day of the month, when we moved
+camp to the foot of the gorge, there was a thunder-storm; but on the
+whole we were not bothered by rain until the last night, when it
+rained heavily, driving under the fly so as to wet my cot and bedding.
+However, I slept comfortably enough, rolled in the damp blanket.
+Without the blanket I should have been uncomfortable; a blanket is a
+necessity for health. On the third day Lyra and Kermit, with their
+daring and hard-working watermen, after wearing labor, succeeded in
+getting five canoes through the worst of the rapids to the chief fall.
+The sixth, which was frail and weak, had its bottom beaten out on the
+jagged rocks of the broken water. On this night, although I thought I
+had put my clothes out of reach, both the termites and the
+carregadores ants got at them, ate holes in one boot, ate one leg of
+my drawers, and riddled my handkerchief; and I now had nothing to
+replace anything that was destroyed.
+
+Next day Lyra, Kermit, and their camaradas brought the five canoes
+that were left down to camp. They had in four days accomplished a work
+of incredible labor and of the utmost importance; for at the first
+glance it had seemed an absolute impossibility to avoid abandoning the
+canoes when we found that the river sank into a cataract broken
+torrent at the bottom of a canyon-like gorge between steep mountains.
+On April 2 we once more started, wondering how soon we should strike
+other rapids in the mountains ahead, and whether in any reasonable
+time we should, as the aneroid indicated, be so low down that we
+should necessarily be in a plain where we could make a journey of at
+least a few days without rapids. We had been exactly a month going
+through an uninterrupted succession of rapids. During that month we
+had come only about 110 kilometres, and had descended nearly 150
+metres--the figures are approximate but fairly accurate. We had lost
+four of the canoes with which we started, and one other, which we had
+built, and the life of one man; and the life of a dog which by its
+death had in all probability saved the life of Colonel Rondon. In a
+straight line northward, toward our supposed destination, we had not
+made more than a mile and a quarter a day; at the cost of bitter toil
+for most of the party, of much risk for some of the party, and of some
+risk and some hardship for all the party. Most of the camaradas were
+downhearted, naturally enough, and occasionally asked one of us if we
+really believed that we should ever get out alive; and we had to cheer
+them up as best we could.
+
+There was no change in our work for the time being. We made but three
+kilometres that day. Most of the party walked all the time; but the
+dugouts carried the luggage until we struck the head of the series of
+rapids which were to take up the next two or three days. The river
+rushed through a wild gorge, a chasm or canyon, between two mountains.
+Its sides were very steep, mere rock walls, although in most places so
+covered with the luxuriant growth of the trees and bushes that clung
+in the crevices, and with green moss, that the naked rock was hardly
+seen. Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, who were in front, found a small level
+spot, with a beach of sand, and sent back word to camp there, while
+they spent several hours in exploring the country ahead. The canoes
+were run down empty, and the loads carried painfully along the face of
+the cliffs; so bad was the trail that I found it rather hard to
+follow, although carrying nothing but my rifle and cartridge bag. The
+explorers returned with the information that the mountains stretched
+ahead of us, and that there were rapids as far as they had gone. We
+could only hope that the aneroid was not hopelessly out of kilter, and
+that we should, therefore, fairly soon find ourselves in comparatively
+level country. The severe toil, on a rather limited food supply, was
+telling on the strength as well as on the spirits of the men; Lyra and
+Kermit, in addition to their other work, performed as much actual
+physical labor as any of them.
+
+Next day, the 3rd of April, we began the descent of these sinister
+rapids of the chasm. Colonel Rondon had gone to the summit of the
+mountain in order to find a better trail for the burden-bearers, but
+it was hopeless, and they had to go along the face of the cliffs. Such
+an exploring expedition as that in which we were engaged of necessity
+involves hard and dangerous labor, and perils of many kinds. To follow
+down-stream an unknown river, broken by innumerable cataracts and
+rapids, rushing through mountains of which the existence has never
+been even guessed, bears no resemblance whatever to following even a
+fairly dangerous river which has been thoroughly explored and has
+become in some sort a highway, so that experienced pilots can be
+secured as guides, while the portages have been pioneered and trails
+chopped out, and every dangerous feature of the rapids is known
+beforehand. In this case no one could foretell that the river would
+cleave its way through steep mountain chains, cutting narrow clefts in
+which the cliff walls rose almost sheer on either hand. When a rushing
+river thus "canyons," as we used to say out West, and the mountains
+are very steep, it becomes almost impossible to bring the canoes down
+the river itself and utterly impossible to portage them along the
+cliff sides, while even to bring the loads over the mountain is a task
+of extraordinary labor and difficulty. Moreover, no one can tell how
+many times the task will have to be repeated, or when it will end, or
+whether the food will hold out; every hour of work in the rapids is
+fraught with the possibility of the gravest disaster, and yet it is
+imperatively necessary to attempt it; and all this is done in an
+uninhabited wilderness, or else a wilderness tenanted only by
+unfriendly savages, where failure to get through means death by
+disease and starvation. Wholesale disasters to South American
+exploring parties have been frequent. The first recent effort to
+descend one of the unknown rivers to the Amazon from the Brazilian
+highlands resulted in such a disaster. It was undertaken in 1889 by a
+party about as large as ours under a Brazilian engineer officer,
+Colonel Telles Peres. In descending some rapids they lost everything--
+canoes, food, medicine, implements--everything. Fever smote them, and
+then starvation. All of them died except one officer and two men, who
+were rescued months later. Recently, in Guiana, a wilderness veteran,
+Andre, lost two-thirds of his party by starvation. Genuine wilderness
+exploration is as dangerous as warfare. The conquest of wild nature
+demands the utmost vigor, hardihood, and daring, and takes from the
+conquerors a heavy toll of life and health.
+
+Lyra, Kermit, and Cherrie, with four of the men, worked the canoes
+half-way down the canyon. Again and again it was touch and go whether
+they could get by a given point. At one spot the channel of the
+furious torrent was only fifteen yards across. One canoe was lost, so
+that of the seven with which we had started only two were left.
+Cherrie labored with the other men at times, and also stood as guard
+over them, for, while actually working, of course no one could carry a
+rifle. Kermit's experience in bridge building was invaluable in
+enabling him to do the rope work by which alone it was possible to get
+the canoes down the canyon. He and Lyra had now been in the water for
+days. Their clothes were never dry. Their shoes were rotten. The
+bruises on their feet and legs had become sores. On their bodies some
+of the insect bites had become festering wounds, as indeed was the
+case with all of us. Poisonous ants, biting flies, ticks, wasps, bees
+were a perpetual torment. However, no one had yet been bitten by a
+venomous serpent, a scorpion, or a centipede, although we had killed
+all of the three within camp limits.
+
+Under such conditions whatever is evil in men's natures comes to the
+front. On this day a strange and terrible tragedy occurred. One of the
+camaradas, a man of pure European blood, was the man named Julio, of
+whom I have already spoken. He was a very powerful fellow and had been
+importunately eager to come on the expedition; and he had the
+reputation of being a good worker. But, like so many men of higher
+standing, he had had no idea of what such an expedition really meant,
+and under the strain of toil, hardship, and danger his nature showed
+its true depths of selfishness, cowardice, and ferocity. He shirked
+all work. He shammed sickness. Nothing could make him do his share;
+and yet unlike his self-respecting fellows he was always shamelessly
+begging for favors. Kermit was the only one of our party who smoked;
+and he was continually giving a little tobacco to some of the
+camaradas, who worked especially well under him. The good men did not
+ask for it; but Julio, who shirked every labor, was always, and always
+in vain, demanding it. Colonel Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit each tried to
+get work out of him, and in order to do anything with him had to
+threaten to leave him in the wilderness. He threw all his tasks on his
+comrades; and, moreover, he stole their food as well as ours. On such
+an expedition the theft of food comes next to murder as a crime, and
+should by rights be punished as such. We could not trust him to cut
+down palms or gather nuts, because he would stay out and eat what
+ought to have gone into the common store. Finally, the men on several
+occasions themselves detected him stealing their food. Alone of the
+whole party, and thanks to the stolen food, he had kept in full flesh
+and bodily vigor.
+
+One of our best men was a huge negro named Paixao Paishon--a corporal
+and acting sergeant in the engineer corps. He had, by the way,
+literally torn his trousers to pieces, so that he wore only the
+tatters of a pair of old drawers until I gave him my spare trousers
+when we lightened loads. He was a stern disciplinarian. One evening he
+detected Julio stealing food and smashed him in the mouth. Julio came
+crying to us, his face working with fear and malignant hatred; but
+after investigation he was told that he had gotten off uncommonly
+lightly. The men had three or four carbines, which were sometimes
+carried by those who were not their owners.
+
+On this morning, at the outset of the portage, Pedrinho discovered
+Julio stealing some of the men's dried meat. Shortly afterward Paishon
+rebuked him for, as usual, lagging behind. By this time we had reached
+the place where the canoes were tied to the bank and then taken down
+one at a time. We were sitting down, waiting for the last loads to be
+brought along the trail. Pedrinho was still in the camp we had left.
+Paishon had just brought in a load, left it on the ground with his
+carbine beside it, and returned on the trail for another load. Julio
+came in, put down his load, picked up the carbine, and walked back on
+the trail, muttering to himself but showing no excitement. We thought
+nothing of it, for he was always muttering; and occasionally one of
+the men saw a monkey or big bird and tried to shoot it, so it was
+never surprising to see a man with a carbine.
+
+In a minute we heard a shot; and in a short time three or four of the
+men came up the trail to tell us that Paishon was dead, having been
+shot by Julio, who had fled into the woods. Colonel Rondon and Lyra
+were ahead; I sent a messenger for them, directed Cherrie and Kermit
+to stay where they were and guard the canoes and provisions, and
+started down the trail with the doctor--an absolutely cool and plucky
+man, with a revolver but no rifle--and a couple of the camaradas. We
+soon passed the dead body of poor Paishon. He lay in a huddle, in a
+pool of his own blood, where he had fallen, shot through the heart. I
+feared that Julio had run amuck, and intended merely to take more
+lives before he died, and that he would begin with Pedrinho, who was
+alone and unarmed in the camp we had left. Accordingly I pushed on,
+followed by my companions, looking sharply right and left; but when we
+came to the camp the doctor quietly walked by me, remarking, "My eyes
+are better than yours, colonel; if he is in sight I'll point him out
+to you, as you have the rifle." However, he was not there, and the
+others soon joined us with the welcome news that they had found the
+carbine.
+
+The murderer had stood to one side of the path and killed his victim,
+when a dozen paces off, with deliberate and malignant purpose. Then
+evidently his murderous hatred had at once given way to his innate
+cowardice; and, perhaps hearing some one coming along the path, he
+fled in panic terror into the wilderness. A tree had knocked the
+carbine from his hand. His footsteps showed that after going some rods
+he had started to return, doubtless for the carbine, but had fled
+again, probably because the body had then been discovered. It was
+questionable whether or not he would live to reach the Indian
+villages, which were probably his goal. He was not a man to feel
+remorse--never a common feeling; but surely that murderer was in a
+living hell, as, with fever and famine leering at him from the
+shadows, he made his way through the empty desolation of the
+wilderness. Franca, the cook, quoted out of the melancholy proverbial
+philosophy of the people the proverb: "No man knows the heart of any
+one"; and then expressed with deep conviction a weird ghostly belief I
+had never encountered before: "Paishon is following Julio now, and
+will follow him until he dies; Paishon fell forward on his hands and
+knees, and when a murdered man falls like that his ghost will follow
+the slayer as long as the slayer lives."
+
+We did not attempt to pursue the murderer. We could not legally put
+him to death, although he was a soldier who in cold blood had just
+deliberately killed a fellow soldier. If we had been near civilization
+we would have done our best to bring him in and turn him over to
+justice. But we were in the wilderness, and how many weeks' journey
+were ahead of us we could not tell. Our food was running low, sickness
+was beginning to appear among the men, and both their courage and
+their strength were gradually ebbing. Our first duty was to save the
+lives and the health of the men of the expedition who had honestly
+been performing, and had still to perform, so much perilous labor. If
+we brought the murderer in he would have to be guarded night and day
+on an expedition where there were always loaded firearms about, and
+where there would continually be opportunity and temptation for him to
+make an effort to seize food and a weapon and escape, perhaps
+murdering some other good man. He could not be shackled while climbing
+along the cliff slopes; he could not be shackled in the canoes, where
+there was always chance of upset and drowning; and standing guard
+would be an additional and severe penalty on the weary, honest men
+already exhausted by overwork. The expedition was in peril, and it was
+wise to take every chance possible that would help secure success.
+Whether the murderer lived or died in the wilderness was of no moment
+compared with the duty of doing everything to secure the safety of the
+rest of the party. For the two days following we were always on the
+watch against his return, for he could have readily killed some one
+else by rolling rocks down on any of the men working on the cliff
+sides or in the bottom of the gorge. But we did not see him until the
+morning of the third day. We had passed the last of the rapids of the
+chasm, and the four boats were going down-stream when he appeared
+behind some trees on the bank and called out that he wished to
+surrender and be taken aboard; for the murderer was an arrant craven
+at heart, a strange mixture of ferocity and cowardice. Colonel
+Rondon's boat was far in advance; he did not stop nor answer. I kept
+on in similar fashion with the rear boats, for I had no intention of
+taking the murderer aboard, to the jeopardy of the other members of
+the party, unless Colonel Rondon told me that it would have to be done
+in pursuance of his duty as an officer of the army and a servant of
+the Government of Brazil. At the first halt Colonel Rondon came up to
+me and told me that this was his view of his duty, but that he had not
+stopped because he wished first to consult me as the chief of the
+expedition. I answered that for the reasons enumerated above I did not
+believe that in justice to the good men of the expedition we should
+jeopardize their safety by taking the murderer along, and that if the
+responsibility were mine I should refuse to take him; but that he,
+Colonel Rondon, was the superior officer of both the murderer and of
+all the other enlisted men and army officers on the expedition, and in
+return was responsible for his actions to his own governmental
+superiors and to the laws of Brazil; and that in view of this
+responsibility he must act as his sense of duty bade him. Accordingly,
+at the next camp he sent back two men, expert woodsmen, to find the
+murderer and bring him in. They failed to find him.
+
+  NOTE:
+  The above account of all the circumstances connected with the murder
+  was read to and approved as correct by all six members of the
+  expedition.
+
+I have anticipated my narrative because I do not wish to recur to the
+horror more than is necessary. I now return to my story. After we
+found that Julio had fled, we returned to the scene of the tragedy.
+The murdered man lay with a handkerchief thrown over his face. We
+buried him beside the place where he fell. With axes and knives the
+camaradas dug a shallow grave while we stood by with bared heads. Then
+reverently and carefully we lifted the poor body which but half an
+hour before had been so full of vigorous life. Colonel Rondon and I
+bore the head and shoulders. We laid him in the grave, and heaped a
+mound over him, and put a rude cross at his head. We fired a volley
+for a brave and loyal soldier who had died doing his duty. Then we
+left him forever, under the great trees beside the lonely river.
+
+That day we got only half-way down the rapids. There was no good place
+to camp. But at the foot of one steep cliff there was a narrow,
+boulder-covered slope where it was possible to sling hammocks and
+cook; and a slanting spot was found for my cot, which had sagged until
+by this time it looked like a broken-backed centipede. It rained a
+little during the night, but not enough to wet us much. Next day Lyra,
+Kermit, and Cherrie finished their job, and brought the four remaining
+canoes to camp, one leaking badly from the battering on the rocks. We
+then went down-stream a few hundred yards, and camped on the opposite
+side; it was not a good camping-place, but it was better than the one
+we left.
+
+The men were growing constantly weaker under the endless strain of
+exhausting labor. Kermit was having an attack of fever, and Lyra and
+Cherrie had touches of dysentery, but all three continued to work.
+While in the water trying to help with an upset canoe I had by my own
+clumsiness bruised my leg against a boulder; and the resulting
+inflammation was somewhat bothersome. I now had a sharp attack of
+fever, but thanks to the excellent care of the doctor, was over it in
+about forty-eight hours; but Kermit's fever grew worse and he too was
+unable to work for a day or two. We could walk over the portages,
+however. A good doctor is an absolute necessity on an exploring
+expedition in such a country as that we were in, under penalty of a
+frightful mortality among the members; and the necessary risks and
+hazards are so great, the chances of disaster so large, that there is
+no warrant for increasing them by the failure to take all feasible
+precautions.
+
+The next day we made another long portage round some rapids, and
+camped at night still in the hot, wet, sunless atmosphere of the
+gorge. The following day, April 6, we portaged past another set of
+rapids, which proved to be the last of the rapids of the chasm. For
+some kilometres we kept passing hills, and feared lest at any moment
+we might again find ourselves fronting another mountain gorge; with,
+in such case, further days of grinding and perilous labor ahead of us,
+while our men were disheartened, weak, and sick. Most of them had
+already begun to have fever. Their condition was inevitable after over
+a month's uninterrupted work of the hardest kind in getting through
+the long series of rapids we had just passed; and a long further
+delay, accompanied by wearing labor, would have almost certainly meant
+that the weakest among our party would have begun to die. There were
+already two of the camaradas who were too weak to help the others,
+their condition being such as to cause us serious concern.
+
+However, the hills gradually sank into a level plain, and the river
+carried us through it at a rate that enabled us during the remainder
+of the day to reel off thirty-six kilometres, a record that for the
+first time held out promise. Twice tapirs swam the river while we
+passed, but not near my canoe. However, the previous evening, Cherrie
+had killed two monkeys and Kermit one, and we all had a few mouthfuls
+of fresh meat; we had already had a good soup made out of a turtle
+Kermit had caught. We had to portage by one short set of rapids, the
+unloaded canoes being brought down without difficulty. At last, at
+four in the afternoon, we came to the mouth of a big river running in
+from the right. We thought it was probably the Ananas, but, of course,
+could not be certain. It was less in volume than the one we had
+descended, but nearly as broad; its breadth at this point being
+ninety-five yards as against one hundred and twenty for the larger
+river. There were rapids ahead, immediately after the junction, which
+took place in latitude 10 degrees 58 minutes south. We had come 216
+kilometres all told, and were nearly north of where we had started. We
+camped on the point of land between the two rivers. It was
+extraordinary to realize that here about the eleventh degree we were
+on such a big river, utterly unknown to the cartographers and not
+indicated by even a hint on any map. We named this big tributary Rio
+Cardozo, after a gallant officer of the commission who had died of
+beriberi just as our expedition began. We spent a day at this spot,
+determining our exact position by the sun, and afterward by the stars,
+and sending on two men to explore the rapids in advance. They returned
+with the news that there were big cataracts in them, and that they
+would form an obstacle to our progress. They had also caught a huge
+iluroid fish, which furnished an excellent meal for everybody in camp.
+This evening at sunset the view across the broad river, from our camp
+where the two rivers joined, was very lovely; and for the first time
+we had an open space in front of and above us, so that after nightfall
+the stars, and the great waxing moon, were glorious over-head, and
+against the rocks in midstream the broken water gleamed like tossing
+silver.
+
+The huge catfish which the men had caught was over three feet and a
+half long, with the usual enormous head, out of all proportions to the
+body, and the enormous mouth, out of all proportion to the head. Such
+fish, although their teeth are small, swallow very large prey. This
+one contained the nearly digested remains of a monkey. Probably the
+monkey had been seized while drinking from the end of a branch; and
+once engulfed in that yawning cavern there was no escape. We Americans
+were astounded at the idea of a catfish making prey of a monkey; but
+our Brazilian friends told us that in the lower Madeira and the part
+of the Amazon near its mouth there is a still more gigantic catfish
+which in similar fashion occasionally makes prey of man. This is a
+grayish-white fish over nine feet long, with the usual
+disproportionately large head and gaping mouth, with a circle of small
+teeth; for the engulfing mouth itself is the danger, not the teeth. It
+is called the piraiba--pronounced in four syllables. While stationed
+at the small city of Itacoatiara, on the Amazon, at the mouth of the
+Madeira, the doctor had seen one of these monsters which had been
+killed by the two men it had attacked. They were fishing in a canoe
+when it rose from the bottom--for it is a ground fish--and raising
+itself half out of the water lunged over the edge of the canoe at
+them, with open mouth. They killed it with their falcons, as machetes
+are called in Brazil. It was taken round the city in triumph in an
+oxcart; the doctor saw it, and said it was three metres long. He said
+that swimmers feared it even more than the big cayman, because they
+could see the latter, whereas the former lay hid at the bottom of the
+water. Colonel Rondon said that in many villages where he had been on
+the lower Madeira the people had built stockaded enclosures in the
+water in which they bathed, not venturing to swim in the open water
+for fear of the piraiba and the big cayman.
+
+Next day, April 8, we made five kilometres only, as there was a
+succession of rapids. We had to carry the loads past two of them, but
+ran the canoes without difficulty, for on the west side were long
+canals of swift water through the forest. The river had been higher,
+but was still very high, and the current raced round the many islands
+that at this point divided the channel. At four we made camp at the
+head of another stretch of rapids, over which the Canadian canoes
+would have danced without shipping a teaspoonful of water, but which
+our dugouts could only run empty. Cherrie killed three monkeys and
+Lyra caught two big piranhas, so that we were again all of us well
+provided with dinner and breakfast. When a number of men, doing hard
+work, are most of the time on half-rations, they grow to take a lively
+interest in any reasonably full meal that does arrive.
+
+On the 10th we repeated the proceedings: a short quick run; a few
+hundred metres' portage, occupying, however, at least a couple of
+hours; again a few minutes' run; again other rapids. We again made
+less than five kilometres; in the two days we had been descending
+nearly a metre for every kilometre we made in advance; and it hardly
+seemed as if this state of things could last, for the aneroid showed
+that we were getting very low down. How I longed for a big Maine
+birch-bark, such as that in which I once went down the Mattawamkeag at
+high water! It would have slipped down these rapids as a girl trips
+through a country dance. But our loaded dugouts would have shoved
+their noses under every curl. The country was lovely. The wide river,
+now in one channel, now in several channels, wound among hills; the
+shower-freshened forest glistened in the sunlight; the many kinds of
+beautiful palm-fronds and the huge pacova-leaves stamped the peculiar
+look of the tropics on the whole landscape--it was like passing by
+water through a gigantic botanical garden. In the afternoon we got an
+elderly toucan, a piranha, and a reasonably edible side-necked river-
+turtle; so we had fresh meat again. We slept as usual in earshot of
+rapids. We had been out six weeks, and almost all the time we had been
+engaged in wearily working our own way down and past rapid after
+rapid. Rapids are by far the most dangerous enemies of explorers and
+travellers who journey along these rivers.
+
+Next day was a repetition of the same work. All the morning was spent
+in getting the loads to the foot of the rapids at the head of which we
+were encamped, down which the canoes were run empty. Then for thirty
+or forty minutes we ran down the swift, twisting river, the two lashed
+canoes almost coming to grief at one spot where a swirl of the current
+threw them against some trees on a small submerged island. Then we
+came to another set of rapids, carried the baggage down past them, and
+made camp long after dark in the rain--a good exercise in patience for
+those of us who were still suffering somewhat from fever. No one was
+in really buoyant health. For some weeks we had been sharing part of
+the contents of our boxes with the camaradas; but our food was not
+very satisfying to them. They needed quantity and the mainstay of each
+of their meals was a mass of palmitas; but on this day they had no
+time to cut down palms. We finally decided to run these rapids with
+the empty canoes, and they came down in safety. On such a trip it is
+highly undesirable to take any save necessary risks, for the
+consequences of disaster are too serious; and yet if no risks are
+taken the progress is so slow that disaster comes anyhow; and it is
+necessary perpetually to vary the terms of the perpetual working
+compromise between rashness and over-caution. This night we had a very
+good fish to eat, a big silvery fellow called a pescada, of a kind we
+had not caught before.
+
+One day Trigueiro failed to embark with the rest of us, and we had to
+camp where we were next day to find him. Easter Sunday we spent in the
+fashion with which we were altogether too familiar. We only ran in a
+clear course for ten minutes all told, and spent eight hours in
+portaging the loads past rapids down which the canoes were run; the
+balsa was almost swamped. This day we caught twenty-eight big fish,
+mostly piranhas, and everybody had all he could eat for dinner, and
+for breakfast the following morning.
+
+The forenoon of the following day was a repetition of this wearisome
+work; but late in the afternoon the river began to run in long quiet
+reaches. We made fifteen kilometres, and for the first time in several
+weeks camped where we did not hear the rapids. The silence was
+soothing and restful. The following day, April 14, we made a good run
+of some thirty-two kilometres. We passed a little river which entered
+on our left. We ran two or three light rapids, and portaged the loads
+by another. The river ran in long and usually tranquil stretches. In
+the morning when we started the view was lovely. There was a mist, and
+for a couple of miles the great river, broad and quiet, ran between
+the high walls of tropical forest, the tops of the giant trees showing
+dim through the haze. Different members of the party caught many fish,
+and shot a monkey and a couple of jacare-tinga birds kin to a turkey,
+but the size of a fowl--so we again had a camp of plenty. The dry
+season was approaching, but there were still heavy, drenching rains.
+On this day the men found some new nuts of which they liked the taste;
+but the nuts proved unwholesome and half of the men were very sick and
+unable to work the following day. In the balsa only two were left fit
+to do anything, and Kermit plied a paddle all day long.
+
+Accordingly, it was a rather sorry crew that embarked the following
+morning, April 15. But it turned out a red-letter day. The day before,
+we had come across cuttings, a year old, which were probably but not
+certainly made by pioneer rubbermen. But on this day--during which we
+made twenty-five kilometres--after running two hours and a half we
+found on the left bank a board on a post, with the initials J. A., to
+show the farthest up point which a rubberman had reached and claimed
+as his own. An hour farther down we came on a newly built house in a
+little planted clearing; and we cheered heartily. No one was at home,
+but the house, of palm thatch, was clean and cool. A couple of dogs
+were on watch, and the belongings showed that a man, a woman, and a
+child lived there, and had only just left. Another hour brought us to
+a similar house where dwelt an old black man, who showed the innate
+courtesy of the Brazilian peasant. We came on these rubbermen and
+their houses in about latitude 10 degrees 24 minutes.
+
+In mid-afternoon we stopped at another clean, cool, picturesque house
+of palm thatch. The inhabitants all fled at our approach, fearing an
+Indian raid; for they were absolutely unprepared to have any one come
+from the unknown regions up-stream. They returned and were most
+hospitable and communicative; and we spent the night there. Said
+Antonio Correa to Kermit: "It seems like a dream to be in a house
+again, and hear the voices of men and women, instead of being among
+those mountains and rapids." The river was known to them as the
+Castanho, and was the main affluent or rather the left or western
+branch, of the Aripuanan; the Castanho is a name used by the rubber-
+gatherers only; it is unknown to the geographers. We were, according
+to our informants, about fifteen days' journey from the confluence of
+the two rivers; but there were many rubbermen along the banks, some of
+whom had become permanent settlers. We had come over three hundred
+kilometres, in forty-eight days, over absolutely unknown ground; we
+had seen no human being, although we had twice heard Indians. Six
+weeks had been spent in steadily slogging our way down through the
+interminable series of rapids. It was astonishing before, when we were
+on a river of about the size of the upper Rhine or Elbe, to realize
+that no geographer had any idea of its existence. But, after all, no
+civilized man of any grade had ever been on it. Here, however, was a
+river with people dwelling along the banks, some of whom had lived in
+the neighborhood for eight or ten years; and yet on no standard map
+was there a hint of the river's existence. We were putting on the map
+a river, running through between five and six degrees of latitude--of
+between seven and eight if, as should properly be done, the lower
+Aripuanan is included as part of it--of which no geographer, in any
+map published in Europe, or the United States, or Brazil had even
+admitted the possibility of the existence; for the place actually
+occupied by it was filled, on the maps, by other--imaginary--streams,
+or by mountain ranges. Before we started, the Amazonas Boundary
+Commission had come up the lower Aripuanan and then the eastern
+branch, or upper Aripuanan, to 8 degrees 48 minutes, following the
+course which for a couple of decades had been followed by the
+rubbermen, but not going as high. An employee, either of this
+commission or of one of the big rubbermen, had been up the Castanho,
+which is easy of ascent in its lower course, to about the same
+latitude, not going nearly as high as the rubbermen had gone; this we
+found out while we ourselves were descending the lower Castanho. The
+lower main stream, and the lower portion of its main affluent, the
+Castanho, had been commercial highways for rubbermen and settlers for
+nearly two decades, and, as we speedily found, were as easy to
+traverse as the upper stream, which we had just come down, was
+difficult to traverse; but the governmental and scientific
+authorities, native and foreign, remained in complete ignorance; and
+the rubbermen themselves had not the slightest idea of the headwaters,
+which were in country never hitherto traversed by civilized men.
+Evidently the Castanho was, in length at least, substantially equal,
+and probably superior, to the upper Aripuanan; it now seemed even more
+likely that the Ananas was the headwaters of the main stream than of
+the Cardozo.
+
+For the first time this great river, the greatest affluent of the
+Madiera, was to be put on the map; and the understanding of its real
+position and real relationship, and the clearing up of the complex
+problem of the sources of all these lower right-hand affluents of the
+Madiera, was rendered possible by the seven weeks of hard and
+dangerous labor we had spent in going down an absolutely unknown
+river, through an absolutely unknown wilderness. At this stage of the
+growth of world geography I esteemed it a great piece of good fortune
+to be able to take part in such a feat--a feat which represented the
+capping of the pyramid which during the previous seven years had been
+built by the labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission.
+
+We had passed the period when there was a chance of peril, of
+disaster, to the whole expedition. There might be risk ahead to
+individuals, and some difficulties and annoyances for all of us; but
+there was no longer the least likelihood of any disaster to the
+expedition as a whole. We now no longer had to face continual anxiety,
+the need of constant economy with food, the duty of labor with no end
+in sight, and bitter uncertainty as to the future.
+
+It was time to get out. The wearing work, under very unhealthy
+conditions, was beginning to tell on every one. Half of the camaradas
+had been down with fever and were much weakened; only a few of them
+retained their original physical and moral strength. Cherrie and
+Kermit had recovered; but both Kermit and Lyra still had bad sores on
+their legs, from the bruises received in the water work. I was in
+worse shape. The after effects of the fever still hung on; and the leg
+which had been hurt while working in the rapids with the sunken canoe
+had taken a turn for the bad and developed an abscess. The good
+doctor, to whose unwearied care and kindness I owe much, had cut it
+open and inserted a drainage tube; an added charm being given the
+operation, and the subsequent dressings, by the enthusiasm with which
+the piums and boroshudas took part therein. I could hardly hobble, and
+was pretty well laid up. But "there aren't no 'stop, conductor,' while
+a battery's changing ground." No man has any business to go on such a
+trip as ours unless he will refuse to jeopardize the welfare of his
+associates by any delay caused by a weakness or ailment of his. It is
+his duty to go forward, if necessary on all fours, until he drops.
+Fortunately, I was put to no such test. I remained in good shape until
+we had passed the last of the rapids of the chasms. When my serious
+trouble came we had only canoe-riding ahead of us. It is not ideal for
+a sick man to spend the hottest hours of the day stretched on the
+boxes in the bottom of a small open dugout, under the well-nigh
+intolerable heat of the torrid sun of the mid-tropics, varied by
+blinding, drenching downpours of rain; but I could not be sufficiently
+grateful for the chance. Kermit and Cherrie took care of me as if they
+had been trained nurses; and Colonel Rondon and Lyra were no less
+thoughtful.
+
+The north was calling strongly to the three men of the north--Rocky
+Dell Farm to Cherrie, Sagamore Hill to me; and to Kermit the call was
+stronger still. After nightfall we could now see the Dipper well above
+the horizon--upside down, with the two pointers pointing to a north
+star below the world's rim; but the Dipper, with all its stars. In our
+home country spring had now come, the wonderful northern spring of
+long glorious days, of brooding twilights, of cool delightful nights.
+Robin and bluebird, meadow-lark and song sparrow, were singing in the
+mornings at home; the maple-buds were red; windflowers and bloodroot
+were blooming while the last patches of snow still lingered; the
+rapture of the hermithrush in Vermont, the serene golden melody of the
+woodthrush on Long Island, would be heard before we were there to
+listen. Each man to his home, and to his true love! Each was longing
+for the homely things that were so dear to him, for the home people
+who were dearer still, and for the one who was dearest of all.
+
+
+
+                X. TO THE AMAZON AND HOME; ZOOLOGICAL
+              AND GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION
+
+Our adventures and our troubles were alike over. We now experienced
+the incalculable contrast between descending a known and travelled
+river, and one that is utterly unknown. After four days we hired a
+rubberman to go with us as guide. We knew exactly what channels were
+passable when we came to the rapids, when the canoes had to unload,
+and where the carry-trails were. It was all child's play compared to
+what we had gone through. We made long days' journeys, for at night we
+stopped at some palm-thatched house, inhabited or abandoned, and
+therefore the men were spared the labor of making camp; and we bought
+ample food for them, so there was no further need of fishing and
+chopping down palms for the palmtops. The heat of the sun was blazing;
+but it looked as if we had come back into the rainy season, for there
+were many heavy rains, usually in the afternoon, but sometimes in the
+morning or at night. The mosquitoes were sometimes rather troublesome
+at night. In the daytime the piums swarmed, and often bothered us even
+when we were in midstream.
+
+For four days there were no rapids we could not run without unloading.
+Then, on the 19th, we got a canoe from Senhor Barboso. He was a most
+kind and hospitable man, who also gave us a duck and a chicken and
+some mandioc and six pounds of rice, and would take no payment; he
+lived in a roomy house with his dusky, cigar-smoking wife and his many
+children. The new canoe was light and roomy, and we were able to rig
+up a low shelter under which I could lie; I was still sick. At noon we
+passed the mouth of a big river, the Rio Branco, coming in from the
+left; this was about in latitude 9 degrees 38 minutes. Soon afterward
+we came to the first serious rapids, the Panela. We carried the boats
+past, ran down the empty canoes, and camped at the foot in a roomy
+house. The doctor bought a handsome trumpeter bird, very friendly and
+confiding, which was thenceforth my canoe companion.
+
+We had already passed many inhabited--and a still larger number of
+uninhabited--houses. The dwellers were rubbermen, but generally they
+were permanent settlers also, homemakers, with their wives and
+children. Some, both of the men and women, were apparently of pure
+negro blood, or of pure Indian or south European blood; but in the
+great majority all three strains were mixed in varying degrees. They
+were most friendly, courteous, and hospitable. Often they refused
+payment for what they could afford, out of their little, to give us.
+When they did charge, the prices were very high, as was but just, for
+they live back of the beyond, and everything costs them fabulously,
+save what they raise themselves. The cool, bare houses of poles and
+palm thatch contained little except hammocks and a few simple cooking
+utensils; and often a clock or sewing machine, or Winchester rifle,
+from our own country. They often had flowers planted, including
+fragrant roses. Their only live stock, except the dogs, were a few
+chickens and ducks. They planted patches of mandioc, maize, sugarcane,
+rice, beans, squashes, pineapples, bananas, lemons, oranges, melons,
+peppers; and various purely native fruits and vegetables, such as the
+kniabo--a vegetable-fruit growing on the branches of a high bush--
+which is cooked with meat. They get some game from the forest, and
+more fish from the river. There is no representative of the government
+among them--indeed, even now their very existence is barely known to
+the governmental authorities; and the church has ignored them as
+completely as the state. When they wish to get married they have to
+spend several months getting down to and back from Manaos or some
+smaller city; and usually the first christening and the marriage
+ceremony are held at the same time. They have merely squatter's right
+to the land, and are always in danger of being ousted by unscrupulous
+big men who come in late, but with a title technically straight. The
+land laws should be shaped so as to give each of these pioneer
+settlers the land he actually takes up and cultivates, and upon which
+he makes his home. The small homemaker, who owns the land which he
+tills with his own hands, is the greatest element of strength in any
+country.
+
+These are real pioneer settlers. They are the true wilderness-winners.
+No continent is ever really conquered, or thoroughly explored, by a
+few leaders, or exceptional men, although such men can render great
+service. The real conquest, the thorough exploration and settlement,
+is made by a nameless multitude of small men of whom the most
+important are, of course, the home-makers. Each treads most of the
+time in the footsteps of his predecessors, but for some few miles, at
+some time or other, he breaks new ground; and his house is built where
+no house has ever stood before. Such a man, the real pioneer, must
+have no strong desire for social life and no need, probably no
+knowledge, of any luxury, or of any comfort save of the most
+elementary kind. The pioneer who is always longing for the comfort and
+luxury of civilization, and especially of great cities, is no real
+pioneer at all. These settlers whom we met were contented to live in
+the wilderness. They had found the climate healthy and the soil
+fruitful; a visit to a city was a very rare event, nor was there any
+overwhelming desire for it.
+
+In short, these men, and those like them everywhere on the frontier
+between civilization and savagery in Brazil, are now playing the part
+played by our backwoodsmen when over a century and a quarter ago they
+began the conquest of the great basin of the Mississippi; the part
+played by the Boer farmers for over a century in South Africa, and by
+the Canadians when less than half a century ago they began to take
+possession of their Northwest. Every now and then some one says that
+the "last frontier" is now to be found in Canada or Africa, and that
+it has almost vanished. On a far larger scale this frontier is to be
+found in Brazil--a country as big as Europe or the United States--and
+decades will pass before it vanishes. The first settlers came to
+Brazil a century before the first settlers came to the United States
+and Canada. For three hundred years progress was very slow--Portuguese
+colonial government at that time was almost as bad as Spanish. For the
+last half-century and over there has been a steady increase in the
+rapidity of the rate of development; and this increase bids fair to be
+constantly more rapid in the future.
+
+The Paolistas, hunting for lands, slaves, and mines, were the first
+native Brazilians who, a hundred years ago, played a great part in
+opening to settlement vast stretches of wilderness. The rubber hunters
+have played a similar part during the last few decades. Rubber dazzled
+them, as gold and diamonds have dazzled other men and driven them
+forth to wander through the wide waste spaces of the world. Searching
+for rubber they made highways of rivers the very existence of which
+was unknown to the governmental authorities, or to any map-makers.
+Whether they succeeded or failed, they everywhere left behind them
+settlers, who toiled, married, and brought up children. Settlement
+began; the conquest of the wilderness entered on its first stage.
+
+On the 20th we stopped at the first store, where we bought, of course
+at a high price, sugar and tobacco for the camaradas. In this land of
+plenty the camaradas over-ate, and sickness was as rife among them as
+ever. In Cherrie's boat he himself and the steersman were the only men
+who paddled strongly and continuously. The storekeeper's stock of
+goods was very low, only what he still had left from that brought in
+nearly a year before; for the big boats, or batelaos-batelons--had not
+yet worked as far up-stream. We expected to meet them somewhere below
+the next rapids, the Inferno. The trader or rubberman brings up his
+year's supply of goods in a batelao, starting in February and reaching
+the upper course of the river early in May, when the rainy season is
+over. The parties of rubber-explorers are then equipped and
+provisioned; and the settlers purchase certain necessities, and
+certain things that strike them as luxuries. This year the Brazil-nut
+crop on the river had failed, a serious thing for all explorers and
+wilderness wanderers.
+
+On the 20th we made the longest run we had made, fifty-two kilometres.
+Lyra took observations where we camped; we were in latitude 8 degrees
+49 minutes. At this camping-place the great, beautiful river was a
+little over three hundred metres wide. We were in an empty house. The
+marks showed that in the high water, a couple of months back, the
+river had risen until the lower part of the house was flooded. The
+difference between the level of the river during the floods and in the
+dry season is extraordinary.
+
+On the 21st we made another good run, getting down to the Inferno
+rapids, which are in latitude 8 degrees 19 minutes south. Until we
+reached the Cardozo we had run almost due north; since then we had
+been running a little west of north. Before we reached these rapids we
+stopped at a large, pleasant thatch house, and got a fairly big and
+roomy as well as light boat, leaving both our two smaller dugouts
+behind. Above the rapids a small river, the Madeirainha, entered from
+the left. The rapids had a fall of over ten metres, and the water was
+very wild and rough. Met with for the first time, it would doubtless
+have taken several days to explore a passage and, with danger and
+labor, get the boats down. But we were no longer exploring,
+pioneering, over unknown country. It is easy to go where other men
+have prepared the way. We had a guide; we took our baggage down by a
+carry three-quarters of a kilometre long; and the canoes were run
+through known channels the following morning. At the foot of the
+rapids was a big house and store; and camped at the head were a number
+of rubber-workers, waiting for the big boats of the head rubbermen to
+work their way up from below. They were a reckless set of brown
+daredevils. These men lead hard lives of labor and peril; they
+continually face death themselves, and they think little of it in
+connection with others. It is small wonder that they sometimes have
+difficulties with the tribes of utterly wild Indians with whom they
+are brought in contact, although there is a strong Indian strain in
+their own blood.
+
+The following morning, after the empty canoes had been run down, we
+started, and made a rather short afternoon's journey. We had to take
+the baggage by one rapids. We camped in an empty house, in the rain.
+Next day we ran nearly fifty kilometres, the river making a long sweep
+to the west. We met half a dozen batelaos making their way up-stream,
+each with a crew of six or eight men; and two of them with women and
+children in addition. The crew were using very long poles, with
+crooks, or rather the stubs of cut branches which served as crooks, at
+the upper end. With these they hooked into the branches and dragged
+themselves up along the bank, in addition to poling where the depth
+permitted it. The river was as big as the Paraguay at Corumba; but, in
+striking contrast to the Paraguay, there were few water-birds. We ran
+some rather stiff rapids, the Infernino, without unloading, in the
+morning. In the evening we landed for the night at a large, open,
+shed-like house, where there were two or three pigs, the first live
+stock we had seen other than poultry and ducks. It was a dirty place,
+but we got some eggs.
+
+The following day, the 24th, we ran down some fifty kilometres to the
+Carupanan rapids, which by observation Lyra found to be in latitude 7
+degrees 47 minutes. We met several batelaos, and the houses on the
+bank showed that the settlers were somewhat better off than was the
+case farther up. At the rapids was a big store, the property of Senhor
+Caripe, the wealthiest rubberman who works on this river; many of the
+men we met were in his employ. He has himself risen from the ranks. He
+was most kind and hospitable, and gave us another boat to replace the
+last of our shovel-nosed dugouts. The large, open house was cool,
+clean, and comfortable.
+
+With these began a series of half a dozen sets of rapids, all coming
+within the next dozen kilometres, and all offering very real
+obstacles. At one we saw the graves of four men who had perished
+therein; and many more had died whose bodies were never recovered; the
+toll of human life had been heavy. Had we been still on an unknown
+river, pioneering our own way, it would doubtless have taken us at
+least a fortnight of labor and peril to pass. But it actually took
+only a day and a half. All the channels were known, all the trails
+cut. Senhor Caripe, a first-class waterman, cool, fearless, and brawny
+as a bull, came with us as guide. Half a dozen times the loads were
+taken out and carried down. At one cataract the canoes were themselves
+dragged overland; elsewhere they were run down empty, shipping a good
+deal of water. At the foot of the cataract, where we dragged the
+canoes overland, we camped for the night. Here Kermit shot a big
+cayman. Our camp was alongside the graves of three men who at this
+point had perished in the swift water.
+
+Senhor Caripe told us many strange adventures of rubber-workers he had
+met or employed. One of his men, working on the Gy-Parana, got lost
+and after twenty-eight days found himself on the Madeirainha, which he
+thus discovered. He was in excellent health, for he had means to start
+a fire, and he found abundance of Brazil-nuts and big land-tortoises.
+Senhor Caripe said that the rubbermen now did not go above the ninth
+degree, or thereabouts, on the upper Aripuanan proper, having found
+the rubber poor on the reaches above. A year previously five
+rubbermen, Mundurucu Indians, were working on the Corumba at about
+that level. It is a difficult stream to ascend or descend. They made
+excursions into the forest for days at a time after caoutchouc. On one
+such trip, after fifteen days they, to their surprise, came out on the
+Aripuanan. They returned and told their "patron" of their discovery;
+and by his orders took their caoutchouc overland to the Aripuanan,
+built a canoe, and ran down with their caoutchouc to Manaos. They had
+now returned and were working on the upper Aripuanan. The Mundurucus
+and Brazilians are always on the best terms, and the former are even
+more inveterate enemies of the wild Indians than are the latter.
+
+By mid-forenoon on April 26 we had passed the last dangerous rapids.
+The paddles were plied with hearty good will, Cherrie and Kermit, as
+usual, working like the camaradas, and the canoes went dancing down
+the broad, rapid river. The equatorial forest crowded on either hand
+to the water's edge; and, although the river was falling, it was still
+so high that in many places little islands were completely submerged,
+and the current raced among the trunks of the green trees. At one
+o'clock we came to the mouth of the Castanho proper, and in sight of
+the tent of Lieutenant Pyrineus, with the flags of the United States
+and Brazil flying before it; and, with rifles firing from the canoes
+and the shore, we moored at the landing of the neat, soldierly, well
+kept camp. The upper Aripuanan, a river of substantially the same
+volume as the Castanho, but broader at this point, and probably of
+less length, here joined the Castanho from the east, and the two
+together formed what the rubbermen called the lower Aripuanan. The
+mouth of this was indicated, and sometimes named, on the maps, but
+only as a small and unimportant stream.
+
+We had been two months in the canoes; from the 27th of February to the
+26th of April. We had gone over 750 kilometres. The river from its
+source, near the thirteenth degree, to where it became navigable and
+we entered it, had a course of some 200 kilometres--probably more,
+perhaps 300 kilometres. Therefore we had now put on the map a river
+nearly 1,000 kilometres in length of which the existence was not
+merely unknown but impossible if the standard maps were correct. But
+this was not all. It seemed that this river of 1,000 kilometres in
+length was really the true upper course of the Aripuanan proper, in
+which case the total length was nearly 1,500 kilometres. Pyrineus had
+been waiting for us over a month, at the junction of what the
+rubbermen called the Castanho and of what they called the upper
+Aripuanan. (He had no idea as to which stream we would appear upon, or
+whether we would appear upon either.) On March 26 he had measured the
+volume of the two, and found that the Castanho, although the narrower,
+was the deeper and swifter, and that in volume it surpassed the other
+by 84 cubic metres a second. Since then the Castanho had fallen; our
+measurements showed it to be slightly smaller than the other; the
+volume of the river after the junction was about 4,500 cubic metres a
+second. This was in 7 degrees 34 minutes.
+
+We were glad indeed to see Pyrineus and be at his attractive camp. We
+were only four hours above the little river hamlet of Sao Joao, a port
+of call for rubber-steamers, from which the larger ones go to Manaos
+in two days. These steamers mostly belong to Senhor Caripe. From
+Pyrineus we learned that Lauriado and Fiala had reached Manaos on
+March 26. On the swift water in the gorge of the Papagaio Fiala's boat
+had been upset and all his belongings lost, while he himself had
+narrowly escaped with his life. I was glad indeed that the fine and
+gallant fellow had escaped. The Canadian canoe had done very well. We
+were no less rejoiced to learn that Amilcar, the head of the party
+that went down the Gy-Parana, was also all right, although his canoe
+too had been upset in the rapids, and his instruments and all his
+notes lost. He had reached Manaos on April 10. Fiala had gone home.
+Miller was collecting near Manaos. He had been doing capital work.
+
+The piranhas were bad here, and no one could bathe. Cherrie, while
+standing in the water close to the shore, was attacked and bitten; but
+with one bound he was on the bank before any damage could be done.
+
+We spent a last night under canvas, at Pyrineus' encampment. It rained
+heavily. Next morning we all gathered at the monument which Colonel
+Rondon had erected, and he read the orders of the day. These recited
+just what had been accomplished: set forth the fact that we had now by
+actual exploration and investigation discovered that the river whose
+upper portion had been called the Duvida on the maps of the
+Telegraphic Commission and the unknown major part of which we had just
+traversed, and the river known to a few rubbermen, but to no one else,
+as the Castanho, and the lower part of the river known to the
+rubbermen as the Aripuanan (which did not appear on the maps save as
+its mouth was sometimes indicated, with no hint of its size) were all
+parts of one and the same river; and that by order of the Brazilian
+Government this river, the largest affluent of the Madeira, with its
+source near the 13th degree and its mouth a little south of the 5th
+degree, hitherto utterly unknown to cartographers and in large part
+utterly unknown to any save the local tribes of Indians, had been
+named the Rio Roosevelt.
+
+We left Rondon, Lyra, and Pyrineus to take observations, and the rest
+of us embarked for the last time on the canoes, and, borne swiftly on
+the rapid current, we passed over one set of not very important rapids
+and ran down to Senhor Caripe's little hamlet of Sao Joao, which we
+reached about one o'clock on April 27, just before a heavy afternoon
+rain set in. We had run nearly eight hundred kilometres during the
+sixty days we had spent in the canoes. Here we found and boarded
+Pyrineus's river steamer, which seemed in our eyes extremely
+comfortable. In the senhor's pleasant house we were greeted by the
+senhora, and they were both more than thoughtful and generous in their
+hospitality. Ahead of us lay merely thirty-six hours by steamer to
+Manaos. Such a trip as that we had taken tries men as if by fire.
+Cherrie had more than stood every test; and in him Kermit and I had
+come to recognize a friend with whom our friendship would never falter
+or grow less.
+
+Early the following afternoon our whole party, together with Senhor
+Caripe, started on the steamer. It took us a little over twelve hours'
+swift steaming to run down to the mouth of the river on the upper
+course of which our progress had been so slow and painful; from source
+to mouth, according to our itinerary and to Lyra's calculations, the
+course of the stream down which we had thus come was about 1,500
+kilometres in length--about 900 miles, perhaps nearly 1,000 miles--
+from its source near the 13th degree in the highlands to its mouth in
+the Madeira, near the 5th degree. Next morning we were on the broad
+sluggish current of the lower Madeira, a beautiful tropical river.
+There were heavy rainstorms, as usual, although this is supposed to be
+the very end of the rainy season. In the afternoon we finally entered
+the wonderful Amazon itself, the mighty river which contains one tenth
+of all the running water of the globe. It was miles across, where we
+entered it; and indeed we could not tell whether the farther bank,
+which we saw, was that of the mainland or an island. We went up it
+until about midnight, then steamed up the Rio Negro for a short
+distance, and at one in the morning of April 30 reached Manaos.
+
+Manaos is a remarkable city. It is only three degrees south of the
+equator. Sixty years ago it was a nameless little collection of
+hovels, tenanted by a few Indians and a few of the poorest class of
+Brazilian peasants. Now it is a big, handsome modern city, with Opera
+house, tramways, good hotels, fine squares and public buildings, and
+attractive private houses. The brilliant coloring and odd architecture
+give the place a very foreign and attractive flavor in northern eyes.
+Its rapid growth to prosperity was due to the rubber trade. This is
+now far less remunerative than formerly. It will undoubtedly in some
+degree recover; and in any event the development of the immensely rich
+and fertile Amazonian valley is sure to go on, and it will be
+immensely quickened when closer connections are made with the
+Brazilian highland country lying south of it.
+
+Here we found Miller, and glad indeed we were to see him. He had made
+good collections of mammals and birds on the Gy-Parana, the Madeira,
+and in the neighborhood of Manaos; his entire collection of mammals
+was really noteworthy. Among them was the only sloth any of us had
+seen on the trip. The most interesting of the birds he had seen was
+the hoatzin. This is a most curious bird of very archaic type. Its
+flight is feeble, and the naked young have spurs on their wings, by
+the help of which they crawl actively among the branches before their
+feathers grow. They swim no less easily, at the same early age. Miller
+got one or two nests, and preserved specimens of the surroundings of
+the nests; and he made exhaustive records of the habits of the birds.
+Near Megasso a jaguar had killed one of the bullocks that were being
+driven along for food. The big cat had not seized the ox with its
+claws by the head, but had torn open its throat and neck.
+
+Every one was most courteous at Manaos, especially the governor of the
+state and the mayor of the city. Mr. Robiliard, the British consular
+representative, and also the representative of the Booth line of
+steamers, was particularly kind. He secured for us passages on one of
+the cargo boats of the line to Para, and thence on one of the regular
+cargo-and-passenger steamers to Barbados and New York. The Booth
+people were most courteous to us.
+
+I said good-by to the camaradas with real friendship and regret. The
+parting gift I gave to each was in gold sovereigns; and I was rather
+touched to learn later that they had agreed among themselves each to
+keep one sovereign as a medal of honor and token that the owner had
+been on the trip. They were a fine set, brave, patient, obedient, and
+enduring. Now they had forgotten their hard times; they were fat from
+eating, at leisure, all they wished; they were to see Rio Janeiro,
+always an object of ambition with men of their stamp; and they were
+very proud of their membership in the expedition.
+
+Later, at Belen, I said good-by to Colonel Rondon, Doctor Cajazeira,
+and Lieutenant Lyra. Together with my admiration for their hardihood,
+courage, and resolution, I had grown to feel a strong and affectionate
+friendship for them. I had become very fond of them; and I was glad to
+feel that I had been their companion in the performance of a feat
+which possessed a certain lasting importance.
+
+On May 1 we left Manaos for Belen-Para, as until recently it was
+called. The trip was interesting. We steamed down through tempest and
+sunshine; and the towering forest was dwarfed by the giant river it
+fringed. Sunrise and sunset turned the sky to an unearthly flame of
+many colors above the vast water. It all seemed the embodiment of
+loneliness and wild majesty. Yet everywhere man was conquering the
+loneliness and wresting the majesty to his own uses. We passed many
+thriving, growing towns; at one we stopped to take on cargo.
+Everywhere there was growth and development. The change since the days
+when Bates and Wallace came to this then poor and utterly primitive
+region is marvellous. One of its accompaniments has been a large
+European, chiefly south European, immigration. The blood is everywhere
+mixed; there is no color line, as in most English-speaking countries,
+and the negro and Indian strains are very strong; but the dominant
+blood, the blood already dominant in quantity, and that is steadily
+increasing its dominance, is the olive-white.
+
+Only rarely did the river show its full width. Generally we were in
+channels or among islands. The surface of the water was dotted with
+little islands of floating vegetation. Miller said that much of this
+came from the lagoons such as those where he had been hunting, beside
+the Solimoens--lagoons filled with the huge and splendid Victoria
+lily, and with masses of water hyacinths. Miller, who was very fond of
+animals and always took much care of them, had a small collection
+which he was bringing back for the Bronx Zoo. An agouti was so bad-
+tempered that he had to be kept solitary; but three monkeys, big,
+middle-sized, and little, and a young peccary formed a happy family.
+The largest monkey cried, shedding real tears, when taken in the arms
+and pitied. The middle-sized monkey was stupid and kindly, and all the
+rest of the company imposed on it; the little monkey invariably rode
+on its back, and the peccary used it as a head pillow when it felt
+sleepy.
+
+Belen, the capital of the state of Para, was an admirable illustration
+of the genuine and almost startling progress which Brazil has been
+making of recent years. It is a beautiful city, nearly under the
+equator. But it is not merely beautiful. The docks, the dredging
+operations, the warehouses, the stores and shops, all tell of energy
+and success in commercial life. It is as clean, healthy, and well
+policed a city as any of the size in the north temperate zone. The
+public buildings are handsome, the private dwellings attractive; there
+are a fine opera-house, an excellent tramway system, and a good museum
+and botanical gardens. There are cavalry stables, where lights burn
+all night long to protect the horses from the vampire bats. The parks,
+the rows of palms and mango-trees, the open-air restaurants, the gay
+life under the lights at night, all give the city its own special
+quality and charm. Belen and Manaos are very striking examples of what
+can be done in the mid-tropics. The governor of Para and his charming
+wife were more than kind.
+
+Cherrie and Miller spent the day at the really capital zoological
+gardens, with the curator, Miss Snethlage. Miss Snethlage, a German
+lady, is a first rate field and closet naturalist, and an explorer of
+note, who has gone on foot from the Xingu to the Tapajos. Most wisely
+she has confined the Belen zoo to the animals of the lower Amazon
+valley, and in consequence I know of no better local zoological
+gardens. She has an invaluable collection of birds and mammals of the
+region; and it was a privilege to meet her and talk with her.
+
+We also met Professor Farrabee, of the University of Pennsylvania, the
+ethnologist. He had just finished a very difficult and important trip,
+from Manaos by the Rio Branco to the highlands of Guiana, across them
+on foot, and down to the seacoast of British Guiana. He is an
+admirable representative of the men who are now opening South America
+to scientific knowledge.
+
+On May 7 we bade good-by to our kind Brazilian friends and sailed
+northward for Barbados and New York.
+
+Zoologically the trip had been a thorough success. Cherrie and Miller
+had collected over twenty-five hundred birds, about five hundred
+mammals, and a few reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. Many of them
+were new to science; for much of the region traversed had never
+previously been worked by any scientific collector.
+
+Of course, the most important work we did was the geographic work, the
+exploration of the unknown river, undertaken at the suggestion of the
+Brazilian Government, and in conjunction with its representatives. No
+piece of work of this kind is ever achieved save as it is based on
+long continued previous work. As I have before said, what we did was
+to put the cap on the pyramid that had been built by Colonel Rondon
+and his associates of the Telegraphic Commission during the six
+previous years. It was their scientific exploration of the chapadao,
+their mapping the basin of the Juruena, and their descent of the Gy-
+Parana that rendered it possible for us to solve the mystery of the
+River of Doubt.
+
+The work of the commission, much the greatest work of the kind ever
+done in South America, is one of the many, many achievements which the
+republican government of Brazil has to its credit. Brazil has been
+blessed beyond the average of her Spanish-American sisters because she
+won her way to republicanism by evolution rather than revolution. They
+plunged into the extremely difficult experiment of democratic, of
+popular, self-government, after enduring the atrophy of every quality
+of self-control, self-reliance, and initiative throughout three
+withering centuries of existence under the worst and most foolish form
+of colonial government, both from the civil and the religious
+standpoint, that has ever existed. The marvel is not that some of them
+failed, but that some of them have eventually succeeded in such
+striking fashion. Brazil, on the contrary, when she achieved
+independence, first exercised it under the form of an authoritative
+empire, then under the form of a liberal empire. When the republic
+came, the people were reasonably ripe for it. The great progress of
+Brazil--and it has been an astonishing progress--has been made under
+the republic. I could give innumerable examples and illustrations of
+this. The change that has converted Rio Janeiro from a picturesque
+pest-hole into a singularly beautiful, healthy, clean, and efficient
+modern great city is one of these. Another is the work of the
+Telegraphic Commission.
+
+We put upon the map a river some fifteen hundred kilometres in length,
+of which the upper course was not merely utterly unknown to, but
+unguessed at by, anybody; while the lower course, although known for
+years to a few rubbermen, was utterly unknown to cartographers. It is
+the chief affluent of the Madeira, which is itself the chief affluent
+of the Amazon.
+
+The source of this river is between the 12th and 13th parallels of
+latitude south and the 59th and 60th degrees of longitude west from
+Greenwich. We embarked on it at about latitude 12 degrees 1 minute
+south, and about longitude 60 degrees 15 minutes west. After that its
+entire course lay between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude,
+approaching the latter most closely about latitude 8 degrees 15
+minutes. The first rapids we encountered were in latitude 11 degrees
+44 minutes, and in uninterrupted succession they continued for about a
+degree, without a day's complete journey between any two of them. At
+11 degrees 23 minutes the Rio Kermit entered from the left, at 11
+degrees 22 minutes the Rio Marciano Avila from the right, at 11
+degrees 18 minutes the Taunay from the left, at 10 degrees 58 minutes
+the Cardozo from the right. In 10 degrees 24 minutes we encountered
+the first rubbermen. The Rio Branco entered from the left at 9 degrees
+38 minutes. Our camp at 8 degrees 49 minutes was nearly on the
+boundary between Matto Grosso and Amazonas. The confluence with the
+Aripuanan, which joined from the right, took place at 7 degrees 34
+minutes. The entrance into the Madeira was at about 5 degrees 20
+minutes (this point we did not determine by observation, as it is
+already on the maps). The stream we had followed down was from the
+river's highest sources; we had followed its longest course.
+
+
+
+                             APPENDIX A.
+
+                   The Work of the Field Zoologist
+                and Field Geographer in South America
+
+Portions of South America are now entering on a career of great social
+and industrial development. Much remains to be known, so far as the
+outside world is concerned, of the social and industrial condition in
+the long-settled interior regions. More remains to be done, in the way
+of pioneer exploring and of scientific work, in the great stretches of
+virgin wilderness. The only two other continents where such work, of
+like volume and value, remains to be done are Africa and Asia; and
+neither Africa nor Asia offers a more inviting field for the best kind
+of field worker in geographical exploration and in zoological,
+geological, and paleontological investigation. The explorer is merely
+the most adventurous kind of field geographer; and there are two or
+three points worth keeping in mind in dealing with the South American
+work of the field geographer and field zoologist.
+
+Roughly, the travellers who now visit (like those who for the past
+century have visited) South America come in three categories--
+although, of course, these categories are not divided by hard-and-fast
+lines.
+
+First, there are the travellers who skirt the continent in comfortable
+steamers, going from one great seaport to another, and occasionally
+taking a short railway journey to some big interior city not too far
+from the coast. This is a trip well worth taking by all intelligent
+men and women who can afford it; and it is being taken by such men and
+women with increasing frequency. It entails no more difficulty than a
+similar trip to the Mediterranean--than such a trip which to a learned
+and broad-minded observer offers the same chance for acquiring
+knowledge and, if he is himself gifted with wisdom, the same chance of
+imparting his knowledge to others that is offered by a trip of similar
+length through the larger cities of Europe or the United States.
+Probably the best instance of the excellent use to which such an
+observer can put his experience is afforded by the volume of Mr.
+Bryce. Of course, such a trip represents travelling of essentially the
+same kind as travelling by railroad from Atlanta to Calgary or from
+Madrid to Moscow.
+
+Next there are the travellers who visit the long-settled districts and
+colonial cities of the interior, travelling over land or river
+highways which have been traversed for centuries but which are still
+primitive as regards the inns and the modes of conveyance. Such
+travelling is difficult in the sense that travelling in parts of Spain
+or southern Italy or the Balkan states is difficult. Men and women who
+have a taste for travel in out-of-way places and who, therefore, do
+not mind slight discomforts and inconveniences have the chance
+themselves to enjoy, and to make others profit by, travels of this
+kind in South America. In economic, social, and political matters the
+studies and observations of these travellers are essential in order to
+supplement, and sometimes to correct, those of travellers of the first
+category; for it is not safe to generalize overmuch about any country
+merely from a visit to its capital or its chief seaport. These
+travellers of the second category can give us most interesting and
+valuable information about quaint little belated cities; about
+backward country folk, kindly or the reverse, who show a mixture of
+the ideas of savagery with the ideas of an ancient peasantry; and
+about rough old highways of travel which in comfort do not differ much
+from those of mediaeval Europe. The travellers who go up or down the
+highway rivers that have been travelled for from one to four hundred
+years--rivers like the Paraguay and Parana, the Amazon, the Tapajos,
+the Madeira, the lower Orinoco--come in this category. They can add
+little to our geographical knowledge; but if they are competent
+zoologists or archaeologists, especially if they live or sojourn
+long in a locality, their work may be invaluable from the scientific
+standpoint. The work of the archaeologists among the immeasurably
+ancient ruins of the low-land forests and the Andean plateaux is of
+this kind. What Agassiz did for the fishes of the Amazon and what
+Hudson did for the birds of the Argentine are other instances of the
+work that can thus be done. Burton's writings on the interior of
+Brazil offer an excellent instance of the value of a sojourn or trip
+of this type, even without any especial scientific object.
+
+Of course travellers of this kind need to remember that their
+experiences in themselves do not qualify them to speak as wilderness
+explorers. Exactly as a good archaeologist may not be competent to
+speak of current social or political problems, so a man who has done
+capital work as a tourist observer in little-visited cities and along
+remote highways must beware of regarding himself as being thereby
+rendered fit for genuine wilderness work or competent to pass judgment
+on the men who do such work. To cross the Andes on mule-back along the
+regular routes is a feat comparable to the feats of the energetic
+tourists who by thousands traverse the mule trails in out-of-the-way
+nooks of Switzerland. An ordinary trip on the highway portions of the
+Amazon, Paraguay, or Orinoco in itself no more qualifies a man to
+speak of or to take part in exploring unknown South American rivers
+than a trip on the lower Saint Lawrence qualifies a man to regard
+himself as an expert in a canoe voyage across Labrador or the Barren
+Grounds west of Hudson Bay.
+
+A hundred years ago, even seventy or eighty years ago, before the age
+of steamboats and railroads, it was more difficult than at present to
+define the limits between this class and the next; and, moreover, in
+defining these limits I emphatically disclaim any intention of thereby
+attempting to establish a single standard of value for books of
+travel. Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" is to me the best book of the
+kind ever written; it is one of those classics which decline to go
+into artificial categories, and which stand by themselves; and yet
+Darwin, with his usual modesty, spoke of it as in effect a yachting
+voyage. Humboldt's work had a profound effect on the thought of the
+civilized world; his trip was one of adventure and danger; and yet it
+can hardly be called exploration proper. He visited places which had
+been settled and inhabited for centuries and traversed places which
+had been travelled by civilized men for years before he followed in
+their footsteps. But these places were in Spanish colonies, and access
+to them had been forbidden by the mischievous and intolerant tyranny--
+ecclesiastical, political, and economic--which then rendered Spain the
+most backward of European nations; and Humboldt was the first
+scientific man of intellectual independence who had permission to
+visit them. To this day many of his scientific observations are of
+real value. Bates came to the Amazon just before the era of Amazonian
+steamboats. He never went off the native routes of ordinary travel.
+But he was a devoted and able naturalist. He lived an exceedingly
+isolated, primitive, and laborious life for eleven years. Now, half a
+century after it was written, his "Naturalist on the Amazon" is as
+interesting and valuable as it ever was, and no book since written has
+in any way supplanted it.
+
+Travel of the third category includes the work of the true wilderness
+explorers who add to our sum of geographical knowledge and of the
+scientific men who, following their several bents, also work in the
+untrodden wilds. Colonel Rondon and his associates have done much in
+the geographical exploration of unknown country, and Cherrie and
+Miller have penetrated and lived for months and years in the wastes,
+on their own resources, as incidents to their mammalogical and
+ornithological work. Professor Farrabee, the anthropologist, is a
+capital example of the man who does this hard and valuable type of
+work.
+
+An immense amount of this true wilderness work, geographical and
+zoological, remains to be done in South America. It can be
+accomplished with reasonable thoroughness only by the efforts of very
+many different workers, each in his own special field. It is desirable
+that here and there a part of the work should be done in outline by
+such a geographic and zoological reconnaissance as ours; we would, for
+example, be very grateful for such work in portions of the interior of
+the Guianas, on the headwaters of the Xingu, and here and there along
+the eastern base of the Andes.
+
+But as a rule the work must be specialized; and in its final shape it
+must be specialized everywhere. The first geographical explorers of
+the untrodden wilderness, the first wanderers who penetrate the wastes
+where they are confronted with starvation, disease, and danger and
+death in every from, cannot take with them the elaborate equipment
+necessary in order to do the thorough scientific work demanded by
+modern scientific requirements. This is true even of exploration done
+along the courses of unknown rivers; it is more true of the
+exploration, which must in South America become increasingly
+necessary, done across country, away from the rivers.
+
+The scientific work proper of these early explorers must be of a
+somewhat preliminary nature; in other words the most difficult and
+therefore ordinarily the most important pieces of first-hand exploration
+are precisely those where the scientific work of the accompanying
+cartographer, geologist, botanist, and zoologist must be furthest
+removed from finality. The zoologist who works to most advantage in
+the wilderness must take his time, and therefore he must normally
+follow in the footsteps of, and not accompany, the first explorers.
+The man who wishes to do the best scientific work in the wilderness
+must not try to combine incompatible types of work nor to cover too
+much ground in too short a time.
+
+There is no better example of the kind of zoologist who does first-
+class field-work in the wilderness than John D. Haseman, who spent
+from 1907 to 1910 in painstaking and thorough scientific investigation
+over a large extent of South American territory hitherto only
+partially known or quite unexplored. Haseman's primary object was to
+study the characteristics and distribution of South American fishes,
+but as a matter of fact he studied at first hand many other more or
+less kindred subjects, as may be seen in his remarks on the Indians
+and in his excellent pamphlet on "Some Factors of Geographical
+Distribution in South America."
+
+Haseman made his long journey with a very slender equipment, his
+extraordinarily successful field-work being due to his bodily health
+and vigor and his resourcefulness, self-reliance, and resolution. His
+writings are rendered valuable by his accuracy and common sense. The
+need of the former of these two attributes will be appreciated by
+whoever has studied the really scandalous fictions which have been
+published as genuine by some modern "explorers" and adventurers in
+South America; and the need of the latter by whoever has studied
+some of the wild theories propounded in the name of science concerning
+the history of life on the South American continent. There is,
+however, one serious criticism to be made on Haseman: the extreme
+obscurity of his style--an obscurity mixed with occasional bits of
+scientific pedantry, which makes it difficult to tell whether or not
+on some points his thought is obscure also. Modern scientists, like
+modern historians and, above all, scientific and historical educators,
+should ever keep in mind that clearness of speech and writing is
+essential to clearness of thought and that a simple, clear, and, if
+possible, vivid style is vital to the production of the best work in
+either science or history. Darwin and Huxley are classics, and they
+would not have been if they had not written good English. The thought
+is essential, but ability to give it clear expression is only less
+essential. Ability to write well, if the writer has nothing to write
+about, entitles him to mere derision. But the greatest thought is
+robbed of an immense proportion of its value if expressed in a mean or
+obscure manner. Mr. Haseman has such excellent thought that it is a
+pity to make it a work of irritating labor to find out just what the
+thought is. Surely, if he will take as much pains with his writing as
+he has with the far more difficult business of exploring and
+collecting, he will become able to express his thought clearly and
+forcefully. At least he can, if he chooses, go over his sentences
+until he is reasonably sure that they can be parsed. He can take pains
+to see that his whole thought is expressed, instead of leaving
+vacancies which must be filled by the puzzled and groping reader. His
+own views and his quotations from the views of others about the static
+and dynamic theories of distribution are examples of an important
+principle so imperfectly expressed as to make us doubtful whether it
+is perfectly apprehended by the writer. He can avoid the use of those
+pedantic terms which are really nothing but offensive and,
+fortunately, ephemeral scientific slang. There has been, for instance,
+a recent vogue for the extensive misuse, usually tautological misuse,
+of the word "complexus"--an excellent word if used rarely and for
+definite purposes. Mr. Haseman drags it in continually when its use is
+either pointless and redundant or else serves purely to darken wisdom.
+He speaks of the "Antillean complex" when he means the Antilles, of
+the "organic complex" instead of the characteristic or bodily
+characteristics of an animal or species, and of the "environmental
+complex" when he means nothing whatever but the environment. In short,
+Mr. Haseman and those whose bad example he in this instance follows
+use "complexus" in much the same spirit as that displayed by the
+famous old lady who derived religious--instead of scientific--
+consolation from the use of "the blessed word Mesopotamia."
+
+The reason that it is worth while to enter this protest against Mr.
+Haseman's style is because his work is of such real and marked value.
+The pamphlet on the distribution of South American species shows that
+to exceptional ability as a field worker he adds a rare power to draw,
+with both caution and originality, the necessary general conclusions
+from the results of his own observations and from the recorded studies
+of other men; and there is nothing more needed at the present moment
+among our scientific men than the development of a school of men who,
+while industrious and minute observers and collectors and cautious
+generalizers, yet do not permit the faculty of wise generalization to
+be atrophied by excessive devotion to labyrinthine detail.
+
+Haseman upholds with strong reasoning the theory that since the
+appearance of all but the lowest forms of life on this globe there
+have always been three great continental masses, sometimes solid
+sometimes broken, extending southward from the northern hemisphere,
+and from time to time connected in the north, but not in the middle
+regions or the south since the carboniferous epoch. He holds that life
+has been intermittently distributed southward along these continental
+masses when there were no breaks in their southward connection, and
+intermittently exchanged between them when they were connected in the
+north; and he also upholds the view that from a common ancestral form
+the same species has been often developed in entirely disconnected
+localities when in these localities the conditions of environment were
+the same.
+
+The opposite view is that there have been frequent connections between
+the great land masses, alike in the tropics, in the south temperate
+zone, and in the Antarctic region. The upholders of this theory base
+it almost exclusively on the distribution of living and fossil forms
+of life; that is, it is based almost exclusively on biological and not
+geological considerations. Unquestionably, the distribution of many
+forms of life, past and present, offers problems which with our
+present paleontological knowledge we are wholly unable to solve. If we
+consider only the biological facts concerning some one group of
+animals it is not only easy but inevitable to conclude that its
+distribution must be accounted for by the existence of some former
+direct land bridge extending, for instance, between Patagonia and
+Australia, or between Brazil and South Africa, or between the West
+Indies and the Mediterranean, or between a part of the Andean region
+and northeastern Asia. The trouble is that as more groups of animals
+are studied from the standpoint of this hypothesis the number of such
+land bridges demanded to account for the existing facts of animal
+distribution is constantly and indefinitely extended. A recent book by
+one of the most learned advocates of this hypothesis calls for at
+least ten such land bridges between South America and all the other
+continents, present and past, of the world since a period geologically
+not very remote. These land bridges, moreover, must, many of them,
+have been literally bridges; long, narrow tongues of land thrust in
+every direction across the broad oceans. According to this view the
+continental land masses have been in a fairly fluid condition of
+instability. By parity of reasoning, the land bridges could be made a
+hundred instead of merely ten in number. The facts of distribution are
+in many cases inexplicable with our present knowledge; yet if the
+existence of widely separated but closely allied forms is habitually
+to be explained in accordance with the views of the extremists of this
+school we could, from the exclusive study of certain groups of
+animals, conclude that at different periods the United States and
+almost every other portion of the earth were connected by land and
+severed from all other regions by water--and, from the study of
+certain other groups of animals, arrive at directly opposite and
+incompatible conclusions.
+
+The most brilliant and unsafe exponent of this school was Ameghino,
+who possessed and abused two gifts, both essential to the highest type
+of scientist, and both mischievous unless this scientist possess a
+rare and accurate habit of thought joined to industry and mastery of
+detail:--namely, the gift of clear and interesting writing, and the
+gift of generalization. Ameghino rendered marked services to
+paleontology. But he generalized with complete recklessness from the
+slenderest data; and even these data he often completely misunderstood
+or misinterpreted. His favorite thesis included the origin of
+mammalian life and of man himself in southernmost South America, with,
+as incidents, the belief that the mammalian-bearing strata of South
+America were of much greater age than the strata with corresponding
+remains elsewhere; that in South America various species and genera of
+men existed in tertiary times, some of them at least as advanced as
+fairly well advanced modern savages; that there existed various land
+bridges between South America and other southern continents, including
+Africa; and that the ancestral types of modern mammals and of man
+himself wandered across one of these bridges to the old world, and
+that thence their remote descendants, after ages of time, returned to
+the new. In addition to valuable investigations of fossil-bearing beds
+in the Argentine, he made some excellent general suggestions, such as
+that the pithecoid apes, like the baboons, do not stand in the line of
+man's ancestral stem but represent a divergence from it away from
+humanity and toward a retrogressive bestialization. But of his main
+theses he proves none, and what evidence we have tells against them.
+At the Museum of La Plata I found that the authorities were
+practically a unit in regarding his remains of tertiary men and proto-
+men as being either the remains of tertiary American monkeys or of
+American Indians from strata that were long post-tertiary. The
+extraordinary discovery, due to that eminent scientist and public
+servant Doctor Moreno, of the remains of man associated with the
+remains of the great extinct South American fauna, of the mylodon, of
+a giant ungulate, of a huge cat like the lion, and of an extraordinary
+aberrant horse (of a wholly different genus from the modern horse)
+conclusively shows that in its later stages the South American fauna
+consisted largely of types that elsewhere had already disappeared and
+that these types persisted into what was geologically a very recent
+period only some tens of thousands of years ago, when savage man of
+practically a modern type had already appeared in South America. The
+evidence we have, so far as it goes, tends to show that the South
+American fauna always has been more archaic in type than the arctogeal
+fauna of the same chronological level.
+
+To loose generalizations, and to elaborate misinterpretations of
+paleontological records, the kind of work done by Mr. Haseman
+furnishes an invaluable antiscorbutic. To my mind, he has established
+a stronger presumption in favor of the theory he champions than has
+been established in favor of the theories of any of the learned and
+able scientific men from whose conclusions he dissents. Further
+research, careful, accurate, and long extended, can alone enable us to
+decide definitely in the matter; and this research, to be effective,
+must be undertaken by many men, each of whom shall in large measure
+possess Mr. Haseman's exceptional power of laborious work both in the
+field and in the study, his insight and accuracy of observation, and
+his determination to follow truth with inflexible rectitude wherever
+it may lead--one of the greatest among the many great qualities which
+lifted Huxley and Darwin above their fellows.
+
+
+
+                             APPENDIX B.
+
+      The Outfit for Travelling in the South American Wilderness
+
+South America includes so many different kinds of country that it is
+impossible to devise a scheme of equipment which shall suit all. A
+hunting-trip in the pantanals, in the swamp country of the upper
+Paraguay, offers a simple problem. An exploring trip through an
+unknown tropical forest region, even if the work is chiefly done by
+river, offers a very difficult problem. All that I can pretend to do
+is to give a few hints as the results of our own experience.
+
+For bedding there should be a hammock, mosquito-net, and light
+blanket. These can be obtained in Brazil. For tent a light fly is
+ample; ours were brought with us from New York. In exploring only the
+open fly should be taken; but on trips where weight of luggage is no
+objection, there can be walls to the tent and even a canvas floor-
+cloth. Camp-chairs and a camp table should be brought--any good
+outfitter in the United States will supply them--and not thrown away
+until it becomes imperative to cut everything down. On a river trip,
+first-class pulleys and ropes--preferably steel, and at any rate very
+strong--should be taken. Unless the difficulties of transportation are
+insuperable, canvas-and-cement canoes, such as can be obtained from
+various firms in Canada and the United States, should by all means be
+taken. They are incomparably superior to the dugouts. But on different
+rivers wholly different canoes, of wholly different sizes, will be
+needed; on some steam or electric launches may be used; it is not
+possible to lay down a general rule.
+
+As regards arms, a good plain 12-bore shotgun with a 30-30 rifle-
+barrel underneath the others is the best weapon to have constantly in
+one's hand in the South American forests, where big game is rare and
+yet may at any time come in one's path. When specially hunting the
+jaguar, marsh-deer, tapir, or big peccary, an ordinary light repeating
+rifle--the 30-30, 30-40, or 256--is preferable. No heavy rifle is
+necessary for South America. Tin boxes or trunks are the best in which
+to carry one's spare things. A good medicine-chest is indispensable.
+Nowadays doctors know so much of tropical diseases that there is no
+difficulty in fitting one out. It is better not to make the trip at
+all than to fail to take an ample supply of quinine pills. Cholera
+pills and cathartic pills come next in importance. In liquid shape
+there should be serum to inject for the stoppage of amoebic dysentery,
+and anti-snake-venom serum. Fly-dope should be taken in quantities.
+
+For clothing Kermit and I used what was left over from our African
+trip. Sun helmets are best in the open; slouch-hats are infinitely
+preferable in the woods. There should be hobnailed shoes--the nails
+many and small, not few and large; and also moccasins or rubber-soled
+shoes; and light, flexible leggings. Tastes differ in socks; I like
+mine of thick wool. A khaki-colored shirt should be worn, or, as a
+better substitute, a khaki jacket with many pockets. Very light
+underclothes are good. If one's knees and legs are unfortunately
+tender, knickerbockers with long stockings and leggings should be worn;
+ordinary trousers tend to bind the knee. Better still, if one's legs
+will stand the exposure, are shorts, not coming down to the knee. A
+kilt would probably be best of all. Kermit wore shorts in the
+Brazilian forest, as he had already worn them in Africa, in Mexico,
+and in the New Brunswick woods. Some of the best modern hunters always
+wear shorts; as for example, that first-class sportsman the Duke of
+Alva.
+
+Mr. Fiala, after the experience of his trip down the Papagaio, the
+Juruena, and the Tapajos, gives his judgment about equipment and
+provisions as follows:
+
+The history of South American exploration has been full of the losses
+of canoes and cargoes and lives. The native canoe made from the single
+trunk of a forest giant is the craft that has been used. It is durable
+and if lost can be readily replaced from the forest by good men with
+axes and adzes. But, because of its great weight and low free-board,
+it is unsuitable as a freight carrier and by reason of the limitations
+of its construction is not of the correct form to successfully run the
+rapid and bad waters of many of the South American rivers. The North
+American Indian has undoubtedly developed a vastly superior craft in
+the birch-bark canoe and with it will run rapids that a South American
+Indian with his log canoe would not think of attempting, though, as a
+general thing, the South American Indian is a wonderful waterman, the
+equal and, in some ways, the superior of his northern contemporary. At
+the many carries or portages the light birch-bark canoe or its modern
+representative, the canvas-covered canoe, can be picked up bodily and
+carried by from two to four men for several miles, if necessary, while
+the log canoe has to be hauled by ropes and back-breaking labor over
+rollers that have first to be cut from trees in the forest, or at
+great risk led along the edge of the rapids with ropes and hooks and
+poles, the men often up to their shoulders in the rushing waters,
+guiding the craft to a place of safety.
+
+The native canoe is so long and heavy that it is difficult to navigate
+without some bumps on the rocks. In fact, it is usually dragged over
+the rocks in the shallow water near shore in preference to taking the
+risk of a plunge through the rushing volume of deeper water, for
+reasons stated above. The North American canoe can be turned with
+greater facility in critical moments in bad water. Many a time I heard
+my steersman exclaim with delight as we took a difficult passage
+between two rocks with our loaded Canadian canoe. In making the same
+passage the dugout would go sideways toward the rapid until by a
+supreme effort her three powerful paddlers and steersman would right
+her just in time. The native canoe would ship great quantities of
+water in places the Canadian canoe came through without taking any
+water on board. We did bump a few rocks under water, but the canoe was
+so elastic that no damage was done.
+
+Our nineteen-foot canvas-covered freight canoe, a type especially
+built for the purpose on deep, full lines with high free-board,
+weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds and would carry a ton of
+cargo with ease--and also take it safely where the same cargo
+distributed among two or three native thirty or thirty-five foot
+canoes would be lost. The native canoes weigh from about nine hundred
+to two thousand five hundred pounds and more.
+
+In view of the above facts the explorer-traveller is advised to take
+with him the North American canoe if he intends serious work. Two
+canoes would be a good arrangement for from five to seven men, with
+at least one steersman and two paddlers to each canoe. The canoes can
+be purchased in two sizes and nested for transportation, an
+arrangement which would save considerable expense in freight bills. At
+least six paddles should be packed with each boat, in length four and
+one half, four and three fourths, and five feet. Other paddles from
+six and one half feet to eight and one half feet should be provided
+for steering oars. The native paddler, after he has used the light
+Canadian paddle, prefers it to the best native make. My own paddlers
+lost or broke all of their own paddles so as to get the North American
+ones, which they marked with their initials and used most carefully.
+
+To each canoe it would be well to have two copper air tanks, one fore,
+one aft, a hand-hole in each with a water-tight screw cover on hatch.
+In these tanks could be kept a small supply of matches, the
+chronometer or watch which is used for position, and the scientific
+records and diary. Of course, the fact should be kept in mind that
+these are air tanks, not to be used so as to appreciably diminish
+their buoyancy. Each canoe should also carry a small repair kit
+attached to one of the thwarts, containing cement, a piece of canvas
+same as cover of canoe, copper tacks, rivets, and some galvanized
+nails; a good hatchet and a hammer; a small can of canoe paint, spar
+varnish, and copper paint for worn places would be a protection
+against termites and torrential downpours. In concluding the subject
+of canoes I can state that the traveller in South America will find no
+difficulty in disposing of his craft at the end of his trip.
+
+MOTORS--We had with us a three and one half horse-power motor which
+could be attached to stern or gunwale of canoe or boat. It was made by
+the Evinrude Motor Company, who had a magneto placed in the flywheel
+of the engine so that we never had to resort to the battery to run the
+motor. Though the motor was left out in the rain and sun, often
+without a cover, by careless native help, it never failed us. We found
+it particularly valuable in going against the strong current of the
+Sepotuba River where several all-night trips were made up-stream, the
+motor attached to a heavy boat. For exploration up-stream it would be
+valuable, particularly as it is easily portable, weighing for the two
+horse-power motor fifty pounds, for three and one half horse-power one
+hundred pounds. If a carburetor could be attached so that kerosene
+could be used it would add to its value many times, for kerosene can
+be purchased almost anywhere in South America.
+
+TENTS--There is nothing better for material than the light waterproof
+Sea Island cotton of American manufacture, made under the trade name
+of waterproof silk. It keeps out the heaviest rain and is very light.
+Canvas becomes water-soaked, and cravenetted material lets the water
+through. A waterproof canvas floor is a luxury, and, though it adds to
+the weight, it may with advantage be taken on ordinary trips. The tent
+should be eight by eight or eight by nine feet, large enough to swing
+a comfortable hammock. A waterproof canvas bag, a loose-fitting
+envelope for the tent should be provided. Native help is, as a rule,
+careless, and the bag would save wear and tear.
+
+HAMMOCKS--The hammock is the South American bed, and the traveller
+will find it exceedingly comfortable. After leaving the larger cities
+and settlements a bed is a rare object. All the houses are provided
+with extra hammock hooks. The traveller will be entertained hospitably
+and after dinner will be given two hooks upon which to hang his
+hammock, for he will be expected to have his hammock and, in insect
+time, his net, if he has nothing else. As a rule, a native hammock and
+net can be procured in the field. But it is best to take a comfortable
+one along, arranged with a fine-meshed net.
+
+In regard to the folding cot: It is heavy and its numerous legs form a
+sort of highway system over which all sorts of insects can crawl up to
+the sleeper. The ants are special pests and some of them can bite with
+the enthusiastic vigor of beasts many times their size. The canvas
+floor in a tent obviates to a degree the insect annoyance.
+
+The headwaters of the rivers are usually reached by pack-trains of
+mules and oxen. The primitive ox-cart also comes in where the trail is
+not too bad. One hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty pounds is
+a good load for the pack-animals, and none of the cases should weigh
+more than fifty or sixty pounds. Each case should be marked with its
+contents and gross and net weight in kilos.
+
+For personal baggage the light fibre sample case used by travelling
+men in the United States does admirably. The regulation fibre case
+with its metal binding sold for the purpose is too heavy and has the
+bad feature of swelling up under the influence of rain and dampness,
+often necessitating the use of an axe or heavy hammer to remove cover.
+
+The ordinary fibre trunk is good for rail and steamer travel, but it
+is absolutely unpractical for mule-back or canoe. The fibre sample
+case could be developed into a container particularly fitted for
+exploration. The fibre should be soaked in hot paraffin and then hot-
+calendered or hot-pressed. This case could then be covered with
+waterproof canvas with throat opening like a duffel-bag.
+
+The waterproof duffel-bags usually sold are too light in texture and
+wear through. A heavier grade should be used. The small duffel-bag is
+very convenient for hammock and clothing, but generally the thing
+wanted will be at the bottom of the bag! We took with us a number of
+small cotton bags. As cotton is very absorbent, I had them paraffined.
+Each bag was tagged and all were placed in the large duffel-bag. The
+light fibre case described above, made just the right size for mule
+pack, divided by partitions, and covered with a duffel-bag, would
+prove a great convenience.
+
+The light steel boxes made in England for travellers in India and
+Africa would prove of value in South American exploration. They have
+the advantage of being insect and water proof and the disadvantage of
+being expensive.
+
+It would be well if the traveller measured each case for personal
+equipment and computed the limit of weight that it could carry and
+still float. By careful distribution of light and heavy articles in
+the different containers, he could be sure of his belongings floating
+if accidentally thrown into the water.
+
+It is not always possible to get comfortable native saddles. They are
+all constructed on heavy lines with thick padding which becomes water-
+soaked in the rainy season. A United States military saddle, with
+Whitman or McClellan tree, would be a positive luxury. Neither of them
+is padded, so would be the correct thing for all kinds of weather. The
+regulation army saddle-blanket is also advised as a protection for the
+mule's back. The muleteer should wash the saddle-blanket often. For a
+long mule-back trip through a game country, it would be well to have a
+carbine boot on the saddle (United States Army) and saddle-bags with
+canteen and cup. In a large pack-train much time and labor are lost
+every morning collecting the mules which strayed while grazing. It
+would pay in the long run to feed a little corn at a certain hour
+every morning in camp, always ringing a bell or blowing a horn at the
+time. The mules would get accustomed to receiving the feed and would
+come to camp for it at the signal.
+
+All the rope that came to my attention in South America was three-
+strand hemp, a hard material, good for standing rigging but not good
+for tackle or for use aboard canoes. A four-ply bolt rope of best
+manilla, made in New Bedford, Mass., should be taken. It is the finest
+and most pliable line in the world, as any old whaler will tell you.
+Get a sailor of the old school to relay the coils before you go into
+the field so that the rope will be ready for use. Five eighths to
+seven eighths inch diameter is large enough. A few balls of marline
+come in conveniently as also does heavy linen fish-line.
+
+A small-sized duffel-bag should be provided for each of the men as a
+container for hammock and net, spare clothing, and mess-kit. A very
+small waterproof pouch or bag should be furnished also for matches,
+tobacco, etc.
+
+The men should be limited to one duffel-bag each. These bags should be
+numbered consecutively. In fact, every piece in the entire equipment
+should be thus numbered and a list kept in detail in a book.
+
+The explorer should personally see that each of his men has a hammock,
+net, and poncho; for the native, if left unsupervised, will go into
+the field with only the clothing he has on.
+
+FOOD--Though South America is rich in food and food possibilities,
+she has not solved the problem of living economically on her
+frontiers. The prices asked for food in the rubber districts we passed
+through were amazing. Five milreis (one dollar and fifty cents) was
+cheap for a chicken, and eggs at five hundred reis (fifteen cents)
+apiece were a rarity. Sugar was bought at the rate of one to two
+milreis a kilo--in a country where sugar-cane grows luxuriantly. The
+main dependence is the mandioc, or farina, as it is called. It is the
+bread of the country and is served at every meal. The native puts it
+on his meat and in his soup and mixes it with his rice and beans. When
+he has nothing else he eats the farina, as it is called, by the
+handful. It is seldom cooked. The small mandioc tubers when boiled are
+very good and are used instead of potatoes. Native beans are nutritious
+and form one of the chief foods.
+
+In the field the native cook wastes much time. Generally provided with
+an inadequate cooking equipment, hours are spent cooking beans after
+the day's work, and then, of course, they are often only partially
+cooked. A kettle or aluminum Dutch oven should be taken along, large
+enough to cook enough beans for both breakfast and dinner. The beans
+should be cooked all night, a fire kept burning for the purpose. It
+would only be necessary then to warm the beans for breakfast and
+dinner, the two South American meals.
+
+For meat the rubber hunter and explorer depends upon his rifle and
+fish-hook. The rivers are full of fish which can readily be caught,
+and, in Brazil, the tapir, capybara, paca, agouti, two or three
+varieties of deer, and two varieties of wild pig can occasionally be
+shot; and most of the monkeys are used for food. Turtles and turtle
+eggs can be had in season and a great variety of birds, some of them
+delicious in flavor and heavy in meat. In the hot, moist climate fresh
+meat will not keep and even salted meat has been known to spoil. For
+use on the Roosevelt expedition I arranged a ration for five men for
+one day packed in a tin box; the party which went down the Duvida made
+each ration do for six men for a day and a half, and in addition gave
+over half the bread or hardtack to the camaradas. By placing the day's
+allowance of bread in this same box, it was lightened sufficiently to
+float if dropped into water. There were seven variations in the
+arrangement of food in these boxes and they were numbered from 1 to 7,
+so that a different box could be used every day of the week. In
+addition to the food, each box contained a cake of soap, a piece of
+cheese-cloth, two boxes of matches, and a box of table salt. These tin
+boxes were lacquered to protect from rust and enclosed in wooden cases
+for transportation. A number in large type was printed on each. No. 1
+was cased separately; Nos. 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 were cased
+together. For canoe travel the idea was to take these wooden cases
+off. I did not have an opportunity personally to experience the
+management of these food cases. We had sent them all ahead by pack-
+train for the explorers of the Duvida River. The exploration of the
+Papagaio was decided upon during the march over the plateau of Matto
+Grosso and was accomplished with dependence upon native food only.
+
+  DAILY RATION FOR FIVE MEN
+
+                             SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THUR. FRI. SAT.
+  Rice                        16         16              16
+  Oatmeal                          13              13         13
+  Bread                      100  100   100  100  100   100  100
+  Tea-biscuits                18         18        18
+  Gingersnaps                      21         21         21   21
+  Dehydrated potatoes         11   11    11   11   11    11
+  Dehydrated onions            5    5     5    5    5     5
+  Erbswurst                         8          8          8
+  Evaporated soups             6          6                    6
+  Baked beans                                      25         25
+  Condensed milk              17   17    17   17   17    17   17
+  Bacon                       44   44    44   44   44    44   44
+  Roast beef                       56
+  Braised beef                           56                   56
+  Corned beef                                 70
+  Ox tongue                                        78
+  Curry and chicken                                      72
+  Boned chicken               61
+  Fruits: evaporated berries        5          5    5          5
+  Figs                        20         20
+  Dates                                                  16
+  Sugar                       32   32    32   32   32    32   32
+  Coffee                      10   10    10   10   10    10   10
+  Tea                          5    5     5    5    5     5    5
+  Salt                         4    4     4    4    4     4    4
+  Sweet chocolate                             16
+
+  EACH BOX ALSO CONTAINED
+
+  Muslin, one yard             1    1     1    1    1     1    1
+  Matches, boxes               2    2     2    2    2     2    2
+  Soap, one cake               1    1     1    1    1     1    1
+
+Above weights of food are net in avoirdupois ounces. Each complete
+ration with its tin container weighed nearly twenty-seven pounds. The
+five pounds over net weight of daily ration was taken up in tin
+necessary for protection of food. The weight of component parts of
+daily ration had to be governed to some extent by the size of the
+commercial package in which the food could be purchased on short
+notice. Austin, Nichols & Co., of New York, who supplied the food
+stores for my polar expedition, worked day and night to complete the
+packing of the rations on time.
+
+The food cases described above were used on Colonel Roosevelt's
+descent of the Rio da Duvida and also by the party who journeyed down
+the Gy-Parana and Madeira Rivers. Leo Miller, the naturalist, who was
+a member of the last-named party, arrived in Manaos, Brazil, while I
+was there and, in answer to my question, told me that the food served
+admirably and was good, but that the native cooks had a habit of
+opening a number of cases at a time to satisfy their personal desire
+for special delicacies. Bacon was the article most sought for.
+Speaking critically, for a strenuous piece of work like the
+exploration of the Duvida, the food was somewhat bulky. A ration
+arrangement such as I used on my sledge trips North would have
+contained more nutritious elements in a smaller space. We could have
+done without many of the luxuries. But the exploration of the Duvida
+had not been contemplated and had no place in the itinerary mapped out
+in New York. The change of plan and the decision to explore the Duvida
+River came about in Rio Janeiro, long after our rations had been made
+out and shipped.
+
+"Matte" the tea of Brazil and Paraguay, used in most of the states of
+South America, should not be forgotten. It is a valuable beverage.
+With it a native can do a wonderful amount of work on little food.
+Upon the tired traveller it has a very refreshing effect.
+
+Doctor Peckolt, celebrated chemist of Rio de Janeiro, has compared the
+analysis of matte with those of green tea, black tea, and coffee and
+obtained the following result:
+
+  IN 1,000 PARTS OF     GREEN TEA     BLACK TEA     COFFEE      MATTE
+  Natural oil              7.90          0.06         0.41       0.01
+  Chlorophyl              22.20         18.14        13.66      62.00
+  Resin                   22.20         34.40        13.66      20.69
+  Tannin                 178.09        128.80        16.39      12.28
+  Alkaloids:
+  Mateina                  4.50          4.30         2.66       2.50
+  Extractive substances  464.00        390.00       270.67     238.83
+  Cellulose and fibres   175.80        283.20       178.83     180.00
+  Ashes                   85.60         25.61        25.61      38.11
+
+Manner of preparation: The matte tea is prepared in the same manner as
+the Indian tea, that is to say, by pouring upon it boiling water
+during ten to fifteen minutes before using. To obtain a good infusion
+five spoonfuls of matte are sufficient for a litre of water.
+
+Some experiments have been made lately with the use of matte in the
+German army, and probably it would be a valuable beverage for the use
+of our own troops. Two plates and a cup, knife, fork, and spoon should
+be provided for each member of the party. The United States Army mess-
+kit would serve admirably. Each man's mess-kit should be numbered to
+correspond with the number on his duffel-bag.
+
+An aluminum (for lightness) cooking outfit, or the Dutch oven
+mentioned, with three or four kettles nested within, a coffee pot or a
+teapot would suffice. The necessary large spoons and forks for the
+cook, a small meat grinder, and a half dozen skinning knives could all
+be included in the fibre case. These outfits are usually sold with the
+cups, plates, etc., for the table. As before suggested, each member of
+the party should have his own mess-kit. It should not be carried with
+the general cooking outfit. By separating the eating equipments thus,
+one of the problems of hygiene and cleanliness is simplified.
+
+RIFLES--AMMUNITION--A heavy rifle is not advised. The only animals
+that can be classed as dangerous are the jaguar and white-jawed
+peccary, and a 30-30 or 44 calibre is heavy enough for such game. The
+44-calibre Winchester or Remington carbine is the arm generally used
+throughout South America, and 44 calibre is the only ammunition that
+one can depend upon securing in the field. Every man has his own
+preference for an arm. However, there is no need of carrying a nine or
+ten pound weapon when a rifle weighing only from six and three fourths
+to seven and one half pounds will do all that is necessary. I,
+personally, prefer the small-calibre rifle, as it can be used for
+birds also. The three-barrelled gun, combining a double shotgun and a
+rifle, is an excellent weapon, and it is particularly valuable for the
+collector of natural-history specimens. A new gun has just come on the
+market which may prove valuable in South America where there is such a
+variety of game, a four-barrel gun, weighing only eight and one fourth
+pounds. It has two shotgun barrels, one 30 to 44 calibre rifle and the
+rib separating the shotgun barrels is bored for a 22-calibre rifle
+cartridge. The latter is particularly adapted for the large food
+birds, which a heavy rifle bullet might tear. Twenty-two calibre
+ammunition is also very light and the long 22 calibre exceedingly
+powerful. Unless in practice it proves too complicated, it would seem
+to be a good arm for all-round use--sixteen to twenty gauge is large
+enough for the shotgun barrels. Too much emphasis cannot be placed
+upon the need of being provided with good weapons. After the loss of
+all our arms in the rapids we secured four poor, rusty rifles which
+proved of no value. We lost three deer, a tapir, and other game, and
+finally gave up the use of the rifles, depending upon hook and line. A
+25 or 30 calibre high power automatic pistol with six or seven inch
+barrel would prove a valuable arm to carry always on the person. It
+could be used for large game and yet would not be too large for food
+birds. It is to be regretted that there is nothing in the market of
+this character.
+
+We had our rifle ammunition packed by the U. M. C. Co. in zinc cases
+of one hundred rounds each, a metallic strip with pull ring closing
+the two halves of the box. Shot-cartridge, sixteen gauge, were packed
+the same way, twenty-five to the box.
+
+The explorer would do well always to have on his person a compass, a
+light waterproof bag containing matches, a waterproof box of salt, and
+a strong, light, linen or silk fish-line with several hooks, a knife,
+and an automatic at his belt, with several loaded magazines for the
+latter in his pocket. Thus provided, if accidentally lost for several
+days in the forest (which often happens to the rubber hunters in
+Brazil), he will be provided with the possibility of getting game and
+making himself shelter and fire at night.
+
+FISH--For small fish like the pacu and piranha an ordinary bass hook
+will do. For the latter, because of its sharp teeth, a hook with a
+long shank and phosphor-bronze leader is the best; the same character
+of leader is best on the hook to be used for the big fish. A tarpon
+hook will hold most of the great fish of the rivers. A light rod and
+reel would be a convenience in catching the pacu. We used to fish for
+the latter variety in the quiet pools while allowing the canoe to
+drift, and always saved some of the fish as bait for the big fellows.
+We fished for the pacu as the native does, kneading a ball of mandioc
+farina with water and placing it on the hook as bait. I should not be
+surprised, though, if it were possible, with carefully chosen flies,
+to catch some of the fish that every once in a while we saw rise to
+the surface and drag some luckless insect under.
+
+CLOTHING--Even the experienced traveller when going into a new field
+will commit the crime of carrying too much luggage. Articles which he
+thought to be camp necessities become camp nuisances which worry his
+men and kill his mules. The lighter one can travel the better. In the
+matter of clothing, before the actual wilderness is reached the
+costume one would wear to business in New York in summer is practical
+for most of South America, except, of course, the high mountain
+regions, where a warm wrap is necessary. A white or natural linen suit
+is a very comfortable garment. A light blue unlined serge is desirable
+as a change and for wear in rainy weather.
+
+Strange to relate, the South American seems to have a fondness for
+stiff collars. Even in Corumba, the hottest place I have ever been in,
+the native does not think he is dressed unless he wears one of these
+stiff abominations around his throat. A light negligee shirt with
+interchangeable or attached soft collars is vastly preferable. In the
+frontier regions and along the rivers the pajama seems to be the
+conventional garment for day as well as night wear. Several such suits
+of light material should be carried--the more ornamented and
+beautifully colored the greater favor will they find along the way. A
+light cravenetted mackintosh is necessary for occasional cool evenings
+and as a protection against the rain. It should have no cemented
+rubber seams to open up in the warm, moist climate. Yachting oxfords
+and a light pair of leather slippers complete the outfit for steamer
+travel. For the field, two or three light woollen khaki-colored
+shirts, made with two breast pockets with buttoned flaps, two pairs
+of long khaki trousers, two pairs of riding breeches, a khaki coat cut
+military fashion with four pockets with buttoned flaps, two suits of
+pajamas, handkerchiefs, socks, etc., would be necessary. The poncho
+should extend to below the knees and should be provided with a hood
+large enough to cover the helmet. It should have no cemented seams;
+the material recently adopted by the United States Army for ponchos
+seems to be the best. For footgear the traveller needs two pairs of
+stout, high hunting shoes, built on the moccasin form with soles. Hob
+nails should be taken along to insert if the going is over rocky
+places. It is also advisable to provide a pair of very light leather
+slipper boots to reach to just under the knee for wear in camp. They
+protect the legs and ankles from insect stings and bites. The
+traveller who enters tropical South America should protect his head
+with a wide-brimmed soft felt hat with ventilated headband, or the
+best and lightest pith helmet that can be secured, one large enough to
+shade the face and back of neck. There should be a ventilating space
+all around the head-band; the wider the space the better. These
+helmets can be secured in Rio and Buenos Aires. Head-nets with face
+plates of horsehair are the best protection against small insect
+pests. They are generally made too small and the purchaser should be
+careful to get one large enough to go over his helmet and come down to
+the breast. Several pairs of loose gloves rather long in the wrist
+will be needed as protection against the flies, piums and boroshudas
+which draw blood with every bite and are numerous in many parts of
+South America. A waterproof sun umbrella, with a jointed handle about
+six feet long terminating in a point, would be a decided help to the
+scientist at work in the field. A fine-meshed net fitting around the
+edge of the umbrella would make it insect proof. When folded it would
+not be bulky and its weight would be negligible. Such an umbrella
+could also be attached, with a special clamp, to the thwart of a canoe
+and so prove a protection from both sun and rain.
+
+There are little personal conveniences which sometimes grow into
+necessities. One of these in my own case was a little electric flash-
+light taken for the purpose of reading the verniers of a theodolite or
+sextant in star observations. It was used every night and for many
+purposes. As a matter of necessity, where insects are numerous one
+turns to the protection of his hammock and net immediately after the
+evening meal. It was at such times that I found the electric lamp so
+helpful. Reclining in the hammock, I held the stock of the light under
+my left arm and with diary in my lap wrote up my records for the day.
+I sometimes read by its soft, steady light. One charge of battery, to
+my surprise, lasted nearly a month. When forced to pick out a camping
+spot after dark, an experience which comes to every traveller in the
+tropics in the rainy season, we found its light very helpful. Neither
+rain nor wind could put it out and the light could be directed
+wherever needed. The charges should be calculated on the plan of one
+for every three weeks. The acetylene lamp for camp illumination is an
+advance over the kerosene lantern. It has been found that for equal
+weight the carbide will give more light than kerosene or candle. The
+carbide should be put in small containers, for each time a box is
+opened some of the contents turns into gas from contact with the moist
+air.
+
+TOOLS--Three or four good axes, several bill-hooks, a good hatchet
+with hammer head and nail-puller should be in the tool kit. In
+addition, each man should be provided with a belt knife and a machete
+with sheath. Collins makes the best machetes. His axes, too, are
+excellent. The bill-hook, called foice in Brazil, is a most valuable
+tool for clearing away small trees, vines, and under-growths. It is
+marvellous how quickly an experienced hand can clear the ground in a
+forest with one of these instruments. All of these tools should have
+handles of second-growth American hickory of first quality; and
+several extra handles should be taken along. The list of tools should
+be completed with a small outfit of pliers, tweezers, files, etc.--the
+character, of course, depending upon the mechanical ability of the
+traveller and the scientific instruments he has with him that might
+need repairs.
+
+SURVEY INSTRUMENTS--The choice of instruments will depend largely
+upon the character of the work intended. If a compass survey will
+suffice, there is nothing better than the cavalry sketching board used
+in the United States Army for reconnaissance. With a careful hand it
+approaches the high degree of perfection attained by the plane-table
+method. It is particularly adapted for river survey and, after one
+gets accustomed to its use, it is very simple. If the prismatic
+compass is preferred, nothing smaller than two and one half inches in
+diameter should be used. In the smaller sizes the magnet is not
+powerful enough to move the dial quickly or accurately.
+
+Several good pocket compasses must be provided. They should all have
+good-sized needles with the north end well marked and degrees engraved
+in metal. If the floating dial is preferred it should be of aluminum
+and nothing smaller than two and one half inches, for the same reason
+as mentioned above regarding the prismatic compass.
+
+Expense should not be spared if it is necessary to secure good
+compasses. Avoid paper dials and leather cases which absorb moisture.
+The compass case should allow taking apart for cleaning and drying.
+
+The regular chronometer movement, because of its delicacy, is out of
+the question for rough land or water travel. We had with us a small-
+sized half-chronometer movement recently brought out by the Waltham
+Company as a yacht chronometer. It gave a surprisingly even rate under
+the most adverse conditions. I was sorry to lose it in the rapids of
+the Papagaio when our canoes went down.
+
+The watches should be waterproof with strong cases, and several should
+be taken. It would be well to have a dozen cheap but good watches and
+the same number of compasses for use around camp and for gifts or
+trade along the line of travel. Money is of no value after one leaves
+the settlements. I was surprised to find that many of the rubber
+hunters were not provided with compasses, and I listened to an
+American who told of having been lost in the depths of the great
+forest where for days he lived on monkey meat secured with his rifle
+until he found his way to the river. He had no compass and could not
+get one. I was sorry I had none to give; I had lost mine in the
+rapids.
+
+For the determination of latitude and longitude there is nothing
+better than a small four or five inch theodolite not over fifteen
+pounds in weight. It should have a good prism eyepiece with an angle
+tube attached so it would not be necessary to break one's neck in
+reading high altitudes. For days we travelled in the direction the sun
+was going, with altitudes varying from 88° to 90°. Because of these
+high altitudes of the sun the sextant with artificial horizon could
+not be used unless one depended upon star observations altogether, an
+uncertain dependence because of the many cloudy nights.
+
+BAROMETERS--The Goldsmith form of direct-reading aneroid is the most
+accurate portable instrument and, of course, should be compared with a
+standard mercurial at the last weather-bureau station.
+
+THERMOMETERS--A swing thermometer, with wet and dry bulbs for
+determination of the amount of moisture in the air, and the maximum
+and minimum thermometer of the signal-service or weather-bureau type
+should be provided, with a case to protect them from injury.
+
+A tape measure with metric scale of measurements on one side and feet
+and inches on the other is most important. Two small, light waterproof
+cases could be constructed and packed with scientific instruments,
+data, and spare clothing and yet not exceed the weight limit of
+flotation. In transit by pack-train these two cases would form but one
+mule load.
+
+PHOTOGRAPHIC--From the experience gained in several fields of
+exploration it seems to me that the voyager should limit himself to
+one small-sized camera, which he can always have with him, and then
+carry a duplicate of it, soldered in tin, in the baggage. The
+duplicate need not be equipped with as expensive a lens and shutter as
+the camera carried for work; 31/4 x 41/4 is a good size. Nothing
+larger than 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 is advised. We carried the 3A special Kodak
+and found it a light, strong, and effective instrument. It seems to me
+that the ideal form of instrument would be one with a front board
+large enough to contain an adapter fitted for three lenses. For the
+3 1/4 x 4 1/4:
+
+  One lens                                 4 or 4 1/2 focus
+  One lens                                 6 or 7 focus
+  One lens telephoto or telecentric        9 to 12 focus
+
+The camera should be made of metal and fitted with focal-plane shutter
+and direct view-finder.
+
+A sole leather case with shoulder-strap should contain the camera and
+lenses, with an extra roll of films, all within instant reach, so that
+a lens could be changed without any loss of time.
+
+Plates, of course, are the best, but their weight and frailty, with
+difficulty of handling, rule them out of the question. The roll film
+is the best, as the film pack sticks together and the stubs pull off
+in the moist, hot climate. The films should be purchased in rolls of
+six exposures, each roll in a tin, the cover sealed with surgical
+tape. Twelve of these tubes should be soldered in a tin box. In places
+where the air is charged with moisture a roll of films should not be
+left in a camera over twenty-four hours.
+
+Tank development is best for the field. The tanks provided for
+developing by the Kodak Company are best for fixing also. A nest of
+tanks would be a convenience; one tank should be kept separate for the
+fixing-bath. As suggested in the Kodak circular, for tropical
+development a large-size tank can be used for holding the freezing
+mixture of hypo. This same tank would become the fixing tank after
+development. In the rainy season it is a difficult matter to dry
+films. Development in the field, with washing water at 80 degrees F.,
+is a patience-trying operation. It has occurred to me that a small
+air-pump with a supply of chloride of calcium in small tubes might
+solve the problem of preserving films in the tropics. The air-pump and
+supply of chloride of calcium would not be as heavy or bulky as the
+tanks and powders needed for development. By means of the air-pump the
+films could be sealed in tin tubes free from moisture and kept thus
+until arrival at home or at a city where the air was fairly dry and
+cold water for washing could be had.
+
+While I cordially agree with most of the views expressed by Mr. Fiala,
+there are some as to which I disagree; for instance, we came very
+strongly to the conclusion, in descending the Duvida, where bulk was
+of great consequence, that the films should be in rolls of ten or
+twelve exposures. I doubt whether the four-barrel gun would be
+practical; but this is a matter of personal taste.
+
+
+
+                             APPENDIX C.
+
+              My Letter of May 1 to General Lauro Muller
+
+The first report on the expedition, made by me immediately after my
+arrival at Manaos, and published in Rio Janeiro upon its receipt, is
+as follows:
+
+                                                  MAY 1st, 1914.
+
+  TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE MINISTER OF
+  FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
+  RIO-DE-JANEIRO.
+  MY DEAR GENERAL LAURO MULLER:
+
+  I wish first to express my profound acknowledgments to you personally
+  and to the other members of the Brazilian Government whose generous
+  courtesy alone rendered possible the Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt-
+  Rondon. I wish also to express my high admiration and regard for
+  Colonel Rondon and his associates who have been my colleagues in this
+  work of exploration. In the third place I wish to point out that what
+  we have just done was rendered possible only by the hard and perilous
+  labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission in the unexplored
+  western wilderness of Matto Grosso during the last seven years. We
+  have had a hard and somewhat dangerous but very successful trip. No
+  less than six weeks were spent in slowly and with peril and exhausting
+  labor forcing our way down through what seemed a literally endless
+  succession of rapids and cataracts. For forty-eight days we saw no
+  human being. In passing these rapids we lost five of the seven canoes
+  with which we started and had to build others. One of our best men
+  lost his life in the rapids. Under the strain one of the men went
+  completely bad, shirked all his work, stole his comrades' food and
+  when punished by the sergeant he with cold-blooded deliberation
+  murdered the sergeant and fled into the wilderness. Colonel Rondon's
+  dog running ahead of him while hunting, was shot by two Indians; by
+  his death he in all probability saved the life of his master. We have
+  put on the map a river about 1500 kilometres in length running from
+  just south of the 13th degree to north of the 5th degree and the
+  biggest affluent of the Madeira. Until now its upper course has been
+  utterly unknown to every one, and its lower course although known for
+  years to the rubbermen utterly unknown to all cartographers. Its
+  source is between the 12th and 13th parallels of latitude south, and
+  between longitude 59 degrees and longitude 60 degrees west from
+  Greenwich. We embarked on it about at latitude 12 degrees 1 minute
+  south and longitude 60 degrees 18 west. After that its entire course
+  was between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude approaching the
+  latter most closely about in latitude 8 degrees 15 minutes. The first
+  rapids were at Navaite in 11 degrees 44 minutes and after that they
+  were continuous and very difficult and dangerous until the rapids
+  named after the murdered sergeant Paishon in 11 degrees 12 minutes. At
+  11 degrees 23 minutes the river received the Rio Kermit from the left.
+  At 11 degrees 22 minutes the Marciano Avila entered it from the right.
+  At 11 degrees 18 minutes the Taunay entered from the left. At 10
+  degrees 58 minutes the Cardozo entered from the right. At 10 degrees
+  24 minutes we encountered the first rubberman. The Rio Branco entered
+  from the left at 9 degrees 38 minutes. We camped at 8 degrees 49
+  minutes or approximately the boundary line between Matto Grosso and
+  Amazonas. The confluence with the upper Aripuanan, which entered from
+  the right, was in 7 degrees 34 minutes. The mouth where it entered the
+  Madeira was in about 5 degrees 30 minutes. The stream we have followed
+  down is that which rises farthest away from the mouth and its general
+  course is almost due north.
+
+  My dear Sir, I thank you from my heart for the chance to take part in
+  this great work of exploration.
+
+  With high regard and respect, believe me
+
+       Very sincerely yours,
+            THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Brazilian Wilderness
+by Theodore Roosevelt
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+Project Gutenberg's Through the Brazilian Wilderness, by Theodore Roosevelt
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Through the Brazilian Wilderness
+
+Author: Theodore Roosevelt
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2004 [EBook #11746]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Etext prepared by John Bickers and Dagny
+
+
+
+
+THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS
+By Theodore Roosevelt
+
+Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com
+              and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz
+
+
+
+                   THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS
+
+                                  BY
+
+                          THEODORE ROOSEVELT
+
+
+
+                               PREFACE
+
+  This is an account of a zoo-geographic reconnaissance through the
+  Brazilian hinterland.
+
+  The official and proper title of the expedition is that given it
+  by the Brazilian Government: Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt-
+  Rondon. When I started from the United States, it was to make an
+  expedition, primarily concerned with mammalogy and ornithology,
+  for the American Museum of Natural History of New York. This was
+  undertaken under the auspices of Messrs. Osborn and Chapman,
+  acting on behalf of the Museum. In the body of this work I
+  describe how the scope of the expedition was enlarged, and how it
+  was given a geographic as well as a zoological character, in
+  consequence of the kind proposal of the Brazilian Secretary of
+  State for Foreign Affairs, General Lauro Muller. In its altered
+  and enlarged form the expedition was rendered possible only by the
+  generous assistance of the Brazilian Government. Throughout the
+  body of the work will be found reference after reference to my
+  colleagues and companions of the expedition, whose services to
+  science I have endeavored to set forth, and for whom I shall
+  always feel the most cordial friendship and regard.
+
+  THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+  SAGAMORE HILL,
+  September 1, 1914
+
+
+
+
+
+                   THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS
+
+
+
+                             I. THE START
+
+One day in 1908, when my presidential term was coming to a close,
+Father Zahm, a priest whom I knew, came in to call on me. Father Zahm
+and I had been cronies for some time, because we were both of us fond
+of Dante and of history and of science--I had always commended to
+theologians his book, "Evolution and Dogma." He was an Ohio boy, and
+his early schooling had been obtained in old-time American fashion in
+a little log school; where, by the way, one of the other boys was
+Januarius Aloysius MacGahan, afterward the famous war correspondent
+and friend of Skobeloff. Father Zahm told me that MacGahan even at
+that time added an utter fearlessness to chivalric tenderness for the
+weak, and was the defender of any small boy who was oppressed by a
+larger one. Later Father Zahm was at Notre Dame University, in
+Indiana, with Maurice Egan, whom, when I was President, I appointed
+minister to Denmark.
+
+On the occasion in question Father Zahm had just returned from a trip
+across the Andes and down the Amazon, and came in to propose that
+after I left the presidency he and I should go up the Paraguay into
+the interior of South America. At the time I wished to go to Africa,
+and so the subject was dropped; but from time to time afterward we
+talked it over. Five years later, in the spring of 1913, I accepted
+invitations conveyed through the governments of Argentina and Brazil
+to address certain learned bodies in these countries. Then it occurred
+to me that, instead of making the conventional tourist trip purely by
+sea round South America, after I had finished my lectures I would come
+north through the middle of the continent into the valley of the
+Amazon; and I decided to write Father Zahm and tell him my intentions.
+Before doing so, however, I desired to see the authorities of the
+American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, to find out
+whether they cared to have me take a couple of naturalists with me
+into Brazil and make a collecting trip for the museum.
+
+Accordingly, I wrote to Frank Chapman, the curator of ornithology of
+the museum, and accepted his invitation to lunch at the museum one day
+early in June. At the lunch, in addition to various naturalists, to my
+astonishment I also found Father Zahm; and as soon as I saw him I told
+him I was now intending to make the South American trip. It appeared
+that he had made up his mind that he would take it himself, and had
+actually come on to see Mr. Chapman to find out if the latter could
+recommend a naturalist to go with him; and he at once said he would
+accompany me. Chapman was pleased when he found out that we intended
+to go up the Paraguay and across into the valley of the Amazon,
+because much of the ground over which we were to pass had not been
+covered by collectors. He saw Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of
+the museum, who wrote me that the museum would be pleased to send
+under me a couple of naturalists, whom, with my approval, Chapman
+would choose.
+
+The men whom Chapman recommended were Messrs. George K. Cherrie and
+Leo E. Miller. I gladly accepted both. The former was to attend
+chiefly to the ornithology and the latter to the mammalogy of the
+expedition; but each was to help out the other. No two better men for
+such a trip could have been found. Both were veterans of the tropical
+American forests. Miller was a young man, born in Indiana, an
+enthusiastic with good literary as well as scientific training. He was
+at the time in the Guiana forests, and joined us at Barbados. Cherrie
+was an older man, born in Iowa, but now a farmer in Vermont. He had a
+wife and six children. Mrs. Cherrie had accompanied him during two or
+three years of their early married life in his collecting trips along
+the Orinoco. Their second child was born when they were in camp a
+couple of hundred miles from any white man or woman. One night a few
+weeks later they were obliged to leave a camping-place, where they had
+intended to spend the night, because the baby was fretful, and its
+cries attracted a jaguar, which prowled nearer and nearer in the
+twilight until they thought it safest once more to put out into the
+open river and seek a new resting-place. Cherrie had spent about
+twenty-two years collecting in the American tropics. Like most of the
+field-naturalists I have met, he was an unusually efficient and
+fearless man; and willy-nilly he had been forced at times to vary his
+career by taking part in insurrections. Twice he had been behind the
+bars in consequence, on one occasion spending three months in a prison
+of a certain South American state, expecting each day to be taken out
+and shot. In another state he had, as an interlude to his
+ornithological pursuits, followed the career of a gun-runner, acting
+as such off and on for two and a half years. The particular
+revolutionary chief whose fortunes he was following finally came into
+power, and Cherrie immortalized his name by naming a new species of
+ant-thrush after him--a delightful touch, in its practical combination
+of those not normally kindred pursuits, ornithology and gun-running.
+
+In Anthony Fiala, a former arctic explorer, we found an excellent man
+for assembling equipment and taking charge of its handling and
+shipment. In addition to his four years in the arctic regions, Fiala
+had served in the New York Squadron in Porto Rico during the Spanish
+War, and through his service in the squadron had been brought into
+contact with his little Tennessee wife. She came down with her four
+children to say good-by to him when the steamer left. My secretary,
+Mr. Frank Harper, went with us. Jacob Sigg, who had served three years
+in the United States Army, and was both a hospital nurse and a cook,
+as well as having a natural taste for adventure, went as the personal
+attendant of Father Zahm. In southern Brazil my son Kermit joined me.
+He had been bridge building, and a couple of months previously, while
+on top of a long steel span, something went wrong with the derrick, he
+and the steel span coming down together on the rocky bed beneath. He
+escaped with two broken ribs, two teeth knocked out, and a knee
+partially dislocated, but was practically all right again when he
+started with us.
+
+In its composition ours was a typical American expedition. Kermit and
+I were of the old Revolutionary stock, and in our veins ran about
+every strain of blood that there was on this side of the water during
+colonial times. Cherrie's father was born in Ireland, and his mother
+in Scotland; they came here when very young, and his father served
+throughout the Civil War in an Iowa cavalry regiment. His wife was of
+old Revolutionary stock. Father Zahm's father was an Alsacian
+immigrant, and his mother was partly of Irish and partly of old
+American stock, a descendant of a niece of General Braddock. Miller's
+father came from Germany, and his mother from France. Fiala's father
+and mother were both from Bohemia, being Czechs, and his father had
+served four years in the Civil War in the Union Army--his Tennessee
+wife was of old Revolutionary stock. Harper was born in England, and
+Sigg in Switzerland. We were as varied in religious creed as in ethnic
+origin. Father Zahm and Miller were Catholics, Kermit and Harper
+Episcopalians, Cherrie a Presbyterian, Fiala a Baptist, Sigg a
+Lutheran, while I belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church.
+
+For arms the naturalists took 16-bore shotguns, one of Cherrie's
+having a rifle barrel underneath. The firearms for the rest of the
+party were supplied by Kermit and myself, including my Springfield
+rifle, Kermit's two Winchesters, a 405 and 30-40, the Fox 12-gauge
+shotgun, and another 16-gauge gun, and a couple of revolvers, a Colt
+and a Smith & Wesson. We took from New York a couple of canvas canoes,
+tents, mosquito-bars, plenty of cheesecloth, including nets for the
+hats, and both light cots and hammocks. We took ropes and pulleys
+which proved invaluable on our canoe trip. Each equipped himself with
+the clothing he fancied. Mine consisted of khaki, such as I wore in
+Africa, with a couple of United States Army flannel shirts and a
+couple of silk shirts, one pair of hob-nailed shoes with leggings, and
+one pair of laced leather boots coming nearly to the knee. Both the
+naturalists told me that it was well to have either the boots or
+leggings as a protection against snake-bites, and I also had gauntlets
+because of the mosquitoes and sand-flies. We intended where possible
+to live on what we could get from time to time in the country, but we
+took some United States Army emergency rations, and also ninety cans,
+each containing a day's provisions for five men, made up by Fiala.
+
+The trip I proposed to take can be understood only if there is a
+slight knowledge of South American topography. The great mountain
+chain of the Andes extends down the entire length of the western
+coast, so close to the Pacific Ocean that no rivers of any importance
+enter it. The rivers of South America drain into the Atlantic.
+Southernmost South America, including over half of the territory of
+the Argentine Republic, consists chiefly of a cool, open plains
+country. Northward of this country, and eastward of the Andes, lies
+the great bulk of the South American continent, which is included in
+the tropical and the subtropical regions. Most of this territory is
+Brazilian. Aside from certain relatively small stretches drained by
+coast rivers, this immense region of tropical and subtropical America
+east of the Andes is drained by the three great river systems of the
+Plate, the Amazon, and the Orinoco. At their headwaters the Amazon and
+the Orinoco systems are actually connected by a sluggish natural
+canal. The headwaters of the northern affluents of the Paraguay and
+the southern affluents of the Amazon are sundered by a stretch of high
+land, which toward the east broadens out into the central plateau of
+Brazil. Geologically this is a very ancient region, having appeared
+above the waters before the dawning of the age of reptiles, or,
+indeed, of any true land vertebrates on the globe. This plateau is a
+region partly of healthy, rather dry and sandy, open prairie, partly
+of forest. The great and low-lying basin of the Paraguay, which
+borders it on the south, is one of the largest, and the still greater
+basin of the Amazon, which borders it on the north, is the very
+largest of all the river basins of the earth.
+
+In these basins, but especially in the basin of the Amazon, and thence
+in most places northward to the Caribbean Sea, lie the most extensive
+stretches of tropical forest to be found anywhere. The forests of
+tropical West Africa, and of portions of the Farther-Indian region,
+are the only ones that can be compared with them. Much difficulty has
+been experienced in exploring these forests, because under the
+torrential rains and steaming heat the rank growth of vegetation
+becomes almost impenetrable, and the streams difficult of navigation;
+while white men suffer much from the terrible insect scourges and the
+deadly diseases which modern science has discovered to be due very
+largely to insect bites. The fauna and flora, however, are of great
+interest. The American Museum was particularly anxious to obtain
+collections from the divide between the headwaters of the Paraguay and
+the Amazon, and from the southern affluents of the Amazon. Our purpose
+was to ascend the Paraguay as nearly as possible to the head of
+navigation, thence cross to the sources of one of the affluents of the
+Amazon, and if possible descend it in canoes built on the spot. The
+Paraguay is regularly navigated as high as boats can go. The starting-
+point for our trip was to be Asuncion, in the state of Paraguay.
+
+My exact plan of operations was necessarily a little indefinite, but
+on reaching Rio de Janeiro the minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Lauro
+Muller, who had been kind enough to take great personal interest in my
+trip, informed me that he had arranged that on the headwaters of the
+Paraguay, at the town of Caceres, I would be met by a Brazilian Army
+colonel, himself chiefly Indian by blood, Colonel Rondon. Colonel
+Rondon has been for a quarter of a century the foremost explorer of
+the Brazilian hinterland. He was at the time in Manaos, but his
+lieutenants were in Caceres and had been notified that we were coming.
+
+More important still, Mr. Lauro Muller--who is not only an efficient
+public servant but a man of wide cultivation, with a quality about him
+that reminded me of John Hay--offered to help me make my trip of much
+more consequence than I had originally intended. He has taken a keen
+interest in the exploration and development of the interior of Brazil,
+and he believed that my expedition could be used as a means toward
+spreading abroad a more general knowledge of the country. He told me
+that he would co-operate with me in every way if I cared to undertake
+the leadership of a serious expedition into the unexplored portion of
+western Matto Grosso, and to attempt the descent of a river which
+flowed nobody knew whither, but which the best-informed men believed
+would prove to be a very big river, utterly unknown to geographers. I
+eagerly and gladly accepted, for I felt that with such help the trip
+could be made of much scientific value, and that a substantial
+addition could be made to the geographical knowledge of one of the
+least-known parts of South America. Accordingly, it was arranged that
+Colonel Rondon and some assistants and scientists should meet me at or
+below Corumba, and that we should attempt the descent of the river, of
+which they had already come across the headwaters.
+
+I had to travel through Brazil, Uruguay, the Argentine, and Chile for
+six weeks to fulfil my speaking engagements. Fiala, Cherrie, Miller,
+and Sigg left me at Rio, continuing to Buenos Aires in the boat in
+which we had all come down from New York. From Buenos Aires they went
+up the Paraguay to Corumba, where they awaited me. The two naturalists
+went first, to do all the collecting that was possible; Fiala and Sigg
+travelled more leisurely, with the heavy baggage.
+
+Before I followed them I witnessed an incident worthy of note from the
+standpoint of a naturalist, and of possible importance to us because
+of the trip we were about to take. South America, even more than
+Australia and Africa, and almost as much as India, is a country of
+poisonous snakes. As in India, although not to the same degree, these
+snakes are responsible for a very serious mortality among human
+beings. One of the most interesting evidences of the modern advance in
+Brazil is the establishment near Sao Paulo of an institution
+especially for the study of these poisonous snakes, so as to secure
+antidotes to the poison and to develop enemies to the snakes
+themselves. We wished to take into the interior with us some bottles
+of the anti-venom serum, for on such an expedition there is always a
+certain danger from snakes. On one of his trips Cherrie had lost a
+native follower by snake-bite. The man was bitten while out alone in
+the forest, and, although he reached camp, the poison was already
+working in him, so that he could give no intelligible account of what
+had occurred, and he died in a short time.
+
+Poisonous snakes are of several different families, but the most
+poisonous ones, those which are dangerous to man, belong to the two
+great families of the colubrine snakes and the vipers. Most of the
+colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that
+we meet everywhere. But some of them, the cobras for instance, develop
+into what are on the whole perhaps the most formidable of all snakes.
+The only poisonous colubrine snakes in the New World are the ring-
+snakes, the coral-snakes of the genus elaps, which are found from the
+extreme southern United States southward to the Argentine. These
+coral-snakes are not vicious and have small teeth which cannot
+penetrate even ordinary clothing. They are only dangerous if actually
+trodden on by some one with bare feet or if seized in the hand. There
+are harmless snakes very like them in color which are sometimes kept
+as pets; but it behooves every man who keeps such a pet or who handles
+such a snake to be very sure as to the genus to which it belongs.
+
+The great bulk of the poisonous snakes of America, including all the
+really dangerous ones, belong to a division of the widely spread
+family of vipers which is known as the pit-vipers. In South America
+these include two distinct subfamilies or genera--whether they are
+called families, subfamilies, or genera would depend, I suppose,
+largely upon the varying personal views of the individual describer on
+the subject of herpetological nomenclature. One genus includes the
+rattlesnakes, of which the big Brazilian species is as dangerous as
+those of the southern United States. But the large majority of the
+species and individuals of dangerous snakes in tropical America are
+included in the genus lachecis. These are active, vicious, aggressive
+snakes without rattles. They are exceedingly poisonous. Some of them
+grow to a very large size, being indeed among the largest poisonous
+snakes in the world--their only rivals in this respect being the
+diamond rattlesnake of Florida, one of the African mambas, and the
+Indian hamadryad, or snake-eating cobra. The fer-de-lance, so dreaded
+in Martinique, and the equally dangerous bushmaster of Guiana are
+included in this genus. A dozen species are known in Brazil, the
+biggest one being identical with the Guiana bushmaster, and the most
+common one, the jararaca, being identical, or practically identical
+with the fer-de-lance. The snakes of this genus, like the rattlesnakes
+and the Old World vipers and puff-adders, possess long poison-fangs
+which strike through clothes or any other human garment except stout
+leather. Moreover, they are very aggressive, more so than any other
+snakes in the world, except possibly some of the cobras. As, in
+addition, they are numerous, they are a source of really frightful
+danger to scantily clad men who work in the fields and forests, or who
+for any reason are abroad at night.
+
+The poison of venomous serpents is not in the least uniform in its
+quality. On the contrary, the natural forces--to use a term which is
+vague, but which is as exact as our present-day knowledge permits--
+that have developed in so many different families of snakes these
+poisoned fangs have worked in two or three totally different fashions.
+Unlike the vipers, the colubrine poisonous snakes have small fangs,
+and their poison, though on the whole even more deadly, has entirely
+different effects, and owes its deadliness to entirely different
+qualities. Even within the same family there are wide differences. In
+the jararaca an extraordinary quantity of yellow venom is spurted from
+the long poison-fangs. This poison is secreted in large glands which,
+among vipers, give the head its peculiar ace-of-spades shape. The
+rattlesnake yields a much smaller quantity of white venom, but,
+quantity for quantity, this white venom is more deadly. It is the
+great quantity of venom injected by the long fangs of the jararaca,
+the bushmaster, and their fellows that renders their bite so generally
+fatal. Moreover, even between these two allied genera of pit-vipers,
+the differences in the action of the poison are sufficiently marked to
+be easily recognizable, and to render the most effective anti-venomous
+serum for each slightly different from the other. However, they are
+near enough alike to make this difference, in practice, of
+comparatively small consequence. In practice the same serum can be
+used to neutralize the effect of either, and, as will be seen later
+on, the snake that is immune to one kind of venom is also immune to
+the other.
+
+But the effect of the venom of the poisonous colubrine snakes is
+totally different from, although to the full as deadly as, the effect
+of the poison of the rattlesnake or jararaca. The serum that is an
+antidote as regards the colubrines. The animal that is immune to the
+bite of one may not be immune to the bite of the other. The bite of a
+cobra or other colubrine poisonous snake is more painful in its
+immediate effects than is the bite of one of the big vipers. The
+victim suffers more. There is a greater effect on the nerve-centres,
+but less swelling of the wound itself, and, whereas the blood of the
+rattlesnake's victim coagulates, the blood of the victim of an elapine
+snake--that is, of one of the only poisonous American colubrines--
+becomes watery and incapable of coagulation.
+
+Snakes are highly specialized in every way, including their prey. Some
+live exclusively on warm-blooded animals, on mammals, or birds. Some
+live exclusively on batrachians, others only on lizards, a few only on
+insects. A very few species live exclusively on other snakes. These
+include one very formidable venomous snake, the Indian hamadryad, or
+giant cobra, and several non-poisonous snakes. In Africa I killed a
+small cobra which contained within it a snake but a few inches shorter
+than itself; but, as far as I could find out, snakes were not the
+habitual diet of the African cobras.
+
+The poisonous snakes use their venom to kill their victims, and also
+to kill any possible foe which they think menaces them. Some of them
+are good-tempered, and only fight if injured or seriously alarmed.
+Others are excessively irritable, and on rare occasions will even
+attack of their own accord when entirely unprovoked and unthreatened.
+
+On reaching Sao Paulo on our southward journey from Rio to Montevideo,
+we drove out to the "Instituto Serumtherapico," designed for the study
+of the effects of the venom of poisonous Brazilian snakes. Its
+director is Doctor Vital Brazil, who has performed a most
+extraordinary work and whose experiments and investigations are not
+only of the utmost value to Brazil but will ultimately be recognized
+as of the utmost value for humanity at large. I know of no institution
+of similar kind anywhere. It has a fine modern building, with all the
+best appliances, in which experiments are carried on with all kinds of
+serpents, living and dead, with the object of discovering all the
+properties of their several kinds of venom, and of developing various
+anti-venom serums which nullify the effects of the different venoms.
+Every effort is made to teach the people at large by practical
+demonstration in the open field the lessons thus learned in the
+laboratory. One notable result has been the diminution in the
+mortality from snake-bites in the province of Sao Paulo.
+
+In connection with his institute, and right by the laboratory, the
+doctor has a large serpentarium, in which quantities of the common
+poisonous and non-poisonous snakes are kept, and some of the rarer
+ones. He has devoted considerable time to the effort to find out if
+there are any natural enemies of the poisonous snakes of his country,
+and he has discovered that the most formidable enemy of the many
+dangerous Brazilian snakes is a non-poisonous, entirely harmless,
+rather uncommon Brazilian snake, the mussurama. Of all the interesting
+things the doctor showed us, by far the most interesting was the
+opportunity of witnessing for ourselves the action of the mussurama
+toward a dangerous snake.
+
+The doctor first showed us specimens of the various important snakes,
+poisonous and non-poisonous, in alcohol. Then he showed us
+preparations of the different kinds of venom and of the different
+anti-venom serums, presenting us with some of the latter for our use
+on the journey. He has been able to produce two distinct kinds of
+anti-venom serum, one to neutralize the virulent poison of the
+rattlesnake's bite, the other to neutralize the poison of the
+different snakes of the lachecis genus. These poisons are somewhat
+different and moreover there appear to be some differences between the
+poisons of the different species of lachecis; in some cases the poison
+is nearly colorless, and in others, as in that of the jararaca, whose
+poison I saw, it is yellow.
+
+But the vital difference is that between all these poisons of the pit-
+vipers and the poisons of the colubrine snakes, such as the cobra and
+the coral-snake. As yet the doctor has not been able to develop an
+anti-venom serum which will neutralize the poison of these colubrine
+snakes. Practically this is a matter of little consequence in Brazil,
+for the Brazilian coral-snakes are dangerous only when mishandled by
+some one whose bare skin is exposed to the bite. The numerous
+accidents and fatalities continually occurring in Brazil are almost
+always to be laid to the account of the several species of lachecis
+and the single species of rattlesnake.
+
+Finally, the doctor took us into his lecture-room to show us how he
+conducted his experiments. The various snakes were in boxes, on one
+side of the room, under the care of a skilful and impassive assistant,
+who handled them with the cool and fearless caution of the doctor
+himself. The poisonous ones were taken out by means of a long-handled
+steel hook. All that is necessary to do is to insert this under the
+snake and lift him off the ground. He is not only unable to escape,
+but he is unable to strike, for he cannot strike unless coiled so as
+to give himself support and leverage. The table on which the snakes
+are laid is fairly large and smooth, differing in no way from an
+ordinary table.
+
+There were a number of us in the room, including two or three
+photographers. The doctor first put on the table a non-poisonous but
+very vicious and truculent colubrine snake. It struck right and left
+at us. Then the doctor picked it up, opened its mouth, and showed that
+it had no fangs, and handed it to me. I also opened its mouth and
+examined its teeth, and then put it down, whereupon, its temper having
+been much ruffled, it struck violently at me two or three times. In
+its action and temper this snake was quite as vicious as the most
+irritable poisonous snakes. Yet it is entirely harmless. One of the
+innumerable mysteries of nature which are at present absolutely
+insoluble is why some snakes should be so vicious and others
+absolutely placid and good-tempered.
+
+After removing the vicious harmless snake, the doctor warned us to get
+away from the table, and his attendant put on it, in succession, a
+very big lachecis--of the kind called bushmaster--and a big
+rattlesnake. Each coiled menacingly, a formidable brute ready to
+attack anything that approached. Then the attendant adroitly dropped
+his iron crook on the neck of each in succession, seized it right
+behind the head, and held it toward the doctor. The snake's mouth was
+in each case wide open, and the great fangs erect and very evident. It
+would not have been possible to have held an African ring-necked cobra
+in such fashion, because the ring-neck would have ejected its venom
+through the fangs into the eyes of the onlookers. There was no danger
+in this case, and the doctor inserted a shallow glass saucer into the
+mouth of the snake behind the fangs, permitted it to eject its poison,
+and then himself squeezed out the remaining poison from the poison-
+bags through the fangs. From the big lachecis came a large quantity of
+yellow venom, a liquid which speedily crystallized into a number of
+minute crystals. The rattlesnake yielded a much less quantity of white
+venom, which the doctor assured us was far more active than the yellow
+lachecis venom. Then each snake was returned to its box unharmed.
+
+After this the doctor took out of a box and presented to me a fine,
+handsome, nearly black snake, an individual of the species called the
+mussurama. This is in my eyes perhaps the most interesting serpent in
+the world. It is a big snake, four or five feet long, sometimes even
+longer, nearly black, lighter below, with a friendly, placid temper.
+It lives exclusively on other snakes, and is completely immune to the
+poison of the lachecis and rattlesnake groups, which contain all the
+really dangerous snakes of America. Doctor Brazil told me that he had
+conducted many experiments with this interesting snake. It is not very
+common, and prefers wet places in which to live. It lays eggs, and the
+female remains coiled above the eggs, the object being apparently not
+to warm them, but to prevent too great evaporation. It will not eat
+when moulting, nor in cold weather. Otherwise it will eat a small
+snake every five or six days, or a big one every fortnight.
+
+There is the widest difference, both among poisonous and non-poisonous
+snakes, not alone in nervousness and irascibility but also in ability
+to accustom themselves to out-of-the-way surroundings. Many species of
+non-poisonous snakes which are entirely harmless, to man or to any
+other animal except their small prey, are nevertheless very vicious
+and truculent, striking right and left and biting freely on the
+smallest provocation--this is the case with the species of which the
+doctor had previously placed a specimen on the table. Moreover, many
+snakes, some entirely harmless and some vicious ones, are so nervous
+and uneasy that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be induced
+to eat in captivity, and the slightest disturbance or interference
+will prevent their eating. There are other snakes, however, of which
+the mussurama is perhaps the best example, which are very good
+captives, and at the same time very fearless, showing a complete
+indifference not only to being observed but to being handled when they
+are feeding.
+
+There is in the United States a beautiful and attractive snake, the
+king-snake, with much the same habits as the mussurama. It is friendly
+toward mankind, and not poisonous, so that it can be handled freely.
+It feeds on other serpents, and will kill a rattlesnake as big as
+itself, being immune to the rattlesnake venom. Mr. Ditmars, of the
+Bronx Zoo, has made many interesting experiments with these king-
+snakes. I have had them in my own possession. They are good-natured
+and can generally be handled with impunity, but I have known them to
+bite, whereas Doctor Brazil informed me that it was almost impossible
+to make the mussurama bite a man. The king-snake will feed greedily on
+other snakes in the presence of man--I knew of one case where it
+partly swallowed another snake while both were in a small boy's
+pocket. It is immune to viper poison but it is not immune to colubrine
+poison. A couple of years ago I was informed of a case where one of
+these king-snakes was put into an enclosure with an Indian snake-
+eating cobra or hamadryad of about the same size. It killed the cobra
+but made no effort to swallow it, and very soon showed the effects of
+the cobra poison. I believe it afterward died, but unfortunately I
+have mislaid my notes and cannot now remember the details of the
+incident.
+
+Doctor Brazil informed me that the mussurama, like the king-snake, was
+not immune to the colubrine poison. A mussurama in his possession,
+which had with impunity killed and eaten several rattlesnakes and
+representatives of the lachecis genus, also killed and ate a venomous
+coral-snake, but shortly afterward itself died from the effects of the
+poison. It is one of the many puzzles of nature that these American
+serpents which kill poisonous serpents should only have grown immune
+to the poison of the most dangerous American poisonous serpents, the
+pit-vipers, and should not have become immune to the poison of the
+coral-snakes which are commonly distributed throughout their range.
+Yet, judging by the one instance mentioned by Doctor Brazil, they
+attack and master these coral-snakes, although the conflict in the end
+results in their death. It would be interesting to find out whether
+this attack was exceptional, that is, whether the mussurama has or has
+not as a species learned to avoid the coral-snake. If it was not
+exceptional, then not only is the instance highly curious in itself,
+but it would also go far to explain the failure of the mussurama to
+become plentiful.
+
+For the benefit of those who are not acquainted with the subject, I
+may mention that the poison of a poisonous snake is not dangerous to
+its own species unless injected in very large doses, about ten times
+what would normally be injected by a bite; but that it is deadly to
+all other snakes, poisonous or non-poisonous, save as regards the very
+few species which themselves eat poisonous snakes. The Indian
+hamadryad, or giant cobra, is exclusively a snake-eater. It evidently
+draws a sharp distinction between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes,
+for Mr. Ditmars has recorded that two individuals in the Bronx Zoo
+which are habitually fed on harmless snakes, and attack them eagerly,
+refused to attack a copperhead which was thrown into their cage, being
+evidently afraid of this pit-viper. It would be interesting to find
+out if the hamadryad is afraid to prey on all pit-vipers, and also
+whether it will prey on its small relative, the true cobra--for it may
+well be that, even if not immune to the viper poison, it is immune to
+the poison of its close ally, the smaller cobra.
+
+All these and many other questions would be speedily settled by Doctor
+Brazil if he were given the opportunity to test them. It must be
+remembered, moreover, that not only have his researches been of
+absorbing value from the standpoint of pure science but that they also
+have a real utilitarian worth. He is now collecting and breeding the
+mussurama. The favorite prey of the mussurama is the most common and
+therefore the most dangerous poisonous snake of Brazil, the jararaca,
+which is known in Martinique as the fer-de-lance. In Martinique and
+elsewhere this snake is such an object of terror as to be at times a
+genuine scourge. Surely it would be worth while for the authorities of
+Martinique to import specimens of the mussurama to that island. The
+mortality from snake-bite in British India is very great. Surely it
+would be well worth while for the able Indian Government to copy
+Brazil and create such an institute as that over which Doctor Vital
+Brazil is the curator.
+
+At first sight it seems extraordinary that poisonous serpents, so
+dreaded by and so irresistible to most animals, should be so utterly
+helpless before the few creatures that prey on them. But the
+explanation is easy. Any highly specialized creature, the higher its
+specialization, is apt to be proportionately helpless when once its
+peculiar specialized traits are effectively nullified by an opponent.
+This is eminently the case with the most dangerous poisonous snakes.
+In them a highly peculiar specialization has been carried to the
+highest point. They rely for attack and defence purely on their
+poison-fangs. All other means and methods of attack and defence have
+atrophied. They neither crush nor tear with their teeth nor constrict
+with their bodies. The poison-fangs are slender and delicate, and,
+save for the poison, the wound inflicted is of a trivial character. In
+consequence they are helpless in the presence of any animal which the
+poison does not affect. There are several mammals immune to snake-
+bite, including various species of hedgehog, pig, and mongoose--the
+other mammals which kill them do so by pouncing on them unawares or by
+avoiding their stroke through sheer quickness of movement; and
+probably this is the case with most snake-eating birds. The mongoose
+is very quick, but in some cases at least--I have mentioned one in the
+"African Game Trails"--it permits itself to be bitten by poisonous
+snakes, treating the bite with utter indifference. There should be
+extensive experiments made to determine if there are species of
+mongoose immune to both cobra and viper poison. Hedgehogs, as
+determined by actual experiments, pay no heed at all to viper poison
+even when bitten on such tender places as the tongue and lips and eat
+the snake as if it were a radish. Even among animals which are not
+immune to the poison different species are very differently affected
+by the different kinds of snake poisons. Not only are some species
+more resistant than others to all poisons, but there is a wide
+variation in the amount of immunity each displays to any given venom.
+One species will be quickly killed by the poison from one species of
+snake, and be fairly resistant to the poison of another; whereas in
+another species the conditions may be directly reversed.
+
+The mussurama which Doctor Brazil handed me was a fine specimen,
+perhaps four and a half feet long. I lifted the smooth, lithe bulk in
+my hands, and then let it twist its coils so that it rested at ease in
+my arms; it glided to and fro, on its own length, with the sinuous
+grace of its kind, and showed not the slightest trace of either
+nervousness or bad temper. Meanwhile the doctor bade his attendant put
+on the table a big jararaca, or fer-de-lance, which was accordingly
+done. The jararaca was about three feet and a half, or perhaps nearly
+four feet long--that is, it was about nine inches shorter than the
+mussurama. The latter, which I continued to hold in my arms, behaved
+with friendly and impassive indifference, moving easily to and fro
+through my hands, and once or twice hiding its head between the sleeve
+and the body of my coat. The doctor was not quite sure how the
+mussurama would behave, for it had recently eaten a small snake, and
+unless hungry it pays no attention whatever to venomous snakes, even
+when they attack and bite it. However, it fortunately proved still to
+have a good appetite.
+
+The jararaca was alert and vicious. It partly coiled itself on the
+table, threatening the bystanders. I put the big black serpent down on
+the table four or five feet from the enemy and headed in its
+direction. As soon as I let go with my hands it glided toward where
+the threatening, formidable-looking lance-head lay stretched in a half
+coil. The mussurama displayed not the slightest sign of excitement.
+Apparently it trusted little to its eyes, for it began to run its head
+along the body of the jararaca, darting out its flickering tongue to
+feel just where it was, as it nosed its way up toward the head of its
+antagonist. So placid were its actions that I did not at first suppose
+that it meant to attack, for there was not the slightest exhibition of
+anger or excitement.
+
+It was the jararaca that began the fight. It showed no fear whatever
+of its foe, but its irritable temper was aroused by the proximity and
+actions of the other, and like a flash it drew back its head and
+struck, burying its fangs in the forward part of the mussurama's body.
+Immediately the latter struck in return, and the counter-attack was so
+instantaneous that it was difficult to see just what had happened.
+There was tremendous writhing and struggling on the part of the
+jararaca; and then, leaning over the knot into which the two serpents
+were twisted, I saw that the mussurama had seized the jararaca by the
+lower jaw, putting its own head completely into the wide-gaping mouth
+of the poisonous snake. The long fangs were just above the top of the
+mussurama's head; and it appeared, as well as I could see, that they
+were once again driven into the mussurama; but without the slightest
+effect. Then the fangs were curved back in the jaw, a fact which I
+particularly noted, and all effort at the offensive was abandoned by
+the poisonous snake.
+
+Meanwhile the mussurama was chewing hard, and gradually shifted its
+grip, little by little, until it got the top of the head of the
+jararaca in its mouth, the lower jaw of the jararaca being spread out
+to one side. The venomous serpent was helpless; the fearsome master of
+the wild life of the forest, the deadly foe of humankind, was itself
+held in the grip of death. Its cold, baleful serpent's eyes shone, as
+evil as ever. But it was dying. In vain it writhed and struggled.
+Nothing availed it.
+
+Once or twice the mussurama took a turn round the middle of the body
+of its opponent, but it did not seem to press hard, and apparently
+used its coils chiefly in order to get a better grip so as to crush
+the head of its antagonist, or to hold the latter in place. This
+crushing was done by its teeth; and the repeated bites were made with
+such effort that the muscles stood out on the mussurama's neck. Then
+it took two coils round the neck of the jararaca and proceeded
+deliberately to try to break the backbone of its opponent by twisting
+the head round. With this purpose it twisted its own head and neck
+round so that the lighter-colored surface was uppermost; and indeed at
+one time it looked as if it had made almost a complete single spiral
+revolution of its own body. It never for a moment relaxed its grip
+except to shift slightly the jaws.
+
+In a few minutes the jararaca was dead, its head crushed in, although
+the body continued to move convulsively. When satisfied that its
+opponent was dead, the mussurama began to try to get the head in its
+mouth. This was a process of some difficulty on account of the angle
+at which the lower jaw of the jararaca stuck out. But finally the head
+was taken completely inside and then swallowed. After this, the
+mussurama proceeded deliberately, but with unbroken speed, to devour
+its opponent by the simple process of crawling outside it, the body
+and tail of the jararaca writhing and struggling until the last.
+During the early portion of the meal, the mussurama put a stop to this
+writhing and struggling by resting its own body on that of its prey;
+but toward the last the part of the body that remained outside was
+left free to wriggle as it wished.
+
+Not only was the mussurama totally indifferent to our presence, but it
+was totally indifferent to being handled while the meal was going on.
+Several times I replaced the combatants in the middle of the table
+when they had writhed to the edge, and finally, when the photographers
+found that they could not get good pictures, I held the mussurama up
+against a white background with the partially swallowed snake in its
+mouth; and the feast went on uninterruptedly. I never saw cooler or
+more utterly unconcerned conduct; and the ease and certainty with
+which the terrible poisonous snake was mastered gave me the heartiest
+respect and liking for the easy-going, good-natured, and exceedingly
+efficient serpent which I had been holding in my arms.
+
+Our trip was not intended as a hunting-trip but as a scientific
+expedition. Before starting on the trip itself, while travelling in
+the Argentine, I received certain pieces of first-hand information
+concerning the natural history of the jaguar, and of the cougar, or
+puma, which are worth recording. The facts about the jaguar are not
+new in the sense of casting new light on its character, although they
+are interesting; but the facts about the behavior of the puma in one
+district of Patagonia are of great interest, because they give an
+entirely new side of its life-history.
+
+There was travelling with me at the time Doctor Francisco P. Moreno,
+of Buenos Aires. Doctor Moreno is at the present day a member of the
+National Board of Education of the Argentine, a man who has worked in
+every way for the benefit of his country, perhaps especially for the
+benefit of the children, so that when he was first introduced to me it
+was as the "Jacob Riis of the Argentine"--for they know my deep and
+affectionate intimacy with Jacob Riis. He is also an eminent man of
+science, who has done admirable work as a geologist and a geographer.
+At one period, in connection with his duties as a boundary
+commissioner on the survey between Chile and the Argentine, he worked
+for years in Patagonia. It was he who made the extraordinary discovery
+in a Patagonian cave of the still fresh fragments of skin and other
+remains of the mylodon, the aberrant horse known as the onohipidium,
+the huge South American tiger, and the macrauchenia, all of them
+extinct animals. This discovery showed that some of the strange
+representatives of the giant South American Pleistocene fauna had
+lasted down to within a comparatively few thousand years, down to the
+time when man, substantially as the Spaniards found him, flourished on
+the continent. Incidentally the discovery tended to show that this
+fauna had lasted much later in South America than was the case with
+the corresponding faunas in other parts of the world; and therefore it
+tended to disprove the claims advanced by Doctor Ameghino for the
+extreme age, geologically, of this fauna, and for the extreme
+antiquity of man on the American continent.
+
+One day Doctor Moreno handed me a copy of The Outlook containing my
+account of a cougar-hunt in Arizona, saying that he noticed that I had
+very little faith in cougars attacking men, although I had explicitly
+stated that such attacks sometimes occurred. I told him, Yes, that I
+had found that the cougar was practically harmless to man, the
+undoubtedly authentic instances of attacks on men being so exceptional
+that they could in practice be wholly disregarded. Thereupon Doctor
+Moreno showed me a scar on his face, and told me that he had himself
+been attacked and badly mauled by a puma which was undoubtedly trying
+to prey on him; that is, which had started on a career as a man-eater.
+This was to me most interesting. I had often met men who knew other
+men who had seen other men who said that they had been attacked by
+pumas, but this was the first time that I had ever come across a man
+who had himself been attacked. Doctor Moreno, as I have said, is not
+only an eminent citizen, but an eminent scientific man, and his
+account of what occurred is unquestionably a scientifically accurate
+statement of the facts. I give it exactly as the doctor told it;
+paraphrasing a letter he sent me, and including one or two answers to
+questions I put to him. The doctor, by the way, stated to me that he
+had known Mr. Hudson, the author of the "Naturalist on the Plata," and
+that the latter knew nothing whatever of pumas from personal
+experience and had accepted as facts utterly wild fables.
+
+Undoubtedly, said the doctor, the puma in South America, like the puma
+in North America, is, as a general rule, a cowardly animal which not
+only never attacks man, but rarely makes any efficient defence when
+attacked. The Indian and white hunters have no fear of it in most
+parts of the country, and its harmlessness to man is proverbial. But
+there is one particular spot in southern Patagonia where cougars, to
+the doctor's own personal knowledge, have for years been dangerous
+foes of man. This curious local change in habits, by the way, is
+nothing unprecedented as regards wild animals. In portions of its
+range, as I am informed by Mr. Lord Smith, the Asiatic tiger can
+hardly be forced to fight man, and never preys on him, while
+throughout most of its range it is a most dangerous beast, and often
+turns man-eater. So there are waters in which sharks are habitual man-
+eaters, and others where they never touch men; and there are rivers
+and lakes where crocodiles or caymans are very dangerous, and others
+where they are practically harmless--I have myself seen this in
+Africa.
+
+In March, 1877, Doctor Moreno with a party of men working on the
+boundary commission, and with a number of Patagonian horse-Indians,
+was encamped for some weeks beside Lake Viedma, which had not before
+been visited by white men for a century, and which was rarely visited
+even by Indians. One morning, just before sunrise, he left his camp by
+the south shore of the lake, to make a topographical sketch of the
+lake. He was unarmed, but carried a prismatic compass in a leather
+case with a strap. It was cold, and he wrapped his poncho of guanaco-
+hide round his neck and head. He had walked a few hundred yards, when
+a puma, a female, sprang on him from behind and knocked him down. As
+she sprang on him she tried to seize his head with one paw, striking
+him on the shoulder with the other. She lacerated his mouth and also
+his back, but tumbled over with him, and in the scuffle they separated
+before she could bite him. He sprang to his feet, and, as he said, was
+forced to think quickly. She had recovered herself, and sat on her
+haunches like a cat, looking at him, and then crouched to spring
+again; whereupon he whipped off his poncho, and as she sprang at him
+he opened it, and at the same moment hit her head with the prismatic
+compass in its case which he held by the strap. She struck the poncho
+and was evidently puzzled by it, for, turning, she slunk off to one
+side, under a bush, and then proceeded to try to get round behind him.
+He faced her, keeping his eyes upon her, and backed off. She followed
+him for three or four hundred yards. At least twice she came up to
+attack him, but each time he opened his poncho and yelled, and at the
+last moment she shrank back. She continually, however, tried, by
+taking advantage of cover, to sneak up to one side, or behind, to
+attack him. Finally, when he got near camp, she abandoned the pursuit
+and went into a small patch of bushes. He raised the alarm; an Indian
+rode up and set fire to the bushes from the windward side. When the
+cougar broke from the bushes, the Indian rode after her, and threw his
+bolas, which twisted around her hind legs; and while she was
+struggling to free herself, he brained her with his second bolas. The
+doctor's injuries were rather painful, but not serious.
+
+Twenty-one years later, in April, 1898, he was camped on the same
+lake, but on the north shore, at the foot of a basaltic cliff. He was
+in company with four soldiers, with whom he had travelled from the
+Strait of Magellan. In the night he was aroused by the shriek of a man
+and the barking of his dogs. As the men sprang up from where they were
+lying asleep they saw a large puma run off out of the firelight into
+the darkness. It had sprung on a soldier named Marcelino Huquen while
+he was asleep, and had tried to carry him off. Fortunately, the man
+was so wrapped up in his blanket, as the night was cold, that he was
+not injured. The puma was never found or killed.
+
+About the same time a surveyor of Doctor Moreno's party, a Swede named
+Arneberg, was attacked in similar fashion. The doctor was not with him
+at the time. Mr. Arneberg was asleep in the forest near Lake San
+Martin. The cougar both bit and clawed him, and tore his mouth,
+breaking out three teeth. The man was rescued; but this puma also
+escaped.
+
+The doctor stated that in this particular locality the Indians, who
+elsewhere paid no heed whatever to the puma, never let their women go
+out after wood for fuel unless two or three were together. This was
+because on several occasions women who had gone out alone were killed
+by pumas. Evidently in this one locality the habit of at least
+occasional man-eating has become chronic with a species which
+elsewhere is the most cowardly, and to man the least dangerous, of all
+the big cats.
+
+These observations of Doctor Moreno have a peculiar value, because, as
+far as I know, they are the first trustworthy accounts of a cougar's
+having attacked man save under circumstances so exceptional as to make
+the attack signify little more than the similar exceptional instances
+of attack by various other species of wild animals that are not
+normally dangerous to man.
+
+The jaguar, however, has long been known not only to be a dangerous
+foe when itself attacked, but also now and then to become a man-eater.
+Therefore the instances of such attacks furnished me are of merely
+corroborative value.
+
+In the excellent zoological gardens at Buenos Aires the curator,
+Doctor Onelli, a naturalist of note, showed us a big male jaguar which
+had been trapped in the Chaco, where it had already begun a career as
+a man-eater, having killed three persons. They were killed, and two of
+them were eaten; the animal was trapped, in consequence of the alarm
+excited by the death of his third victim. This jaguar was very savage;
+whereas a young jaguar, which was in a cage with a young tiger, was
+playful and friendly, as was also the case with the young tiger. On my
+trip to visit La Plata Museum I was accompanied by Captain Vicente
+Montes, of the Argentine Navy, an accomplished officer of scientific
+attainments. He had at one time been engaged on a survey of the
+boundary between the Argentine and Parana and Brazil. They had a
+quantity of dried beef in camp. On several occasions a jaguar came
+into camp after this dried beef. Finally they succeeded in protecting
+it so that he could not reach it. The result, however, was disastrous.
+On the next occasion that he visited camp, at midnight, he seized a
+man. Everybody was asleep at the time, and the jaguar came in so
+noiselessly as to elude the vigilance of the dogs. As he seized the
+man, the latter gave one yell, but the next moment was killed, the
+jaguar driving his fangs through the man's skull into the brain. There
+was a scene of uproar and confusion, and the jaguar was forced to drop
+his prey and flee into the woods. Next morning they followed him with
+the dogs, and finally killed him. He was a large male, in first-class
+condition. The only features of note about these two incidents was
+that in each case the man-eater was a powerful animal in the prime of
+life; whereas it frequently happens that the jaguars that turn man-
+eaters are old animals, and have become too inactive or too feeble to
+catch their ordinary prey.
+
+During the two months before starting from Asuncion, in Paraguay, for
+our journey into the interior, I was kept so busy that I had scant
+time to think of natural history. But in a strange land a man who
+cares for wild birds and wild beasts always sees and hears something
+that is new to him and interests him. In the dense tropical woods near
+Rio Janeiro I heard in late October--springtime, near the southern
+tropic--the songs of many birds that I could not identify. But the
+most beautiful music was from a shy woodland thrush, sombre-colored,
+which lived near the ground in the thick timber, but sang high among
+the branches. At a great distance we could hear the ringing, musical,
+bell-like note, long-drawn and of piercing sweetness, which occurs at
+intervals in the song; at first I thought this was the song, but when
+it was possible to approach the singer I found that these far-sounding
+notes were scattered through a continuous song of great melody. I
+never listened to one that impressed me more. In different places in
+Argentina I heard and saw the Argentine mocking-bird, which is not
+very unlike our own, and is also a delightful and remarkable singer.
+But I never heard the wonderful white-banded mocking-bird, which is
+said by Hudson, who knew well the birds of both South America and
+Europe, to be the song-king of them all.
+
+Most of the birds I thus noticed while hurriedly passing through the
+country were, of course, the conspicuous ones. The spurred lapwings,
+big, tame, boldly marked plover, were everywhere; they were very noisy
+and active and both inquisitive and daring, and they have a very
+curious dance custom. No man need look for them. They will look for
+him, and when they find him they will fairly yell the discovery to the
+universe. In the marshes of the lower Parana I saw flocks of scarlet-
+headed blackbirds on the tops of the reeds; the females are as
+strikingly colored as the males, and their jet-black bodies and
+brilliant red heads make it impossible for them to escape observation
+among their natural surroundings. On the plains to the west I saw
+flocks of the beautiful rose-breasted starlings; unlike the red-headed
+blackbirds, which seemed fairly to court attention, these starlings
+sought to escape observation by crouching on the ground so that their
+red breasts were hidden. There were yellow-shouldered blackbirds in
+wet places, and cow-buntings abounded.
+
+But the most conspicuous birds I saw were members of the family of
+tyrant flycatchers, of which our own king-bird is the most familiar
+example. This family is very numerously represented in Argentina, both
+in species and individuals. Some of the species are so striking, both
+in color and habits, and in one case also in shape, as to attract the
+attention of even the unobservant. The least conspicuous, and
+nevertheless very conspicuous, among those that I saw was the
+bientevido, which is brown above, yellow beneath, with a boldly marked
+black and white head, and a yellow crest. It is very noisy, is common
+in the neighborhood of houses, and builds a big domed nest. It is
+really a big, heavy kingbird, fiercer and more powerful than any
+northern kingbird. I saw them assail not only the big but the small
+hawks with fearlessness, driving them in headlong flight. They not
+only capture insects, but pounce on mice, small frogs, lizards, and
+little snakes, rob birds' nests of the fledgling young, and catch
+tadpoles and even small fish.
+
+Two of the tyrants which I observed are like two with which I grew
+fairly familiar in Texas. The scissor-tail is common throughout the
+open country, and the long tail feathers, which seem at times to
+hamper its flight, attract attention whether the bird is in flight or
+perched on a tree. It has a habit of occasionally soaring into the air
+and descending in loops and spirals. The scarlet tyrant I saw in the
+orchards and gardens. The male is a fascinating little bird, coal-
+black above, while his crested head and the body beneath are brilliant
+scarlet. He utters his rapid, low-voiced musical trill in the air,
+rising with fluttering wings to a height of a hundred feet, hovering
+while he sings, and then falling back to earth. The color of the bird
+and the character of his performance attract the attention of every
+observer, bird, beast, or man, within reach of vision.
+
+The red-backed tyrant is utterly unlike any of his kind in the United
+States, and until I looked him up in Sclater and Hudson's ornithology
+I never dreamed that he belonged to this family. He--for only the male
+is so brightly colored--is coal-black with a dull-red back. I saw
+these birds on December 1 near Barilloche, out on the bare Patagonian
+plains. They behaved like pipits or longspurs, running actively over
+the ground in the same manner and showing the same restlessness and
+the same kind of flight. But whereas pipits are inconspicuous, the
+red-backs at once attracted attention by the contrast between their
+bold coloring and the grayish or yellowish tones of the ground along
+which they ran. The silver-bill tyrant, however, is much more
+conspicuous; I saw it in the same neighborhood as the red-back and
+also in many other places. The male is jet-black, with white bill and
+wings. He runs about on the ground like a pipit, but also frequently
+perches on some bush to go through a strange flight-song performance.
+He perches motionless, bolt upright, and even then his black coloring
+advertises him for a quarter of a mile round about. But every few
+minutes he springs up into the air to the height of twenty or thirty
+feet, the white wings flashing in contrast to the black body, screams
+and gyrates, and then instantly returns to his former post and resumes
+his erect pose of waiting. It is hard to imagine a more conspicuous
+bird than the silver-bill; but the next and last tyrant flycatcher of
+which I shall speak possesses on the whole the most advertising
+coloration of any small bird I have ever seen in the open country, and
+moreover this advertising coloration exists in both sexes and
+throughout the year. It is a brilliant white, all over, except the
+long wing-quills and the ends of the tail-feathers, which are black.
+The first one I saw, at a very long distance, I thought must be an
+albino. It perches on the top of a bush or tree watching for its prey,
+and it shines in the sun like a silver mirror. Every hawk, cat, or man
+must see it; no one can help seeing it.
+
+These common Argentine birds, most of them of the open country, and
+all of them with a strikingly advertising coloration, are interesting
+because of their beauty and their habits. They are also interesting
+because they offer such illuminating examples of the truth that many
+of the most common and successful birds not merely lack a concealing
+coloration, but possess a coloration which is in the highest degree
+revealing. The coloration and the habits of most of these birds are
+such that every hawk or other foe that can see at all must have its
+attention attracted to them. Evidently in their cases neither the
+coloration nor any habit of concealment based on the coloration is a
+survival factor, and this although they live in a land teeming with
+bird-eating hawks. Among the higher vertebrates there are many known
+factors which have influence, some in one set of cases, some in
+another set of cases, in the development and preservation of species.
+Courage, intelligence, adaptability, prowess, bodily vigor, speed,
+alertness, ability to hide, ability to build structures which will
+protect the young while they are helpless, fecundity--all, and many
+more like them, have their several places; and behind all these
+visible causes there are at work other and often more potent causes of
+which as yet science can say nothing. Some species owe much to a given
+attribute which may be wholly lacking in influence on other species;
+and every one of the attributes above enumerated is a survival factor
+in some species, while in others it has no survival value whatever,
+and in yet others, although of benefit, it is not of sufficient
+benefit to offset the benefit conferred on foes or rivals by totally
+different attributes. Intelligence, for instance, is of course a
+survival factor; but to-day there exist multitudes of animals with
+very little intelligence which have persisted through immense periods
+of geologic time either unchanged or else without any change in the
+direction of increased intelligence; and during their species-life
+they have witnessed the death of countless other species of far
+greater intelligence but in other ways less adapted to succeed in the
+environmental complex. The same statement can be made of all the many,
+many other known factors in development, from fecundity to concealing
+coloration; and behind them lie forces as to which we veil our
+ignorance by the use of high-sounding nomenclature--as when we use
+such a convenient but far from satisfactory term as orthogenesis.
+
+
+
+                         II. UP THE PARAGUAY
+
+On the afternoon of December 9 we left the attractive and picturesque
+city of Asuncion to ascend the Paraguay. With generous courtesy the
+Paraguayan Government had put at my disposal the gunboat-yacht of the
+President himself, a most comfortable river steamer, and so the
+opening days of our trip were pleasant in every way. The food was
+good, our quarters were clean, we slept well, below or on deck,
+usually without our mosquito-nettings, and in daytime the deck was
+pleasant under the awnings. It was hot, of course, but we were dressed
+suitably in our exploring and hunting clothes and did not mind the
+heat. The river was low, for there had been dry weather for some weeks
+--judging from the vague and contradictory information I received
+there is much elasticity to the terms wet season and dry season at
+this part of the Paraguay. Under the brilliant sky we steamed steadily
+up the mighty river; the sunset was glorious as we leaned on the port
+railing; and after nightfall the moon, nearly full and hanging high in
+the heavens, turned the water to shimmering radiance. On the mud-flats
+and sandbars, and among the green rushes of the bays and inlets, were
+stately water-fowl; crimson flamingoes and rosy spoonbills, dark-
+colored ibis and white storks with black wings. Darters, with
+snakelike necks and pointed bills, perched in the trees on the brink
+of the river. Snowy egrets flapped across the marshes. Caymans were
+common, and differed from the crocodiles we had seen in Africa in two
+points: they were not alarmed by the report of a rifle when fired at,
+and they lay with the head raised instead of stretched along the sand.
+
+For three days, as we steamed northward toward the Tropic of
+Capricorn, and then passed it, we were within the Republic of
+Paraguay. On our right, to the east, there was a fairly well-settled
+country, where bananas and oranges were cultivated and other crops of
+hot countries raised. On the banks we passed an occasional small town,
+or saw a ranch-house close to the river's brink, or stopped for wood
+at some little settlement. Across the river to the west lay the level,
+swampy, fertile wastes known as the Chaco, still given over either to
+the wild Indians or to cattle-ranching on a gigantic scale. The broad
+river ran in curves between mud-banks where terraces marked successive
+periods of flood. A belt of forest stood on each bank, but it was only
+a couple of hundred yards wide. Back of it was the open country; on
+the Chaco side this was a vast plain of grass, dotted with tall,
+graceful palms. In places the belt of forest vanished and the palm-
+dotted prairie came to the river's edge. The Chaco is an ideal cattle
+country, and not really unhealthy. It will be covered with ranches at
+a not distant day. But mosquitoes and many other winged insect pests
+swarm over it. Cherrie and Miller had spent a week there collecting
+mammals and birds prior to my arrival at Asuncion. They were veterans
+of the tropics, hardened to the insect plagues of Guiana and the
+Orinoco. But they reported that never had they been so tortured as in
+the Chaco. The sand-flies crawled through the meshes in the mosquito-
+nets, and forbade them to sleep; if in their sleep a knee touched the
+net the mosquitoes fell on it so that it looked as if riddled by
+birdshot; and the nights were a torment, although they had done well
+in their work, collecting some two hundred and fifty specimens of
+birds and mammals.
+
+Nevertheless for some as yet inscrutable reason the river served as a
+barrier to certain insects which are menaces to the cattlemen. With me
+on the gunboat was an old Western friend, Tex Rickard, of the
+Panhandle and Alaska and various places in between. He now has a large
+tract of land and some thirty-five thousand head of cattle in the
+Chaco, opposite Concepcion, at which city he was to stop. He told me
+that horses did not do well in the Chaco but that cattle throve, and
+that while ticks swarmed on the east bank of the great river, they
+would not live on the west bank. Again and again he had crossed herds
+of cattle which were covered with the loathsome bloodsuckers; and in a
+couple of months every tick would be dead. The worst animal foes of
+man, indeed the only dangerous foes, are insects; and this is
+especially true in the tropics. Fortunately, exactly as certain
+differences too minute for us as yet to explain render some insects
+deadly to man or domestic animals, while closely allied forms are
+harmless, so, for other reasons, which also we are not as yet able to
+fathom, these insects are for the most part strictly limited by
+geographical and other considerations. The war against what Sir Harry
+Johnston calls the really material devil, the devil of evil wild
+nature in the tropics, has been waged with marked success only during
+the last two decades. The men, in the United States, in England,
+France, Germany, Italy--the men like Doctor Cruz in Rio Janeiro and
+Doctor Vital Brazil in Sao Paulo--who work experimentally within and
+without the laboratory in their warfare against the disease and death
+bearing insects and microbes, are the true leaders in the fight to
+make the tropics the home of civilized man.
+
+Late on the evening of the second day of our trip, just before
+midnight, we reached Concepcion. On this day, when we stopped for wood
+or to get provisions--at picturesque places, where the women from
+rough mud and thatched cabins were washing clothes in the river, or
+where ragged horsemen stood gazing at us from the bank, or where dark,
+well-dressed ranchmen stood in front of red-roofed houses--we caught
+many fish. They belonged to one of the most formidable genera of fish
+in the world, the piranha or cannibal fish, the fish that eats men
+when it can get the chance. Farther north there are species of small
+piranha that go in schools. At this point on the Paraguay the piranha
+do not seem to go in regular schools, but they swarm in all the waters
+and attain a length of eighteen inches or over. They are the most
+ferocious fish in the world. Even the most formidable fish, the sharks
+or the barracudas, usually attack things smaller than themselves. But
+the piranhas habitually attack things much larger than themselves.
+They will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water;
+they mutilate swimmers--in every river town in Paraguay there are men
+who have been thus mutilated; they will rend and devour alive any
+wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness.
+They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces; and bite off the tails of
+big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked.
+Miller, before I reached Asuncion, had been badly bitten by one. Those
+that we caught sometimes bit through the hooks, or the double strands
+of copper wire that served as leaders, and got away. Those that we
+hauled on deck lived for many minutes. Most predatory fish are long
+and slim, like the alligator-gar and pickerel. But the piranha is a
+short, deep-bodied fish, with a blunt face and a heavily undershot or
+projecting lower jaw which gapes widely. The razor-edged teeth are
+wedge-shaped like a shark's, and the jaw muscles possess great power.
+The rabid, furious snaps drive the teeth through flesh and bone. The
+head with its short muzzle, staring malignant eyes, and gaping,
+cruelly armed jaws, is the embodiment of evil ferocity; and the
+actions of the fish exactly match its looks. I never witnessed an
+exhibition of such impotent, savage fury as was shown by the piranhas
+as they flapped on deck. When fresh from the water and thrown on the
+boards they uttered an extraordinary squealing sound. As they flapped
+about they bit with vicious eagerness at whatever presented itself.
+One of them flapped into a cloth and seized it with a bulldog grip.
+Another grasped one of its fellows; another snapped at a piece of
+wood, and left the teeth-marks deep therein. They are the pests of the
+waters, and it is necessary to be exceedingly cautious about either
+swimming or wading where they are found. If cattle are driven into, or
+of their own accord enter, the water, they are commonly not molested;
+but if by chance some unusually big or ferocious specimen of these
+fearsome fishes does bite an animal--taking off part of an ear, or
+perhaps of a teat from the udder of a cow--the blood brings up every
+member of the ravenous throng which is anywhere near, and unless the
+attacked animal can immediately make its escape from the water it is
+devoured alive. Here on the Paraguay the natives hold them in much
+respect, whereas the caymans are not feared at all. The only redeeming
+feature about them is that they are themselves fairly good to eat,
+although with too many bones.
+
+At daybreak of the third day, finding we were still moored off
+Concepcion, we were rowed ashore and strolled off through the streets
+of the quaint, picturesque old town; a town which, like Asuncion, was
+founded by the conquistadores three-quarters of a century before our
+own English and Dutch forefathers landed in what is now the United
+States. The Jesuits then took practically complete possession of what
+is now Paraguay, controlling and Christianizing the Indians, and
+raising their flourishing missions to a pitch of prosperity they never
+elsewhere achieved. They were expelled by the civil authorities
+(backed by the other representatives of ecclesiastical authority) some
+fifty years before Spanish South America became independent. But they
+had already made the language of the Indians, Guarany, a culture-
+tongue, reducing it to writing, and printing religious books in it.
+Guarany is one of the most wide-spread of the Indian tongues, being
+originally found in various closely allied forms not only in Paraguay
+but in Uruguay and over the major part of Brazil. It remains here and
+there, as a lingua general at least, and doubtless in cases as an
+original tongue, among the wild tribes. In most of Brazil, as around
+Para and around Sao Paulo, it has left its traces in place-names, but
+has been completely superseded as a language by Portuguese. In
+Paraguay it still exists side by side with Spanish as the common
+language of the lower people and as a familiar tongue among the upper
+classes. The blood of the people is mixed, their language dual; the
+lower classes are chiefly of Indian blood but with a white admixture;
+while the upper classes are predominantly white, with a strong
+infusion of Indian. There is no other case quite parallel to this in
+the annals of European colonization, although the Goanese in India
+have a native tongue and a Portuguese creed, while in several of the
+Spanish-American states the Indian blood is dominant and the majority
+of the population speak an Indian tongue, perhaps itself, as with the
+Quichuas, once a culture-tongue of the archaic type. Whether in
+Paraguay one tongue will ultimately drive out the other, and, if so,
+which will be the victor, it is yet too early to prophesy. The English
+missionaries and the Bible Society have recently published parts of
+the Scriptures in Guarany and in Asuncion a daily paper is published
+with the text in parallel columns, Spanish and Guarany--just as in
+Oklahoma there is a similar paper published in English and in the
+tongue which the extraordinary Cherokee chief Sequoia, a veritable
+Cadmus, made a literary language.
+
+The Guarany-speaking Paraguayan is a Christian, and as much an
+inheritor of our common culture as most of the peasant populations of
+Europe. He has no kinship with the wild Indian, who hates and fears
+him. The Indian of the Chaco, a pure savage, a bow-bearing savage,
+will never come east of the Paraguay, and the Paraguayan is only
+beginning to venture into the western interior, away from the banks of
+the river--under the lead of pioneer settlers like Rickard, whom, by
+the way, the wild Indians thoroughly trust, and for whom they work
+eagerly and faithfully. There is a great development ahead for
+Paraguay, as soon as they can definitely shake off the revolutionary
+habit and establish an orderly permanence of government. The people
+are a fine people; the strains of blood--white and Indian--are good.
+
+We walked up the streets of Concepcion, and interestedly looked at
+everything of interest: at the one-story houses, their windows covered
+with gratings of fretted ironwork, and their occasional open doors
+giving us glimpses into cool inner courtyards, with trees and flowers;
+at the two-wheel carts, drawn by mules or oxen; at an occasional
+rider, with spurs on his bare feet, and his big toes thrust into the
+small stirrup-rings; at the little stores, and the warehouses for
+matte and hides. Then we came to a pleasant little inn, kept by a
+Frenchman and his wife, of old Spanish style, with its patio, or inner
+court, but as neat as an inn in Normandy or Brittany. We were sitting
+at coffee, around a little table, when in came the colonel of the
+garrison--for Concepcion is the second city in Paraguay. He told me
+that they had prepared a reception for me! I was in my rough hunting-
+clothes, but there was nothing to do but to accompany my kind hosts
+and trust to their good nature to pardon my shortcomings in the matter
+of dress. The colonel drove me about in a smart open carriage, with
+two good horses and a liveried driver. It was a much more fashionable
+turnout than would be seen in any of our cities save the largest, and
+even in them probably not in the service of a public official. In all
+the South American countries there is more pomp and ceremony in
+connection with public functions than with us, and at these functions
+the liveried servants, often with knee-breeches and powdered hair, are
+like those seen at similar European functions; there is not the
+democratic simplicity which better suits our own habits of life and
+ways of thought. But the South Americans often surpass us, not merely
+in pomp and ceremony but in what is of real importance, courtesy; in
+civility and courtesy we can well afford to take lessons from them.
+
+We first visited the barracks, saw the troops in the setting-up
+exercises, and inspected the arms, the artillery, the equipment. There
+was a German lieutenant with the Paraguayan officers; one of several
+German officers who are now engaged in helping the Paraguayans with
+their army. The equipments and arms were in good condition; the
+enlisted men evidently offered fine material; and the officers were
+doing hard work. It is worth while for anti-militarists to ponder the
+fact that in every South American country where a really efficient
+army is developed, the increase in military efficiency goes hand in
+hand with a decrease in lawlessness and disorder, and a growing
+reluctance to settle internal disagreements by violence. They are
+introducing universal military service in Paraguay; the officers, many
+of whom have studied abroad, are growing to feel an increased esprit
+de corps, an increased pride in the army, and therefore a desire to
+see the army made the servant of the nation as a whole and not the
+tool of any faction or individual. If these feelings grow strong
+enough they will be powerful factors in giving Paraguay what she most
+needs, freedom from revolutionary disturbance and therefore the chance
+to achieve the material prosperity without which as a basis there can
+be no advance in other and even more important matters.
+
+Then I was driven to the City Hall, accompanied by the intendente, or
+mayor, a German long settled in the country and one of the leading men
+of the city. There was a breakfast. When I had to speak I impressed
+into my service as interpreter a young Paraguayan who was a graduate
+of the University of Pennsylvania. He was able to render into Spanish
+my ideas--on such subjects as orderly liberty and the far-reaching
+mischief done by the revolutionary habit--with clearness and vigor,
+because he thoroughly understood not only how I felt but also the
+American way of looking at such things. My hosts were hospitality
+itself, and I enjoyed the unexpected greeting.
+
+We steamed on up the river. Now and then we passed another boat--a
+steamer, or, to my surprise, perhaps a barkentine or schooner. The
+Paraguay is a highway of traffic. Once we passed a big beef-canning
+factory. Ranches stood on either bank a few leagues apart, and we
+stopped at wood-yards on the west bank. Indians worked around them. At
+one such yard the Indians were evidently part of the regular force.
+Their squaws were with them, cooking at queer open-air ovens. One
+small child had as pets a parrot and a young coati--a kind of long-
+nosed raccoon. Loading wood, the Indians stood in a line, tossing the
+logs from one to the other. These Indians wore clothes.
+
+On this day we got into the tropics. Even in the heat of the day the
+deck was pleasant under the awnings; the sun rose and set in crimson
+splendor; and the nights, with the moon at the full, were wonderful.
+At night Orion blazed overhead; and the Southern Cross hung in the
+star-brilliant heavens behind us. But after the moon rose the
+constellations paled; and clear in her light the tree-clad banks stood
+on either hand as we steamed steadily against the swirling current of
+the great river.
+
+At noon on the twelfth we were at the Brazilian boundary. On this day
+we here and there came on low, conical hills close to the river. In
+places the palm groves broke through the belts of deciduous trees and
+stretched for a mile or so right along the river's bank. At times we
+passed cattle on the banks or sand-bars, followed by their herders; or
+a handsome ranch-house, under a cluster of shady trees, some bearing a
+wealth of red and some a wealth of yellow blossoms; or we saw a horse-
+corral among the trees close to the brink, with the horses in it and a
+barefooted man in shirt and trousers leaning against the fence; or a
+herd of cattle among the palms; or a big tannery or factory or a
+little native hamlet came in sight. We stopped at one tannery. The
+owner was a Spaniard, the manager an "Oriental," as he called himself,
+a Uruguayan, of German parentage. The peons, or workers, who lived in
+a long line of wooden cabins back of the main building, were mostly
+Paraguayans, with a few Brazilians, and a dozen German and Argentine
+foremen. There were also some wild Indians, who were camped in the
+usual squalid fashion of Indians who are hangers-on round the white
+man but have not yet adopted his ways. Most of the men were at work
+cutting wood for the tannery. The women and children were in camp.
+Some individuals of both sexes were naked to the waist. One little
+girl had a young ostrich as a pet.
+
+Water-fowl were plentiful. We saw large flocks of wild muscovy ducks.
+Our tame birds come from this wild species and its absurd misnaming
+dates back to the period when the turkey and guinea-pig were misnamed
+in similar fashion--our European forefathers taking a large and hazy
+view of geography, and including Turkey, Guinea, India, and Muscovy as
+places which, in their capacity of being outlandish, could be
+comprehensively used as including America. The muscovy ducks were very
+good eating. Darters and cormorants swarmed. They waddled on the sand-
+bars in big flocks and crowded the trees by the water's edge.
+Beautiful snow-white egrets also lit in the trees, often well back
+from the river. A full-foliaged tree of vivid green, its round surface
+crowded with these birds, as if it had suddenly blossomed with huge
+white flowers, is a sight worth seeing. Here and there on the sand-
+bars we saw huge jabiru storks, and once a flock of white wood-ibis
+among the trees on the bank.
+
+On the Brazilian boundary we met a shallow river steamer carrying
+Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon and several other Brazilian
+members of the expedition. Colonel Rondon immediately showed that he
+was all, and more than all, that could be desired. It was evident that
+he knew his business thoroughly, and it was equally evident that he
+would be a pleasant companion. He was a classmate of Mr. Lauro Muller
+at the Brazilian Military Academy. He is of almost pure Indian blood,
+and is a Positivist--the Positivists are a really strong body in
+Brazil, as they are in France and indeed in Chile. The colonel's seven
+children have all been formally made members of the Positivist Church
+in Rio Janeiro. Brazil possesses the same complete liberty in matters
+religious, spiritual, and intellectual as we, for our great good
+fortune, do in the United States, and my Brazilian companions included
+Catholics and equally sincere men who described themselves as "libres
+penseurs." Colonel Rondon has spent the last twenty-four years in
+exploring the western highlands of Brazil, pioneering the way for
+telegraph-lines and railroads. During that time he has travelled some
+fourteen thousand miles, on territory most of which had not previously
+been traversed by civilized man, and has built three thousand miles of
+telegraph. He has an exceptional knowledge of the Indian tribes and
+has always zealously endeavored to serve them and indeed to serve the
+cause of humanity wherever and whenever he was able. Thanks mainly to
+his efforts, four of the wild tribes of the region he has explored
+have begun to tread the road of civilization. They have taken the
+first steps toward becoming Christians. It may seem strange that among
+the first-fruits of the efforts of a Positivist should be the
+conversion of those he seeks to benefit to Christianity. But in South
+America Christianity is at least as much a status as a theology. It
+represents the indispensable first step upward from savagery. In the
+wilder and poorer districts men are divided into the two great classes
+of "Christians" and "Indians." When an Indian becomes a Christian he
+is accepted into and becomes wholly absorbed or partly assimilated by
+the crude and simple neighboring civilization, and then he moves up or
+down like any one else among his fellows.
+
+Among Colonel Rondon's companions were Captain Amilcar de Magalhaes,
+Lieutenant Joao Lyra, Lieutenant Joaquin de Mello Filho, and Doctor
+Euzebio de Oliveira, a geologist.
+
+The steamers halted; Colonel Rondon and several of his officers, spick
+and span in their white uniforms, came aboard; and in the afternoon I
+visited him on his steamer to talk over our plans. When these had been
+fully discussed and agreed on we took tea. I happened to mention that
+one of our naturalists, Miller, had been bitten by a piranha, and the
+man-eating fish at once became the subject of conversation. Curiously
+enough, one of the Brazilian taxidermists had also just been severely
+bitten by a piranha. My new companions had story after story to tell
+of them. Only three weeks previously a twelve-year-old boy who had
+gone in swimming near Corumba was attacked, and literally devoured
+alive by them. Colonel Rondon during his exploring trips had met with
+more than one unpleasant experience in connection with them. He had
+lost one of his toes by the bite of a piranha. He was about to bathe
+and had chosen a shallow pool at the edge of the river, which he
+carefully inspected until he was satisfied that none of the man-eating
+fish were in it; yet as soon as he put his foot into the water one of
+them attacked him and bit off a toe. On another occasion while wading
+across a narrow stream one of his party was attacked; the fish bit him
+on the thighs and buttocks, and when he put down his hands tore them
+also; he was near the bank and by a rush reached it and swung himself
+out of the water by means of an overhanging limb of a tree; but he was
+terribly injured, and it took him six months before his wounds healed
+and he recovered. An extraordinary incident occurred on another trip.
+The party were without food and very hungry. On reaching a stream they
+dynamited it, and waded in to seize the stunned fish as they floated
+on the surface. One man, Lieutenant Pyrineus, having his hands full,
+tried to hold one fish by putting its head into his mouth; it was a
+piranha and seemingly stunned, but in a moment it recovered and bit a
+big section out of his tongue. Such a hemorrhage followed that his
+life was saved with the utmost difficulty. On another occasion a
+member of the party was off by himself on a mule. The mule came into
+camp alone. Following his track back they came to a ford, where in the
+water they found the skeleton of the dead man, his clothes uninjured
+but every particle of flesh stripped from his bones. Whether he had
+drowned, and the fishes had then eaten his body, or whether they had
+killed him it was impossible to say. They had not hurt the clothes,
+getting in under them, which made it seem likely that there had been
+no struggle. These man-eating fish are a veritable scourge in the
+waters they frequent. But it must not be understood by this that the
+piranhas--or, for the matter of that, the New-World caymans and
+crocodiles--ever become such dreaded foes of man as for instance the
+man-eating crocodiles of Africa. Accidents occur, and there are
+certain places where swimming and bathing are dangerous; but in most
+places the people swim freely, although they are usually careful to
+find spots they believe safe or else to keep together and make a
+splashing in the water.
+
+During his trips Colonel Rondon had met with various experiences with
+wild creatures. The Paraguayan caymans are not ordinarily dangerous to
+man; but they do sometimes become man-eaters and should be destroyed
+whenever the opportunity offers. The huge caymans and crocodiles of
+the Amazon are far more dangerous, and the colonel knew of repeated
+instances where men, women and children had become their victims. Once
+while dynamiting a stream for fish for his starving party he partially
+stunned a giant anaconda, which he killed as it crept slowly off. He
+said that it was of a size that no other anaconda he had ever seen
+even approached, and that in his opinion such a brute if hungry would
+readily attack a full-grown man. Twice smaller anacondas had attacked
+his dogs; one was carried under water--for the anaconda is a water-
+loving serpent--but he rescued it. One of his men was bitten by a
+jararaca; he killed the venomous snake, but was not discovered and
+brought back to camp until it was too late to save his life. The puma
+Colonel Rondon had found to be as cowardly as I have always found it,
+but the jaguar was a formidable beast, which occasionally turned man-
+eater, and often charged savagely when brought to bay. He had known a
+hunter to be killed by a jaguar he was following in thick grass cover.
+
+All such enemies, however, he regarded as utterly trivial compared to
+the real dangers of the wilderness--the torment and menace of attacks
+by the swarming insects, by mosquitoes and the even more intolerable
+tiny gnats, by the ticks, and by the vicious poisonous ants which
+occasionally cause villages and even whole districts to be deserted by
+human beings. These insects, and the fevers they cause, and dysentery
+and starvation and wearing hardship and accidents in rapids are what
+the pioneer explorers have to fear. The conversation was to me most
+interesting. The colonel spoke French about to the extent I did; but
+of course he and the others preferred Portuguese; and then Kermit was
+the interpreter.
+
+In the evening, soon after moonrise, we stopped for wood at the little
+Brazilian town of Porto Martinho. There are about twelve hundred
+inhabitants. Some of the buildings were of stone; a large private
+house with a castellated tower was of stone; there were shops, and a
+post-office, stores, a restaurant and billiard-hall, and warehouses
+for matte, of which much is grown in the region roundabout. Most of
+the houses were low, with overhanging, sloping caves; and there were
+gardens with high walls, inside of which trees rose, many of them
+fragrant. We wandered through the wide, dusty streets, and along the
+narrow sidewalks. It was a hot, still evening; the smell of the
+tropics was on the heavy December air. Through the open doors and
+windows we caught dim glimpses of the half-clad inmates of the poorer
+houses; women and young girls sat outside their thresholds in the
+moonlight. All whom we met were most friendly: the captain of the
+little Brazilian garrison; the intendente, a local trader; another
+trader and ranchman, a Uruguayan, who had just received his newspaper
+containing my speech in Montevideo, and who, as I gathered from what I
+understood of his rather voluble Spanish, was much impressed by my
+views on democracy, honesty, liberty, and order (rather well-worn
+topics); and a Catalan who spoke French, and who was accompanied by
+his pretty daughter, a dear little girl of eight or ten, who said with
+much pride that she spoke three languages--Brazilian, Spanish, and
+Catalan! Her father expressed strongly his desire for a church and for
+a school in the little city.
+
+When at last the wood was aboard we resumed our journey. The river was
+like glass. In the white moonlight the palms on the edge of the banks
+stood mirrored in the still water. We sat forward and as we rounded
+the curves the long silver reaches of the great stream stretched ahead
+of us, and the ghostly outlines of hills rose in the distance. Here
+and there prairie fires burned, and the red glow warred with the
+moon's radiance.
+
+Next morning was overcast. Occasionally we passed a wood-yard, or
+factory, or cabin, now on the eastern, the Brazilian, now on the
+western, the Paraguayan, bank. The Paraguay was known to men of
+European birth, bore soldiers and priests and merchants as they sailed
+and rowed up and down the current of its stream, and beheld little
+towns and forts rise on its banks, long before the Mississippi had
+become the white man's highway. Now, along its upper course, the
+settlements are much like those on the Mississippi at the end of the
+first quarter of the last century; and in the not distant future it
+will witness a burst of growth and prosperity much like that which the
+Mississippi saw when the old men of today were very young.
+
+In the early forenoon we stopped at a little Paraguayan hamlet,
+nestling in the green growth under a group of low hills by the river-
+brink. On one of these hills stood a picturesque old stone fort, known
+as Fort Bourbon in the Spanish, the colonial, days. Now the Paraguayan
+flag floats over it, and it is garrisoned by a handful of Paraguayan
+soldiers. Here Father Zahm baptized two children, the youngest of a
+large family of fair-skinned, light-haired small people, whose father
+was a Paraguayan and the mother an "Oriental," or Uruguayan. No priest
+had visited the village for three years, and the children were
+respectively one and two years of age. The sponsors included the local
+commandante and a married couple from Austria. In answer to what was
+supposed to be the perfunctory question whether they were Catholics,
+the parents returned the unexpected answer that they were not. Further
+questioning elicited the fact that the father called himself a "free-
+thinking Catholic," and the mother said she was a "Protestant
+Catholic," her mother having been a Protestant, the daughter of an
+immigrant from Normandy. However, it appeared that the older children
+had been baptized by the Bishop of Asuncion, so Father Zahm at the
+earnest request of the parents proceeded with the ceremony. They were
+good people; and, although they wished liberty to think exactly as
+they individually pleased, they also wished to be connected and to
+have their children connected with some church, by preference the
+church of the majority of their people. A very short experience of
+communities where there is no church ought to convince the most
+heterodox of the absolute need of a church. I earnestly wish that
+there could be such an increase in the personnel and equipment of the
+Catholic Church in South America as to permit the establishment of one
+good and earnest priest in every village or little community in the
+far interior. Nor is there any inconsistency between this wish and the
+further wish that there could be a marked extension and development of
+the native Protestant churches, such as I saw established here and
+there in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, and of the Y. M. C.
+Associations. The bulk of these good people who profess religion will
+continue to be Catholics, but the spiritual needs of a more or less
+considerable minority will best be met by the establishment of
+Protestant churches, or in places even of a Positivist Church or
+Ethical Culture Society. Not only is the establishment of such
+churches a good thing for the body politic as a whole, but a good
+thing for the Catholic Church itself; for their presence is a constant
+spur to activity and clean and honorable conduct, and a constant
+reflection on sloth and moral laxity. The government in each of these
+commonwealths is doing everything possible to further the cause of
+education, and the tendency is to treat education as peculiarly a
+function of government and to make it, where the government acts, non-
+sectarian, obligatory, and free--a cardinal doctrine of our own great
+democracy, to which we are committed by every principle of sound
+Americanism. There must be absolute religious liberty, for tyranny and
+intolerance are as abhorrent in matters intellectual and spiritual as
+in matters political and material; and more and more we must all
+realize that conduct is of infinitely greater importance than dogma.
+But no democracy can afford to overlook the vital importance of the
+ethical and spiritual, the truly religious, element in life; and in
+practice the average good man grows clearly to understand this, and to
+express the need in concrete form by saying that no community can make
+much headway if it does not contain both a church and a school.
+
+We took breakfast--the eleven-o'clock Brazilian breakfast--on Colonel
+Rondon's boat. Caymans were becoming more plentiful. The ugly brutes
+lay on the sand-flats and mud-banks like logs, always with the head
+raised, sometimes with the jaws open. They are often dangerous to
+domestic animals, and are always destructive to fish, and it is good
+to shoot them. I killed half a dozen, and missed nearly as many more--
+a throbbing boat does not improve one's aim. We passed forests of
+palms that extended for leagues, and vast marshy meadows, where
+storks, herons, and ibis were gathered, with flocks of cormorants and
+darters on the sand-bars, and stilts, skimmers, and clouds of
+beautiful swaying terns in the foreground. About noon we passed the
+highest point which the old Spanish conquistadores and explorers,
+Irala and Ayolas, had reached in the course of their marvellous
+journeys in the first half of the sixteenth century--at a time when
+there was not a settlement in what is now the United States, and when
+hardly a single English sea captain had ventured so much as to cross
+the Atlantic.
+
+By the following day the country on the east bank had become a vast
+marshy plain dotted here and there by tree-clad patches of higher
+land. The morning was rainy; a contrast to the fine weather we had
+hitherto encountered. We passed wood-yards and cattle-ranches. At one
+of the latter the owner, an Argentine of Irish parentage, who still
+spoke English with the accent of the land of his parents' nativity,
+remarked that this was the first time the American flag had been seen
+on the upper Paraguay; for our gunboat carried it at the masthead.
+Early in the afternoon, having reached the part where both banks of
+the river were Brazilian territory, we came to the old colonial
+Portuguese fort of Coimbra. It stands where two steep hills rise, one
+on either side of the river, and it guards the water-gorge between
+them. It was captured by the Paraguayans in the war of nearly half a
+century ago. Some modern guns have been mounted, and there is a
+garrison of Brazilian troops. The white fort is perched on the
+hillside, where it clings and rises, terrace above terrace, with
+bastion and parapet and crenellated wall. At the foot of the hill, on
+the riverine plain, stretches the old-time village with its roofs of
+palm. In the village dwell several hundred souls, almost entirely the
+officers and soldiers and their families. There is one long street.
+The one-story, daub-and-wattle houses have low eaves and steep sloping
+roofs of palm-leaves or of split palm-trunks. Under one or two old but
+small trees there are rude benches; and for a part of the length of
+the street there is a rough stone sidewalk. A little graveyard, some
+of the tombs very old, stands at one end. As we passed down the street
+the wives and the swarming children of the garrison were at the doors
+and windows; there were women and girls with skins as fair as any in
+the northland, and others that were predominantly negro. Most were of
+intervening shades. All this was paralleled among the men; and the
+fusion of the colors was going on steadily.
+
+Around the village black vultures were gathered. Not long before
+reaching it we passed some rounded green trees, their tops covered
+with the showy wood-ibis; at the same time we saw behind them, farther
+inland, other trees crowded with the more delicate forms of the
+shining white egrets.
+
+The river now widened so that in places it looked like a long lake; it
+wound in every direction through the endless marshy plain, whose
+surface was broken here and there by low mountains. The splendor of
+the sunset I never saw surpassed. We were steaming east toward clouds
+of storm. The river ran, a broad highway of molten gold, into the
+flaming sky; the far-off mountains loomed purple across the marshes;
+belts of rich green, the river banks stood out on either side against
+the rose-hues of the rippling water; in front, as we forged steadily
+onward, hung the tropic night, dim and vast.
+
+On December 15 we reached Corumba. For three or four miles before it
+is reached the west bank, on which it stands, becomes high rocky
+ground, falling away into cliffs. The country roundabout was evidently
+well peopled. We saw gauchos, cattle-herders--the equivalent of our
+own cowboys--riding along the bank. Women were washing clothes, and
+their naked children bathing, on the shore; we were told that caymans
+and piranhas rarely ventured near a place where so much was going on,
+and that accidents generally occurred in ponds or lonely stretches of
+the river. Several steamers came out to meet us, and accompanied us
+for a dozen miles, with bands playing and the passengers cheering,
+just as if we were nearing some town on the Hudson.
+
+Corumba is on a steep hillside, with wide, roughly paved streets, some
+of them lined with beautiful trees that bear scarlet flowers, and with
+well-built houses, most of them of one story, some of two or three
+stories. We were greeted with a reception by the municipal council,
+and were given a state dinner. The hotel, kept by an Italian, was as
+comfortable as possible--stone floors, high ceilings, big windows and
+doors, a cool, open courtyard, and a shower-bath. Of course Corumba is
+still a frontier town. The vehicles ox-carts and mule-carts; there are
+no carriages; and oxen as well as mules are used for riding. The water
+comes from a big central well; around it the water-carts gather, and
+their contents are then peddled around at the different houses. The
+families showed the mixture of races characteristic of Brazil; one
+mother, after the children had been photographed in their ordinary
+costume, begged that we return and take them in their Sunday clothes,
+which was accordingly done. In a year the railway from Rio will reach
+Corumba; and then this city, and the country roundabout, will see much
+development.
+
+At this point we rejoined the rest of the party, and very glad we were
+to see them. Cherrie and Miller had already collected some eight
+hundred specimens of mammals and birds.
+
+
+
+                  III. A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY
+
+The morning after our arrival at Corumba I asked Colonel Rondon to
+inspect our outfit; for his experience of what is necessary in
+tropical travelling has been gained through a quarter of a century of
+arduous exploration in the wilderness. It was Fiala who had assembled
+our food-tents, cooking-utensils, and supplies of all kinds, and he
+and Sigg, during their stay in Corumba, had been putting everything in
+shape for our start. Colonel Rondon at the end of his inspection said
+he had nothing whatever to suggest; that it was extraordinary that
+Fiala, without personal knowledge of the tropics, could have gathered
+the things most necessary, with the minimum of bulk and maximum of
+usefulness.
+
+Miller had made a special study of the piranhas, which swarmed at one
+of the camps he and Cherrie had made in the Chaco. So numerous were
+they that the members of the party had to be exceedingly careful in
+dipping up water. Miller did not find that they were cannibals toward
+their own kind; they were "cannibals" only in the sense of eating the
+flesh of men. When dead piranhas, and even when mortally injured
+piranhas, with the blood flowing, were thrown among the ravenous
+living, they were left unmolested. Moreover, it was Miller's
+experience, the direct contrary of which we had been told, that
+splashing and a commotion in the water attracted the piranhas, whereas
+they rarely attacked anything that was motionless unless it was
+bloody. Dead birds and mammals, thrown whole and unskinned into the
+water were permitted to float off unmolested, whereas the skinned
+carcass of a good-sized monkey was at once seized, pulled under the
+water, and completely devoured by the blood-crazy fish. A man who had
+dropped something of value waded in after it to above the knees, but
+went very slowly and quietly, avoiding every possibility of
+disturbance, and not venturing to put his hands into the water. But
+nobody could bathe, and even the slightest disturbance in the water,
+such as that made by scrubbing the hands vigorously with soap,
+immediately attracted the attention of the savage little creatures,
+who darted to the place, evidently hoping to find some animal in
+difficulties. Once, while Miller and some Indians were attempting to
+launch a boat, and were making a great commotion in the water, a
+piranha attacked a naked Indian who belonged to the party and
+mutilated him as he struggled and splashed, waist-deep in the stream.
+Men not making a splashing and struggling are rarely attacked; but if
+one is attacked by any chance, the blood in the water maddens the
+piranhas, and they assail the man with frightful ferocity.
+
+At Corumba the weather was hot. In the patio of the comfortable little
+hotel we heard the cicadas; but I did not hear the extraordinary
+screaming whistle of the locomotive cicada, which I had heard in the
+gardens of the house in which I stayed at Asuncion. This was as
+remarkable a sound as any animal sound to which I have listened,
+except only the batrachian-like wailing of the tree hyrax in East
+Africa; and like the East African mammal this South American insect
+has a voice, or rather utters a sound which, so far as it resembles
+any other animal sound, at the beginning remotely suggests batrachian
+affinities. The locomotive-whistle part of the utterance, however,
+resembles nothing so much as a small steam siren; when first heard it
+seems impossible that it can be produced by an insect.
+
+On December 17 Colonel Rondon and several members of our party started
+on a shallow river steamer for the ranch of Senhor de Barros, "Las
+Palmeiras," on the Rio Taquary. We went down the Paraguay for a few
+miles, and then up the Taquary. It was a beautiful trip. The shallow
+river--we were aground several times--wound through a vast, marshy
+plain, with occasional spots of higher land on which trees grew. There
+were many water-birds. Darters swarmed. But the conspicuous and
+attractive bird was the stately jabiru stork. Flocks of these storks
+whitened the marshes and lined the river banks. They were not shy, for
+such big birds; before flying they had to run a few paces and then
+launch themselves on the air. Once, at noon, a couple soared round
+overhead in wide rings, rising higher and higher. On another occasion,
+late in the day, a flock passed by, gleaming white with black points
+in the long afternoon lights, and with them were spoonbills, showing
+rosy amid their snowy companions. Caymans, always called jacares,
+swarmed; and we killed scores of the noxious creatures. They were
+singularly indifferent to our approach and to the sound of the shots.
+Sometimes they ran into the water erect on their legs, looking like
+miniatures of the monsters of the prime. One showed by its behavior
+how little an ordinary shot pains or affects these dull-nerved, cold-
+blooded creatures. As it lay on a sand-bank, it was hit with a long 22
+bullet. It slid into the water but found itself in the midst of a
+school of fish. It at once forgot everything except its greedy
+appetite, and began catching the fish. It seized fish after fish,
+holding its head above water as soon as its jaws had closed on a fish;
+and a second bullet killed it. Some of the crocodiles when shot
+performed most extraordinary antics. Our weapons, by the way, were
+good, except Miller's shotgun. The outfit furnished by the American
+Museum was excellent--except in guns and cartridges; this gun was so
+bad that Miller had to use Fiala's gun or else my Fox 12-bore.
+
+In the late afternoon we secured a more interesting creature than the
+jacares. Kermit had charge of two hounds which we owed to the courtesy
+of one of our Argentine friends. They were biggish, nondescript
+animals, obviously good fighters, and they speedily developed the
+utmost affection for all the members of the expedition, but especially
+for Kermit, who took care of them. One we named "Shenzi," the name
+given the wild bush natives by the Swahili, the semi-civilized African
+porters. He was good-natured, rough, and stupid--hence his name. The
+other was called by a native name, "Trigueiro." The chance now came to
+try them. We were steaming between long stretches of coarse grass,
+about three feet high, when we spied from the deck a black object,
+very conspicuous against the vivid green. It was a giant ant-eater, or
+tamandua bandeira, one of the most extraordinary creatures of the
+latter-day world. It is about the size of a rather small black bear.
+It has a very long, narrow, toothless snout, with a tongue it can
+project a couple of feet; it is covered with coarse, black hair, save
+for a couple of white stripes; it has a long, bushy tail and very
+powerful claws on its fore feet. It walks on the sides of its fore
+feet with these claws curved in under the foot. The claws are used in
+digging out ant-hills; but the beast has courage, and in a grapple is
+a rather unpleasant enemy, in spite of its toothless mouth, for it can
+strike a formidable blow with these claws. It sometimes hugs a foe,
+gripping him tight; but its ordinary method of defending itself is to
+strike with its long, stout, curved claws, which, driven by its
+muscular forearm, can rip open man or beast. Several of our companions
+had had dogs killed by these ant-eaters; and we came across one man
+with a very ugly scar down his back, where he had been hit by one,
+which charged him when he came up to kill it at close quarters.
+
+As soon as we saw the giant tamandua we pushed off in a rowboat, and
+landed only a couple of hundred yards distant from our clumsy quarry.
+The tamandua throughout most of its habitat rarely leaves the forest,
+and it is a helpless animal in the open plain. The two dogs ran ahead,
+followed by Colonel Rondon and Kermit, with me behind carrying the
+rifle. In a minute or two the hounds overtook the cantering, shuffling
+creature, and promptly began a fight with it; the combatants were so
+mixed up that I had to wait another minute or so before I could fire
+without risk of hitting a dog. We carried our prize back to the bank
+and hoisted it aboard the steamer. The sun was just about to set,
+behind dim mountains, many miles distant across the marsh.
+
+Soon afterward we reached one of the outstations of the huge ranch we
+were about to visit, and hauled up alongside the bank for the night.
+There was a landing-place, and sheds and corrals. Several of the peons
+or gauchos had come to meet us. After dark they kindled fires, and sat
+beside them singing songs in a strange minor key and strumming
+guitars. The red firelight flickered over their wild figures as they
+squatted away from the blaze, where the light and the shadow met. It
+was still and hot. There were mosquitoes, of course, and other insects
+of all kinds swarmed round every light; but the steamboat was
+comfortable, and we passed a pleasant night.
+
+At sunrise we were off for the "fazenda," the ranch of M. de Barros.
+The baggage went in an ox-cart--which had to make two trips, so that
+all of my belongings reached the ranch a day later than I did. We rode
+small, tough ranch horses. The distance was some twenty miles. The
+whole country was marsh, varied by stretches of higher ground; and,
+although these stretches rose only three or four feet above the marsh,
+they were covered with thick jungle, largely palmetto scrub, or else
+with open palm forest. For three or four miles we splashed through the
+marsh, now and then crossing boggy pools where the little horses
+labored hard not to mire down. Our dusky guide was clad in a shirt,
+trousers, and fringed leather apron, and wore spurs on his bare feet;
+he had a rope for a bridle, and two or three toes of each foot were
+thrust into little iron stirrups.
+
+The pools in the marsh were drying. They were filled with fish, most
+of them dead or dying; and the birds had gathered to the banquet. The
+most notable dinner guests were the great jabiru storks; the stately
+creatures dotted the marsh. But ibis and herons abounded; the former
+uttered queer, querulous cries when they discovered our presence. The
+spurred lapwings were as noisy as they always are. The ibis and plover
+did not pay any heed to the fish; but the black carrion vultures
+feasted on them in the mud; and in the pools that were not dry small
+alligators, the jacare-tinga, were feasting also. In many places the
+stench from the dead fish was unpleasant.
+
+Then for miles we rode through a beautiful open forest of tall,
+slender caranda palms, with other trees scattered among them. Green
+parakeets with black heads chattered as they flew; noisy green and red
+parrots climbed among the palms; and huge macaws, some entirely blue,
+others almost entirely red, screamed loudly as they perched in the
+trees or took wing at our approach. If one was wounded its cries kept
+its companions circling around overhead. The naturalists found the
+bird fauna totally different from that which they had been collecting
+in the hill country near Corumba, seventy or eighty miles distant; and
+birds swarmed, both species and individuals. South America has the
+most extensive and most varied avifauna of all the continents. On the
+other hand, its mammalian fauna, although very interesting, is rather
+poor in number of species and individuals and in the size of the
+beasts. It possesses more mammals that are unique and distinctive in
+type than does any other continent save Australia; and they are of
+higher and much more varied types than in Australia. But there is
+nothing approaching the majesty, beauty, and swarming mass of the
+great mammalian life of Africa and, in a less degree, of tropical
+Asia; indeed, it does not even approach the similar mammalian life of
+North America and northern Eurasia, poor though this is compared with
+the seething vitality of tropical life in the Old World. During a
+geologically recent period, a period extending into that which saw man
+spread over the world in substantially the physical and cultural stage
+of many existing savages, South America possessed a varied and
+striking fauna of enormous beasts--sabre-tooth tigers, huge lions,
+mastodons, horses of many kinds, camel-like pachyderms, giant ground-
+sloths, mylodons the size of the rhinoceros, and many, many other
+strange and wonderful creatures. From some cause, concerning the
+nature of which we cannot at present even hazard a guess, this vast
+and giant fauna vanished completely, the tremendous catastrophe (the
+duration of which is unknown) not being consummated until within a few
+thousand or a few score thousand years. When the white man reached
+South America he found the same weak and impoverished mammalian fauna
+that exists practically unchanged to-day. Elsewhere civilized man has
+been even more destructive than his very destructive uncivilized
+brothers of the magnificent mammalian life of the wilderness; for ages
+he has been rooting out the higher forms of beast life in Europe,
+Asia, and North Africa; and in our own day he has repeated the feat,
+on a very large scale, in the rest of Africa and in North America. But
+in South America, although he is in places responsible for the wanton
+slaughter of the most interesting and the largest, or the most
+beautiful, birds, his advent has meant a positive enrichment of the
+wild mammalian fauna. None of the native grass-eating mammals, the
+graminivores, approach in size and beauty the herds of wild or half-
+wild cattle and horses, or so add to the interest of the landscape.
+There is every reason why the good people of South America should
+waken, as we of North America, very late in the day, are beginning to
+waken, and as the peoples of northern Europe--not southern Europe--
+have already partially wakened, to the duty of preserving from
+impoverishment and extinction the wild life which is an asset of such
+interest and value in our several lands; but the case against
+civilized man in this matter is gruesomely heavy anyhow, when the
+plain truth is told, and it is harmed by exaggeration.
+
+After five or six hours' travelling through this country of marsh and
+of palm forest we reached the ranch for which we were heading. In the
+neighborhood stood giant fig-trees, singly or in groups, with dense,
+dark green foliage. Ponds, overgrown with water-plants, lay about; wet
+meadow, and drier pastureland, open or dotted with palms and varied
+with tree jungle, stretched for many miles on every hand. There are
+some thirty thousand head of cattle on the ranch, besides herds of
+horses and droves of swine, and a few flocks of sheep and goats. The
+home buildings of the ranch stood in a quadrangle, surrounded by a
+fence or low stockade. One end of the quadrangle was formed by the
+ranch-house itself, one story high, with whitewashed walls and red-
+tiled roof. Inside, the rooms were bare, with clean, whitewashed walls
+and palm-trunk rafters. There were solid wooden shutters on the
+unglazed windows. We slept in hammocks or on cots, and we feasted
+royally on delicious native Brazilian dishes. On another side of the
+quadrangle stood another long, low white building with a red-tiled
+roof; this held the kitchen and the living-rooms of the upper-grade
+peons, the headmen, the cook, and jaguar-hunters, with their families:
+dark-skinned men, their wives showing varied strains of white, Indian,
+and negro blood. The children tumbled merrily in the dust, and were
+fondly tended by their mothers. Opposite the kitchen stood a row of
+buildings, some whitewashed daub and wattle, with tin roofs, others of
+erect palm-logs with palm-leaf thatch. These were the saddle-room,
+storehouse, chicken-house, and stable. The chicken-house was allotted
+to Kermit and Miller for the preparation of the specimens; and there
+they worked industriously. With a big skin, like that of the giant
+ant-eater, they had to squat on the ground; while the ducklings and
+wee chickens scuffled not only round the skin but all over it,
+grabbing the shreds and scraps of meat and catching flies. The fourth
+end of the quadrangle was formed by a corral and a big wooden
+scaffolding on which hung hides and strips of drying meat.
+Extraordinary to relate, there were no mosquitoes at the ranch; why I
+cannot say, as they ought to swarm in these vast "pantanals," or
+swamps. Therefore, in spite of the heat, it was very pleasant. Near by
+stood other buildings: sheds, and thatched huts of palm-logs in which
+the ordinary peons lived, and big corrals. In the quadrangle were
+flamboyant trees, with their masses of brilliant red flowers and
+delicately cut, vivid-green foliage. Noisy oven-birds haunted these
+trees. In a high palm in the garden a family of green parakeets had
+taken up their abode and were preparing to build nests. They chattered
+incessantly both when they flew and when they sat or crawled among the
+branches. Ibis and plover, crying and wailing, passed immediately
+overhead. Jacanas frequented the ponds near by; the peons, with a
+familiarity which to us seems sacrilegious, but to them was entirely
+inoffensive and matter of course, called them "the Jesus Christ
+birds," because they walked on the water. There was a wealth of
+strange bird life in the neighborhood. There were large papyrus-
+marshes, the papyrus not being a fifth, perhaps not a tenth, as high
+as in Africa. In these swamps were many blackbirds. Some uttered notes
+that reminded me of our own redwings. Others, with crimson heads and
+necks and thighs, fairly blazed; often a dozen sat together on a
+swaying papyrus-stem which their weight bent over. There were all
+kinds of extraordinary bird's-nests in the trees. There is still need
+for the work of the collector in South America. But I believe that
+already, so far as birds are concerned, there is infinitely more need
+for the work of the careful observer, who to the power of appreciation
+and observation adds the power of vivid, truthful, and interesting
+narration--which means, as scientists no less than historians should
+note, that training in the writing of good English is indispensable to
+any learned man who expects to make his learning count for what it
+ought to count in the effect on his fellow men. The outdoor
+naturalist, the faunal naturalist, who devotes himself primarily to a
+study of the habits and of the life-histories of birds, beasts, fish,
+and reptiles, and who can portray truthfully and vividly what he has
+seen, could do work of more usefulness than any mere collector, in
+this upper Paraguay country. The work of the collector is
+indispensable; but it is only a small part of the work that ought to
+be done; and after collecting has reached a certain point the work of
+the field observer with the gift for recording what he has seen
+becomes of far more importance.
+
+The long days spent riding through the swamp, the "pantanal," were
+pleasant and interesting. Several times we saw the tamandua bandeira,
+the giant ant-bear. Kermit shot one, because the naturalists eagerly
+wished for a second specimen; afterward we were relieved of all
+necessity to molest the strange, out-of-date creatures. It was a
+surprise to us to find them habitually frequenting the open marsh.
+They were always on muddy ground, and in the papyrus-swamp we found
+them in several inches of water. The stomach is thick-walled, like a
+gizzard; the stomachs of those we shot contained adult and larval
+ants, chiefly termites, together with plenty of black mould and
+fragments of leaves, both green and dry. Doubtless the earth and the
+vegetable matter had merely been taken incidentally, adhering to the
+viscid tongue when it was thrust into the ant masses. Out in the open
+marsh the tamandua could neither avoid observation, nor fight
+effectively, nor make good its escape by flight. It was curious to see
+one lumbering off at a rocking canter, the big bushy tail held aloft.
+One, while fighting the dogs, suddenly threw itself on its back,
+evidently hoping to grasp a dog with its paws; and it now and then
+reared, in order to strike at its assailants. In one patch of thick
+jungle we saw a black howler monkey sitting motionless in a tree top.
+We also saw the swamp-deer, about the size of our blacktail. It is a
+real swamp animal, for we found it often in the papyrus-swamps, and
+out in the open marsh, knee-deep in the water, among the aquatic
+plants.
+
+The tough little horses bore us well through the marsh. Often in
+crossing bayous and ponds the water rose almost to their backs; but
+they splashed and waded and if necessary swam through. The dogs were a
+wild-looking set. Some were of distinctly wolfish appearance. These,
+we were assured, were descended in part from the big red wolf of the
+neighborhood, a tall, lank animal, with much smaller teeth than a big
+northern wolf. The domestic dog is undoubtedly descended from at least
+a dozen different species of wild dogs, wolves, and jackals, some of
+them probably belonging to what we style different genera. The degree
+of fecundity or lack of fecundity between different species varies in
+extraordinary and inexplicable fashion in different families of
+mammals. In the horse family, for instance, the species are not
+fertile inter se; whereas among the oxen, species seemingly at least
+as widely separated as the horse, ass, and zebra species such as the
+domestic ox, bison, yak, and gaur breed freely together and their
+offspring are fertile; the lion and tiger also breed together, and
+produce offspring which will breed with either parent stock; and tame
+dogs in different quarters of the world, although all of them fertile
+inter se, are in many cases obviously blood kin to the neighboring
+wild, wolf-like or jackal-like creatures which are specifically, and
+possibly even generically, distinct from one another. The big red wolf
+of the South American plains is not closely related to the northern
+wolves; and it was to me unexpected to find it interbreeding with
+ordinary domestic dogs.
+
+In the evenings after dinner we sat in the bare ranch dining-room, or
+out under the trees in the hot darkness, and talked of many things:
+natural history with the naturalists, and all kinds of other subjects
+both with them and with our Brazilian friends. Colonel Rondon is not
+simply "an officer and a gentleman" in the sense that is honorably
+true of the best army officers in every good military service. He is
+also a peculiarly hardy and competent explorer, a good field
+naturalist and scientific man, a student and a philosopher. With him
+the conversation ranged from jaguar-hunting and the perils of
+exploration in the "Matto Grosso," the great wilderness, to Indian
+anthropology, to the dangers of a purely materialistic industrial
+civilization, and to Positivist morality. The colonel's Positivism was
+in very fact to him a religion of humanity, a creed which bade him be
+just and kindly and useful to his fellow men, to live his life
+bravely, and no less bravely to face death, without reference to what
+he believed, or did not believe, or to what the unknown hereafter
+might hold for him.
+
+The native hunters who accompanied us were swarthy men of mixed blood.
+They were barefooted and scantily clad, and each carried a long,
+clumsy spear and a keen machete, in the use of which he was an expert.
+Now and then, in thick jungle, we had to cut out a path, and it was
+interesting to see one of them, although cumbered by his unwieldy
+spear, handling his half-broken little horse with complete ease while
+he hacked at limbs and branches. Of the two ordinarily with us one was
+much the younger; and whenever we came to an unusually doubtful-
+looking ford or piece of boggy ground the elder man always sent the
+younger one on and sat on the bank until he saw what befell the
+experimenter. In that rather preposterous book of our youth, the
+"Swiss Family Robinson," mention is made of a tame monkey called Nips,
+which was used to test all edible-looking things as to the
+healthfulness of which the adventurers felt doubtful; and because of
+the obvious resemblance of function we christened this younger hunter
+Nips. Our guides were not only hunters but cattle-herders. The coarse
+dead grass is burned to make room for the green young grass on which
+the cattle thrive. Every now and then one of the men, as he rode ahead
+of us, without leaving the saddle, would drop a lighted match into a
+tussock of tall dead blades; and even as we who were behind rode by
+tongues of hot flame would be shooting up and a local prairie fire
+would have started.
+
+Kermit took Nips off with him for a solitary hunt one day. He shot two
+of the big marsh-deer, a buck and a doe, and preserved them as museum
+specimens. They were in the papyrus growth, but their stomachs
+contained only the fine marsh-grass which grows in the water and on
+the land along the edges of the swamps; the papyrus was used only for
+cover, not for food. The buck had two big scent-glands beside the
+nostrils; in the doe these were rudimentary. On this day Kermit also
+came across a herd of the big, fierce white-lipped peccary; at the
+sound of their grunting Nips promptly spurred his horse and took to
+his heels, explaining that the peccaries would charge them, hamstring
+the horses, and kill the riders. Kermit went into the jungle after the
+truculent little wild hogs on foot and followed them for an hour, but
+never was able to catch sight of them.
+
+In the afternoon of this same day one of the jaguar-hunters--merely
+ranch hands, who knew something of the chase of the jaguar--who had
+been searching for tracks, rode in with the information that he had
+found fresh sign at a spot in the swamp about nine miles distant. Next
+morning we rose at two, and had started on our jaguar-hunt at three.
+Colonel Rondon, Kermit, and I, with the two trailers or jaguar-
+hunters, made up the party, each on a weedy, undersized marsh pony,
+accustomed to traversing the vast stretches of morass; and we were
+accompanied by a brown boy, with saddle-bags holding our lunch, who
+rode a long-horned trotting steer which he managed by a string through
+its nostril and lip. The two trailers carried each a long, clumsy
+spear. We had a rather poor pack. Besides our own two dogs, neither of
+which was used to jaguar-hunting, there were the ranch dogs, which
+were well-nigh worthless, and then two jaguar hounds borrowed for the
+occasion from a ranch six or eight leagues distant. These were the
+only hounds on which we could place any trust, and they were led in
+leashes by the two trailers. One was a white bitch, the other, the
+best one we had, was a gelded black dog. They were lean, half-starved
+creatures with prick ears and a look of furtive wildness.
+
+As our shabby little horses shuffled away from the ranch-house the
+stars were brilliant and the Southern Cross hung well up in the
+heavens, tilted to the right. The landscape was spectral in the light
+of the waning moon. At the first shallow ford, as horses and dogs
+splashed across, an alligator, the jacare-tinga, some five feet long,
+floated unconcernedly among the splashing hoofs and paws; evidently at
+night it did not fear us. Hour after hour we slogged along. Then the
+night grew ghostly with the first dim gray of the dawn. The sky had
+become overcast. The sun rose red and angry through broken clouds; his
+disk flamed behind the tall, slender columns of the palms, and lit the
+waste fields of papyrus. The black monkeys howled mournfully. The
+birds awoke. Macaws, parrots, parakeets screamed at us and chattered
+at us as we rode by. Ibis called with wailing voices, and the plovers
+shrieked as they wheeled in the air. We waded across bayous and ponds,
+where white lilies floated on the water and thronging lilac-flowers
+splashed the green marsh with color.
+
+At last, on the edge of a patch of jungle, in wet ground, we came on
+fresh jaguar tracks. Both the jaguar hounds challenged the sign. They
+were unleashed and galloped along the trail, while the other dogs
+noisily accompanied them. The hunt led right through the marsh.
+Evidently the jaguar had not the least distaste for water. Probably it
+had been hunting for capybaras or tapirs, and it had gone straight
+through ponds and long, winding, narrow ditches or bayous, where it
+must now and then have had to swim for a stroke or two. It had also
+wandered through the island-like stretches of tree-covered land, the
+trees at this point being mostly palms and tarumans; the taruman is
+almost as big as a live-oak, with glossy foliage and a fruit like an
+olive. The pace quickened, the motley pack burst into yelling and
+howling; and then a sudden quickening of the note showed that the game
+had either climbed a tree or turned to bay in a thicket. The former
+proved to be the case. The dogs had entered a patch of tall tree
+jungle, and as we cantered up through the marsh we saw the jaguar high
+among the forked limbs of a taruman tree. It was a beautiful picture--
+the spotted coat of the big, lithe, formidable cat fairly shone as it
+snarled defiance at the pack below. I did not trust the pack; the dogs
+were not stanch, and if the jaguar came down and started I feared we
+might lose it. So I fired at once, from a distance of seventy yards. I
+was using my favorite rifle, the little Springfield with which I have
+killed most kinds of African game, from the lion and elephant down;
+the bullets were the sharp, pointed kind, with the end of naked lead.
+At the shot the jaguar fell like a sack of sand through the branches,
+and although it staggered to its feet it went but a score of yards
+before it sank down, and when I came up it was dead under the palms,
+with three or four of the bolder dogs riving at it.
+
+The jaguar is the king of South American game, ranking on an equality
+with the noblest beasts of the chase of North America, and behind only
+the huge and fierce creatures which stand at the head of the big game
+of Africa and Asia. This one was an adult female. It was heavier and
+more powerful than a full-grown male cougar, or African panther or
+leopard. It was a big, powerfully built creature, giving the same
+effect of strength that a tiger or lion does, and that the lithe
+leopards and pumas do not. Its flesh, by the way, proved good eating,
+when we had it for supper, although it was not cooked in the way it
+ought to have been. I tried it because I had found cougars such good
+eating; I have always regretted that in Africa I did not try lion's
+flesh, which I am sure must be excellent.
+
+Next day came Kermit's turn. We had the miscellaneous pack with us,
+all much enjoying themselves; but, although they could help in a
+jaguar-hunt to the extent of giving tongue and following the chase for
+half a mile, cowing the quarry by their clamor, they were not
+sufficiently stanch to be of use if there was any difficulty in the
+hunt. The only two dogs we could trust were the two borrowed jaguar
+hounds. This was the black dog's day. About ten in the morning we came
+to a long, deep, winding bayou. On the opposite bank stood a capybara,
+looking like a blunt-nosed pig, its wet hide shining black. I killed
+it, and it slid into the water. Then I found that the bayou extended
+for a mile or two in each direction, and the two hunter-guides said
+they did not wish to swim across for fear of the piranhas. Just at
+this moment we came across fresh jaguar tracks. It was hot, we had
+been travelling for five hours, and the dogs were much exhausted. The
+black hound in particular was nearly done up, for he had been led in a
+leash by one of the horsemen. He lay flat on the ground, panting,
+unable to catch the scent. Kermit threw water over him, and when he
+was thoroughly drenched and freshened, thrust his nose into the
+jaguar's footprints. The game old hound at once and eagerly responded.
+As he snuffed the scent he challenged loudly, while still lying down.
+Then he staggered to his feet and started on the trail, going stronger
+with every leap. Evidently the big cat was not far distant. Soon we
+found where it had swum across the bayou. Piranhas or no piranhas, we
+now intended to get across; and we tried to force our horses in at
+what seemed a likely spot. The matted growth of water-plants, with
+their leathery, slippery stems, formed an unpleasant barrier, as the
+water was swimming-deep for the horses. The latter were very unwilling
+to attempt the passage. Kermit finally forced his horse through the
+tangled mass, swimming, plunging, and struggling. He left a lane of
+clear water, through which we swam after him. The dogs splashed and
+swam behind us. On the other bank they struck the fresh trail and
+followed it at a run. It led into a long belt of timber, chiefly
+composed of low-growing nacury palms, with long, drooping, many-
+fronded branches. In silhouette they suggest coarse bamboos; the nuts
+hang in big clusters and look like bunches of small, unripe bananas.
+Among the lower palms were scattered some big ordinary trees. We
+cantered along outside the timber belt, listening to the dogs within;
+and in a moment a burst of yelling clamor from the pack told that the
+jaguar was afoot. These few minutes are the really exciting moments in
+the chase, with hounds, of any big cat that will tree. The furious
+baying of the pack, the shouts and cheers of encouragement from the
+galloping horsemen, the wilderness surroundings, the knowledge of what
+the quarry is--all combine to make the moment one of fierce and
+thrilling excitement. Besides, in this case there was the possibility
+the jaguar might come to bay on the ground, in which event there would
+be a slight element of risk, as it might need straight shooting to
+stop a charge. However, about as soon as the long-drawn howling and
+eager yelping showed that the jaguar had been overtaken, we saw him, a
+huge male, up in the branches of a great fig-tree. A bullet behind the
+shoulder, from Kermit's 405 Winchester, brought him dead to the
+ground. He was heavier than the very big male horse-killing cougar I
+shot in Colorado, whose skull Hart Merriam reported as the biggest he
+had ever seen; he was very nearly double the weight of any of the male
+African leopards we shot; he was nearly or quite the weight of the
+smallest of the adult African lionesses we shot while in Africa. He
+had the big bones, the stout frame, and the heavy muscular build of a
+small lion; he was not lithe and slender and long like a cougar or
+leopard; the tail, as with all jaguars, was short, while the girth of
+the body was great; his coat was beautiful, with a satiny gloss, and
+the dark-brown spots on the gold of his back, head, and sides were
+hardly as conspicuous as the black of the equally well-marked spots
+against his white belly.
+
+This was a well-known jaguar. He had occasionally indulged in cattle-
+killing; on one occasion during the floods he had taken up his abode
+near the ranch-house and had killed a couple of cows and a young
+steer. The hunters had followed him, but he had made his escape, and
+for the time being had abandoned the neighborhood. In these marshes
+each jaguar had a wide irregular range and travelled a good deal,
+perhaps only passing a day or two in a given locality, perhaps
+spending a week where game was plentiful. Jaguars love the water. They
+drink greedily and swim freely. In this country they rambled through
+the night across the marshes and prowled along the edges of the ponds
+and bayous, catching the capybaras and the caymans; for these small
+pond caymans, the jacare-tinga, form part of their habitual food, and
+a big jaguar when hungry will attack and kill large caymans and
+crocodiles if he can get them a few yards from the water. On these
+marshes the jaguars also followed the peccary herds; it is said that
+they always strike the hindmost of a band of the fierce little wild
+pigs. Elsewhere they often prey on the tapir. If in timber, however,
+the jaguar must kill it at once, for the squat, thick-skinned, wedge-
+shaped tapir has no respect for timber, as Colonel Rondon phrased it,
+and rushes with such blind, headlong speed through and among branches
+and trunks that if not immediately killed it brushes the jaguar off,
+the claws leaving long raking scars in the tough hide. Cattle are
+often killed. The jaguar will not meddle with a big bull; and is
+cautious about attacking a herd accompanied by a bull; but it will at
+times, where wild game is scarce, kill every other domestic animal. It
+is a thirsty brute, and if it kills far from water will often drag its
+victim a long distance toward a pond or stream; Colonel Rondon had
+once come across a horse which a jaguar had thus killed and dragged
+for over a mile. Jaguars also stalk and kill the deer; in this
+neighborhood they seemed to be less habitual deer-hunters than the
+cougars; whether this is generally the case I cannot say. They have
+been known to pounce on and devour good-sized anacondas.
+
+In this particular neighborhood the ordinary jaguars molested the
+cattle and horses hardly at all except now and then to kill calves. It
+was only occasionally that under special circumstances some old male
+took to cattle-killing. There were plenty of capybaras and deer, and
+evidently the big spotted cats preferred the easier prey when it was
+available; exactly as in East Africa we found the lions living almost
+exclusively on zebra and antelope, and not molesting the buffalo and
+domestic cattle, which in other parts of Africa furnish their habitual
+prey. In some other neighborhoods, not far distant, our hosts informed
+us that the jaguars lived almost exclusively on horses and cattle.
+They also told us that the cougars had the same habits as the jaguars
+except that they did not prey on such big animals. The cougars on this
+ranch never molested the foals, a fact which astonished me, as in the
+Rockies they are the worst enemies of foals. It was interesting to
+find that my hosts, and the mixed-blood hunters and ranch workers,
+combined special knowledge of many of the habits of these big cats
+with a curious ignorance of other matters concerning them and a
+readiness to believe fables about them. This was precisely what I had
+found to be the case with the old-time North American hunters in
+discussing the puma, bear, and wolf, and with the English and Boer
+hunters of Africa when they spoke of the lion and rhinoceros. Until
+the habit of scientific accuracy in observation and record is achieved
+and until specimens are preserved and carefully compared, entirely
+truthful men, at home in the wilderness, will whole-heartedly accept,
+and repeat as matters of gospel faith, theories which split the
+grizzly and black bears of each locality in the United States, and the
+lions and black rhinos of South Africa, or the jaguars and pumas of
+any portion of South America, into several different species, all with
+widely different habits. They will, moreover, describe these imaginary
+habits with such sincerity and minuteness that they deceive most
+listeners; and the result sometimes is that an otherwise good
+naturalist will perpetuate these fables, as Hudson did when he wrote
+of the puma. Hudson was a capital observer and writer when he dealt
+with the ordinary birds and mammals of the well-settled districts near
+Buenos Aires and at the mouth of the Rio Negro; but he knew nothing of
+the wilderness. This is no reflection on him; his books are great
+favorites of mine, and are to a large degree models of what such books
+should be; I only wish that there were hundreds of such writers and
+observers who would give us similar books for all parts of America.
+But it is a mistake to accept him as an authority on that concerning
+which he was ignorant.
+
+An interesting incident occurred on the day we killed our first
+jaguar. We took our lunch beside a small but deep and obviously
+permanent pond. I went to the edge to dip up some water, and something
+growled or bellowed at me only a few feet away. It was a jacare-tinga
+or small cayman about five feet long. I paid no heed to it at the
+moment. But shortly afterward when our horses went down to drink it
+threatened them and frightened them; and then Colonel Rondon and
+Kermit called me to watch it. It lay on the surface of the water only
+a few feet distant from us and threatened us; we threw cakes of mud at
+it, whereupon it clashed its jaws and made short rushes at us, and
+when we threw sticks it seized them and crunched them. We could not
+drive it away. Why it should have shown such truculence and
+heedlessness I cannot imagine, unless perhaps it was a female, with
+eggs near by. In another little pond a jacare-tinga showed no less
+anger when another of my companions approached. It bellowed, opened
+its jaws, and lashed its tail. Yet these pond jacares never actually
+molested even our dogs in the ponds, far less us on our horses.
+
+This same day others of our party had an interesting experience with
+the creatures in another pond. One of them was Commander da Cunha (of
+the Brazilian Navy), a capital sportsman and delightful companion.
+They found a deepish pond a hundred yards or so long and thirty or
+forty across. It was tenanted by the small caymans and by capybaras--
+the largest known rodent, a huge aquatic guinea-pig, the size of a
+small sheep. It also swarmed with piranhas, the ravenous fish of which
+I have so often spoken. Undoubtedly the caymans were subsisting
+largely on these piranhas. But the tables were readily turned if any
+caymans were injured. When a capybara was shot and sank in the water,
+the piranhas at once attacked it, and had eaten half the carcass ten
+minutes later. But much more extraordinary was the fact that when a
+cayman about five feet long was wounded the piranhas attacked and tore
+it, and actually drove it out on the bank to face its human foes. The
+fish first attacked the wound; then, as the blood maddened them, they
+attacked all the soft parts, their terrible teeth cutting out chunks
+of tough hide and flesh. Evidently they did not molest either cayman
+or capybara while it was unwounded; but blood excited them to frenzy.
+Their habits are in some ways inexplicable. We saw men frequently
+bathing unmolested; but there are places where this is never safe, and
+in any place if a school of the fish appear swimmers are in danger;
+and a wounded man or beast is in deadly peril if piranhas are in the
+neighborhood. Ordinarily it appears that an unwounded man is attacked
+only by accident. Such accidents are rare; but they happen with
+sufficient frequency to justify much caution in entering water where
+piranhas abound.
+
+We frequently came across ponds tenanted by numbers of capybaras. The
+huge, pig-like rodents are said to be shy elsewhere. Here they were
+tame. The water was their home and refuge. They usually went ashore to
+feed on the grass, and made well-beaten trails in the marsh
+immediately around the water; but they must have travelled these at
+night, for we never saw them more than a few feet away from the water
+in the daytime. Even at midday we often came on them standing beside a
+bayou or pond. The dogs would rush wildly at such a standing beast,
+which would wait until they were only a few yards off and then dash
+into and under the water. The dogs would also run full tilt into the
+water, and it was then really funny to see their surprise and
+disappointment at the sudden and complete disappearance of their
+quarry. Often a capybara would stand or sit on its haunches in the
+water, with only its blunt, short-eared head above the surface, quite
+heedless of our presence. But if alarmed it would dive, for capybaras
+swim with equal facility on or below the surface; and if they wish to
+hide they rise gently among the rushes or water-lily leaves with only
+their nostrils exposed. In these waters the capybaras and small
+caymans paid no attention to one another, swimming and resting in
+close proximity. They both had the same enemy, the jaguar. The
+capybara is a game animal only in the sense that a hare or rabbit is.
+The flesh is good to eat, and its amphibious habits and queer nature
+and surroundings make it interesting. In some of the ponds the water
+had about gone, and the capybaras had become for the time being beasts
+of the marsh and the mud; although they could always find little slimy
+pools, under a mass of water-lilies, in which to lie and hide.
+
+Our whole stay on this ranch was delightful. On the long rides we
+always saw something of interest, and often it was something entirely
+new to us. Early one morning we came across two armadillos--the big,
+nine-banded armadillo. We were riding with the pack through a dry,
+sandy pasture country, dotted with clumps of palms, round the trunks
+of which grew a dense jungle of thorns and Spanish bayonets. The
+armadillos were feeding in an open space between two of these jungle
+clumps, which were about a hundred yards apart. One was on all fours;
+the other was in a squatting position, with its fore legs off the
+ground. Their long ears were very prominent. The dogs raced at them. I
+had always supposed that armadillos merely shuffled along, and curled
+up for protection when menaced; and I was almost as surprised as if I
+had seen a turtle gallop when these two armadillos bounded off at a
+run, going as fast as rabbits. One headed back for the nearest patch
+of jungle, which it reached. The other ran at full speed--and ran
+really fast, too--until it nearly reached the other patch, a hundred
+yards distant, the dogs in full cry immediately behind it. Then it
+suddenly changed its mind, wheeled in its tracks, and came back like a
+bullet right through the pack. Dog after dog tried to seize it or stop
+it and turned to pursue it; but its wedge-shaped snout and armored
+body, joined to the speed at which it was galloping, enabled it to
+drive straight ahead through its pursuers, not one of which could halt
+it or grasp it, and it reached in safety its thorny haven of refuge.
+It had run at speed about a hundred and fifty yards. I was much
+impressed by this unexpected exhibition; evidently this species of
+armadillo only curls up as a last resort, and ordinarily trusts to its
+speed, and to the protection its build and its armor give it while
+running, in order to reach its burrow or other place of safety. Twice,
+while laying railway tracks near Sao Paulo, Kermit had accidentally
+dug up armadillos with a steam-shovel.
+
+There were big ant-hills, some of them of huge dimensions, scattered
+through the country. Sometimes they were built against the stems of
+trees. We did not here come across any of the poisonous or biting ants
+which, when sufficiently numerous, render certain districts
+uninhabitable. They are ordinarily not very numerous. Those of them
+that march in large bodies kill nestling birds, and at once destroy
+any big animal unable to get out of their way. It has been suggested
+that nestlings in their nests are in some way immune from the attack
+of these ants. The experiments of our naturalists tended to show that
+this was not the case. They plundered any nest they came across and
+could get at.
+
+Once we saw a small herd of peccaries, one a sow followed by three
+little pigs--they are said to have only two young, but we saw three,
+although of course it is possible one belonged to another sow. The
+herd galloped into a mass of thorny cover the hounds could not
+penetrate; and when they were in safety we heard them utter, from the
+depths of the jungle, a curious moaning sound.
+
+On one ride we passed a clump of palms which were fairly ablaze with
+bird color. There were magnificent hyacinth macaws; green parrots with
+red splashes; toucans with varied plumage, black, white, red, yellow;
+green jacmars; flaming orioles and both blue and dark-red tanagers. It
+was an extraordinary collection. All were noisy. Perhaps there was a
+snake that had drawn them by its presence; but we could find no snake.
+The assembly dispersed as we rode up; the huge blue macaws departed in
+pairs, uttering their hoarse "ar-rah-h, ar-rah-h." It has been said
+that parrots in the wilderness are only noisy on the wing. They are
+certainly noisy on the wing; and those that we saw were quiet while
+they were feeding; but ordinarily when they were perched among the
+branches, and especially when, as in the case of the little parakeets
+near the house, they were gathering materials for nest-building, they
+were just as noisy as while flying.
+
+The water-birds were always a delight. We shot merely the two or three
+specimens the naturalists needed for the museum. I killed a wood-ibis
+on the wing with the handy little Springfield, and then lost all the
+credit I had thus gained by a series of inexcusable misses, at long
+range, before I finally killed a jabiru. Kermit shot a jabiru with the
+Luger automatic. The great, splendid birds, standing about as tall as
+a man, show fight when wounded, and advance against their assailants,
+clattering their formidable bills. One day we found the nest of a
+jabiru in a mighty fig-tree, on the edge of a patch of jungle. It was
+a big platform of sticks, placed on a horizontal branch. There were
+four half-grown young standing on it. We passed it in the morning,
+when both parents were also perched alongside; the sky was then
+overcast, and it was not possible to photograph it with the small
+camera. In the early afternoon when we again passed it the sun was
+out, and we tried to get photographs. Only one parent bird was present
+at this time. It showed no fear. I noticed that, as it stood on a
+branch near the nest, its bill was slightly open. It was very hot, and
+I suppose it had opened its bill just as a hen opens her bill in hot
+weather. As we rode away the old bird and the four young birds were
+standing motionless, and with gliding flight the other old bird was
+returning to the nest. It is hard to give an adequate idea of the
+wealth of bird life in these marshes. A naturalist could with the
+utmost advantage spend six months on such a branch as that we visited.
+He would have to do some collecting, but only a little. Exhaustive
+observation in the field is what is now most needed. Most of this
+wonderful and harmless bird life should be protected by law; and the
+mammals should receive reasonable protection. The books now most
+needed are those dealing with the life-histories of wild creatures.
+
+Near the ranch-house, walking familiarly among the cattle, we saw the
+big, deep-billed Ani blackbirds. They feed on the insects disturbed by
+the hoofs of the cattle, and often cling to them and pick off the
+ticks. It was the end of the nesting season, and we did not find their
+curious communal nests, in which half a dozen females lay their eggs
+indiscriminately. The common ibises in the ponds near by--which
+usually went in pairs, instead of in flocks like the wood ibis--were
+very tame, and so were the night herons and all the small herons. In
+flying, the ibises and storks stretch the neck straight in front of
+them. The jabiru--a splendid bird on the wing--also stretches his neck
+out in front, but there appears to be a slight downward curve at the
+base of the neck, which may be due merely to the craw. The big slender
+herons, on the contrary, bend the long neck back in a beautiful curve,
+so that the head is nearly between the shoulders. One day I saw what I
+at first thought was a small yellow-bellied kingfisher hovering over a
+pond, and finally plunging down to the surface of the water after a
+school of tiny young fish; but it proved to be a bien-te-vi king-bird.
+Curved-bill wood-hewers, birds the size and somewhat the coloration of
+veeries, but with long, slender sickle-bills, were common in the
+little garden back of the house; their habits were those of creepers,
+and they scrambled with agility up, along, and under the trunks and
+branches, and along the posts and rails of the fence, thrusting the
+bill into crevices for insects. The oven-birds, which had the carriage
+and somewhat the look of wood-thrushes, I am sure would prove
+delightful friends on a close acquaintance; they are very individual,
+not only in the extraordinary domed mud nests they build, but in all
+their ways, in their bright alertness; their interest in and curiosity
+about whatever goes on, their rather jerky quickness of movement, and
+their loud and varied calls. With a little encouragement they become
+tame and familiar. The parakeets were too noisy, but otherwise were
+most attractive little birds, as they flew to and fro and scrambled
+about in the top of the palm behind the house. There was one showy
+kind of king-bird or tyrant flycatcher, lustrous black with a white
+head.
+
+One afternoon several score cattle were driven into a big square
+corral near the house, in order to brand the calves and a number of
+unbranded yearlings and two-year-olds. A special element of excitement
+was added by the presence of a dozen big bulls which were to be turned
+into draught-oxen. The agility, nerve, and prowess of the ranch
+workmen, the herders or gauchos, were noteworthy. The dark-skinned men
+were obviously mainly of Indian and negro descent, although some of
+them also showed a strong strain of white blood. They wore the usual
+shirt, trousers, and fringed leather apron, with jim-crow hats. Their
+bare feet must have been literally as tough as horn; for when one of
+them roped a big bull he would brace himself, bending back until he
+was almost sitting down and digging his heels into the ground, and the
+galloping beast would be stopped short and whirled completely round
+when the rope tautened. The maddened bulls, and an occasional steer or
+cow, charged again and again with furious wrath; but two or three
+ropes would settle on the doomed beast, and down it would go; and when
+it was released and rose and charged once more, with greater fury than
+ever, the men, shouting with laughter, would leap up the sides of the
+heavy stockade.
+
+We stayed at the ranch until a couple of days before Christmas.
+Hitherto the weather had been lovely. The night before we left there
+was a torrential tropic downpour. It was not unexpected, for we had
+been told that the rainy season was overdue. The following forenoon
+the baggage started, in a couple of two-wheeled ox-carts, for the
+landing where the steamboat awaited us. Each cart was drawn by eight
+oxen. The huge wheels were over seven feet high. Early in the
+afternoon we followed on horseback, and overtook the carts as darkness
+fell, just before we reached the landing on the river's bank. The last
+few miles, after the final reaches of higher, tree-clad ground had
+been passed, were across a level plain of low ground on which the
+water stood, sometimes only up to the ankles of a man on foot,
+sometimes as high as his waist. Directly in front of us, many leagues
+distant, rose the bold mountains that lie west of Corumba. Behind them
+the sun was setting and kindled the overcast heavens with lurid
+splendor. Then the last rose tints faded from the sky; the horses
+plodded wearily through the water; on every side stretched the marsh,
+vast, lonely, desolate in the gray of the half-light. We overtook the
+ox-carts. The cattle strained in the yokes; the drivers wading
+alongside cracked their whips and uttered strange cries; the carts
+rocked and swayed as the huge wheels churned through the mud and
+water. As the last light faded we reached the small patches of dry
+land at the landing, where the flat-bottomed side-wheel steamboat was
+moored to the bank. The tired horses and oxen were turned loose to
+graze. Water stood in the corrals, but the open shed was on dry
+ground. Under it the half-clad, wild-looking ox-drivers and horse-
+herders slung their hammocks; and close by they lit a fire and
+roasted, or scorched, slabs and legs of mutton, spitted on sticks and
+propped above the smouldering flame.
+
+Next morning, with real regret, we waved good-by to our dusky
+attendants, as they stood on the bank, grouped around a little fire,
+beside the big, empty ox-carts. A dozen miles down-stream a rowboat
+fitted for a sprit-sail put off from the bank. The owner, a countryman
+from a small ranch, asked for a tow to Corumba, which we gave. He had
+with him in the boat his comely brown wife--who was smoking a very
+large cigar--their two children, a young man, and a couple of trunks
+and various other belongings. On Christmas eve we reached Corumba, and
+rejoined the other members of the expedition.
+
+
+
+                  IV. THE HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY
+
+At Corumba our entire party, and all their belongings, came aboard our
+good little river boat, the Nyoac. Christmas Day saw us making our way
+steadily up-stream against the strong current, and between the green
+and beautiful banks of the upper Paraguay. The shallow little steamer
+was jammed with men, dogs, rifles, partially cured skins, boxes of
+provisions, ammunition, tools, and photographic supplies, bags
+containing tents, cots, bedding, and clothes, saddles, hammocks, and
+the other necessaries for a trip through the "great wilderness," the
+"Matto Grosso" of western Brazil.
+
+It was a brilliantly clear day, and, although of course in that
+latitude and at that season the heat was intense later on, it was cool
+and pleasant in the early morning. We sat on the forward deck,
+admiring the trees on the brink of the sheer river banks, the lush,
+rank grass of the marshes, and the many water-birds. The two pilots,
+one black and one white, stood at the wheel. Colonel Rondon read
+Thomas a Kempis. Kermit, Cherrie, and Miller squatted outside the
+railing on the deck over one paddle-wheel and put the final touches on
+the jaguar skins. Fiala satisfied himself that the boxes and bags were
+in place. It was probable that hardship lay in the future; but the day
+was our own, and the day was pleasant. In the evening the after-deck,
+open all around, where we dined, was decorated with green boughs and
+rushes, and we drank the health of the President of the United States
+and of the President of Brazil.
+
+Now and then we passed little ranches on the river's edge. This is a
+fertile land, pleasant to live in, and any settler who is willing to
+work can earn his living. There are mines; there is water-power; there
+is abundance of rich soil. The country will soon be opened by rail. It
+offers a fine field for immigration and for agricultural, mining, and
+business development; and it has a great future.
+
+Cherrie and Miller had secured a little owl a month before in the
+Chaco, and it was travelling with them in a basket. It was a dear
+little bird, very tame and affectionate. It liked to be handled and
+petted; and when Miller, its especial protector, came into the cabin,
+it would make queer little noises as a signal that it wished to be
+taken up and perched on his hand. Cherrie and Miller had trapped many
+mammals. Among them was a tayra weasel, whitish above and black below,
+as big and blood-thirsty as a fisher-martin; and a tiny opossum no
+bigger than a mouse. They had taken four species of opossum, but they
+had not found the curious water-opossum which they had obtained on the
+rivers flowing into the Caribbean Sea. This opossum, which is black
+and white, swims in the streams like a muskrat or otter, catching fish
+and living in burrows which open under water. Miller and Cherrie were
+puzzled to know why the young throve, leading such an existence of
+constant immersion; one of them once found a female swimming and
+diving freely with four quite well-grown young in her pouch.
+
+We saw on the banks screamers--big, crested waders of archaic type,
+with spurred wings, rather short bills, and no especial affinities
+with other modern birds. In one meadow by a pond we saw three marsh-
+deer, a buck and two does. They stared at us, with their thickly
+haired tails raised on end. These tails are black underneath, instead
+of white as in our whitetail deer. One of the vagaries of the
+ultraconcealing-colorationists has been to uphold the (incidentally
+quite preposterous) theory that the tail of our deer is colored white
+beneath so as to harmonize with the sky and thereby mislead the cougar
+or wolf at the critical moment when it makes its spring; but this
+marsh-deer shows a black instead of a white flag, and yet has just as
+much need of protection from its enemies, the jaguar and the cougar.
+In South America concealing coloration plays no more part in the lives
+of the adult deer, the tamandua, the tapir, the peccary, the jaguar,
+and the puma than it plays in Africa in the lives of such animals as
+the zebra, the sable antelope, the wildebeeste, the lion, and the
+hunting hyena.
+
+Next day we spent ascending the Sao Lourenco. It was narrower than the
+Paraguay, naturally, and the swirling brown current was, if anything,
+more rapid. The strange tropical trees, standing densely on the banks,
+were matted together by long bush ropes--lianas, or vines, some very
+slender and very long. Sometimes we saw brilliant red or blue flowers,
+or masses of scarlet berries on a queer palm-like tree, or an array of
+great white blossoms on a much larger tree. In a lagoon bordered by
+the taquara bamboo a school of big otters were playing; when they came
+to the surface, they opened their mouths like seals, and made a loud
+hissing noise. The crested screamers, dark gray and as large as
+turkeys, perched on the very topmost branches of the tallest trees.
+Hyacinth macaws screamed harshly as they flew across the river. Among
+the trees was the guan, another peculiar bird as big as a big grouse,
+and with certain habits of the wood-grouse, but not akin to any
+northern game-bird. The windpipe of the male is very long, extending
+down to the end of the breast-bone, and the bird utters queer guttural
+screams. A dead cayman floated down-stream, with a black vulture
+devouring it. Capybaras stood or squatted on the banks; sometimes they
+stared stupidly at us; sometimes they plunged into the river at our
+approach. At long intervals we passed little clearings. In each stood
+a house of palm-logs, with a steeply pitched roof of palm thatch; and
+near by were patches of corn and mandioc. The dusky owner, and perhaps
+his family, came out on the bank to watch us as we passed. It was a
+hot day--the thermometer on the deck in the shade stood at nearly 100
+degrees Fahrenheit. Biting flies came aboard even when we were in
+midstream.
+
+Next day we were ascending the Cuyaba River. It had begun raining in
+the night, and the heavy downpour continued throughout the forenoon.
+In the morning we halted at a big cattle-ranch to get fresh milk and
+beef. There were various houses, sheds, and corrals near the river's
+edge, and fifty or sixty milch cows were gathered in one corral.
+Spurred plover, or lapwings, strolled familiarly among the hens.
+Parakeets and red-headed tanagers lit in the trees over our heads. A
+kind of primitive houseboat was moored at the bank. A woman was
+cooking breakfast over a little stove at one end. The crew were
+ashore. The boat was one of those which are really stores, and which
+travel up and down these rivers, laden with what the natives most
+need, and stopping wherever there is a ranch. They are the only stores
+which many of the country-dwellers see from year's end to year's end.
+They float down-stream, and up-stream are poled by their crew, or now
+and then get a tow from a steamer. This one had a house with a tin
+roof; others bear houses with thatched roofs, or with roofs made of
+hides. The river wound through vast marshes broken by belts of
+woodland.
+
+Always the two naturalists had something of interest to tell of their
+past experience, suggested by some bird or beast we came across. Black
+and golden orioles, slightly crested, of two different species were
+found along the river; they nest in colonies, and often we passed such
+colonies, the long pendulous nests hanging from the boughs of trees
+directly over the water. Cherrie told us of finding such a colony
+built round a big wasp-nest, several feet in diameter. These wasps are
+venomous and irritable, and few foes would dare venture near bird's-
+nests that were under such formidable shelter; but the birds
+themselves were entirely unafraid, and obviously were not in any
+danger of disagreement with their dangerous protectors. We saw a dark
+ibis flying across the bow of the boat, uttering his deep, two-
+syllabled note. Miller told how on the Orinoco these ibises plunder
+the nests of the big river-turtles. They are very skilful in finding
+where the female turtle has laid her eggs, scratch them out of the
+sand, break the shells, and suck the contents.
+
+It was astonishing to find so few mosquitoes on these marshes. They
+did not in any way compare as pests with the mosquitoes on the lower
+Mississippi, the New Jersey coast, the Red River of the North, or the
+Kootenay. Back in the forest near Corumba the naturalists had found
+them very bad indeed. Cherrie had spent two or three days on a
+mountain-top which was bare of forest; he had thought there would be
+few mosquitoes, but the long grass harbored them (they often swarm in
+long grass and bush, even where there is no water), and at night they
+were such a torment that as soon as the sun set he had to go to bed
+under his mosquito-netting. Yet on the vast marshes they were not
+seriously troublesome in most places. I was informed that they were
+not in any way a bother on the grassy uplands, the high country north
+of Cuyaba, which from thence stretches eastward to the coastal region.
+It is at any rate certain that this inland region of Brazil, including
+the state of Matto Grosso, which we were traversing, is a healthy
+region, excellently adapted to settlement; railroads will speedily
+penetrate it, and then it will witness an astonishing development.
+
+On the morning of the 28th we reached the home buildings of the great
+Sao Joao fazenda, the ranch of Senhor Joao da Costa Marques. Our host
+himself, and his son, Dom Joao the younger, who was state secretary of
+agriculture, and the latter's charming wife, and the president of
+Matto Grosso, and several other ladies and gentlemen, had come down
+the river to greet us, from the city of Cuyaba, several hundred miles
+farther up-stream. As usual, we were treated with whole-hearted and
+generous hospitality. Some miles below the ranch-house the party met
+us, on a stern-wheel steamboat and a launch, both decked with many
+flags. The handsome white ranch-house stood only a few rods back from
+the river's brink, in a grassy opening dotted with those noble trees,
+the royal palms. Other trees, buildings of all kinds, flower-gardens,
+vegetable-gardens, fields, corrals, and enclosures with high white
+walls stood near the house. A detachment of soldiers or state police,
+with a band, were in front of the house, and two flagpoles, one with
+the Brazilian flag already hoisted. The American flag was run up on
+the other as I stepped ashore, while the band played the national
+anthems of the two countries. The house held much comfort; and the
+comfort was all the more appreciated because even indoors the
+thermometer stood at 97 degrees F. In the late afternoon heavy rain
+fell, and cooled the air. We were riding at the time. Around the house
+the birds were tame: the parrots and parakeets crowded and chattered
+in the tree tops; jacanas played in the wet ground just back of the
+garden; ibises and screamers called loudly in the swamps a little
+distance off.
+
+Until we came actually in sight of this great ranch-house we had been
+passing through a hot, fertile, pleasant wilderness, where the few
+small palm-roofed houses, each in its little patch of sugar-cane,
+corn, and mandioc, stood very many miles apart. One of these little
+houses stood on an old Indian mound, exactly like the mounds which
+form the only hillocks along the lower Mississippi, and which are also
+of Indian origin. These occasional Indian mounds, made ages ago, are
+the highest bits of ground in the immense swamps of the upper Paraguay
+region. There are still Indian tribes in this neighborhood. We passed
+an Indian fishing village on the edge of the river, with huts,
+scaffoldings for drying the fish, hammocks, and rude tables. They
+cultivated patches of bananas and sugar-cane. Out in a shallow place
+in the river was a scaffolding on which the Indians stood to spear
+fish. The Indians were friendly, peaceable souls, for the most part
+dressed like the poorer classes among the Brazilians.
+
+Next morning there was to have been a great rodeo or round-up, and we
+determined to have a hunt first, as there were still several kinds of
+beasts of the chase, notably tapirs and peccaries, of which the
+naturalists desired specimens. Dom Joao, our host, and his son
+accompanied us. Theirs is a noteworthy family. Born in Matto Grosso,
+in the tropics, our host had the look of a northerner and, although a
+grandfather, he possessed an abounding vigor and energy such as very
+few men of any climate or surroundings do possess. All of his sons are
+doing well. The son who was with us was a stalwart, powerful man, a
+pleasant companion, an able public servant, a finished horseman, and a
+skilled hunter. He carried a sharp spear, not a rifle, for in Matto
+Grosso it is the custom in hunting the jaguar for riflemen and
+spearmen to go in at him together when he turns at bay, the spearman
+holding him off if the first shot fails to stop him, so that another
+shot can be put in. Altogether, our host and his son reminded one of
+the best type of American ranchmen and planters, of those planters and
+ranchmen who are adepts in bold and manly field sports, who are
+capital men of business, and who also often supply to the state
+skilled and faithful public servants. The hospitality the father and
+son extended to us was patriarchal: neither, for instance, would sit
+at table with their guests at the beginning of the formal meals;
+instead they exercised a close personal supervision over the feast.
+Our charming hostess, however, sat at the head of the table.
+
+At six in the morning we started, all of us on fine horses. The day
+was lowering and overcast. A dozen dogs were with us, but only one or
+two were worth anything. Three or four ordinary countrymen, the ranch
+hands, or vaqueiros, accompanied us; they were mainly of Indian blood,
+and would have been called peons, or caboclos, in other parts of
+Brazil, but here were always spoken to and of as "camaradas." They
+were, of course, chosen from among the men who were hunters, and each
+carried his long, rather heavy and clumsy jaguar-spear. In front rode
+our vigorous host and his strapping son, the latter also carrying a
+jaguar-spear. The bridles and saddles of the big ranchmen and of the
+gentlefolk generally were handsome and were elaborately ornamented
+with silver. The stirrups, for instance, were not only of silver, but
+contained so much extra metal in ornamented bars and rings that they
+would have been awkward for less-practised riders. Indeed, as it was,
+they were adapted only for the tips of boots with long, pointed toes,
+and were impossible for our feet; our hosts' stirrups were long,
+narrow silver slippers. The camaradas, on the other hand, had jim-crow
+saddles and bridles, and rusty little iron stirrups into which they
+thrust their naked toes. But all, gentry and commonalty alike, rode
+equally well and with the same skill and fearlessness. To see our
+hosts gallop at headlong speed over any kind of country toward the
+sound of the dogs with their quarry at bay, or to see them handle
+their horses in a morass, was a pleasure. It was equally a pleasure to
+see a camarada carrying his heavy spear, leading a hound in a leash,
+and using his machete to cut his way through the tangled vine-ropes of
+a jungle, all at the same time and all without the slightest reference
+to the plunges, and the odd and exceedingly jerky behavior, of his
+wild, half-broken horse--for on such a ranch most of the horses are
+apt to come in the categories of half-broken or else of broken-down.
+One dusky tatterdemalion wore a pair of boots from which he had
+removed the soles, his bare, spur-clad feet projecting from beneath
+the uppers. He was on a little devil of a stallion, which he rode
+blindfold for a couple of miles, and there was a regular circus when
+he removed the bandage; but evidently it never occurred to him that
+the animal was hardly a comfortable riding-horse for a man going out
+hunting and encumbered with a spear, a machete, and other belongings.
+
+The eight hours that we were out we spent chiefly in splashing across
+the marshes, with excursions now and then into vine-tangled belts and
+clumps of timber. Some of the bayous we had to cross were
+uncomfortably boggy. We had to lead the horses through one, wading
+ahead of them; and even so two of them mired down, and their saddles
+had to be taken off before they could be gotten out. Among the marsh
+plants were fields and strips of the great caete rush. These caete
+flags towered above the other and lesser marsh plants. They were
+higher than the heads of the horsemen. Their two or three huge banana-
+like leaves stood straight up on end. The large brilliant flowers--
+orange, red, and yellow--were joined into a singularly shaped and
+solid string or cluster. Humming-birds buzzed round these flowers; one
+species, the sickle-billed hummer, has its bill especially adapted for
+use in these queerly shaped blossoms and gets its food only from them,
+never appearing around any other plant.
+
+The birds were tame, even those striking and beautiful birds which
+under man's persecution are so apt to become scarce and shy. The huge
+jabiru storks, stalking through the water with stately dignity,
+sometimes refused to fly until we were only a hundred yards off; one
+of them flew over our heads at a distance of thirty or forty yards.
+The screamers, crying curu-curu, and the ibises, wailing dolefully,
+came even closer. The wonderful hyacinth macaws, in twos and threes,
+accompanied us at times for several hundred yards, hovering over our
+heads and uttering their rasping screams. In one wood we came on the
+black howler monkey. The place smelt almost like a menagerie. Not
+watching with sufficient care I brushed against a sapling on which the
+venomous fire-ants swarmed. They burnt the skin like red-hot cinders,
+and left little sores. More than once in the drier parts of the marsh
+we met small caymans making their way from one pool to another. My
+horse stepped over one before I saw it. The dead carcasses of others
+showed that on their wanderings they had encountered jaguars or human
+foes.
+
+We had been out about three hours when one of the dogs gave tongue in
+a large belt of woodland and jungle to the left of our line of march
+through the marsh. The other dogs ran to the sound, and after a while
+the long barking told that the thing, whatever it was, was at bay or
+else in some refuge. We made our way toward the place on foot. The
+dogs were baying excitedly at the mouth of a huge hollow log, and very
+short examination showed us that there were two peccaries within,
+doubtless a boar and sow. However, just at this moment the peccaries
+bolted from an unsuspected opening at the other end of the log, dove
+into the tangle, and instantly disappeared with the hounds in full cry
+after them. It was twenty minutes later before we again heard the pack
+baying. With much difficulty, and by the incessant swinging of the
+machetes, we opened a trail through the network of vines and branches.
+This time there was only one peccary, the boar. He was at bay in a
+half-hollow stump. The dogs were about his head, raving with
+excitement, and it was not possible to use the rifle; so I borrowed
+the spear of Dom Joao the younger, and killed the fierce little boar
+therewith.
+
+This was an animal akin to our collared peccary, smaller and less
+fierce than its white-jawed kinsfolk. It is a valiant and truculent
+little beast, nevertheless, and if given the chance will bite a piece
+the size of a teacup out of either man or dog. It is found singly or
+in small parties, feeds on roots, fruits, grass, and delights to make
+its home in hollow logs. If taken young it makes an affectionate and
+entertaining pet. When the two were in the hollow log we heard them
+utter a kind of moaning, or menacing, grunt, long drawn.
+
+An hour or two afterward we unexpectedly struck the fresh tracks of
+two jaguars and at once loosed the dogs, who tore off yelling, on the
+line of the scent. Unfortunately, just at this moment the clouds burst
+and a deluge of rain drove in our faces. So heavy was the downpour
+that the dogs lost the trail and we lost the dogs. We found them again
+only owing to one of our caboclos; an Indian with a queer Mongolian
+face, and no brain at all that I could discover, apart from his
+special dealings with wild creatures, cattle, and horses. He rode in a
+huddle of rags; but nothing escaped his eyes, and he rode anything
+anywhere. The downpour continued so heavily that we knew the rodeo had
+been abandoned, and we turned our faces for the long, dripping,
+splashing ride homeward. Through the gusts of driving rain we could
+hardly see the way. Once the rain lightened, and half a mile away the
+sunshine gleamed through a rift in the leaden cloud-mass. Suddenly in
+this rift of shimmering brightness there appeared a flock of beautiful
+white egrets. With strong, graceful wing-beats the birds urged their
+flight, their plumage flashing in the sun. They then crossed the rift
+and were swallowed in the gray gloom of the day.
+
+On the marsh the dogs several times roused capybaras. Where there were
+no ponds of sufficient size the capybaras sought refuge in flight
+through the tangled marsh. They ran well. Kermit and Fiala went after
+one on foot, full-speed, for a mile and a half, with two hounds which
+then bayed it--literally bayed it, for the capybara fought with the
+courage of a gigantic woodchuck. If the pack overtook a capybara, they
+of course speedily finished it; but a single dog of our not very
+valorous outfit was not able to overmatch its shrill-squeaking
+opponent.
+
+Near the ranch-house, about forty feet up in a big tree, was a
+jabiru's nest containing young jabirus. The young birds exercised
+themselves by walking solemnly round the edge of the nest and opening
+and shutting their wings. Their heads and necks were down-covered,
+instead of being naked like those of their parents. Fiala wished to
+take a moving-picture of them while thus engaged, and so, after
+arranging his machine, he asked Harper to rouse the young birds by
+throwing a stick up to the nest. He did so, whereupon one young jabiru
+hastily opened its wings in the desired fashion, at the same time
+seizing the stick in its bill! It dropped it at once, with an air of
+comic disappointment, when it found that the stick was not edible.
+
+There were many strange birds round about. Toucans were not uncommon.
+I have never seen any other bird take such grotesque and comic
+attitudes as the toucan. This day I saw one standing in the top of a
+tree with the big bill pointing straight into the air and the tail
+also cocked perpendicularly. The toucan is a born comedian. On the
+river and in the ponds we saw the finfoot, a bird with feet like a
+grebe and bill and tail like those of a darter, but, like so many
+South American birds, with no close affiliations among other species.
+The exceedingly rich bird fauna of South America contains many species
+which seem to be survivals from a very remote geologic past, whose
+kinsfolk have perished under the changed conditions of recent ages;
+and in the case of many, like the hoatzin and screamer, their like is
+not known elsewhere. Herons of many species swarmed in this
+neighborhood. The handsomest was the richly colored tiger bittern. Two
+other species were so unlike ordinary herons that I did not recognize
+them as herons at all until Cherrie told me what they were. One had a
+dark body, a white-speckled or ocellated neck, and a bill almost like
+that of an ibis. The other looked white, but was really mauve-colored,
+with black on the head. When perched on a tree it stood like an ibis;
+and instead of the measured wing-beats characteristic of a heron's
+flight, it flew with a quick, vigorous flapping of the wings. There
+were queer mammals, too, as well as birds. In the fields Miller
+trapped mice of a kind entirely new.
+
+Next morning the sky was leaden, and a drenching rain fell as we began
+our descent of the river. The rainy season had fairly begun. For our
+good fortune we were still where we had the cabins aboard the boat,
+and the ranch-house, in which to dry our clothes and soggy shoes; but
+in the intensely humid atmosphere, hot and steaming, they stayed wet a
+long time, and were still moist when we put them on again. Before we
+left the house where we had been treated with such courteous
+hospitality--the finest ranch-house in Matto Grosso, on a huge ranch
+where there are some sixty thousand head of horned cattle--the son of
+our host, Dom Joao the younger, the jaguar-hunter, presented me with
+two magnificent volumes on the palms of Brazil, the work of Doctor
+Barboso Rodriguez, one-time director of the Botanical Gardens at Rio
+Janeiro. The two folios were in a box of native cedar. No gift more
+appropriate, none that I would in the future value more as a reminder
+of my stay in Matto Grosso, could have been given me.
+
+All that afternoon the rain continued. It was still pouring in
+torrents when we left the Cuyaba for the Sao Lourenco and steamed up
+the latter a few miles before anchoring; Dom Joao the younger had
+accompanied us in his launch. The little river steamer was of very
+open build, as is necessary in such a hot climate; and to keep things
+dry necessitated also keeping the atmosphere stifling. The German
+taxidermist who was with Colonel Rondon's party, Reinisch, a very good
+fellow from Vienna, sat on a stool, alternately drenched with rain and
+sweltering with heat, and muttered to himself: "Ach, Schweinerei!"
+
+Two small caymans, of the common species, with prominent eyes, were at
+the bank where we moored, and betrayed an astonishing and stupid
+tameness. Neither the size of the boat nor the commotion caused by the
+paddles in any way affected them. They lay inshore, not twenty feet
+from us, half out of water; they paid not the slightest heed to our
+presence, and only reluctantly left when repeatedly poked at, and
+after having been repeatedly hit with clods of mud and sticks; and
+even then one first crawled up on shore, to find out if thereby he
+could not rid himself of the annoyance we caused him.
+
+Next morning it was still raining, but we set off on a hunt,
+anyway, going afoot. A couple of brown camaradas led the way, and
+Colonel Rondon, Dom Joao, Kermit, and I followed. The incessant
+downpour speedily wet us to the skin. We made our way slowly through
+the forest, the machetes playing right and left, up and down, at every
+step, for the trees were tangled in a network of vines and creepers.
+Some of the vines were as thick as a man's leg. Mosquitoes hummed
+about us, the venomous fire-ants stung us, the sharp spines of a small
+palm tore our hands--afterward some of the wounds festered. Hour after
+hour we thus walked on through the Brazilian forest. We saw monkeys,
+the common yellowish kind, a species of cebus; a couple were shot for
+the museum and the others raced off among the upper branches of the
+trees. Then we came on a party of coatis, which look like reddish,
+long-snouted, long-tailed, lanky raccoons. They were in the top of a
+big tree. One, when shot at and missed, bounced down to the ground,
+and ran off through the bushes; Kermit ran after it and secured it. He
+came back, to find us peering hopelessly up into the tree top, trying
+to place where the other coatis were. Kermit solved the difficulty by
+going up along some huge twisted lianas for forty or fifty feet and
+exploring the upper branches; whereupon down came three other coatis
+through the branches, one being caught by the dogs and the other two
+escaping. Coatis fight savagely with both teeth and claws. Miller told
+us that he once saw one of them kill a dog. They feed on all small
+mammals, birds, and reptiles, and even on some large ones; they kill
+iguanas; Cherrie saw a rattling chase through the trees, a coati
+following an iguana at full speed. We heard the rush of a couple of
+tapirs, as they broke away in the jungle in front of the dogs and
+headed, according to their custom, for the river; but we never saw
+them. One of the party shot a bush deer--a very pretty, graceful
+creature, smaller than our whitetail deer, but kin to it and doubtless
+the southernmost representative of the whitetail group.
+
+The whitetail deer--using the word to designate a group of deer which
+can neither be called a subgenus with many species, nor a widely
+spread species diverging into many varieties--is the only North
+American species which has spread down into and has outlying
+representatives in South America. It has been contended that the
+species has spread from South America northward. I do not think so;
+and the specimen thus obtained furnished a probable refutation of the
+theory. It was a buck, and had just shed its small antlers. The
+antlers are, therefore, shed at the same time as in the north, and it
+appears that they are grown at the same time as in the north. Yet this
+variety now dwells in the tropics south of the equator, where the
+spring, and the breeding season for most birds, comes at the time of
+the northern fall in September, October, and November. That the deer
+is an intrusive immigrant, and that it has not yet been in South
+America long enough to change its mating season in accordance with the
+climate, as the birds--geologically doubtless very old residents--have
+changed their breeding season, is rendered probable by the fact that
+it conforms so exactly in the time of its antler growth to the
+universal rule which obtains in the great arctogeal realm, where deer
+of many species abound and where the fossil forms show that they have
+long existed. The marsh-deer, which has diverged much further from the
+northern type than this bush deer (its horns show a likeness to those
+of a blacktail), often keeps its antlers until June or July, although
+it begins to grow them again in August; however, too much stress must
+not be laid on this fact, inasmuch as the wapiti and the cow caribou
+both keep their antlers until spring. The specialization of the marsh-
+deer, by the way, is further shown in its hoofs, which, thanks to its
+semi-aquatic mode of life, have grown long, like those of such African
+swamp antelopes as the lechwe and situtunga.
+
+Miller, when we presented the monkeys to him, told us that the females
+both of these monkeys and of the howlers themselves took care of the
+young, the males not assisting them, and moreover that when the young
+one was a male he had always found the mother keeping by herself, away
+from the old males. On the other hand, among the marmosets he found
+the fathers taking as much care of the young as the mothers; if the
+mother had twins, the father would usually carry one, and sometimes
+both, around with him.
+
+After we had been out four hours our camaradas got lost; three several
+times they travelled round in a complete circle; and we had to set
+them right with the compass. About noon the rain, which had been
+falling almost without interruption for forty-eight hours, let up, and
+in an hour or two the sun came out. We went back to the river, and
+found our rowboat. In it the hounds--a motley and rather worthless
+lot--and the rest of the party were ferried across to the opposite
+bank, while Colonel Rondon and I stayed in the boat, on the chance
+that a tapir might be roused and take to the river. However, no tapir
+was found; Kermit killed a collared peccary, and I shot a capybara
+representing a color-phase the naturalists wished.
+
+Next morning, January 1, 1914, we were up at five and had a good New
+Year's Day breakfast of hardtack, ham, sardines, and coffee before
+setting out on an all day's hunt on foot. I much feared that the pack
+was almost or quite worthless for jaguars, but there were two or three
+of the great spotted cats in the neighborhood and it seemed worth
+while to make a try for them anyhow. After an hour or two we found
+the fresh tracks of two, and after them we went. Our party consisted
+of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Rogaciano--an excellent man, himself a
+native of Matto Grosso, of old Matto Grosso stock--two others of the
+party from the Sao Joao ranch, Kermit, and myself, together with four
+dark-skinned camaradas, cowhands from the same ranch. We soon found
+that the dogs would not by themselves follow the jaguar trail; nor
+would the camaradas, although they carried spears. Kermit was the one
+of our party who possessed the requisite speed, endurance, and
+eyesight, and accordingly he led. Two of the dogs would follow the
+track half a dozen yards ahead of him, but no farther; and two of the
+camaradas could just about keep up with him. For an hour we went
+through thick jungle, where the machetes were constantly at work. Then
+the trail struck off straight across the marshes, for jaguars swim and
+wade as freely as marsh-deer. It was a hard walk. The sun was out. We
+were drenched with sweat. We were torn by the spines of the
+innumerable clusters of small palms with thorns like needles. We were
+bitten by the hosts of fire-ants, and by the mosquitoes, which we
+scarcely noticed where the fire-ants were found, exactly as all dread
+of the latter vanished when we were menaced by the big red wasps, of
+which a dozen stings will disable a man, and if he is weak or in bad
+health will seriously menace his life. In the marsh we were
+continually wading, now up to our knees, now up to our hips. Twice we
+came to long bayous so deep that we had to swim them, holding our
+rifles above water in our right hands. The floating masses of marsh
+grass, and the slimy stems of the water-plants, doubled our work as we
+swam, cumbered by our clothing and boots and holding our rifles aloft.
+One result of the swim, by the way, was that my watch, a veteran of
+Cuba and Africa, came to an indignant halt. Then on we went, hampered
+by the weight of our drenched clothes while our soggy boots squelched
+as we walked. There was no breeze. In the undimmed sky the sun stood
+almost overhead. The heat beat on us in waves. By noon I could only go
+forward at a slow walk, and two of the party were worse off than I
+was. Kermit, with the dogs and two camaradas close behind him,
+disappeared across the marshes at a trot. At last, when he was out of
+sight, and it was obviously useless to follow him, the rest of us
+turned back toward the boat. The two exhausted members of the party
+gave out, and we left them under a tree. Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant
+Rogaciano were not much tired; I was somewhat tired, but was perfectly
+able to go for several hours more if I did not try to go too fast; and
+we three walked on to the river, reaching it about half past four,
+after eleven hours' stiff walking with nothing to eat. We were soon on
+the boat. A relief party went back for the two men under the tree, and
+soon after it reached them Kermit also turned up with his hounds and
+his camaradas trailing wearily behind him. He had followed the jaguar
+trail until the dogs were so tired that even after he had bathed them,
+and then held their noses in the fresh footprints, they would pay no
+heed to the scent. A hunter of scientific tastes, a hunter-naturalist,
+or even an outdoors naturalist, or faunal naturalist interested in big
+mammals, with a pack of hounds such as those with which Paul Rainey
+hunted lion and leopard in Africa, or such a pack as the packs of
+Johnny Goff and Jake Borah with which I hunted cougar, lynx, and bear
+in the Rockies, or such packs as those of the Mississippi and
+Louisiana planters with whom I have hunted bear, wild-cat, and deer in
+the cane-brakes of the lower Mississippi, would not only enjoy fine
+hunting in these vast marshes of the upper Paraguay, but would also do
+work of real scientific value as regards all the big cats.
+
+Only a limited number of the naturalists who have worked in the
+tropics have had any experience with the big beasts whose life-
+histories possess such peculiar interest. Of all the biologists who
+have seriously studied the South American fauna on the ground, Bates
+probably rendered most service; but he hardly seems even to have seen
+the animals with which the hunter is fairly familiar. His interests,
+and those of the other biologists of his kind, lay in other
+directions. In consequence, in treating of the life-histories of the
+very interesting big game, we have been largely forced to rely either
+on native report, in which acutely accurate observation is invariably
+mixed with wild fable, or else on the chance remarks of travellers or
+mere sportsmen, who had not the training to make them understand even
+what it was desirable to observe. Nowadays there is a growing
+proportion of big-game hunters, of sportsmen, who are of the
+Schilling, Selous, and Shiras type. These men do work of capital value
+for science. The mere big-game butcher is tending to disappear as a
+type. On the other hand, the big-game hunter who is a good observer, a
+good field naturalist, occupies at present a more important position
+than ever before, and it is now recognized that he can do work which
+the closest naturalist cannot do. The big-game hunter of this type and
+the outdoors, faunal naturalist, the student of the life-histories of
+big mammals, have open to them in South America a wonderful field in
+which to work.
+
+The fire-ants, of which I have above spoken, are generally found on a
+species of small tree or sapling, with a greenish trunk. They bend the
+whole body as they bite, the tail and head being thrust downward. A
+few seconds after the bite the poison causes considerable pain; later
+it may make a tiny festering sore. There is certainly the most
+extraordinary diversity in the traits by which nature achieves the
+perpetuation of species. Among the warrior and predaceous insects the
+prowess is in some cases of such type as to render the possessor
+practically immune from danger. In other cases the condition of its
+exercise may normally be the sacrifice of the life of the possessor.
+There are wasps that prey on formidable fighting spiders, which yet
+instinctively so handle themselves that the prey practically never
+succeeds in either defending itself or retaliating, being captured and
+paralyzed with unerring efficiency and with entire security to the
+wasp. The wasp's safety is absolute. On the other hand, these fighting
+ants, including the soldiers even among the termites, are frantically
+eager for a success which generally means their annihilation; the
+condition of their efficiency is absolute indifference to their own
+security. Probably the majority of the ants that actually lay hold on
+a foe suffer death in consequence; certainly they not merely run the
+risk of but eagerly invite death.
+
+The following day we descended the Sao Lourenco to its junction with
+the Paraguay, and once more began the ascent of the latter. At one
+cattle-ranch where we stopped, the troupials, or big black and yellow
+orioles, had built a large colony of their nests on a dead tree near
+the primitive little ranch-house. The birds were breeding; the old
+ones were feeding the young. In this neighborhood the naturalists
+found many birds that were new to them, including a tiny woodpecker no
+bigger than a ruby-crowned kinglet. They had collected two night
+monkeys--nocturnal monkeys, not as agile as the ordinary monkey; these
+two were found at dawn, having stayed out too late.
+
+The early morning was always lovely on these rivers, and at that hour
+many birds and beasts were to be seen. One morning we saw a fine marsh
+buck, holding his head aloft as he stared at us, his red coat vivid
+against the green marsh. Another of these marsh-deer swam the river
+ahead of us; I shot at it as it landed, and ought to have got it, but
+did not. As always with these marsh-deer--and as with so many other
+deer--I was struck by the revealing or advertising quality of its red
+coloration; there was nothing in its normal surroundings with which
+this coloration harmonized; so far as it had any effect whatever it
+was always a revealing and not a concealing effect. When the animal
+fled the black of the erect tail was an additional revealing mark,
+although not of such startlingly advertising quality as the flag of
+the whitetail. The whitetail, in one of its forms, and with the
+ordinary whitetail custom of displaying the white flag as it runs, is
+found in the immediate neighborhood of the swamp-deer. It has the same
+foes. Evidently it is of no survival consequence whether the running
+deer displays a white or a black flag. Any competent observer of big
+game must be struck by the fact that in the great majority of the
+species the coloration is not concealing, and that in many it has a
+highly revealing quality. Moreover, if the spotted or striped young
+represent the ancestral coloration, and if, as seems probable, the
+spots and stripes have, on the whole, some slight concealing value, it
+is evident that in the life history of most of these large mammals,
+both among those that prey and those that are preyed on, concealing
+coloration has not been a survival factor; throughout the ages during
+which they have survived they have gradually lost whatever of
+concealing coloration they may once have had--if any--and have
+developed a coloration which under present conditions has no
+concealing and perhaps even has a revealing quality, and which in all
+probability never would have had a concealing value in any
+"environmental complex" in which the species as a whole lived during
+its ancestral development. Indeed, it seems astonishing, when one
+observes these big beasts--and big waders and other water-birds--in
+their native surroundings, to find how utterly non-harmful their often
+strikingly revealing coloration is. Evidently the various other
+survival factors, such as habit, and in many cases cover, etc., are of
+such overmastering importance that the coloration is generally of no
+consequence whatever, one way or the other, and is only very rarely a
+factor of any serious weight.
+
+The junction of the Sao Lourenco and the Paraguay is a day's journey
+above Corumba. From Corumba there is a regular service by shallow
+steamers to Cuyaba, at the head of one fork, and to Sao Luis de
+Caceres, at the head of the other. The steamers are not powerful and
+the voyage to each little city takes a week. There are other forks
+that are navigable. Above Cuyaba and Caceres launches go up-stream for
+several days' journey, except during the dryest parts of the season.
+North of this marshy plain lies the highland, the Plan Alto, where the
+nights are cool and the climate healthy. But I wish emphatically to
+record my view that these marshy plains, although hot, are also
+healthy; and, moreover, the mosquitoes, in most places, are not in
+sufficient numbers to be a serious pest, although of course there must
+be nets for protection against them at night. The country is
+excellently suited for settlement, and offers a remarkable field for
+cattle-growing. Moreover, it is a paradise for water-birds and for
+many other kinds of birds, and for many mammals. It is literally an
+ideal place in which a field naturalist could spend six months or a
+year. It is readily accessible, it offers an almost virgin field for
+work, and the life would be healthy as well as delightfully
+attractive. The man should have a steam-launch. In it he could with
+comfort cover all parts of the country from south of Corumbra to north
+of Cuyaba and Caceres. There would have to be a good deal of
+collecting (although nothing in the nature of butchery should be
+tolerated), for the region has only been superficially worked,
+especially as regards mammals. But if the man were only a collector he
+would leave undone the part of the work best worth doing. The region
+offers extraordinary opportunities for the study of the life-histories
+of birds which, because of their size, their beauty, or their habits,
+are of exceptional interest. All kinds of problems would be worked
+out. For example, on the morning of the 3rd, as we were ascending the
+Paraguay, we again and again saw in the trees on the bank big nests of
+sticks, into and out of which parakeets were flying by the dozen. Some
+of them had straws or twigs in their bills. In some of the big
+globular nests we could make out several holes of exit or entrance.
+Apparently these parakeets were building or remodelling communal
+nests; but whether they had themselves built these nests, or had taken
+old nests and added to or modified them, we could not tell. There was
+so much of interest all along the banks that we were continually
+longing to stop and spend days where we were. Mixed flocks of scores
+of cormorants and darters covered certain trees, both at sunset and
+after sunrise. Although there was no deep forest, merely belts or
+fringes of trees along the river, or in patches back of it, we
+frequently saw monkeys in this riverine tree-fringe--active common
+monkeys and black howlers of more leisurely gait. We saw caymans and
+capybaras sitting socially near one another on the sandbanks. At night
+we heard the calling of large flights of tree-ducks. These were now
+the most common of all the ducks, although there were many muscovy
+ducks also. The evenings were pleasant and not hot, as we sat on the
+forward deck; there was a waxing moon. The screamers were among the
+most noticeable birds. They were noisy; they perched on the very tops
+of the trees, not down among the branches; and they were not shy. They
+should be carefully protected by law, for they readily become tame,
+and then come familiarly round the houses. From the steamer we now and
+then saw beautiful orchids in the trees on the river bank.
+
+One afternoon we stopped at the home buildings or headquarters of one
+of the great outlying ranches of the Brazil Land and Cattle Company,
+the Farquahar syndicate, under the management of Murdo Mackenzie--than
+whom we have in the United States no better citizen or more competent
+cattleman. On this ranch there are some seventy thousand head of
+stock. We were warmly greeted by McLean, the head of the ranch, and
+his assistant Ramsey, an old Texan friend. Among the other assistants,
+all equally cordial, were several Belgians and Frenchmen. The hands
+were Paraguayans and Brazilians, and a few Indians--a hard-bit set,
+each of whom always goes armed and knows how to use his arms, for
+there are constant collisions with cattle thieves from across the
+Bolivian border, and the ranch has to protect itself. These cowhands,
+vaqueiros, were of the type with which we were now familiar: dark-
+skinned, lean, hard-faced men, in slouch-hats, worn shirts and
+trousers, and fringed leather aprons, with heavy spurs on their bare
+feet. They are wonderful riders and ropers, and fear neither man nor
+beast. I noticed one Indian vaqueiro standing in exactly the attitude
+of a Shilluk of the White Nile, with the sole of one foot against the
+other leg, above the knee. This is a region with extraordinary
+possibilities of cattle-raising.
+
+At this ranch there was a tannery; a slaughter-house; a cannery; a
+church; buildings of various kinds and all degrees of comfort for the
+thirty or forty families who made the place their headquarters; and
+the handsome, white, two-story big house, standing among lemon-trees
+and flamboyants on the river-brink. There were all kinds of pets
+around the house. The most fascinating was a wee, spotted fawn which
+loved being petted. Half a dozen curassows of different species
+strolled through the rooms; there were also parrots of several
+different species, and immediately outside the house four or five
+herons, with unclipped wings, which would let us come within a few
+feet and then fly gracefully off, shortly afterward returning to the
+same spot. They included big and little white egrets and also the
+mauve and pearl-colored heron, with a partially black head and many-
+colored bill, which flies with quick, repeated wing-flappings, instead
+of the usual slow heron wing-beats.
+
+In the warehouse were scores of skins of jaguar, puma, ocelot, and
+jaguarundi, and one skin of the big, small-toothed red wolf. These
+were all brought in by the cowhands and by friendly Indians, a price
+being put on each, as they destroyed the stock. The jaguars
+occasionally killed horses and full-grown cows, but not bulls. The
+pumas killed the calves. The others killed an occasional very young
+calf, but ordinarily only sheep, little pigs, and chickens. There was
+one black jaguar-skin; melanism is much more common among jaguars than
+pumas, although once Miller saw a black puma that had been killed by
+Indians. The patterns of the jaguar-skins, and even more of the
+ocelot-skins, showed wide variation, no two being alike. The pumas
+were for the most part bright red, but some were reddish gray, there
+being much the same dichromatism that I found among their Colorado
+kinsfolk. The jaguarundis were dark brownish gray. All these animals,
+the spotted jaguars and ocelots, the monochrome black jaguars, red
+pumas, and dark-gray jaguarundis, were killed in the same locality,
+with the same environment. A glance at the skins and a moment's
+serious thought would have been enough to show any sincere thinker that
+in these cats the coloration pattern, whether concealing or revealing,
+is of no consequence one way or the other as a survival factor. The
+spotted patterns conferred no benefit as compared with the nearly or
+quite monochrome blacks, reds, and dark grays. The bodily condition of
+the various beasts was equally good, showing that their success in
+life, that is, their ability to catch their prey, was unaffected by
+their several color schemes. Except white, there is no color so
+conspicuously advertising as black; yet the black jaguar had been a
+fine, well-fed, powerful beast. The spotted patterns in the forests,
+and perhaps even in the marshes which the jaguars so frequently
+traversed, are probably a shade less conspicuous than the monochrome
+red and gray, but the puma and jaguarundi are just as hard to see, and
+evidently find it just as easy to catch prey, as the jaguar and
+ocelot. The little fawn which we saw was spotted; the grown deer had
+lost the spots; if the spots do really help to conceal the wearer, it
+is evident that the deer has found the original concealing coloration
+of so little value that it has actually been lost in the course of the
+development of the species. When these big cats and the deer are
+considered, together with the dogs, tapirs, peccaries, capybaras, and
+big ant-eaters which live in the same environment, and when we also
+consider the difference between the young and the adult deer and
+tapirs (both of which when adult have substituted a complete or
+partial monochrome for the ancestral spots and streaks), it is evident
+that in the present life and in the ancestral development of the big
+mammals of South America coloration is not and has not been a survival
+factor; any pattern and any color may accompany the persistence and
+development of the qualities and attributes which are survival
+factors. Indeed, it seems hard to believe that in their ordinary
+environments such color schemes as the bright red of the marsh-deer,
+the black of the black jaguar, and the black with white stripes of the
+great tamandua, are not positive detriments to the wearers. Yet such
+is evidently not the case. Evidently the other factors in species-
+survival are of such overwhelming importance that the coloration
+becomes negligible from this standpoint, whether it be concealing or
+revealing. The cats mould themselves to the ground as they crouch or
+crawl. They take advantage of the tiniest scrap of cover. They move
+with extraordinary stealth and patience. The other animals which try
+to sneak off in such manner as to escape observation approach more or
+less closely to the ideal which the cats most nearly realize.
+Wariness, sharp senses, the habit of being rigidly motionless when
+there is the least suspicion of danger, and ability to take advantage
+of cover, all count. On the bare, open, treeless plain, whether marsh,
+meadow, or upland, anything above the level of the grass is seen at
+once. A marsh-deer out in the open makes no effort to avoid
+observation; its concern is purely to see its foes in time to leave a
+dangerous neighborhood. The deer of the neighboring forest skulk and
+hide and lie still in dense cover to avoid being seen. The white-
+lipped peccaries make no effort to escape observation by being either
+noiseless or motionless; they trust for defence to their
+gregariousness and truculence. The collared peccary also trusts to its
+truculence, but seeks refuge in a hole where it can face any opponent
+with its formidable biting apparatus. As for the giant tamandua, in
+spite of its fighting prowess I am wholly unable to understand how
+such a slow and clumsy beast has been able through the ages to exist
+and thrive surrounded by jaguars and pumas. Speaking generally, the
+animals that seek to escape observation trust primarily to smell to
+discover their foes or their prey, and see whatever moves and do not
+see whatever is motionless.
+
+By the morning of January 5 we had left the marsh region. There were
+low hills here and there, and the land was covered with dense forest.
+From time to time we passed little clearings with palm-thatched
+houses. We were approaching Caceres, where the easiest part of our
+trip would end. We had lived in much comfort on the little steamer.
+The food was plentiful and the cooking good. At night we slept on deck
+in cots or hammocks. The mosquitoes were rarely troublesome, although
+in the daytime we were sometimes bothered by numbers of biting horse-
+flies. The bird life was wonderful. One of the characteristic sights
+we were always seeing was that of a number of heads and necks of
+cormorants and snake-birds, without any bodies, projecting above
+water, and disappearing as the steamer approached. Skimmers and thick-
+billed tern were plentiful here right in the heart of the continent.
+In addition to the spurred lapwing, characteristic and most
+interesting resident of most of South America, we found tiny red-
+legged plover which also breed and are at home in the tropics. The
+contrasts in habits between closely allied species are wonderful.
+Among the plovers and bay snipe there are species that live all the
+year round in almost the same places, in tropical and subtropical
+lands; and other related forms which wander over the whole earth, and
+spend nearly all their time, now in the arctic and cold temperate
+regions of the far north, now in the cold temperate regions of the
+south. These latter wide-wandering birds of the seashore and the river
+bank pass most of their lives in regions of almost perpetual sunlight.
+They spend the breeding season, the northern summer, in the land of
+the midnight sun, during the long arctic day. They then fly for
+endless distances down across the north temperate zone, across the
+equator, through the lands where the days and nights are always of
+equal length, into another hemisphere, and spend another summer of
+long days and long twilights in the far south, where the Antarctic
+winds cool them, while their nesting home, at the other end of the
+world, is shrouded beneath the iron desolation of the polar night.
+
+In the late afternoon of the 5th we reached the quaint old-fashioned
+little town of Sao Luis de Caceres, on the outermost fringe of the
+settled region of the state of Matto Grosso, the last town we should
+see before reaching the villages of the Amazon. As we approached we
+passed half-clad black washerwomen on the river's edge. The men, with
+the local band, were gathered at the steeply sloping foot of the main
+street, where the steamer came to her moorings. Groups of women and
+girls, white and brown, watched us from the low bluff; their skirts
+and bodices were red, blue, green, of all colors. Sigg had gone ahead
+with much of the baggage; he met us in an improvised motor-boat,
+consisting of a dugout to the side of which he had clamped our
+Evinrude motor; he was giving several of the local citizens of
+prominence a ride, to their huge enjoyment. The streets of the little
+town were unpaved, with narrow brick sidewalks. The one-story houses
+were white or blue, with roofs of red tiles and window-shutters of
+latticed woodwork, come down from colonial days and tracing back
+through Christian and Moorish Portugal to a remote Arab ancestry.
+Pretty faces, some dark, some light, looked out from these windows;
+their mothers' mothers, for generations past, must thus have looked
+out of similar windows in the vanished colonial days. But now even
+here in Caceres the spirit of the new Brazil is moving; a fine new
+government school has been started, and we met its principal, an
+earnest man doing excellent work, one of the many teachers who, during
+the last few years, have been brought to Matto Grosso from Sao Paulo,
+a centre of the new educational movement which will do so much for
+Brazil.
+
+Father Zahm went to spend the night with some French Franciscan
+friars, capital fellows. I spent the night at the comfortable house of
+Lieutenant Lyra; a hot-weather house with thick walls, big doors, and
+an open patio bordered by a gallery. Lieutenant Lyra was to accompany
+us; he was an old companion of Colonel Rondon's explorations. We
+visited one or two of the stores to make some final purchases, and in
+the evening strolled through the dusky streets and under the trees of
+the plaza; the women and girls sat in groups in the doorways or at the
+windows, and here and there a stringed instrument tinkled in the
+darkness.
+
+From Caceres onward we were entering the scene of Colonel Rondon's
+explorations. For some eighteen years he was occupied in exploring and
+in opening telegraph lines through the eastern or north middle part of
+the great forest state, the wilderness state of the "Matto Grosso"--
+the "great wilderness," or, as Australians would call it, "the bush."
+Then, in 1907, he began to penetrate the unknown region lying to the
+north and west. He was the head of the exploring expeditions sent out
+by the Brazilian Government to traverse for the first time this
+unknown land; to map for the first time the courses of the rivers
+which from the same divide run into the upper portions of the Tapajos
+and the Madeira, two of the mighty affluents of the Amazon, and to
+build telegraph-lines across to the Madeira, where a line of Brazilian
+settlements, connected by steamboat lines and a railroad, again
+occurs. Three times he penetrated into this absolutely unknown,
+Indian-haunted wilderness, being absent for a year or two at a time
+and suffering every imaginable hardship, before he made his way
+through to the Madeira and completed the telegraph-line across. The
+officers and men of the Brazilian Army and the civilian scientists who
+followed him shared the toil and the credit of the task. Some of his
+men died of beriberi; some were killed or wounded by the Indians; he
+himself almost died of fever; again and again his whole party was
+reduced almost to the last extremity by starvation, disease, hardship,
+and the over-exhaustion due to wearing fatigues. In dealing with the
+wild, naked savages he showed a combination of fearlessness, wariness,
+good judgment, and resolute patience and kindliness. The result was
+that they ultimately became his firm friends, guarded the telegraph-
+lines, and helped the few soldiers left at the isolated, widely
+separated little posts. He and his assistants explored, and mapped for
+the first time, the Juruena and the Gy-Parana, two important affluents
+of the Tapajos and the Madeira respectively. The Tapajos and the
+Madeira, like the Orinoco and Rio Negro, have been highways of travel
+for a couple of centuries. The Madeira (as later the Tapajos) was the
+chief means of ingress, a century and a half ago, to the little
+Portuguese settlements of this far interior region of Brazil; one of
+these little towns, named Matto Grosso, being the original capital of
+the province. It has long been abandoned by the government, and
+practically so by its inhabitants, the ruins of palace, fortress, and
+church now rising amid the rank tropical luxuriance of the wild
+forest. The mouths of the main affluents of these highway rivers were
+as a rule well known. But in many cases nothing but the mouth was
+known. The river itself was not known, and it was placed on the map by
+guesswork. Colonel Rondon found, for example, that the course of the
+Gy-Parana was put down on the map two degrees out of its proper place.
+He, with his party, was the first to find out its sources, the first
+to traverse its upper course, the first to map its length. He and his
+assistants performed a similar service for the Juruena, discovering
+the sources, discovering and descending some of the branches, and for
+the first time making a trustworthy map of the main river itself,
+until its junction with the Tapajos. Near the watershed between the
+Juruena and the Gy-Parana he established his farthest station to the
+westward, named Jose Bonofacio, after one of the chief republican
+patriots of Brazil. A couple of days' march northwestward from this
+station, he in 1909 came across a part of the stream of a river
+running northward between the Gy-Parana and the Juruena; he could only
+guess where it debouched, believing it to be into the Madeira,
+although it was possible that it entered the Gy-Parana or Tapajos. The
+region through which it flows was unknown, no civilized man having
+ever penetrated it; and as all conjecture as to what the river was, as
+to its length, and as to its place of entering into some highway
+river, was mere guess-work, he had entered it on his sketch maps as
+the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Among the officers of the
+Brazilian Army and the scientific civilians who have accompanied him
+there have been not only expert cartographers, photographers, and
+telegraphists, but astronomers, geologists, botanists, and zoologists.
+Their reports, published in excellent shape by the Brazilian
+Government, make an invaluable series of volumes, reflecting the
+highest credit on the explorers, and on the government itself. Colonel
+Rondon's own accounts of his explorations, of the Indian tribes he has
+visited, and of the beautiful and wonderful things he has seen,
+possess a peculiar interest.
+
+
+
+                      V. UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS
+
+After leaving Caceres we went up the Sepotuba, which in the local
+Indian dialect means River of Tapirs. This river is only navigable for
+boats of size when the water is high. It is a swift, fairly clear
+stream, rushing down from the Plan Alto, the high uplands, through the
+tropical lowland forest. On the right hand, or western bank, and here
+and there on the left bank, the forest is broken by natural pastures
+and meadows, and at one of these places, known as Porto Campo, sixty
+or seventy miles above the mouth, there is a good-sized cattle-ranch.
+Here we halted, because the launch, and the two pranchas--native
+trading-boats with houses on their decks--which it towed, could not
+carry our entire party and outfit. Accordingly most of the baggage and
+some of the party were sent ahead to where we were to meet our pack-
+train, at Tapirapoan. Meanwhile the rest of us made our first camp
+under tents at Porto Campo, to wait the return of the boats. The tents
+were placed in a line, with the tent of Colonel Rondon and the tent in
+which Kermit and I slept, in the middle, beside one another. In front
+of these two, on tall poles, stood the Brazilian and American flags;
+and at sunrise and sunset the flags were hoisted and hauled down while
+the trumpet sounded and all of us stood at attention. Camp was pitched
+beside the ranch buildings. In the trees near the tents grew wonderful
+violet orchids.
+
+Many birds were around us; I saw some of them, and Cherrie and Miller
+many, many more. They ranged from party-colored macaws, green parrots,
+and big gregarious cuckoos down to a brilliant green-and-chestnut
+kingfisher, five and a quarter inches long, and a tiny orange-and-
+green manakin, smaller than any bird I have ever seen except a hummer.
+We also saw a bird that really was protectively colored; a kind of
+whippoorwill which even the sharp-eyed naturalists could only make out
+because it moved its head. We saw orange-bellied squirrels with showy
+orange tails. Lizards were common. We killed our first poisonous snake
+(the second we had seen), an evil lance-headed jararaca that was
+swimming the river. We also saw a black-and-orange harmless snake,
+nearly eight feet long, which we were told was akin to the mussurama;
+and various other snakes. One day while paddling in a canoe on the
+river, hoping that the dogs might drive a tapir to us, they drove into
+the water a couple of small bush deer instead. There was no point in
+shooting them; we caught them with ropes thrown over their heads; for
+the naturalists needed them as specimens, and all of us needed the
+meat. One of the men was stung by a single big red maribundi wasp. For
+twenty-four hours he was in great pain and incapacitated for work. In
+a lagoon two of the dogs had the tips of their tails bitten off by
+piranhas as they swam, and the ranch hands told us that in this lagoon
+one of their hounds had been torn to pieces and completely devoured by
+the ravenous fish. It was a further illustration of the uncertainty of
+temper and behavior of these ferocious little monsters. In other
+lagoons they had again and again left us and our dogs unmolested. They
+vary locally in aggressiveness just as sharks and crocodiles in
+different seas and rivers vary.
+
+On the morning of January 9th we started out for a tapir-hunt. Tapirs
+are hunted with canoes, as they dwell in thick jungle and take to the
+water when hounds follow them. In this region there were extensive
+papyrus-swamps and big lagoons, back from the river, and often the
+tapirs fled to these for refuge, throwing off the hounds. In these
+places it was exceedingly difficult to get them; our best chance was
+to keep to the river in canoes, and paddle toward the spot in the
+direction of which the hounds, by the noise, seemed to be heading. We
+started in four canoes. Three of them were Indian dugouts, very low in
+the water. The fourth was our Canadian canoe, a beauty; light, safe,
+roomy, made of thin slats of wood and cement-covered canvas. Colonel
+Rondon, Fiala with his camera, and I went in this canoe, together with
+two paddlers. The paddlers were natives of the poorer class. They were
+good men. The bowsman was of nearly pure white blood; the steersman
+was of nearly pure negro blood, and was evidently the stronger
+character and better man of the two. The other canoes carried a couple
+of fazendeiros, ranchmen, who had come up from Caceres with their
+dogs. These dugouts were manned by Indian and half-caste paddlers, and
+the fazendeiros, who were of nearly pure white blood, also at times
+paddled vigorously. All were dressed in substantially similar clothes,
+the difference being that those of the camaradas, the poorer men or
+laborers, were in tatters. In the canoes no man wore anything save a
+shirt, trousers, and hat, the feet being bare. On horseback they wore
+long leather leggings which were really simply high, rather flexible
+boots with the soles off; their spurs were on their tough bare feet.
+There was every gradation between and among the nearly pure whites,
+negroes, and Indians. On the whole, there was the most white blood in the
+upper ranks, and most Indian and negro blood among the camaradas; but
+there were exceptions in both classes, and there was no discrimination
+on account of color. All alike were courteous and friendly.
+
+The hounds were at first carried in two of the dugouts, and then let
+loose on the banks. We went up-stream for a couple of hours against
+the swift current, the paddlers making good headway with their pointed
+paddles--the broad blade of each paddle was tipped with a long point,
+so that it could be thrust into the mud to keep the low dugout against
+the bank. The tropical forest came down almost like a wall, the tall
+trees laced together with vines, and the spaces between their trunks
+filled with a low, dense jungle. In most places it could only be
+penetrated by a man with a machete. With few exceptions the trees were
+unknown to me, and their native names told me nothing. On most of them
+the foliage was thick; among the exceptions were the cecropias,
+growing by preference on new-formed alluvial soil bare of other trees,
+whose rather scanty leaf bunches were, as I was informed, the favorite
+food of sloths. We saw one or two squirrels among the trees, and a
+family of monkeys. There were few sand-banks in the river, and no
+water-fowl save an occasional cormorant. But as we pushed along near
+the shore, where the branches overhung and dipped in the swirling
+water, we continually roused little flocks of bats. They were hanging
+from the boughs right over the river, and when our approach roused
+them they zigzagged rapidly in front of us for a few rods, and then
+again dove in among the branches.
+
+At last we landed at a point of ground where there was little jungle,
+and where the forest was composed of palms and was fairly open. It was
+a lovely bit of forest. The colonel strolled off in one direction,
+returning an hour later with a squirrel for the naturalists. Meanwhile
+Fiala and I went through the palm wood to a papyrus-swamp. Many trails
+led through the woods, and especially along the borders of the swamp;
+and, although their principal makers had evidently been cattle, yet
+there were in them footprints of both tapir and deer. The tapir makes
+a footprint much like that of a small rhinoceros, being one of the
+odd-toed ungulates. We could hear the dogs now and then, evidently
+scattered and running on various trails. They were a worthless lot of
+cur-hounds. They would chase tapir or deer or anything else that ran
+away from them as long as the trail was easy to follow; but they were
+not stanch, even after animals that fled, and they would have nothing
+whatever to do with animals that were formidable.
+
+While standing by the marsh we heard something coming along one of the
+game paths. In a moment a buck of the bigger species of bush deer
+appeared, a very pretty and graceful creature. It stopped and darted
+back as soon as it saw us, giving us no chance for a shot; but in
+another moment we caught glimpses of it running by at full speed, back
+among the palms. I covered an opening between two tree-trunks. By good
+luck the buck appeared in the right place, giving me just time to hold
+well ahead of him and fire. At the report he went down in a heap, the
+"umbrella-pointed" bullet going in at one shoulder, and ranging
+forward, breaking the neck. The leaden portion of the bullet, in the
+proper mushroom or umbrella shape, stopped under the neck skin on the
+farther side. It is a very effective bullet.
+
+Miller particularly wished specimens of these various species of bush
+deer, because their mutual relationships have not yet been
+satisfactorily worked out. This was an old buck. The antlers were
+single spikes, five or six inches long; they were old and white and
+would soon have been shed. In the stomach were the remains of both
+leaves and grasses, but especially the former; the buck was both a
+browser and grazer. There were also seeds, but no berries or nuts such
+as I have sometimes found in deer's stomachs. This species, which is
+abundant in this neighborhood, is solitary in its habits, not going in
+herds. At this time the rut was past, the bucks no longer sought the
+does, the fawns had not been born, and the yearlings had left their
+mothers; so that each animal usually went by itself. When chased they
+were very apt to take to the water. This instinct of taking to the
+water, by the way, is quite explicable as regards both deer and tapir,
+for it affords them refuge against their present day natural foes, but
+it is a little puzzling to see the jaguar readily climbing trees to
+escape dogs; for ages have passed since there were in its habitat any
+natural foes from which it needed to seek safety in trees. But it is
+possible that the habit has been kept alive by its seeking refuge in
+them on occasion from the big peccaries, which are among the beasts on
+which it ordinarily preys.
+
+We hung the buck in a tree. The colonel returned, and not long
+afterward one of the paddlers who had been watching the river called
+out to us that there was a tapir in the water, a good distance up-
+stream, and that two of the other boats were after it. We jumped into
+the canoe and the two paddlers dug their blades in the water as they
+drove her against the strong current, edging over for the opposite
+bank. The tapir was coming down-stream at a great rate, only its queer
+head above water, while the dugouts were closing rapidly on it, the
+paddlers uttering loud cries. As the tapir turned slightly to one side
+or the other the long, slightly upturned snout and the strongly
+pronounced arch of the crest along the head and upper neck gave it a
+marked and unusual aspect. I could not shoot, for it was directly in
+line with one of the pursuing dugouts. Suddenly it dived, the snout
+being slightly curved downward as it did so. There was no trace of it;
+we gazed eagerly in all directions; the dugout in front came alongside
+our canoe and the paddlers rested, their paddles ready. Then we made
+out the tapir clambering up the bank. It had dived at right angles to
+the course it was following and swum under water to the very edge of
+the shore, rising under the overhanging tree-branches at a point where
+a drinking-trail for game led down a break in the bank. The branches
+partially hid it, and it was in deep shadow, so that it did not offer
+a very good shot. My bullet went into its body too far back, and the
+tapir disappeared in the forest at a gallop as if unhurt, although the
+bullet really secured it, by making it unwilling to trust to its speed
+and leave the neighborhood of the water. Three or four of the hounds
+were by this time swimming the river, leaving the others yelling on
+the opposite side; and as soon as the swimmers reached the shore they
+were put on the tapir's trail and galloped after it, giving tongue. In
+a couple of minutes we saw the tapir take to the water far up-stream,
+and after it we went as fast as the paddles could urge us through the
+water. We were not in time to head it, but fortunately some of the
+dogs had come down to the river's edge at the very point where the
+tapir was about to land, and turned it back. Two or three of the dogs
+were swimming. We were more than half the breadth of the river away
+from the tapir, and somewhat down-stream, when it dived. It made an
+astonishingly long swim beneath the water this time, almost as if it
+had been a hippopotamus, for it passed completely under our canoe and
+rose between us and the hither bank. I shot it, the bullet going into
+its brain, while it was thirty or forty yards from shore. It sank at
+once.
+
+There was now nothing to do but wait until the body floated. I feared
+that the strong current would roll it down-stream over the river bed,
+but my companions assured me that this was not so, and that the body
+would remain where it was until it rose, which would be in an hour or
+two. They were right, except as to the time. For over a couple of
+hours we paddled, or anchored ourselves by clutching branches close to
+the spot, or else drifted down a mile and paddled up again near the
+shore, to see if the body had caught anywhere. Then we crossed the
+river and had lunch at the lovely natural picnic-ground where the buck
+was hung up. We had very nearly given up the tapir when it suddenly
+floated only a few rods from where it had sunk. With no little
+difficulty the big, round black body was hoisted into the canoe, and
+we all turned our prows down-stream. The skies had been lowering for
+some time, and now--too late to interfere with the hunt or cause us
+any annoyance--a heavy downpour of rain came on and beat upon us.
+Little we cared, as the canoe raced forward, with the tapir and the
+buck lying in the bottom, and a dry, comfortable camp ahead of us.
+
+When we reached camp, and Father Zahm saw the tapir, he reminded me of
+something I had completely forgotten. When, some six years previously,
+he had spoken to me in the White House about taking this South
+American trip, I had answered that I could not, as I intended to go to
+Africa, but added that I hoped some day to go to South America and
+that if I did so I should try to shoot both a jaguar and a tapir, as
+they were the characteristic big-game animals of the country. "Well,"
+said Father Zahm, "now you've shot them both!" The storm continued
+heavy until after sunset. Then the rain stopped and the full moon
+broke through the cloud-rack. Father Zahm and I walked up and down in
+the moonlight, talking of many things, from Dante, and our own plans
+for the future, to the deeds and the wanderings of the old-time
+Spanish conquistadores in their search for the Gilded King, and of the
+Portuguese adventurers who then divided with them the mastery of the
+oceans and of the unknown continents beyond.
+
+This was an attractive and interesting camp in more ways than one. The
+vaqueiros with their wives and families were housed on the two sides
+of the field in which our tents were pitched. On one side was a big,
+whitewashed, tile-roofed house in which the foreman dwelt--an olive-
+skinned, slightly built, wiry man, with an olive-skinned wife and
+eight as pretty, fair-haired children as one could wish to see. He
+usually went barefoot, and his manners were not merely good but
+distinguished. Corrals and outbuildings were near this big house. On
+the opposite side of the field stood the row of steep-roofed, palm-
+thatched huts in which the ordinary cowhands lived with their dusky
+helpmeets and children. Each night from these palm-thatched quarters
+we heard the faint sounds of a music that went far back of
+civilization to a savage ancestry near by in point of time and
+otherwise immeasurably remote; for through the still, hot air, under
+the brilliant moonlight, we heard the monotonous throbbing of a tomtom
+drum, and the twanging of some old stringed instrument. The small
+black turkey-buzzards, here always called crows, were as tame as
+chickens near the big house, walking on the ground or perched in the
+trees beside the corral, waiting for the offal of the slaughtered
+cattle. Two palm-trees near our tent were crowded with the long,
+hanging nests of one of the cacique orioles. We lived well, with
+plenty of tapir beef, which was good, and venison of the bush deer,
+which was excellent; and as much ordinary beef as we wished, and fresh
+milk, too--a rarity in this country. There were very few mosquitoes,
+and everything was as comfortable as possible.
+
+The tapir I killed was a big one. I did not wish to kill another,
+unless, of course, it became advisable to do so for food; whereas I
+did wish to get some specimens of the big, white-lipped peccary, the
+"queixa" (pronounced "cashada") of the Brazilians, which would make
+our collection of the big mammals of the Brazilian forests almost
+complete. The remaining members of the party killed two or three more
+tapirs. One was a bull, full grown but very much smaller than the
+animal I had killed. The hunters said that this was a distinct kind.
+The skull and skin were sent back with the other specimens to the
+American Museum, where after due examination and comparison its
+specific identify will be established. Tapirs are solitary beasts. Two
+are rarely found together, except in the case of a cow and its spotted
+and streaked calf. They live in dense cover, usually lying down in the
+daytime and at night coming out to feed, and going to the river or to
+some lagoon to bathe and swim. From this camp Sigg took Lieutenant
+Lyra back to Caceres to get something that had been overlooked. They
+went in a rowboat to which the motor had been attached, and at night
+on the way back almost ran over a tapir that was swimming. But in
+unfrequented places tapirs both feed and bathe during the day. The
+stomach of the one I shot contained big palm-nuts; they had been
+swallowed without enough mastication to break the kernel, the outer
+pulp being what the tapir prized. Tapirs gallop well, and their tough
+hide and wedge shape enable them to go at speed through very dense
+cover. They try to stamp on, and even to bite, a foe, but are only
+clumsy fighters.
+
+The tapir is a very archaic type of ungulate, not unlike the non-
+specialized beasts of the Oligocene. From some such ancestral type the
+highly specialized one-toed modern horse has evolved, while during the
+uncounted ages that saw the horse thus develop the tapir has continued
+substantially unchanged. Originally the tapirs dwelt in the northern
+hemisphere, but there they gradually died out, the more specialized
+horse, and even for long ages the rhinoceros, persisting after they
+had vanished; and nowadays the surviving tapirs are found in Malaysia
+and South America, far from their original home. The relations of the
+horse and tapir in the paleontological history of South America are
+very curious. Both were, geologically speaking, comparatively recent
+immigrants, and if they came at different dates it is almost certain
+that the horse came later. The horse for an age or two, certainly for
+many hundreds of thousands of years, throve greatly and developed not
+only several different species but even different genera. It was much
+the most highly specialized of the two, and in the other continental
+regions where both were found the horse outlasted the tapir. But in
+South America the tapir outlasted the horse. From unknown causes the
+various genera and species of horses died out, while the tapir has
+persisted. The highly specialized, highly developed beasts, which
+represented such a full evolutionary development, died out, while
+their less specialized remote kinsfolk, which had not developed, clung
+to life and throve; and this although the direct reverse was occurring
+in North America and in the Old World. It is one of the innumerable
+and at present insoluble problems in the history of life on our
+planet.
+
+I spent a couple of days of hard work in getting the big white-lipped
+peccaries--white-lipped being rather a misnomer, as the entire under
+jaw and lower cheek are white. They were said to be found on the other
+side of, and some distance back from, the river. Colonel Rondon had
+sent out one of our attendants, an old follower of his, a full-blood
+Parecis Indian, to look for tracks. This was an excellent man, who
+dressed and behaved just like the other good men we had, and was
+called Antonio Parecis. He found the tracks of a herd of thirty or
+forty cashadas, and the following morning we started after them.
+
+On the first day we killed nothing. We were rather too large a party,
+for one or two of the visiting fazendeiros came along with their dogs.
+I doubt whether these men very much wished to overtake our game, for
+the big peccary is a murderous foe of dogs (and is sometimes dangerous
+to men). One of their number frankly refused to come or to let his
+dogs come, explaining that the fierce wild swine were "very badly
+brought up" (a literal translation of his words) and that respectable
+dogs and men ought not to go near them. The other fazendeiros merely
+feared for their dogs; a groundless fear, I believe, as I do not think
+that the dogs could by any exertion have been dragged into dangerous
+proximity with such foes. The ranch foreman, Benedetto, came with us,
+and two or three other camaradas, including Antonio, the Parecis
+Indian. The horses were swum across the river, each being led beside a
+dugout. Then we crossed with the dogs; our horses were saddled, and we
+started.
+
+It was a picturesque cavalcade. The native hunters, of every shade
+from white to dark copper, all wore leather leggings that left the
+soles of their feet bare, and on their bare heels wore spurs with
+wheels four inches across. They went in single file, for no other mode
+of travel was possible; and the two or three leading men kept their
+machetes out, and had to cut every yard of our way while we were in
+the forest. The hunters rode little stallions, and their hounds were
+gelded.
+
+Most of the time we were in forest or swampy jungle. Part of the time
+we crossed or skirted marshy plains. In one of them a herd of half-
+wild cattle was feeding. Herons, storks, ducks, and ibises were in
+these marshes, and we saw one flock of lovely roseate spoonbills.
+
+In one grove the fig-trees were killing the palms, just as in Africa
+they kill the sandalwood-trees. In the gloom of this grove there were
+no flowers, no bushes; the air was heavy; the ground was brown with
+mouldering leaves. Almost every palm was serving as a prop for a fig-
+tree. The fig-trees were in every stage of growth. The youngest ones
+merely ran up the palms as vines. In the next stage the vine had
+thickened and was sending out shoots, wrapping the palm stem in a
+deadly hold. Some of the shoots were thrown round the stem like the
+tentacles of an immense cuttlefish. Others looked like claws, that
+were hooked into every crevice, and round every projection. In the
+stage beyond this the palm had been killed, and its dead carcass
+appeared between the big, winding vine-trunks; and later the palm had
+disappeared and the vines had united into a great fig-tree. Water
+stood in black pools at the foot of the murdered trees, and of the
+trees that had murdered them. There was something sinister and evil in
+the dark stillness of the grove; it seemed as if sentient beings had
+writhed themselves round and were strangling other sentient beings.
+
+We passed through wonderfully beautiful woods of tall palms, the
+ouaouaca palm--wawasa palm, as it should be spelled in English. The
+trunks rose tall and strong and slender, and the fronds were branches
+twenty or thirty feet long, with the many long, narrow green blades
+starting from the midrib at right angles in pairs. Round the ponds
+stood stately burity palms, rising like huge columns, with great
+branches that looked like fans, as the long, stiff blades radiated
+from the end of the midrib. One tree was gorgeous with the brilliant
+hues of a flock of party-colored macaws. Green parrots flew shrieking
+overhead.
+
+Now and then we were bitten and stung by the venomous fire-ants, and
+ticks crawled upon us. Once we were assailed by more serious foes, in
+the shape of a nest of maribundi wasps, not the biggest kind, but
+about the size of our hornets. We were at the time passing through
+dense jungle, under tall trees, in a spot where the down timber,
+holes, tangled creepers, and thorns made the going difficult. The
+leading men were not assailed, although they were now and then cutting
+the trail. Colonel Rondon and I were in the middle of the column, and
+the swarm attacked us; both of us were badly stung on the face, neck,
+and hands, the colonel even more severely than I was. He wheeled and
+rode to the rear and I to the front; our horses were stung too; and we
+went at a rate that a moment previously I would have deemed impossible
+over such ground.
+
+At the close of the day, when we were almost back at the river, the
+dogs killed a jaguar kitten. There was no trace of the mother. Some
+accident must have befallen her, and the kitten was trying to shift
+for herself. She was very emaciated. In her stomach were the remains
+of a pigeon and some tendons from the skeleton or dried carcass of
+some big animal. The loathsome berni flies, which deposit eggs in
+living beings--cattle, dogs, monkeys, rodents, men--had been at it.
+There were seven huge, white grubs making big abscess-like swellings
+over its eyes. These flies deposit their grubs in men. In 1909, on
+Colonel Rondon's hardest trip, every man of the party had from one to
+five grubs deposited in him, the fly acting with great speed, and
+driving its ovipositor through clothing. The grubs cause torture; but
+a couple of cross cuts with a lancet permit the loathsome creatures to
+be squeezed out.
+
+In these forests the multitude of insects that bite, sting, devour,
+and prey upon other creatures, often with accompaniments of atrocious
+suffering, passes belief. The very pathetic myth of "beneficent
+nature" could not deceive even the least wise being if he once saw for
+himself the iron cruelty of life in the tropics. Of course "nature"--
+in common parlance a wholly inaccurate term, by the way, especially
+when used as if to express a single entity--is entirely ruthless, no
+less so as regards types than as regards individuals, and entirely
+indifferent to good or evil, and works out her ends or no ends with
+utter disregard of pain and woe.
+
+The following morning at sunrise we started again. This time only
+Colonel Rondon and I went with Benedetto and Antonio the Indian. We
+brought along four dogs which it was fondly hoped might chase the
+cashadas. Two of them disappeared on the track of a tapir and we saw
+them no more; one of the others promptly fled when we came across the
+tracks of our game, and would not even venture after them in our
+company; the remaining one did not actually run away and occasionally
+gave tongue, but could not be persuaded to advance unless there was a
+man ahead of him. However, Colonel Rondon, Benedetto, and Antonio
+formed a trio of hunters who could do fairly well without dogs.
+
+After four hours of riding, Benedetto, who was in the lead, suddenly
+stopped and pointed downward. We were riding along a grassy intervale
+between masses of forest, and he had found the fresh track of a herd
+of big peccaries crossing from left to right. There were apparently
+thirty or forty in the herd. The small peccaries go singly or in small
+parties, and when chased take refuge in holes or hollow logs, where
+they show valiant fight; but the big peccaries go in herds of
+considerable size, and are so truculent that they are reluctant to
+run, and prefer either to move slowly off chattering their tusks and
+grunting, or else actually to charge. Where much persecuted the
+survivors gradually grow more willing to run, but their instinct is
+not to run but to trust to their truculence and their mass-action for
+safety. They inflict a fearful bite and frequently kill dogs. They
+often charge the hunters and I have heard of men being badly wounded
+by them, while almost every man who hunts them often is occasionally
+forced to scramble up a tree to avoid a charge. But I have never heard
+of a man being killed by them. They sometimes surround the tree in
+which the man has taken refuge and keep him up it. Cherrie, on one
+occasion in Costa Rica, was thus kept up a tree for several hours by a
+great herd of three or four hundred of these peccaries; and this
+although he killed several of them. Ordinarily, however, after making
+their charge they do not turn, but pass on out of sight. Their great
+foe is the jaguar, but unless he exercises much caution they will turn
+the tables on him. Cherrie, also in Costa Rica, came on the body of a
+jaguar which had evidently been killed by a herd of peccaries some
+twenty-four hours previously. The ground was trampled up by their
+hoofs, and the carcass was rent and slit into pieces.
+
+Benedetto, as soon as we discovered the tracks, slipped off his horse,
+changed his leggings for sandals, threw his rifle over his arm, and
+took the trail of the herd, followed by the only dog which would
+accompany him. The peccaries had gone into a broad belt of forest,
+with a marsh on the farther side. At first Antonio led the colonel and
+me, all of us on horseback, at a canter round this belt to the marsh
+side, thinking the peccaries had gone almost through it. But we could
+hear nothing. The dog only occasionally barked, and then not loudly.
+Finally we heard a shot. Benedetto had found the herd, which showed no
+fear of him; he had backed out and fired a signal shot. We all three
+went into the forest on foot toward where the shot had been fired. It
+was dense jungle and stiflingly hot. We could not see clearly for more
+than a few feet, or move easily without free use of the machetes. Soon
+we heard the ominous groaning of the herd, in front of us, and almost
+on each side. Then Benedetto joined us, and the dog appeared in the
+rear. We moved slowly forward, toward the sound of the fierce moaning
+grunts which were varied at times by a castanet chattering of the
+tusks. Then we dimly made out the dark forms of the peccaries moving
+very slowly to the left. My companions each chose a tree to climb at
+need and pointed out one for me. I fired at the half-seen form of a
+hog, through the vines, leaves, and branches; the colonel fired; I
+fired three more shots at other hogs; and the Indian also fired. The
+peccaries did not charge; walking and trotting, with bristles erect,
+groaning and clacking their tusks, they disappeared into the jungle.
+We could not see one of them clearly; and not one was left dead. But a
+few paces on we came across one of my wounded ones, standing at bay by
+a palm trunk; and I killed it forthwith. The dog would not even trail
+the wounded ones; but here Antonio came to the front. With eyes almost
+as quick and sure as those of a wild beast he had watched after every
+shot, and was able to tell the results in each case. He said that in
+addition to the one I had just killed I had wounded two others so
+seriously that he did not think they would go far, and that Colonel
+Rondon and he himself had each badly wounded one; and, moreover, he
+showed the trails each wounded animal had taken. The event justified
+him. In a few minutes we found my second one dead. Then we found
+Antonio's. Then we found my third one alive and at bay, and I killed
+it with another bullet. Finally we found the colonel's. I told him I
+should ask the authorities of the American Museum to mount his and one
+or two of mine in a group, to commemorate our hunting together.
+
+If we had not used crippling rifles the peccaries might have gotten
+away, for in the dark jungle, with the masses of intervening leaves
+and branches, it was impossible to be sure of placing each bullet
+properly in the half-seen moving beast. We found where the herd had
+wallowed in the mud. The stomachs of the peccaries we killed contained
+wild figs, palm nuts, and bundles of root fibres. The dead beasts were
+covered with ticks. They were at least twice the weight of the smaller
+peccaries.
+
+On the ride home we saw a buck of the small species of bush deer, not
+half the size of the kind I had already shot. It was only a patch of
+red in the bush, a good distance off, but I was lucky enough to hit
+it. In spite of its small size it was a full-grown male, of a species
+we had not yet obtained. The antlers had recently been shed, and the
+new antler growth had just begun. A great jabiru stork let us ride by
+him a hundred and fifty yards off without thinking it worth while to
+take flight. This day we saw many of the beautiful violet orchids; and
+in the swamps were multitudes of flowers, red, yellow, lilac, of which
+I did not know the names.
+
+I alluded above to the queer custom these people in the interior of
+Brazil have of gelding their hunting-dogs. This absurd habit is
+doubtless the chief reason why there are so few hounds worth their
+salt in the more serious kinds of hunting, where the quarry is the
+jaguar or big peccary. Thus far we had seen but one dog as good as the
+ordinary cougar hound or bear hound in such packs as those with which
+I had hunted in the Rockies and in the cane-brakes of the lower
+Mississippi. It can hardly be otherwise when every dog that shows
+himself worth anything is promptly put out of the category of
+breeders--the theory apparently being that the dog will then last
+longer. All the breeding is from worthless dogs, and no dog of proved
+worth leaves descendants.
+
+The country along this river is a fine natural cattle country, and
+some day it will surely see a great development. It was opened to
+development by Colonel Rondon only five or six years ago. Already an
+occasional cattle ranch is to be found along the banks. When railroads
+are built into these interior portions of Matto Grosso the whole
+region will grow and thrive amazingly--and so will the railroads. The
+growth will not be merely material. An immense amount will be done in
+education; using the word education in its broadest and most accurate
+sense, as applying to both mind and spirit, to both the child and the
+man. Colonel Rondon is not merely an explorer. He has been and is now
+a leader in the movement for the vital betterment of his people, the
+people of Matto Grosso. The poorer people of the back country
+everywhere suffer because of the harsh and improper laws of debt. In
+practice these laws have resulted in establishing a system of peonage,
+such as has grown up here and there in our own nation. A radical
+change is needed in this matter; and the colonel is fighting for the
+change. In school matters the colonel has precisely the ideas of our
+wisest and most advanced men and women in the United States. Cherrie--
+who is not only an exceedingly efficient naturalist and explorer in
+the tropics, but is also a thoroughly good citizen at home--is the
+chairman of the school board of the town of Newfane, in Vermont. He
+and the colonel, and Kermit and I, talked over school matters at
+length, and were in hearty accord as to the vital educational needs of
+both Brazil and the United States: the need of combining industrial
+with purely mental training, and the need of having the wide-spread
+popular education, which is and must be supported and paid for by the
+government, made a purely governmental and absolutely nonsectarian
+function, administered by the state alone, without interference with,
+nor furtherance of, the beliefs of any reputable church. The colonel
+is also head of the Indian service of Brazil, being what corresponds
+roughly with our commissioner of Indian affairs. Here also he is
+taking the exact view that is taken in the United States by the
+staunchest and wisest friends of the Indians. The Indians must be
+treated with intelligent and sympathetic understanding, no less than
+with justice and firmness; and until they become citizens, absorbed
+into the general body politic, they must be the wards of the nation,
+and not of any private association, lay or clerical, no matter how
+well-meaning.
+
+The Sepotuba River was scientifically explored and mapped for the
+first time by Colonel Rondon in 1908, as head of the Brazilian
+Telegraphic Commission. This was during the second year of his
+exploration and opening of the unknown northwestern wilderness of
+Matto Grosso. Most of this wilderness had never previously been
+trodden by the foot of a civilized man. Not only were careful maps
+made and much other scientific work accomplished, but posts were
+established and telegraph-lines constructed. When Colonel Rondon began
+the work he was a major. He was given two promotions, to lieutenant-
+colonel and colonel, while absent in the wilderness. His longest and
+most important exploring trip, and the one fraught with most danger
+and hardship, was begun by him in 1909, on May 3rd, the anniversary of
+the discovery of Brazil. He left Tapirapoan on that day, and he
+reached the Madeira River on Christmas, December 25, of the same year,
+having descended the Gy-Parana. The mouth of this river had long been
+known, but its upper course for half its length was absolutely unknown
+when Rondon descended it. Among those who took part under him in this
+piece of exploration were the present Captain Amilcar and Lieutenant
+Lyra; and two better or more efficient men for such wilderness work it
+would be impossible to find. They acted as his two chief assistants on
+our trip. In 1909 the party exhausted all their food, including even
+the salt, by August. For the last four months they lived exclusively
+on the game they killed, on fruits, and on wild honey. Their equipage
+was what the men could carry on their backs. By the time the party
+reached the Madeira they were worn out by fatigue, exposure, and semi-
+starvation, and their enfeebled bodies were racked by fever.
+
+The work of exploration accomplished by Colonel Rondon and his
+associates during these years was as remarkable as, and in its results
+even more important than, any similar work undertaken elsewhere on the
+globe at or about the same time. Its value was recognized in Brazil.
+It received no recognition by the geographical societies of Europe or
+the United States.
+
+The work done by the original explorers of such a wilderness
+necessitates the undergoing of untold hardship and danger. Their
+successors, even their immediate successors, have a relatively easy
+time. Soon the road becomes so well beaten that it can be traversed
+without hardship by any man who does not venture from it--although if
+he goes off into the wilderness for even a day, hunting or collecting,
+he will have a slight taste of what his predecessors endured. The
+wilderness explored by Colonel Rondon is not yet wholly subdued, and
+still holds menace to human life. At Caceres he received notice of the
+death of one of his gallant subordinates, Captain Cardozo. He died
+from beriberi, far out in the wilderness along our proposed line of
+march. Colonel Rondon also received news that a boat ascending the Gy-
+Parana, to carry provisions to meet those of our party who were to
+descend that stream, had been upset, the provisions lost, and three
+men drowned. The risk and hardship are such that the ordinary men, the
+camaradas, do not like to go into the wilderness. The men who go with
+the Telegraphic Commission on the rougher and wilder work are paid
+seven times as much as they earn in civilization. On this trip of ours
+Colonel Rondon met with much difficulty in securing some one who could
+cook. He asked the cook on the little steamer Nyoac to go with us; but
+the cook with unaffected horror responded: "Senhor, I have never done
+anything to deserve punishment!"
+
+Five days after leaving us, the launch, with one of the native
+trading-boats lashed alongside, returned. On the 13th we broke camp,
+loaded ourselves and all our belongings on the launch and the house-
+boat, and started up-stream for Tapirapoan. All told there were about
+thirty men, with five dogs and tents, bedding and provisions; fresh
+beef, growing rapidly less fresh; skins--all and everything jammed
+together.
+
+It rained most of the first day and part of the first night. After
+that the weather was generally overcast and pleasant for travelling;
+but sometimes rain and torrid sunshine alternated. The cooking--and it
+was good cooking--was done at a funny little open-air fireplace, with
+two or three cooking-pots placed at the stern of the house-boat.
+
+The fireplace was a platform of earth, taken from anthills, and heaped
+and spread on the boards of the boat. Around it the dusky cook worked
+with philosophic solemnity in rain and shine. Our attendants, friendly
+souls with skins of every shade and hue, slept most of the time,
+curled up among boxes, bundles, and slabs of beef. An enormous land
+turtle was tethered toward the bow of the house-boat. When the men
+slept too near it, it made futile efforts to scramble over them; and
+in return now and then one of them gravely used it for a seat.
+
+Slowly the throbbing engine drove the launch and its unwieldy side-
+partner against the swift current. The river had risen. We made about
+a mile and a half an hour. Ahead of us the brown water street
+stretched in curves between endless walls of dense tropical forest. It
+was like passing through a gigantic greenhouse. Wawasa and burity
+palms, cecropias, huge figs, feathery bamboos, strange yellow-stemmed
+trees, low trees with enormous leaves, tall trees with foliage as
+delicate as lace, trees with buttressed trunks, trees with boles
+rising smooth and straight to lofty heights, all woven together by a
+tangle of vines, crowded down to the edge of the river. Their drooping
+branches hung down to the water, forming a screen through which it was
+impossible to see the bank, and exceedingly difficult to penetrate to
+the bank. Rarely one of them showed flowers--large white blossoms, or
+small red or yellow blossoms. More often the lilac flowers of the
+begonia-vine made large patches of color. Innumerable epiphytes
+covered the limbs, and even grew on the roughened trunks. We saw
+little bird life--a darter now and then, and kingfishers flitting from
+perch to perch. At long intervals we passed a ranch. At one the large,
+red-tiled, whitewashed house stood on a grassy slope behind mango-
+trees. The wooden shutters were thrown back from the unglazed windows,
+and the big rooms were utterly bare--not a book, not an ornament. A
+palm, loaded with scores of the pendulous nests of the troupials,
+stood near the door. Behind were orange-trees and coffee-plants, and
+near by fields of bananas, rice, and tobacco. The sallow foreman was
+courteous and hospitable. His dark-skinned women-folk kept in the
+furtive background. Like most of the ranches, it was owned by a
+company with headquarters at Caceres.
+
+The trip was pleasant and interesting, although there was not much to
+do on the boat. It was too crowded to move around save with a definite
+purpose. We enjoyed the scenery; we talked--in English, Portuguese,
+bad French, and broken German. Some of us wrote. Fiala made sketches
+of improved tents, hammocks, and other field equipment, suggested by
+what he had already seen. Some of us read books. Colonel Rondon, neat,
+trim, alert, and soldierly, studied a standard work on applied
+geographical astronomy. Father Zahm read a novel by Fogazzaro. Kermit
+read Camoens and a couple of Brazilian novels, "O Guarani" and
+"Innocencia." My own reading varied from "Quentin Durward" and Gibbon
+to the "Chanson de Roland." Miller took out his little pet owl Moses,
+from the basket in which Moses dwelt, and gave him food and water.
+Moses crooned and chuckled gratefully when he was stroked and tickled.
+
+Late the first evening we moored to the bank by a little fazenda of
+the poorer type. The houses were of palm-leaves. Even the walls were
+made of the huge fronds or leafy branches of the wawasa palm, stuck
+upright in the ground and the blades plaited together. Some of us went
+ashore. Some stayed on the boats. There were no mosquitoes, the
+weather was not oppressively hot, and we slept well. By five o'clock
+next morning we had each drunk a cup of delicious Brazilian coffee,
+and the boats were under way.
+
+All day we steamed slowly up-stream. We passed two or three fazendas.
+At one, where we halted to get milk, the trees were overgrown with
+pretty little yellow orchids. At dark we moored at a spot where there
+were no branches to prevent our placing the boats directly alongside
+the bank. There were hardly any mosquitoes. Most of the party took
+their hammocks ashore, and the camp was pitched amid singularly
+beautiful surroundings. The trees were wawasa palms, some with the
+fronds cresting very tall trunks, some with the fronds--seemingly
+longer--rising almost from the ground. The fronds were of great
+length; some could not have been less than fifty feet long. Bushes and
+tall grass, dew-drenched and glittering with the green of emeralds,
+grew in the open spaces between. We left at sunrise the following
+morning. One of the sailors had strayed inland. He got turned round
+and could not find the river; and we started before discovering his
+absence. We stopped at once, and with much difficulty he forced his
+way through the vine-laced and thorn-guarded jungle toward the sound
+of the launch's engines and of the bugle which was blown. In this
+dense jungle, when the sun is behind clouds, a man without a compass
+who strays a hundred yards from the river may readily become
+hopelessly lost.
+
+As we ascended the river the wawasa palms became constantly more
+numerous. At this point, for many miles, they gave their own character
+to the forest on the river banks. Everywhere their long, curving
+fronds rose among the other trees, and in places their lofty trunks
+made them hold their heads higher than the other trees. But they were
+never as tall as the giants among the ordinary trees. On one towering
+palm we noticed a mass of beautiful violet orchids growing from the
+side of the trunk, half-way to the top. On another big tree, not a
+palm, which stood in a little opening, there hung well over a hundred
+troupials' nests. Besides two or three small ranches we this day
+passed a large ranch. The various houses and sheds, all palm-thatched,
+stood by the river in a big space of cleared ground, dotted with
+wawasa palms. A native house-boat was moored by the bank. Women and
+children looked from the unglazed windows of the houses; men stood in
+front of them. The biggest house was enclosed by a stockade of palm-
+logs, thrust end-on into the ground. Cows and oxen grazed round about;
+and carts with solid wheels, each wheel made of a single disk of wood,
+were tilted on their poles.
+
+We made our noonday halt on an island where very tall trees grew,
+bearing fruits that were pleasant to the taste. Other trees on the
+island were covered with rich red and yellow blossoms; and masses of
+delicate blue flowers and of star-shaped white flowers grew underfoot.
+Hither and thither across the surface of the river flew swallows, with
+so much white in their plumage that as they flashed in the sun they
+seemed to have snow-white bodies, borne by dark wings. The current of
+the river grew swifter; there were stretches of broken water that were
+almost rapids; the laboring engine strained and sobbed as with
+increasing difficulty it urged forward the launch and her clumsy
+consort. At nightfall we moored beside the bank, where the forest was
+open enough to permit a comfortable camp. That night the ants ate
+large holes in Miller's mosquito-netting, and almost devoured his
+socks and shoe-laces.
+
+At sunrise we again started. There were occasional stretches of swift,
+broken water, almost rapids, in the river; everywhere the current was
+swift, and our progress was slow. The prancha was towed at the end of
+a hawser, and her crew poled. Even thus we only just made the riffle
+in more than one case. Two or three times cormorants and snake-birds,
+perched on snags in the river or on trees alongside it, permitted the
+boat to come within a few yards. In one piece of high forest we saw a
+party of toucans, conspicuous even among the tree tops because of
+their huge bills and the leisurely expertness with which they crawled,
+climbed, and hopped among the branches. We went by several fazendas.
+
+Shortly before noon--January 16--we reached Tapirapoan, the
+headquarters of the Telegraphic Commission. It was an attractive
+place, on the river-front, and it was gayly bedecked with flags, not
+only those of Brazil and the United States, but of all the other
+American republics, in our honor. There was a large, green square,
+with trees standing in the middle of it. On one side of this square
+were the buildings of the Telegraphic Commission, on the other those
+of a big ranch, of which this is the headquarters. In addition, there
+were stables, sheds, outhouses, and corrals; and there were cultivated
+fields near by. Milch cows, beef-cattle, oxen, and mules wandered
+almost at will. There were two or three wagons and carts, and a
+traction automobile, used in the construction of the telegraph-line,
+but not available in the rainy season, at the time of our trip.
+
+Here we were to begin our trip overland, on pack-mules and pack-oxen,
+scores of which had been gathered to meet us. Several days were needed
+to apportion the loads and arrange for the several divisions in which
+it was necessary that so large a party should attempt the long
+wilderness march, through a country where there was not much food for
+man or beast, and where it was always possible to run into a district
+in which fatal cattle or horse diseases were prevalent. Fiala, with
+his usual efficiency, took charge of handling the outfit of the
+American portion of the expedition, with Sigg as an active and useful
+assistant. Harper, who like the others worked with whole-hearted zeal
+and cheerfulness, also helped him, except when he was engaged in
+helping the naturalists. The two latter, Cherrie and Miller, had so
+far done the hardest and the best work of the expedition. They had
+collected about a thousand birds and two hundred and fifty mammals. It
+was not probable that they would do as well during the remainder of
+our trip, for we intended thenceforth to halt as little, and march as
+steadily, as the country, the weather, and the condition of our means
+of transportation permitted. I kept continually wishing that they had
+more time in which to study the absorbingly interesting life-histories
+of the beautiful and wonderful beasts and birds we were all the time
+seeing. Every first-rate museum must still employ competent
+collectors; but I think that a museum could now confer most lasting
+benefit, and could do work of most permanent good, by sending out into
+the immense wildernesses, where wild nature is at her best, trained
+observers with the gift of recording what they have observed. Such men
+should be collectors, for collecting is still necessary; but they
+should also, and indeed primarily, be able themselves to see, and to
+set vividly before the eyes of others, the full life-histories of the
+creatures that dwell in the waste spaces of the world.
+
+At this point both Cherrie and Miller collected a number of mammals
+and birds which they had not previously obtained; whether any were new
+to science could only be determined after the specimens reached the
+American Museum. While making the round of his small mammal traps one
+morning, Miller encountered an army of the formidable foraging ants.
+The species was a large black one, moving with a well-extended front.
+These ants, sometimes called army-ants, like the driver-ants of
+Africa, move in big bodies and destroy or make prey of every living
+thing that is unable or unwilling to get out of their path in time.
+They run fast, and everything runs away from their advance. Insects
+form their chief prey; and the most dangerous and aggressive lower-
+life creatures make astonishingly little resistance to them. Miller's
+attention was first attracted to this army of ants by noticing a big
+centipede, nine or ten inches long, trying to flee before them. A
+number of ants were biting it, and it writhed at each bite, but did
+not try to use its long curved jaws against its assailants. On other
+occasions he saw big scorpions and big hairy spiders trying to escape
+in the same way, and showing the same helpless inability to injure
+their ravenous foes, or to defend themselves. The ants climb trees to
+a great height, much higher than most birds' nests, and at once kill
+and tear to pieces any fledglings in the nests they reach. But they
+are not as common as some writers seem to imagine; days may elapse
+before their armies are encountered, and doubtless most nests are
+never visited or threatened by them. In some instances it seems likely
+that the birds save themselves and their young in other ways. Some
+nests are inaccessible. From others it is probable that the parents
+remove the young. Miller once, in Guiana, had been watching for some
+days a nest of ant-wrens which contained young. Going thither one
+morning, he found the tree, and the nest itself, swarming with
+foraging ants. He at first thought that the fledglings had been
+devoured, but he soon saw the parents, only about thirty yards off,
+with food in their beaks. They were engaged in entering a dense part
+of the jungle, coming out again without food in their beaks, and soon
+reappearing once more with food. Miller never found their new nests,
+but their actions left him certain that they were feeding their young,
+which they must have themselves removed from the old nest. These ant-
+wrens hover in front of and over the columns of foraging ants, feeding
+not only on the other insects aroused by the ants, but on the ants
+themselves. This fact has been doubted; but Miller has shot them with
+the ants in their bills and in their stomachs. Dragon-flies, in
+numbers, often hover over the columns, darting down at them; Miller
+could not be certain he had seen them actually seizing the ants, but
+this was his belief. I have myself seen these ants plunder a nest of
+the dangerous and highly aggressive wasps, while the wasps buzzed
+about in great excitement, but seemed unable effectively to retaliate.
+I have also seen them clear a sapling tenanted by their kinsmen, the
+poisonous red ants, or fire-ants; the fire-ants fought and I have no
+doubt injured or killed some of their swarming and active black foes;
+but the latter quickly did away with them. I have only come across
+black foraging ants; but there are red species. They attack human
+beings precisely as they attack all animals, and precipitate flight is
+the only resort.
+
+Around our camp here butterflies of gorgeous coloring swarmed, and
+there were many fungi as delicately shaped and tinted as flowers. The
+scents in the woods were wonderful. There were many whippoorwills, or
+rather Brazilian birds related to them; they uttered at intervals
+through the night a succession of notes suggesting both those of our
+whippoorwill and those of our big chuck-will's-widow of the Gulf
+States, but not identical with either. There were other birds which
+were nearly akin to familiar birds of the United States: a dull-
+colored catbird, a dull-colored robin, and a sparrow belonging to the
+same genus as our common song-sparrow and sweetheart sparrow; Miller
+had heard this sparrow singing by day and night, fourteen thousand
+feet up on the Andes, and its song suggested the songs of both of our
+sparrows. There were doves and woodpeckers of various species. Other
+birds bore no resemblance to any of ours. One honey-creeper was a
+perfect little gem, with plumage that was black, purple, and
+turquoise, and brilliant scarlet feet. Two of the birds which Cherrie
+and Miller procured were of extraordinary nesting habits. One, a
+nunlet, in shape resembles a short-tailed bluebird. It is plumbeous,
+with a fulvous belly and white tail coverts. It is a stupid little
+bird, and does not like to fly away even when shot at. It catches its
+prey and ordinarily acts like a rather dull flycatcher, perching on
+some dead tree, swooping on insects and then returning to its perch,
+and never going on the ground to feed or run about. But it nests in
+burrows which it digs itself, one bird usually digging, while the
+other bird perches in a bush near by. Sometimes these burrows are in
+the side of a sand-bank, the sand being so loose that it is a marvel
+that it does not cave in. Sometimes the burrows are in the level
+plain, running down about three feet, and then rising at an angle. The
+nest consists of a few leaves and grasses, and the eggs are white. The
+other bird, called a nun or waxbill, is about the size of a thrush,
+grayish in color, with a waxy red bill. It also burrows in the level
+soil, the burrow being five feet long; and over the mouth of the
+burrow it heaps a pile of sticks and leaves.
+
+At this camp the heat was great--from 91 to 104 Fahrenheit--and the
+air very heavy, being saturated with moisture; and there were many
+rain-storms. But there were no mosquitoes, and we were very
+comfortable. Thanks to the neighborhood of the ranch, we fared
+sumptuously, with plenty of beef, chickens, and fresh milk. Two of the
+Brazilian dishes were delicious: canja, a thick soup of chicken and
+rice, the best soup a hungry man ever tasted; and beef chopped in
+rather small pieces and served with a well-flavored but simple gravy.
+The mule allotted me as a riding-beast was a powerful animal, with
+easy gaits. The Brazilian Government had waiting for me a very
+handsome silver-mounted saddle and bridle; I was much pleased with
+both. However, my exceedingly rough and shabby clothing made an
+incongruous contrast.
+
+At Tapirapoan we broke up our baggage--as well as our party. We sent
+forward the Canadian canoe--which, with the motor-engine and some
+kerosene, went in a cart drawn by six oxen--and a hundred sealed tin
+cases of provisions, each containing rations for a day for six men.
+They had been put up in New York under the special direction of Fiala,
+for use when we got where we wished to take good and varied food in
+small compass. All the skins, skulls, and alcoholic specimens, and all
+the baggage not absolutely necessary, were sent back down the Paraguay
+and to New York, in charge of Harper. The separate baggage-trains,
+under the charge of Captain Amilcar, were organized to go in one
+detachment. The main body of the expedition, consisting of the
+American members, and of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, and Doctor
+Cajazeira, with their baggage and provisions, formed another
+detachment.
+
+
+
+        VI. THROUGH THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS OF WESTERN BRAZIL
+
+We were now in the land of the bloodsucking bats, the vampire bats
+that suck the blood of living creatures, clinging to or hovering
+against the shoulder of a horse or cow, or the hand or foot of a
+sleeping man, and making a wound from which the blood continues to
+flow long after the bat's thirst has been satiated. At Tapirapoan
+there were milch cattle; and one of the calves turned up one morning
+weak from loss of blood, which was still trickling from a wound,
+forward of the shoulder, made by a bat. But the bats do little damage
+in this neighborhood compared to what they do in some other places,
+where not only the mules and cattle but the chickens have to be housed
+behind bat-proof protection at night or their lives may pay the
+penalty. The chief and habitual offenders are various species of
+rather small bats; but it is said that other kinds of Brazilian bats
+seem to have become, at least sporadically and locally, affected by
+the evil example and occasionally vary their customary diet by
+draughts of living blood. One of the Brazilian members of our party,
+Hoehne, the botanist, was a zoologist also. He informed me that he had
+known even the big fruit-eating bats to take to bloodsucking. They did
+not, according to his observations, themselves make the original
+wound; but after it had been made by one of the true vampires they
+would lap the flowing blood and enlarge the wound. South America makes
+up for its lack, relatively to Africa and India, of large man-eating
+carnivores by the extraordinary ferocity or bloodthirstiness of
+certain small creatures of which the kinsfolk elsewhere are harmless.
+It is only here that fish no bigger than trout kill swimmers, and bats
+the size of the ordinary "flittermice" of the northern hemisphere
+drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself.
+
+There was not much large mammalian life in the neighborhood. Kermit
+hunted industriously and brought in an occasional armadillo, coati, or
+agouti for the naturalists. Miller trapped rats and a queer opossum
+new to the collection. Cherrie got many birds. Cherrie and Miller
+skinned their specimens in a little open hut or shed. Moses, the small
+pet owl, sat on a cross-bar overhead, an interested spectator, and
+chuckled whenever he was petted. Two wrens, who bred just outside the
+hut, were much excited by the presence of Moses, and paid him visits
+of noisy unfriendliness. The little white-throated sparrows came
+familiarly about the palm cabins and whitewashed houses and trilled on
+the rooftrees. It was a simple song, with just a hint of our northern
+white-throat's sweet and plaintive melody, and of the opening bars of
+our song-sparrow's pleasant, homely lay. It brought back dear memories
+of glorious April mornings on Long Island, when through the singing of
+robin and song-sparrow comes the piercing cadence of the meadowlark;
+and of the far northland woods in June, fragrant with the breath of
+pine and balsam-fir, where sweetheart sparrows sing from wet spruce
+thickets and rapid brooks rush under the drenched and swaying alder-
+boughs.
+
+From Tapirapoan our course lay northward up to and across the Plan
+Alto, the highland wilderness of Brazil. From the edges of this
+highland country, which is geologically very ancient, the affluents of
+the Amazon to the north, and of the Plate to the south, flow, with
+immense and devious loops and windings.
+
+Two days before we ourselves started with our mule-train, a train of
+pack-oxen left, loaded with provisions, tools, and other things, which
+we would not need until, after a month or six weeks, we began our
+descent into the valley of the Amazon. There were about seventy oxen.
+Most of them were well broken, but there were about a score which were
+either not broken at all or else very badly broken. These were loaded
+with much difficulty, and bucked like wild broncos. Again and again
+they scattered their loads over the corral and over the first part of
+the road. The pack-men, however--copper-colored, black, and dusky-
+white--were not only masters of their art, but possessed tempers that
+could not be ruffled; when they showed severity it was because
+severity was needed, and not because they were angry. They finally got
+all their longhorned beasts loaded and started on the trail with them.
+
+On January 21 we ourselves started, with the mule-train. Of course, as
+always in such a journey, there was some confusion before the men and
+the animals of the train settled down to the routine performance of
+duty. In addition to the pack-animals we all had riding-mules. The
+first day we journeyed about twelve miles, then crossing the Sepotuba
+and camping beside it, below a series of falls, or rather rapids. The
+country was level. It was a great natural pasture, covered with a very
+open forest of low, twisted trees, bearing a superficial likeness to
+the cross-timbers of Texas and Oklahoma. It is as well fitted for
+stock-raising as Oklahoma; and there is also much fine agricultural
+land, while the river will ultimately yield electric power. It is a
+fine country for settlement. The heat is great at noon; but the nights
+are not uncomfortable. We were supposed to be in the middle of the
+rainy season, but hitherto most of the days had been fine, varied with
+showers. The astonishing thing was the absence of mosquitoes. Insect
+pests that work by day can be stood, and especially by settlers,
+because they are far less serious foes in the clearings than in the
+woods. The mosquitoes and other night foes offer the really serious
+and unpleasant problem, because they break one's rest. Hitherto,
+during our travels up the Paraguay and its tributaries, in this level,
+marshy tropical region of western Brazil, we had practically not been
+bothered by mosquitoes at all, in our home camps. Out in the woods
+they were at times a serious nuisance, and Cherrie and Miller had been
+subjected to real torment by them during some of their special
+expeditions; but there were practically none on the ranches and in our
+camps in the open fields by the river, even when marshes were close
+by. I was puzzled--and delighted--by their absence. Settlers need not
+be deterred from coming to this region by the fear of insect foes.
+
+This does not mean that there are not such foes. Outside of the
+clearings, and of the beaten tracks of travel, they teem. There are
+ticks, poisonous ants, wasps--of which some species are really serious
+menaces--biting flies and gnats. I merely mean that, unlike so many
+other tropical regions, this particular region is, from the standpoint
+of the settler and the ordinary traveller, relatively free from insect
+pests, and a pleasant place of residence. The original explorer, and
+to an only less degree the hardworking field naturalist or big-game
+hunter, have to face these pests, just as they have to face countless
+risks, hardships, and difficulties. This is inherent in their several
+professions or avocations. Many regions in the United States where
+life is now absolutely comfortable and easygoing offered most
+formidable problems to the first explorers a century or two ago. We
+must not fall into the foolish error of thinking that the first
+explorers need not suffer terrible hardships, merely because the
+ordinary travellers, and even the settlers who come after them, do not
+have to endure such danger, privation, and wearing fatigue--although
+the first among the genuine settlers also have to undergo exceedingly
+trying experiences. The early explorers and adventurers make fairly
+well-beaten trails; but it is incumbent on them neither to boast of
+their own experiences nor to misjudge the efforts of the pioneers
+because, thanks to these very efforts, their own lines fall in
+pleasant places. The ordinary traveller, who never goes off the beaten
+route and who on this beaten route is carried by others, without
+himself doing anything or risking anything, does not need to show much
+more initiative and intelligence than an express package. He does
+nothing; others do all the work, show all the forethought, take all
+the risk--and are entitled to all the credit. He and his valise are
+carried in practically the same fashion; and for each the achievement
+stands about on the same plane. If this kind of traveller is a writer,
+he can of course do admirable work, work of the highest value; but the
+value comes because he is a writer and observer, not because of any
+particular credit that attaches to him as a traveller. We all
+recognize this truth as far as highly civilized regions are concerned:
+when Bryce writes of the American commonwealth, or Lowell of European
+legislative assemblies, our admiration is for the insight and thought
+of the observer, and we are not concerned with his travels. When a man
+travels across Arizona in a Pullman car, we do not think of him as
+having performed a feat bearing even the most remote resemblance to
+the feats of the first explorers of those waterless wastes; whatever
+admiration we feel in connection with his trip is reserved for the
+traffic-superintendent, engineer, fireman, and brakeman. But as
+regards the less-known continents, such as South America, we sometimes
+fail to remember these obvious truths. There yet remains plenty of
+exploring work to be done in South America, as hard, as dangerous, and
+almost as important as any that has already been done; work such as
+has recently been done, or is now being done, by men and women such as
+Haseman, Farrabee, and Miss Snethlage. The collecting naturalists who
+go into the wilds and do first-class work encounter every kind of risk
+and undergo every kind of hardship and exertion. Explorers and
+naturalists of the right type have open to them in South America a
+field of extraordinary attraction and difficulty. But to excavate
+ruins that have already long been known, to visit out-of-the-way towns
+that date from colonial days, to traverse old, even if uncomfortable,
+routes of travel, or to ascend or descend highway rivers like the
+Amazon, the Paraguay, and the lower Orinoco--all of these exploits are
+well worth performing, but they in no sense represent exploration or
+adventure, and they do not entitle the performer, no matter how well
+he writes and no matter how much of real value he contributes to human
+knowledge, to compare himself in anyway with the real wilderness
+wanderer, or to criticise the latter. Such a performance entails no
+hardship or difficulty worth heeding. Its value depends purely on
+observation, not on action. The man does little; he merely records
+what he sees. He is only the man of the beaten routes. The true
+wilderness wanderer, on the contrary, must be a man of action as well
+as of observation. He must have the heart and the body to do and to
+endure, no less than the eye to see and the brain to note and record.
+
+Let me make it clear that I am not depreciating the excellent work of
+so many of the men who have not gone off the beaten trails. I merely
+wish to make it plain that this excellent work must not be put in the
+class with that of the wilderness explorer. It is excellent work,
+nevertheless, and has its place, just as the work of the true explorer
+has its place. Both stand in sharpest contrast with the actions of
+those alleged explorers, among whom Mr. Savage Landor stands in
+unpleasant prominence.
+
+From the Sepotuba rapids our course at the outset lay westward. The
+first day's march away from the river lay through dense tropical
+forest. Away from the broad, beaten route every step of a man's
+progress represented slashing a trail with the machete through the
+tangle of bushes, low trees, thorny scrub, and interlaced creepers.
+There were palms of new kinds, very tall, slender, straight, and
+graceful, with rather short and few fronds. The wild plantains, or
+pacovas, thronged the spaces among the trunks of the tall trees; their
+boles were short, and their broad, erect leaves gigantic; they bore
+brilliant red-and-orange flowers. There were trees whose trunks
+bellied into huge swellings. There were towering trees with buttressed
+trunks, whose leaves made a fretwork against the sky far overhead.
+Gorgeous red-and-green trogons, with long tails, perched motionless on
+the lower branches and uttered a loud, thrice-repeated whistle. We
+heard the calling of the false bellbird, which is gray instead of
+white like the true bellbirds; it keeps among the very topmost
+branches. Heavy rain fell shortly after we reached our camping-place.
+
+Next morning at sunrise we climbed a steep slope to the edge of the
+Parecis plateau, at a level of about two thousand feet above the sea.
+We were on the Plan Alto, the high central plain of Brazil, the
+healthy land of dry air, of cool nights, of clear, running brooks. The
+sun was directly behind us when we topped the rise. Reining in, we
+looked back over the vast Paraguayan marshes, shimmering in the long
+morning lights. Then, turning again, we rode forward, casting shadows
+far before us. It was twenty miles to the next water, and in hot
+weather the journey across this waterless, shadeless, sandy stretch of
+country is hard on the mules and oxen. But on this day the sky
+speedily grew overcast and a cool wind blew in our faces as we
+travelled at a quick, running walk over the immense rolling plain. The
+ground was sandy; it was covered with grass and with a sparse growth
+of stunted, twisted trees, never more than a few feet high. There were
+rheas--ostriches--and small pampas-deer on this plain; the coloration
+of the rheas made it difficult to see them at a distance, whereas the
+bright red coats of the little deer, and their uplifted flags as they
+ran, advertised them afar off. We also saw the footprints of cougars
+and of the small-toothed, big, red wolf. Cougars are the most
+inveterate enemies of these small South American deer, both those of
+the open grassy plain and those of the forest.
+
+It is not nearly as easy to get lost on these open plains as in the
+dense forest; and where there is a long, reasonably straight road or
+river to come back to, a man even without a compass is safe. But in
+these thick South American forests, especially on cloudy days, a
+compass is an absolute necessity. We were struck by the fact that the
+native hunters and ranchmen on such days continually lost themselves
+and, if permitted, travelled for miles through the forest either in
+circles or in exactly the wrong direction. They had no such sense of
+direction as the forest-dwelling 'Ndorobo hunters in Africa had, or as
+the true forest-dwelling Indians of South America are said to have. On
+certainly half a dozen occasions our guides went completely astray,
+and we had to take command, to disregard their assertions, and to lead
+the way aright by sole reliance on our compasses.
+
+On this cool day we travelled well. The air was wonderful; the vast
+open spaces gave a sense of abounding vigor and freedom. Early in the
+afternoon we reached a station made by Colonel Rondon in the course of
+his first explorations. There were several houses with whitewashed
+walls, stone floors, and tiled or thatched roofs. They stood in a
+wide, gently sloping valley. Through it ran a rapid brook of cool
+water, in which we enjoyed delightful baths. The heavy, intensely
+humid atmosphere of the low, marshy plains had gone; the air was clear
+and fresh; the sky was brilliant; far and wide we looked over a
+landscape that seemed limitless; the breeze that blew in our faces
+might have come from our own northern plains. The midday sun was very
+hot; but it was hard to realize that we were in the torrid zone. There
+were no mosquitoes, so that we never put up our nets when we went to
+bed; but wrapped ourselves in our blankets and slept soundly through
+the cool, pleasant nights. Surely in the future this region will be
+the home of a healthy highly civilized population. It is good for
+cattle-raising, and the valleys are fitted for agriculture. From June
+to September the nights are often really cold. Any sound northern race
+could live here; and in such a land, with such a climate, there would
+be much joy of living.
+
+On these plains the Telegraphic Commission uses motor-trucks; and
+these now to relieve the mules and oxen; for some of them, especially
+among the oxen, already showed the effects of the strain. Travelling
+in a wild country with a pack-train is not easy on the pack-animals.
+It was strange to see these big motor-vans out in the wilderness where
+there was not a settler, not a civilized man except the employees of
+the Telegraphic Commission. They were handled by Lieutenant Lauriado,
+who, with Lieutenant Mello, had taken special charge of our transport
+service; both were exceptionally good and competent men.
+
+The following day we again rode on across the Plan Alto. In the early
+afternoon, in the midst of a downpour of rain, we crossed the divide
+between the basins of the Paraguay and the Amazon. That evening we
+camped on a brook whose waters ultimately ran into the Tapajos. The
+rain fell throughout the afternoon, now lightly, now heavily, and the
+mule-train did not get up until dark. But enough tents and flies were
+pitched to shelter all of us. Fires were lit, and--after a fourteen
+hours' fast we feasted royally on beans and rice and pork and beef,
+seated around ox-skins spread upon the ground. The sky cleared; the
+stars blazed down through the cool night; and wrapped in our blankets
+we slept soundly, warm and comfortable.
+
+Next morning the trail had turned, and our course led northward and at
+times east of north. We traversed the same high, rolling plains of
+coarse grass and stunted trees. Kermit, riding a big, iron-mouthed,
+bull-headed white mule, rode off to one side on a hunt, and rejoined
+the line of march carrying two bucks of the little pampas-deer, or
+field deer, behind his saddle. These deer are very pretty and
+graceful, with a tail like that of the Colombian blacktail. Standing
+motionless facing one, in the sparse scrub, they are hard to make out;
+if seen sideways the reddish of their coats, contrasted with the
+greens and grays of the landscape, betrays them; and when they bound
+off the upraised white tail is very conspicuous. They carefully avoid
+the woods in which their cousins the little bush deer are found, and
+go singly or in couples. Their odor can be made out at quite a
+distance, but it is not rank. They still carried their antlers. Their
+venison was delicious.
+
+We came across many queer insects. One red grasshopper when it flew
+seemed as big as a small sparrow; and we passed in some places such
+multitudes of active little green grasshoppers that they frightened
+the mules. At our camping-place we saw an extraordinary colony of
+spiders. It was among some dwarf trees, standing a few yards apart
+from one another by the water. When we reached the camping-place,
+early in the afternoon--the pack-train did not get in until nearly
+sunset, just ahead of the rain--no spiders were out. They were under
+the leaves of the trees. Their webs were tenantless, and indeed for
+the most part were broken down. But at dusk they came out from their
+hiding-places, two or three hundred of them in all, and at once began
+to repair the old and spin new webs. Each spun its own circular web,
+and sat in the middle; and each web was connected on several sides
+with other webs, while those nearest the trees were hung to them by
+spun ropes, so to speak. The result was a kind of sheet of web
+consisting of scores of wheels, in each of which the owner and
+proprietor sat; and there were half a dozen such sheets, each
+extending between two trees. The webs could hardly be seen; and the
+effect was of scores of big, formidable-looking spiders poised in
+midair, equidistant from one another, between each pair of trees. When
+darkness and rain fell they were still out, fixing their webs, and
+pouncing on the occasional insects that blundered into the webs. I
+have no question that they are nocturnal; they certainly hide in the
+daytime, and it seems impossible that they can come out only for a few
+minutes at dusk.
+
+In the evenings, after supper or dinner--it is hard to tell by what
+title the exceedingly movable evening meal should be called--the
+members of the party sometimes told stories of incidents in their past
+lives. Most of them were men of varied experiences. Rondon and Lyra
+told of the hardship and suffering of the first trips through the
+wilderness across which we were going with such comfort. On this very
+plateau they had once lived for weeks on the fruits of the various
+fruit-bearing trees. Naturally they became emaciated and feeble. In
+the forests of the Amazonian basin they did better because they often
+shot birds and plundered the hives of the wild honey-bees. In cutting
+the trail for the telegraph-line through the Juruena basin they lost
+every single one of the hundred and sixty mules with which they had
+started. Those men pay dear who build the first foundations of empire!
+Fiala told of the long polar nights and of white bears that came round
+the snow huts of the explorers, greedy to eat them, and themselves
+destined to be eaten by them. Of all the party Cherrie's experiences
+had covered the widest range. This was partly owing to the fact that
+the latter-day naturalist of the most vigorous type who goes into the
+untrodden wastes of the world must see and do many strange things; and
+still more owing to the character of the man himself. The things he
+had seen and done and undergone often enabled him to cast the light of
+his own past experience on unexpected subjects. Once we were talking
+about the proper weapons for cavalry, and some one mentioned the
+theory that the lance is especially formidable because of the moral
+effect it produces on the enemy. Cherrie nodded emphatically; and a
+little cross-examination elicited the fact that he was speaking from
+lively personal recollection of his own feelings when charged by
+lancers. It was while he was fighting with the Venezuelan insurgents
+in an unsuccessful uprising against the tyranny of Castro. He was on
+foot, with five Venezuelans, all cool men and good shots. In an open
+plain they were charged by twenty of Castro's lancers, who galloped
+out from behind cover two or three hundred yards off. It was a war in
+which neither side gave quarter and in which the wounded and the
+prisoners were butchered--just as President Madero was butchered in
+Mexico. Cherrie knew that it meant death for him and his companions if
+the charge came home; and the sight of the horsemen running in at full
+speed, with their long lances in rest and the blades glittering, left
+an indelible impression on his mind. But he and his companions shot
+deliberately and accurately; ten of the lancers were killed, the
+nearest falling within fifty yards; and the others rode off in
+headlong haste. A cool man with a rifle, if he has mastered his
+weapon, need fear no foe.
+
+At this camp the auto-vans again joined us. They were to go direct to
+the first telegraph station, at the great falls of the Utiarity, on
+the Rio Papagaio. Of course they travelled faster than the mule-train.
+Father Zahm, attended by Sigg, started for the falls in them. Cherrie
+and Miller also went in them, because they had found that it was very
+difficult to collect birds, and especially mammals, when we were
+moving every day, packing up early each morning and the mule-train
+arriving late in the afternoon or not until nightfall. Moreover, there
+was much rain, which made it difficult to work except under the tents.
+Accordingly, the two naturalists desired to get to a place where they
+could spend several days and collect steadily, thereby doing more
+effective work. The rest of us continued with the mule-train, as was
+necessary.
+
+It was always a picturesque sight when camp was broken, and again at
+nightfall when the laden mules came stringing in and their burdens
+were thrown down, while the tents were pitched and the fires lit. We
+breakfasted before leaving camp, the aluminum cups and plates being
+placed on ox-hides, round which we sat, on the ground or on camp-
+stools. We fared well, on rice, beans, and crackers, with canned
+corned beef, and salmon or any game that had been shot, and coffee,
+tea, and matte. I then usually sat down somewhere to write, and when
+the mules were nearly ready I popped my writing-materials into my
+duffel-bag/war-sack, as we would have called it in the old days on the
+plains. I found that the mules usually arrived so late in the
+afternoon or evening that I could not depend upon being able to write
+at that time. Of course, if we made a very early start I could not
+write at all. At night there were no mosquitoes. In the daytime gnats
+and sand-flies and horse-flies sometimes bothered us a little, but not
+much. Small stingless bees lit on us in numbers and crawled over the
+skin, making a slight tickling; but we did not mind them until they
+became very numerous. There was a good deal of rain, but not enough to
+cause any serious annoyance.
+
+Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant Lyra held many discussions as to whither
+the Rio da Duvida flowed, and where its mouth might be. Its
+provisional name--"River of Doubt"--was given it precisely because of
+this ignorance concerning it; an ignorance which it was one of the
+purposes of our trip to dispel. It might go into the Gy-Parana, in
+which case its course must be very short; it might flow into the
+Madeira low down, in which case its course would be very long; or,
+which was unlikely, it might flow into the Tapajos. There was another
+river, of which Colonel Rondon had come across the head-waters, whose
+course was equally doubtful, although in its case there was rather
+more probability of its flowing into the Juruena, by which name the
+Tapajos is known for its upper half. To this unknown river Colonel
+Rondon had given the name Ananas, because when he came across it he
+found a deserted Indian field with pineapples, which the hungry
+explorers ate greedily. Among the things the colonel and I hoped to
+accomplish on the trip was to do a little work in clearing up one or
+the other of these two doubtful geographical points, and thereby to
+push a little forward the knowledge of this region. Originally, as
+described in the first chapter, my trip was undertaken primarily in
+the interest of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, to
+add to our knowledge of the birds and mammals of the far interior of
+the western Brazilian wilderness; and the labels of our baggage and
+scientific equipment, printed by the museum, were entitled "Colonel
+Roosevelt's South American Expedition for the American Museum of
+Natural History." But, as I have already mentioned, at Rio the
+Brazilian Government, through the secretary of foreign affairs, Doctor
+Lauro Muller, suggested that I should combine the expedition with one
+by Colonel Rondon, which they contemplated making, and thereby make
+both expeditions of broader scientific interest. I accepted the
+proposal with much pleasure; and we found, when we joined Colonel
+Rondon and his associates, that their baggage and equipment had been
+labelled by the Brazilian Government "Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt-
+Rondon." This thenceforth became the proper and official title of the
+expedition. Cherrie and Miller did the chief zoological work. The
+geological work was done by a Brazilian member of the expedition,
+Euzebio Oliveira. The astronomical work necessary for obtaining the
+exact geographical location of the rivers and points of note was to be
+done by Lieutenant Lyra, under the supervision of Colonel Rondon; and
+at the telegraph stations this astronomical work would be checked by
+wire communications with one of Colonel Rondon's assistants at Cuyaba,
+Lieutenant Caetano, thereby securing a minutely accurate comparison of
+time. The sketch-maps and surveying and cartographical work generally
+were to be made under the supervision of Colonel Rondon by Lyra, with
+assistance from Fiala and Kermit. Captain Amilcar handled the worst
+problem--transportation; the medical member was Doctor Cajazeira.
+
+At night around the camp-fire my Brazilian companions often spoke of
+the first explorers of this vast wilderness of western Brazil--men
+whose very names are now hardly known, but who did each his part in
+opening the country which will some day see such growth and
+development. Among the most notable of them was a Portuguese, Ricardo
+Franco, who spent forty years at the work, during the last quarter of
+the eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth centuries. He
+ascended for long distances the Xingu and the Tapajos, and went up the
+Madeira and Guapore, crossing to the head-waters of the Paraguay and
+partially exploring there also. He worked among and with the Indians,
+much as Mungo Park worked with the natives of West Africa, having none
+of the aids, instruments, and comforts with which even the hardiest of
+modern explorers are provided. He was one of the men who established
+the beginnings of the province of Matto Grosso. For many years the
+sole method of communication between this remote interior province and
+civilization was by the long, difficult, and perilous route which led
+up the Amazon and Madeira; and its then capital, the town of Matto
+Grosso, the seat of the captain-general, with its palace, cathedral,
+and fortress, was accordingly placed far to the west, near the
+Guapore. When less circuitous lines of communication were established
+farther eastward the old capital was abandoned, and the tropic
+wilderness surged over the lonely little town. The tomb of the old
+colonial explorer still stands in the ruined cathedral, where the
+forest has once more come to its own. But civilization is again
+advancing to reclaim the lost town and to revive the memory of the
+wilderness wanderer who helped to found it. Colonel Rondon has named a
+river after Franco; a range of mountains has also been named after
+him; and the colonel, acting for the Brazilian Government, has
+established a telegraph station in what was once the palace of the
+captain-general.
+
+Our northward trail led along the high ground a league or two to the
+east of the northward-flowing Rio Sacre. Each night we camped on one
+of the small tributary brooks that fed it. Fiala, Kermit, and I
+occupied one tent. In the daytime the "pium" flies, vicious little
+sand-flies, became bad enough to make us finally use gloves and head-
+nets. There were many heavy rains, which made the travelling hard for
+the mules. The soil was more often clay than sand, and it was slippery
+when wet. The weather was overcast, and there was usually no
+oppressive heat even at noon. At intervals along the trail we came on
+the staring skull and bleached skeleton of a mule or ox. Day after day
+we rode forward across endless flats of grass and of low open scrubby
+forest, the trees standing far apart and in most places being but
+little higher than the head of a horseman. Some of them carried
+blossoms, white, orange, yellow, pink; and there were many flowers,
+the most beautiful being the morning-glories. Among the trees were
+bastard rubber-trees, and dwarf palmetto; if the latter grew more than
+a few feet high their tops were torn and dishevelled by the wind.
+There was very little bird or mammal life; there were few long vistas,
+for in most places it was not possible to see far among the gray,
+gnarled trunks of the wind-beaten little trees. Yet the desolate
+landscape had a certain charm of its own, although not a charm that
+would be felt by any man who does not take pleasure in mere space, and
+freedom and wildness, and in plains standing empty to the sun, the
+wind, and the rain. The country bore some resemblance to the country
+west of Redjaf on the White Nile, the home of the giant eland; only
+here there was no big game, no chance of seeing the towering form of
+the giraffe, the black bulk of elephant or buffalo, the herds of
+straw-colored hartebeests, or the ghostly shimmer of the sun glinting
+on the coats of roan and eland as they vanished silently in the gray
+sea of withered scrub.
+
+One feature in common with the African landscape was the abundance of
+ant-hills, some as high as a man. They were red in the clay country,
+gray where it was sandy; and the dirt houses were also in trees, while
+their raised tunnels traversed trees and ground alike. At some of the
+camping-places we had to be on our watch against the swarms of leaf-
+carrying ants. These are so called in the books--the Brazilians call
+them "carregadores," or porters--because they are always carrying bits
+of leaves and blades of grass to their underground homes. They are
+inveterate burden-bearers, and they industriously cut into pieces and
+carry off any garment they can get at; and we had to guard our shoes
+and clothes from them, just as we had often had to guard all our
+belongings against the termites. These ants did not bite us; but we
+encountered huge black ants, an inch and a quarter long, which were
+very vicious, and their bite was not only painful but quite poisonous.
+Praying-mantes were common, and one evening at supper one had a
+comical encounter with a young dog, a jovial near-puppy, of Colonel
+Rondon's, named Cartucho. He had been christened the jolly-cum-pup,
+from a character in one of Frank Stockton's stories, which I suppose
+are now remembered only by elderly people, and by them only if they
+are natives of the United States. Cartucho was lying with his head on
+the ox-hide that served as table, waiting with poorly dissembled
+impatience for his share of the banquet. The mantis flew down on the
+ox-hide and proceeded to crawl over it, taking little flights from one
+corner to another; and whenever it thought itself menaced it assumed
+an attitude of seeming devotion and real defiance. Soon it lit in
+front of Cartucho's nose. Cartucho cocked his big ears forward,
+stretched his neck, and cautiously sniffed at the new arrival, not
+with any hostile design, but merely to find out whether it would prove
+to be a playmate. The mantis promptly assumed an attitude of prayer.
+This struck Cartucho as both novel and interesting, and he thrust his
+sniffing black nose still nearer. The mantis dexterously thrust
+forward first one and then the other armed fore leg, touching the
+intrusive nose, which was instantly jerked back and again slowly and
+inquiringly brought forward. Then the mantis suddenly flew in
+Cartucho's face, whereupon Cartucho, with a smothered yelp of dismay,
+almost turned a back somersault; and the triumphant mantis flew back
+to the middle of the ox-hide, among the plates, where it reared erect
+and defied the laughing and applauding company.
+
+On the morning of the 29th we were rather late in starting, because
+the rain had continued through the night into the morning, drenching
+everything. After nightfall there had been some mosquitoes, and the
+piums were a pest during daylight; where one bites it leaves a tiny
+black spot on the skin which lasts for several weeks. In the slippery
+mud one of the pack-mules fell and injured itself so that it had to be
+abandoned. Soon after starting we came on the telegraph-line, which
+runs from Cuyaba. This was the first time we had seen it. Two Parecis
+Indians joined us, leading a pack-bullock. They were dressed in hat,
+shirt, trousers, and sandals, precisely like the ordinary Brazilian
+caboclos, as the poor backwoods peasants, usually with little white
+blood in them, are colloquially and half-derisively styled--caboclo
+being originally a Guarany word meaning "naked savage." These two
+Indians were in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission, and had been
+patrolling the telegraph-line. The bullock carried their personal
+belongings and the tools with which they could repair a break. The
+commission pays the ordinary Indian worker 66 cents a day; a very good
+worker gets $1, and the chief $1.66. No man gets anything unless he
+works. Colonel Rondon, by just, kindly, and understanding treatment of
+these Indians, who previously had often been exploited and maltreated
+by rubber-gatherers, has made them the loyal friends of the
+government. He has gathered them at the telegraph stations, where they
+cultivate fields of mandioc, beans, potatoes, maize, and other
+vegetables, and where he is introducing them to stock-raising; and the
+entire work of guarding and patrolling the line is theirs.
+
+After six hours' march we came to the crossing of the Rio Sacre at the
+beautiful waterfall appropriately called the Salto Bello. This is the
+end of the automobile road. Here there is a small Parecis village. The
+men of the village work the ferry by which everything is taken across
+the deep and rapid river. The ferry-boat is made of planking placed on
+three dugout canoes, and runs on a trolley. Before crossing we enjoyed
+a good swim in the swift, clear, cool water. The Indian village, where
+we camped, is placed on a jutting tongue of land round which the river
+sweeps just before it leaps from the over-hanging precipice. The falls
+themselves are very lovely. Just above them is a wooded island, but
+the river joins again before it races forward for the final plunge.
+There is a sheer drop of forty or fifty yards, with a breadth two or
+three times as great; and the volume of water is large. On the left or
+hither bank a cliff extends for several hundred yards below the falls.
+Green vines have flung themselves down over its face, and they are met
+by other vines thrusting upward from the mass of vegetation at its
+foot, glistening in the perpetual mist from the cataract, and clothing
+even the rock surfaces in vivid green. The river, after throwing
+itself over the rock wall, rushes off in long curves at the bottom of
+a thickly wooded ravine, the white water churning among the black
+boulders. There is a perpetual rainbow at the foot of the falls. The
+masses of green water that are hurling themselves over the brink
+dissolve into shifting, foaming columns of snowy lace.
+
+On the edge of the cliff below the falls Colonel Rondon had placed
+benches, giving a curious touch of rather conventional tourist-
+civilization to this cataract far out in the lonely wilderness. It is
+well worth visiting for its beauty. It is also of extreme interest
+because of the promise it holds for the future. Lieutenant Lyra
+informed me that they had calculated that this fall would furnish
+thirty-six thousand horse-power. Eight miles off we were to see
+another fall of much greater height and power. There are many rivers
+in this region which would furnish almost unlimited motive force to
+populous manufacturing communities. The country round about is
+healthy. It is an upland region of good climate; we were visiting it
+in the rainy season, the season when the nights are far less cool than
+in the dry season, and yet we found it delightful. There is much
+fertile soil in the neighborhood of the streams, and the teeming
+lowlands of the Amazon and the Paraguay could readily--and with
+immense advantage to both sides--be made tributary to an industrial
+civilization seated on these highlands. A telegraph-line has been
+built to and across them. A rail-road should follow. Such a line could
+be easily built, for there are no serious natural obstacles. In
+advance of its construction a trolley-line could be run from Cuyaba to
+the falls, using the power furnished by the latter. Once this is done
+the land will offer extraordinary opportunities to settlers of the
+right kind: to home-makers and to enterprising business men of
+foresight, coolness, and sagacity who are willing to work with the
+settlers, the immigrants, the home-makers, for an advantage which
+shall be mutual.
+
+The Parecis Indians, whom we met here, were exceedingly interesting.
+They were to all appearance an unusually cheerful, good-humored,
+pleasant-natured people. Their teeth were bad; otherwise they appeared
+strong and vigorous, and there were plenty of children. The colonel
+was received as a valued friend and as a leader who was to be followed
+and obeyed. He is raising them by degrees--the only way by which to
+make the rise permanent. In this village he has got them to substitute
+for the flimsy Indian cabins houses of the type usual among the poorer
+field laborers and back-country dwellers in Brazil. These houses have
+roofs of palm thatch, steeply pitched. They are usually open at the
+sides, consisting merely of a framework of timbers, with a wall at the
+back; but some have the ordinary four walls, of erect palm-logs. The
+hammocks are slung in the houses, and the cooking is also done in
+them, with pots placed on small open fires, or occasionally in a kind
+of clay oven. The big gourds for water, and the wicker baskets, are
+placed on the ground, or hung on the poles.
+
+The men had adopted, and were wearing, shirts and trousers, but the
+women had made little change in their clothing. A few wore print
+dresses, but obviously only for ornament. Most of them, especially the
+girls and young married women, wore nothing but a loin-cloth in
+addition to bead necklaces and bracelets. The nursing mothers--and
+almost all the mothers were nursing--sometimes carried the child slung
+against their side of hip, seated in a cloth belt, or sling, which
+went over the opposite shoulder of the mother. The women seemed to be
+well treated, although polygamy is practised. The children were loved
+by every one; they were petted by both men and women, and they behaved
+well to one another, the boys not seeming to bully the girls or the
+smaller boys. Most of the children were naked, but the girls early
+wore the loin-cloth; and some, both of the little boys and the little
+girls, wore colored print garments, to the evident pride of themselves
+and their parents. In each house there were several families, and life
+went on with no privacy but with good humor, consideration, and
+fundamentally good manners. The man or woman who had nothing to do lay
+in a hammock or squatted on the ground leaning against a post or wall.
+The children played together, or lay in little hammocks, or tagged
+round after their mothers; and when called they came trustfully up to
+us to be petted or given some small trinket; they were friendly little
+souls, and accustomed to good treatment. One woman was weaving a
+cloth, another was making a hammock; others made ready melons and
+other vegetables and cooked them over tiny fires. The men, who had
+come in from work at the ferry or along the telegraph-lines, did some
+work themselves, or played with the children; one cut a small boy's
+hair, and then had his own hair cut by a friend. But the absorbing
+amusement of the men was an extraordinary game of ball.
+
+In our family we have always relished Oliver Herford's nonsense
+rhymes, including the account of Willie's displeasure with his goat:
+
+ "I do not like my billy goat,
+  I wish that he was dead;
+  Because he kicked me, so he did,
+  He kicked me with his head."
+
+Well, these Parecis Indians enthusiastically play football with their
+heads. The game is not only native to them, but I have never heard or
+read of its being played by any other tribe or people. They use a
+light hollow rubber ball, of their own manufacture. It is circular and
+about eight inches in diameter. The players are divided into two
+sides, and stationed much as in association football, and the ball is
+placed on the ground to be put in play as in football. Then a player
+runs forward, throws himself flat on the ground, and butts the ball
+toward the opposite side. This first butt, when the ball is on the
+ground, never lifts it much and it rolls and bounds toward the
+opponents. One or two of the latter run toward it; one throws himself
+flat on his face and butts the ball back. Usually this butt lifts it,
+and it flies back in a curve well up in the air; and an opposite
+player, rushing toward it, catches it on his head with such a swing of
+his brawny neck, and such precision and address that the ball bounds
+back through the air as a football soars after a drop-kick. If the
+ball flies off to one side or the other it is brought back, and again
+put in play. Often it will be sent to and fro a dozen times, from head
+to head, until finally it rises with such a sweep that it passes far
+over the heads of the opposite players and descends behind them. Then
+shrill, rolling cries of good-humored triumph arise from the victors;
+and the game instantly begins again with fresh zest. There are, of
+course, no such rules as in a specialized ball-game of civilization;
+and I saw no disputes. There may be eight or ten, or many more,
+players on each side. The ball is never touched with the hands or
+feet, or with anything except the top of the head. It is hard to decide
+whether to wonder most at the dexterity and strength with which it is
+hit or butted with the head, as it comes down through the air, or at
+the reckless speed and skill with which the players throw themselves
+headlong on the ground to return the ball if it comes low down. Why
+they do not grind off their noses I cannot imagine. Some of the
+players hardly ever failed to catch and return the ball if it came in
+their neighborhood, and with such a vigorous toss of the head that it
+often flew in a great curve for a really astonishing distance.
+
+That night a pack-ox got into the tent in which Kermit and I were
+sleeping, entering first at one end and then at the other. It is
+extraordinary that he did not waken us; but we slept undisturbed while
+the ox deliberately ate our shirts, socks, and underclothes! It chewed
+them into rags. One of my socks escaped, and my undershirt, although
+chewed full of holes, was still good for some weeks' wear; but the
+other things were in fragments.
+
+In the morning Colonel Rondon arranged for us to have breakfast over
+on the benches under the trees by the waterfall, whose roar, lulled to
+a thunderous murmur, had been in our ears before we slept and when we
+waked. There could have been no more picturesque place for the
+breakfast of such a party as ours. All travellers who really care to
+see what is most beautiful and most characteristic of the far interior
+of South America should in their journey visit this region, and see
+the two great waterfalls. They are even now easy of access; and as
+soon as the traffic warrants it they will be made still more so; then,
+from Sao Luis Caceres, they will be speedily reached by light
+steamboat up the Sepotuba and by a day or two's automobile ride, with
+a couple of days on horse-back in between.
+
+The colonel held a very serious council with the Parecis Indians over
+an incident which caused him grave concern. One of the commission's
+employees, a negro, had killed a wild Nhambiquara Indian; but it
+appeared that he had really been urged on and aided by the Parecis, as
+the members of the tribe to which the dead Indian belonged were much
+given to carrying off the Parecis women and in other ways making
+themselves bad neighbors. The colonel tried hard to get at the truth
+of the matter; he went to the biggest Indian house, where he sat in a
+hammock--an Indian child cuddling solemnly up to him, by the way--
+while the Indians sat in other hammocks, and stood round about; but it
+was impossible to get an absolutely frank statement.
+
+It appeared, however, that the Nhambiquaras had made a descent on the
+Parecis village in the momentary absence of the men of the village;
+but the latter, notified by the screaming of the women, had returned
+in time to rescue them. The negro was with them and, having a good
+rifle, he killed one of the aggressors. The Parecis were, of course,
+in the right, but the colonel could not afford to have his men take
+sides in a tribal quarrel.
+
+It was only a two hours' march across to the Papagaio at the Falls of
+Utiarity, so named by their discoverer, Colonel Rondon, after the
+sacred falcon of the Parecis. On the way we passed our Indian friends,
+themselves bound thither; both the men and the women bore burdens--the
+burdens of some of the women, poor things, were heavy--and even the
+small naked children carried the live hens. At Utiarity there is a big
+Parecis settlement and a telegraph station kept by one of the
+employees of the commission. His pretty brown wife is acting as
+schoolmistress to a group of little Parecis girls. The Parecis chief
+has been made a major and wears a uniform accordingly. The commission
+has erected good buildings for its own employees and has superintended
+the erection of good houses for the Indians. Most of the latter still
+prefer the simplicity of the loin-cloth, in their ordinary lives, but
+they proudly wore their civilized clothes in our honor. When in the
+late afternoon the men began to play a regular match game of head-
+ball, with a scorer or umpire to keep count, they soon discarded most
+of their clothes, coming down to nothing but trousers or a loin-cloth.
+Two or three of them had their faces stained with red ochre. Among the
+women and children looking on were a couple of little girls who
+paraded about on stilts.
+
+The great waterfall was half a mile below us. Lovely though we had
+found Salto Bello, these falls were far superior in beauty and
+majesty. They are twice as high and twice as broad; and the lay of the
+land is such that the various landscapes in which the waterfall is a
+feature are more striking. A few hundred yards above the falls the
+river turns at an angle and widens. The broad, rapid shallows are
+crested with whitecaps. Beyond this wide expanse of flecked and
+hurrying water rise the mist columns of the cataract; and as these
+columns are swayed and broken by the wind the forest appears through
+and between them. From below the view is one of singular grandeur. The
+fall is over a shelving ledge of rock which goes in a nearly straight
+line across the river's course. But at the left there is a salient in
+the cliff-line, and here accordingly a great cataract of foaming water
+comes down almost as a separate body, in advance of the line of the
+main fall. I doubt whether, excepting, of course, Niagara, there is a
+waterfall in North America which outranks this if both volume and
+beauty are considered. Above the fall the river flows through a wide
+valley with gently sloping sides. Below, it slips along, a torrent of
+white-green water, at the bottom of a deep gorge; and the sides of the
+gorge are clothed with a towering growth of tropical forest.
+
+Next morning the cacique of these Indians, in his major's uniform,
+came to breakfast, and bore himself with entire propriety. It was
+raining heavily--it rained most of the time--and a few minutes
+previously I had noticed the cacique's two wives, with three or four
+other young women, going out to the mandioc fields. It was a
+picturesque group. The women were all mothers, and each carried a
+nursing child. They wore loin-cloths or short skirts. Each carried on
+her back a wickerwork basket supported by a head-strap which went
+around her forehead. Each carried a belt slung diagonally across her
+body, over her right shoulder; in this the child was carried, against
+and perhaps astride of her left hip. They were comely women, who did
+not look jaded or cowed; and they laughed cheerfully and nodded to us
+as they passed through the rain, on their way to the fields. But the
+contrast between them and the chief in his soldier's uniform seated at
+breakfast was rather too striking; and incidentally it etched in bold
+lines the folly of those who idealize the life of even exceptionally
+good and pleasant-natured savages.
+
+Although it was the rainy season, the trip up to this point had not
+been difficult, and from May to October, when the climate is dry and
+at its best, there would be practically no hardship at all for
+travellers and visitors. This is a healthy plateau. But, of course,
+the men who do the first pioneering, even in country like this,
+encounter dangers and run risks; and they make payment with their
+bodies. At more than one halting-place we had come across the forlorn
+grave of some soldier or laborer of the commission. The grave-mound
+lay within a rude stockade; and an uninscribed wooden cross, gray and
+weather-beaten, marked the last resting-place of the unknown and
+forgotten man beneath, the man who had paid with his humble life the
+cost of pushing the frontier of civilization into the wild savagery of
+the wilderness. Farther west the conditions become less healthy. At
+this station Colonel Rondon received news of sickness and of some
+deaths among the employees of the commission in the country to the
+westward, which we were soon to enter. Beriberi and malignant malarial
+fever were the diseases which claimed the major number of the victims.
+
+Surely these are "the men who do the work for which they draw the
+wage." Kermit had with him the same copy of Kipling's poems which he
+had carried through Africa. At these falls there was one sunset of
+angry splendor; and we contrasted this going down of the sun, through
+broken rain-clouds and over leagues of wet tropical forest, with the
+desert sunsets we had seen in Arizona and Sonora, and along the Guaso
+Nyiro north and west of Mount Kenia, when the barren mountains were
+changed into flaming "ramparts of slaughter and peril" standing above
+"the wine-dark flats below."
+
+It rained during most of the day after our arrival at Utiarity.
+Whenever there was any let-up the men promptly came forth from their
+houses and played head-ball with the utmost vigor; and we would listen
+to their shrill undulating cries of applause and triumph until we also
+grew interested and strolled over to look on. They are more infatuated
+with the game than an American boy is with baseball or football. It is
+an extraordinary thing that this strange and exciting game should be
+played by, and only by, one little tribe of Indians in what is almost
+the very centre of South America. If any traveller or ethnologist
+knows of a tribe elsewhere that plays a similar game, I wish he would
+let me know. To play it demands great activity, vigor, skill, and
+endurance. Looking at the strong, supple bodies of the players, and at
+the number of children roundabout, it seemed as if the tribe must be
+in vigorous health; yet the Parecis have decreased in numbers, for
+measles and smallpox have been fatal to them.
+
+By the evening the rain was coming down more heavily than ever. It was
+not possible to keep the moisture out of our belongings; everything
+became mouldy except what became rusty. It rained all that night; and
+day-light saw the downpour continuing with no prospect of cessation.
+The pack-mules could not have gone on with the march; they were
+already rather done up by their previous ten days' labor through rain
+and mud, and it seemed advisable to wait until the weather became
+better before attempting to go forward. Moreover, there had been no
+chance to take the desired astronomical observations. There was very
+little grass for the mules; but there was abundance of a small-leaved
+plant eight or ten inches high--unfortunately, not very nourishing--on
+which they fed greedily. In such weather and over such muddy trails
+oxen travel better than mules.
+
+In spite of the weather Cherrie and Miller, whom, together with Father
+Zahm and Sigg, we had found awaiting us, made good collections of
+birds and mammals. Among the latter were opossums and mice that were
+new to them. The birds included various forms so unlike our home birds
+that the enumeration of their names would mean nothing. One of the
+most interesting was a large black-and-white woodpecker, the white
+predominating in the plumage. Several of these woodpeckers were
+usually found together. They were showy, noisy, and restless, and
+perched on twigs, in ordinary bird fashion, at least as often as they
+clung to the trunks in orthodox woodpecker style. The prettiest bird
+was a tiny manakin, coal-black, with a red-and-orange head.
+
+On February 2 the rain let up, although the sky remained overcast and
+there were occasional showers. I walked off with my rifle for a couple
+of leagues; at that distance, from a slight hillock, the mist columns
+of the falls were conspicuous in the landscape. The only mammal I saw
+on the walk was a rather hairy armadillo, with a flexible tail, which
+I picked up and brought back to Miller--it showed none of the speed of
+the nine-banded armadillos we met on our jaguar-hunt. Judging by its
+actions, as it trotted about before it saw me, it must be diurnal in
+habits. It was new to the collection.
+
+I spent much of the afternoon by the waterfall. Under the overcast sky
+the great cataract lost the deep green and fleecy-white of the sunlit
+falling waters. Instead it showed opaline hues and tints of topaz and
+amethyst. At all times, and under all lights, it was majestic and
+beautiful.
+
+Colonel Rondon had given the Indians various presents, those for the
+women including calico prints, and, what they especially prized,
+bottles of scented oil, from Paris, for their hair. The men held a
+dance in the late afternoon. For this occasion most, but not all, of
+them cast aside their civilized clothing, and appeared as doubtless
+they would all have appeared had none but themselves been present.
+They were absolutely naked except for a beaded string round the waist.
+Most of them were spotted and dashed with red paint, and on one leg
+wore anklets which rattled. A number carried pipes through which they
+blew a kind of deep stifled whistle in time to the dancing. One of
+them had his pipe leading into a huge gourd, which gave out a hollow,
+moaning boom. Many wore two red or green or yellow macaw feathers in
+their hair, and one had a macaw feather stuck transversely through the
+septum of his nose. They circled slowly round and round, chanting and
+stamping their feet, while the anklet rattles clattered and the pipes
+droned. They advanced to the wall of one of the houses, again and
+again chanting and bowing before it; I was told this was a demand for
+drink. They entered one house and danced in a ring around the cooking-
+fire in the middle of the earth floor; I was told that they were then
+reciting the deeds of mighty hunters and describing how they brought
+in the game. They drank freely from gourds and pannikins of a
+fermented drink made from mandioc which were brought out to them.
+During the first part of the dance the women remained in the houses,
+and all the doors and windows were shut and blankets hung to prevent
+the possibility of seeing out. But during the second part all the
+women and girls came out and looked on. They were themselves to have
+danced when the men had finished, but were overcome with shyness at
+the thought of dancing with so many strangers looking on. The children
+played about with unconcern throughout the ceremony, one of them
+throwing high in the air, and again catching in his hands, a loaded
+feather, a kind of shuttlecock.
+
+In the evening the growing moon shone through the cloud-rack. Anything
+approaching fair weather always put our men in good spirits; and the
+muleteers squatted in a circle, by a fire near a pile of packs, and
+listened to a long monotonously and rather mournfully chanted song
+about a dance and a love-affair. We ourselves worked busily with our
+photographs and our writing. There was so much humidity in the air
+that everything grew damp and stayed damp, and mould gathered quickly.
+At this season it is a country in which writing, taking photographs,
+and preparing specimens are all works of difficulty, at least so far
+as concerns preserving and sending home the results of the labor; and
+a man's clothing is never really dry. From here Father Zahm returned
+to Tapirapoan, accompanied by Sigg.
+
+
+
+            VII. WITH A MULE TRAIN ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND
+
+From this point we were to enter a still wilder region, the land of
+the naked Nhambiquaras. On February 3 the weather cleared and we
+started with the mule-train and two ox-carts. Fiala and Lieutenant
+Lauriado stayed at Utiarity to take canoes and go down the Papagaio,
+which had not been descended by any scientific party, and perhaps by
+no one. They were then to descend the Juruena and Tapajos, thereby
+performing a necessary part of the work of the expedition. Our
+remaining party consisted of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, the
+doctor, Oliveira, Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and myself. On the Juruena
+we expected to meet the pack ox-train with Captain Amilcar and
+Lieutenant Mello; the other Brazilian members of the party had
+returned. We had now begun the difficult part of the expedition. The
+pium flies were becoming a pest. There was much fever and beriberi in
+the country we were entering. The feed for the animals was poor; the
+rains had made the trails slippery and difficult; and many, both of
+the mules and the oxen, were already weak, and some had to be
+abandoned. We left the canoe, the motor, and the gasolene; we had
+hoped to try them on the Amazonian rivers, but we were obliged to cut
+down everything that was not absolutely indispensable.
+
+Before leaving we prepared for shipment back to the museum some of the
+bigger skins, and also some of the weapons and utensils of the
+Indians, which Kermit had collected. These included woven fillets, and
+fillets made of macaw feathers, for use in the dances; woven belts; a
+gourd in which the sacred drink is offered to the god Enoerey;
+wickerwork baskets; flutes or pipes; anklet rattles; hammocks; a belt
+of the kind used by the women in carrying the babies, with the
+weaving-frame. All these were Parecis articles. He also secured from
+the Nhambiquaras wickerwork baskets of a different type and bows and
+arrows. The bows were seven feet long and the arrows five feet. There
+were blunt-headed arrows for birds, arrows with long, sharp wooden
+blades for tapir, deer, and other mammals; and the poisoned war-
+arrows, with sharp barbs, poison-coated and bound on by fine thongs,
+and with a long, hollow wooden guard to slip over the entire point and
+protect it until the time came to use it. When people talk glibly of
+"idle" savages they ignore the immense labor entailed by many of their
+industries, and the really extraordinary amount of work they
+accomplish by the skilful use of their primitive and ineffective
+tools.
+
+It was not until early in the afternoon that we started into the
+"sertao,"[*] as Brazilians call the wilderness. We drove with us a
+herd of oxen for food. After going about fifteen miles we camped
+beside the swampy headwaters of a little brook. It was at the spot
+where nearly seven years previously Rondon and Lyra had camped on the
+trip when they discovered Utiarity Falls and penetrated to the
+Juruena. When they reached this place they had been thirty-six hours
+without food. They killed a bush deer--a small deer--and ate literally
+every particle. The dogs devoured the entire skin. For much of the
+time on this trip they lived on wild fruit, and the two dogs that
+remained alive would wait eagerly under the trees and eat the fruit
+that was shaken down.
+
+[*] Pronounced "sairtown," as nearly as, with our preposterous methods
+    of spelling and pronunciation, I can render it.
+
+In the late afternoon the piums were rather bad at this camp, but we
+had gloves and head-nets, and were not bothered; and although there
+were some mosquitoes we slept well under our mosquito-nets. The frogs
+in the swamp uttered a peculiar, loud shout. Miller told of a little
+tree-frog in Colombia which swelled itself out with air until it
+looked like the frog in Aesop's fables, and then brayed like a mule;
+and Cherrie told of a huge frog in Guiana that uttered a short, loud
+roar.
+
+Next day the weather was still fair. Our march lay through country
+like that which we had been traversing for ten days. Skeletons of
+mules and oxen were more frequent; and once or twice by the wayside we
+passed the graves of officers or men who had died on the road. Barbed
+wire encircled the desolate little mounds. We camped on the west bank
+of the Burity River. Here there is a balsa, or ferry, run by two
+Parecis Indians, as employees of the Telegraphic Commission, under the
+colonel. Each had a thatched house, and each had two wives--all these
+Indians are pagans. All were dressed much like the poorer peasants of
+the Brazilian back country, and all were pleasant and well-behaved.
+The women ran the ferry about as well as the men. They had no
+cultivated fields, and for weeks they had been living only on game and
+honey; and they hailed with joy our advent and the quantities of beans
+and rice which, together with some beef, the colonel left with them.
+They feasted most of the night. Their houses contained their hammocks,
+baskets, and other belongings, and they owned some poultry. In one
+house was a tiny parakeet, very much at home, and familiar, but by no
+means friendly, with strangers. There are wild Nhambiquaras in the
+neighborhood, and recently several of these had menaced the two
+ferrymen with an attack, even shooting arrows at them. The ferrymen
+had driven them off by firing their rifles in the air; and they
+expected and received the colonel's praise for their self-restraint;
+for the colonel is doing all he can to persuade the Indians to stop
+their blood feuds. The rifles were short and light Winchester
+carbines, of the kind so universally used by the rubber-gatherers and
+other adventurous wanderers in the forest wilderness of Brazil. There
+were a number of rubber-trees in the neighborhood, by the way.
+
+We enjoyed a good bath in the Burity, although it was impossible to
+make headway by swimming against the racing current. There were few
+mosquitoes. On the other hand, various kinds of piums were a little
+too abundant; they vary from things like small gnats to things like
+black flies. The small stingless bees have no fear and can hardly be
+frightened away when they light on the hands or face; but they never
+bite, and merely cause a slight tickling as they crawl over the skin.
+There were some big bees, however, which, although they crawled about
+harmlessly after lighting if they were undisturbed, yet stung fiercely
+if they were molested. The insects were not ordinarily a serious
+bother, but there were occasional hours when they were too numerous
+for comfort, and now and then I had to do my writing in a head-net and
+gauntlets.
+
+The night we reached the Burity it rained heavily, and next day the
+rain continued. In the morning the mules were ferried over, while the
+oxen were swum across. Half a dozen of our men--whites, Indians, and
+negroes, all stark naked and uttering wild cries, drove the oxen into
+the river and then, with powerful overhand strokes, swam behind and
+alongside them as they crossed, half breasting the swift current. It
+was a fine sight to see the big, long-horned, staring beasts swimming
+strongly, while the sinewy naked men urged them forward, utterly at
+ease in the rushing water. We made only a short day's journey, for,
+owing to the lack of grass, the mules had to be driven off nearly
+three miles from our line of march, in order to get them feed. We
+camped at the headwaters of a little brook called Huatsui, which is
+Parecis for "monkey."
+
+Accompanying us on this march was a soldier bound for one of the
+remoter posts. With him trudged his wife. They made the whole journey
+on foot. There were two children. One was so young that it had to be
+carried alternately by the father and mother. The other, a small boy
+of eight, and much the best of the party, was already a competent
+wilderness worker. He bore his share of the belongings on the march,
+and when camp was reached sometimes himself put up the family shelter.
+They were mainly of negro blood. Struck by the woman's uncomplaining
+endurance of fatigue, we offered to take her and the baby in the
+automobile, while it accompanied us. But, alas! this proved to be one
+of those melancholy cases where the effort to relieve hardship well
+endured results only in showing that those who endure the adversity
+cannot stand even a slight prosperity. The woman proved a querulous
+traveller in the auto, complaining that she was not made as
+comfortable as apparently she had expected; and after one day the
+husband declared he was not willing to have her go unless he went too;
+and the family resumed their walk.
+
+In this neighborhood there were multitudes of the big, gregarious,
+crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which I have before mentioned. On
+arriving in camp, at about four in the afternoon, I ran into a number
+of remains of their webs, and saw a very few of the spiders themselves
+sitting in the webs midway between trees. I then strolled a couple of
+miles up the road ahead of us under the line of telegraph-poles. It
+was still bright sunlight and no spiders were out; in fact, I did not
+suspect their presence along the line of telegraph-poles, although I
+ought to have done so, for I continually ran into long strings of
+tough fine web, which got across my face or hands or rifle barrel. I
+returned just at sunset and the spiders were out in force. I saw
+dozens of colonies, each of scores or hundreds of individuals. Many
+were among the small trees alongside the broad, cleared trail. But
+most were dependent from the wire itself. Their webs had all been made
+or repaired since I had passed. Each was sitting in the middle of his
+own wheel, and all the wheels were joined to one another; and the
+whole pendent fabric hung by fine ropes from the wire above, and was
+in some cases steadied by guy-ropes, thrown thirty feet off to little
+trees alongside. I watched them until nightfall, and evidently, to
+them, after their day's rest, their day's work had just begun. Next
+morning--owing to a desire to find out what the facts were as regards
+the ox-carts, which were in difficulties--Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and
+I walked back to the Burity River, where Colonel Rondon had spent the
+night. It was a misty, overcast morning, and the spiders in the webs
+that hung from the telegraph-wire were just going to their day homes.
+These were in and under the big white china insulators on the
+telegraph-poles. Hundreds of spiders were already climbing up into
+these. When, two or three hours later, we returned, the sun was out,
+and not a spider was to be seen.
+
+Here we had to cut down our baggage and rearrange the loads for the
+mule-train. Cherrie and Miller had a most workmanlike equipment,
+including a very light tent and two light flies. One fly they gave for
+the kitchen use, one fly was allotted to Kermit and me, and they kept
+only the tent for themselves. Colonel Rondon and Lyra went in one
+tent, the doctor and Oliveira in another. Each of us got rid of
+everything above the sheer necessities. This was necessary because of
+the condition of the baggage-animals. The oxen were so weak that the
+effort to bring on the carts had to be abandoned. Nine of the pack-
+mules had already been left on the road during the three days' march
+from Utiarity. In the first expeditions into this country all the
+baggage animals had died; and even in our case the loss was becoming
+very heavy. This state of affairs is due to the scarcity of forage and
+the type of country. Good grass is scanty, and the endless leagues of
+sparse, scrubby forest render it exceedingly difficult to find the
+animals when they wander. They must be turned absolutely loose to roam
+about and pick up their scanty subsistence, and must be given as long
+a time as possible to feed and rest; even under these conditions most
+of them grow weak when, as in our case, it is impossible to carry
+corn. They cannot be found again until after daylight, and then hours
+must be spent in gathering them; and this means that the march must be
+made chiefly during the heat of the day, the most trying time. Often
+some of the animals would not be brought in until so late that it was
+well on in the forenoon, perhaps midday, before the bulk of the pack-
+train started; and they reached the camping-place as often after night
+fall as before it. Under such conditions many of the mules and oxen
+grew constantly weaker and ultimately gave out; and it was imperative
+to load them as lightly as possible, and discard all luxuries,
+especially heavy or bulky luxuries. Travelling through a wild country
+where there is little food for man or beast is beset with difficulties
+almost inconceivable to the man who does not himself know this kind of
+wilderness, and especially to the man who only knows the ease of
+civilization. A scientific party of some size, with the equipment
+necessary in order to do scientific work, can only go at all if the
+men who actually handle the problems of food and transportation do
+their work thoroughly.
+
+Our march continued through the same type of high, nearly level
+upland, covered with scanty, scrubby forest. It is the kind of country
+known to the Brazilians as chapadao--pronounced almost as if it were a
+French word and spelled shapadon. Our camp on the fourth night was in
+a beautiful spot, an open grassy space, beside a clear, cool, rushing
+little river. We ourselves reached this, and waded our beasts across
+the deep, narrow stream in the late afternoon; and we then enjoyed a
+bath and swim. The loose bullocks arrived at sunset, and with shrill
+cries the mounted herdsmen urged them into and across the swift water.
+The mule-train arrived long after night fall, and it was not deemed
+wise to try to cross the laden animals. Accordingly the loads were
+taken off and brought over on the heads of the men; it was fine to see
+the sinewy, naked figures bearing their burdens through the broken
+moonlit water to the hither bank. The night was cool and pleasant. We
+kindled a fire and sat beside the blaze. Then, healthily hungry, we
+gathered around the ox-hides to a delicious dinner of soup, beef,
+beans, rice, and coffee.
+
+Next day we made a short march, crossed a brook, and camped by another
+clear, deep, rapid little river, swollen by the rains. All these
+rivers that we were crossing run actually into the Juruena, and
+therefore form part of the headwaters of the Tapajos; for the Tapajos
+is a mighty river, and the basin which holds its headwaters covers an
+immense extent of country. This country and the adjacent regions,
+forming the high interior of western Brazil, will surely some day
+support a large industrial population; of which the advent would be
+hastened, although not necessarily in permanently better fashion, if
+Colonel Rondon's anticipations about the development of mining,
+especially gold mining, are realized. In any event the region will be
+a healthy home for a considerable agricultural and pastoral
+population. Above all, the many swift streams with their numerous
+waterfalls, some of great height and volume, offer the chance for the
+upgrowth of a number of big manufacturing communities, knit by rail-
+roads to one another and to the Atlantic coast and the valleys of the
+Paraguay, Madeira, and Amazon, and feeding and being fed by the
+dwellers in the rich, hot, alluvial lowlands that surround this
+elevated territory. The work of Colonel Rondon and his associates of
+the Telegraphic Commission has been to open this great and virgin land
+to the knowledge of the world and to the service of their nation. In
+doing so they have incidentally founded the Brazilian school of
+exploration. Before their day almost all the scientific and regular
+exploration of Brazil was done by foreigners. But, of course, there
+was much exploration and settlement by nameless Brazilians, who were
+merely endeavoring to make new homes or advance their private
+fortunes: in recent years by rubber-gatherers, for instance, and a
+century ago by those bold and restless adventurers, partly of
+Portuguese and partly of Indian blood, the Paolistas, from one of whom
+Colonel Rondon is himself descended on his father's side.
+
+The camp by this river was in some old and grown-up fields, once the
+seat of a rather extensive maize and mandioc cultivation by the
+Nhambiquaras. On this day Cherrie got a number of birds new to the
+collection, and two or three of them probably new to science. We had
+found the birds for the most part in worn plumage, for the breeding
+season, the southern spring and northern fall, was over. But some
+birds were still breeding. In the tropics the breeding season is more
+irregular than in the north. Some birds breed at very different times
+from that chosen by the majority of their fellows; some can hardly be
+said to have any regular season; Cherrie had found one species of
+honey-creeper breeding in every month of the year. Just before sunset
+and just after sunrise big, noisy, blue-and-yellow macaws flew over
+this camp. They were plentiful enough to form a loose flock, but each
+pair kept to itself, the two individuals always close together and
+always separated from the rest. Although not an abundant, it was an
+interesting, fauna which the two naturalists found in this upland
+country, where hitherto no collections of birds and mammals had been
+made. Miller trapped several species of opossums, mice and rats which
+were new to him. Cherrie got many birds which he did not recognize. At
+this camp, among totally strange forms, he found an old and familiar
+acquaintance. Before breakfast he brought in several birds; a dark
+colored flycatcher, with white forehead and rump and two very long
+tail-feathers; a black and slate-blue tanager; a black ant-thrush with
+a concealed white spot on its back, at the base of the neck, and its
+dull-colored mate; and other birds which he believed to be new to
+science, but whose relationships with any of our birds are so remote
+that it is hard to describe them save in technical language. Finally,
+among these unfamiliar forms was a veery, and the sight of the rufous-
+olive back and faintly spotted throat of this singer of our northern
+Junes made us almost homesick.
+
+Next day was brilliantly clear. The mules could not be brought in
+until quite late in the morning, and we had to march twenty miles
+under the burning tropical sun, right in the hottest part of the day.
+From a rise of ground we looked back over the vast, sunlit landscape,
+the endless rolling stretches of low forest. Midway on our journey we
+crossed a brook. The dogs minded the heat much. They continually ran
+off to one side, lay down in a shady place, waited until we were
+several hundred yards ahead, and then raced after us, overtook us, and
+repeated the performance. The pack-train came in about sunset; but we
+ourselves reached the Juruena in the middle of the afternoon.
+
+The Juruena is the name by which the Tapajos goes along its upper
+course. Where we crossed, it was a deep, rapid stream, flowing in a
+heavily wooded valley with rather steep sides. We were ferried across
+on the usual balsa, a platform on three dugouts, running by the force
+of the current on a wire trolley. There was a clearing on each side
+with a few palms, and on the farther bank were the buildings of the
+telegraph station. This is a wild country, and the station was guarded
+by a few soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Marino, a native of
+Rio Grande do Sul, a blond man who looked like an Englishman--an
+agreeable companion, and a good and resolute officer, as all must be
+who do their work in this wilderness. The Juruena was first followed
+at the end of the eighteenth century by the Portuguese explorer
+Franco, and not again until over a hundred years had elapsed, when the
+Telegraphic Commission not only descended, but for the first time
+accurately placed and mapped its course.
+
+There were several houses on the rise of the farther bank, all with
+thatched roofs, some of them with walls of upright tree-trunks, some
+of them daub and wattle. Into one of the latter, with two rooms, we
+took our belongings. The sand-flies were bothersome at night, coming
+through the interstices in the ordinary mosquito-nets. The first night
+they did this I got no sleep until morning, when it was cool enough
+for me to roll myself in my blanket and put on a head-net. Afterward
+we used fine nets of a kind of cheese-cloth. They were hot, but they
+kept out all, or almost all, of the sand-flies and other small
+tormentors.
+
+Here we overtook the rearmost division of Captain Amilcar's bullock-
+train. Our own route had diverged, in order to pass the great falls.
+Captain Amilcar had come direct, overtaking the pack-oxen, which had
+left Tapirapoan before we did, laden with material for the Duvida
+trip. He had brought the oxen through in fine shape, losing only three
+beasts with their loads, and had himself left the Juruena the morning
+of the day we reached there. His weakest animals left that evening, to
+make the march by moonlight; and as it was desirable to give them
+thirty-six hours' start, we halted for a day on the banks of the
+river. It was not a wasted day. In addition to bathing and washing our
+clothes, the naturalists made some valuable additions to the
+collection--including a boldly marked black, blue, and white jay--and
+our photographs were developed and our writing brought abreast of the
+date. Travelling through a tropical wilderness in the rainy season,
+when the amount of baggage that can be taken is strictly limited,
+entails not only a good deal of work, but also the exercise of
+considerable ingenuity if the writing and photographing, and
+especially the preservation, of the specimens are to be done in
+satisfactory shape.
+
+At the telegraph office we received news that the voyage of Lauriado
+and Fiala down the Papagaio had opened with a misadventure. In some
+bad rapids, not many miles below the falls, two of the canoes had been
+upset, half of their provisions and all of Fiala's baggage lost, and
+Fiala himself nearly drowned. The Papagaio is known both at the source
+and the mouth; to descend it did not represent a plunge into the
+unknown, as in the case of the Duvida or the Ananas; but the actual
+water work, over the part that was unexplored, offered the same
+possibilities of mischance and disaster. It is a hazardous thing to
+descend a swift, unknown river rushing through an uninhabited
+wilderness. To descend or ascend the ordinary great highway rivers of
+South America, such as the Amazon, Paraguay, Tapajos, and, in its
+lower course, the Orinoco, is now so safe and easy, whether by steam-
+boat or big, native cargo-boat, that people are apt to forget the very
+serious difficulties offered by the streams, often themselves great
+rivers, which run into or form the upper courses of these same water
+highways. Few things are easier than the former feat, and few more
+difficult than the latter; and experience in ordinary travelling on
+the lower courses of the rivers is of no benefit whatever in enabling
+a man to form a judgement as to what can be done, and how to do it, on
+the upper courses. Failure to remember this fact is one of the
+obstacles in the way of securing a proper appreciation of the needs
+and the results, of South American exploration.
+
+At the Juruena we met a party of Nhambiquaras, very friendly and
+sociable, and very glad to see Colonel Rondon. They were originally
+exceedingly hostile and suspicious, but the colonel's unwearied
+thoughtfulness and good temper, joined with his indomitable
+resolution, enabled him to avoid war and to secure their friendship
+and even their aid. He never killed one. Many of them are known to him
+personally. He is on remarkably good terms with them, and they are
+very fond of him--although this does not prevent them from now and
+then yielding to temptation, even at his expense, and stealing a dog
+or something else which strikes them as offering an irresistible
+attraction. They cannot be employed at steady work; but they do
+occasional odd jobs, and are excellent at hunting up strayed mules or
+oxen; and a few of the men have begun to wear clothes, purely for
+ornament. Their confidence and bold friendliness showed how well they
+had been treated. Probably half of our visitors were men; several were
+small boys; one was a woman with a baby; the others were young married
+women and girls.
+
+Nowhere in Africa did we come across wilder or more absolutely
+primitive savages, although these Indians were pleasanter and better-
+featured than any of the African tribes at the same stage of culture.
+Both sexes were well-made and rather good-looking, with fairly good
+teeth, although some of them seemed to have skin diseases. They were a
+laughing, easy-tempered crew, and the women were as well-fed as the
+men, and were obviously well-treated, from the savage standpoint;
+there was no male brutality like that which forms such a revolting
+feature in the life of the Australian black fellows and, although to a
+somewhat less degree, in the life of so many negro and Indian tribes.
+They were practically absolutely naked. In many savage tribes the men
+go absolutely naked, but the women wear a breech-clout or loincloth.
+In certain tribes we saw near Lake Victoria Nyanza, and on the upper
+White Nile, both men and women were practically naked. Among these
+Nhambiquaras the women were more completely naked than the men,
+although the difference was not essential. The men wore a string
+around the waist. Most of them wore nothing else, but a few had
+loosely hanging from this string in front a scanty tuft of dried
+grass, or a small piece of cloth, which, however, was of purely
+symbolic use so far as either protection or modesty was concerned. The
+women did not wear a stitch of any kind anywhere on their bodies. They
+did not have on so much as a string, or a bead, or even an ornament in
+their hair. They were all, men and women, boys and well-grown young
+girls, as entirely at ease and unconscious as so many friendly
+animals. All of them--men, women, and children, laughing and talking--
+crowded around us, whether we were on horseback or on foot. They
+flocked into the house, and when I sat down to write surrounded me so
+closely that I had to push them gently away. The women and girls often
+stood holding one another's hands, or with their arms over one
+another's shoulders or around one another's waists, offering an
+attractive picture. The men had holes pierced through the septum of
+the nose and through the upper lip, and wore a straw through each
+hole. The women were not marked or mutilated. It seems like a
+contradiction in terms, but it is nevertheless a fact that the
+behavior of these completely naked women and men was entirely modest.
+There was never an indecent look or a consciously indecent gesture.
+They had no blankets or hammocks, and when night came simply lay down
+in the sand. Colonel Rondon stated that they never wore a covering by
+night or by day, and if it was cool slept one on each side of a small
+fire. Their huts were merely slight shelters against the rain.
+
+The moon was nearly full, and after nightfall a few of the Indians
+suddenly held an improvised dance for us in front of our house. There
+were four men, a small boy, and two young women or grown girls. Two of
+the men had been doing some work for the commission, and were dressed,
+one completely and one partially, in ordinary clothes. Two of the men
+and the boy were practically naked, and the two young women were
+absolutely so. All of them danced in a circle, without a touch of
+embarrassment or impropriety. The two girls kept hold of each other's
+hands throughout, dancing among the men as modestly as possible, and
+with the occasional interchange of a laugh or jest, in as good taste
+and temper as in any dance in civilization. The dance consisted in
+slowly going round in a circle, first one way then the other,
+rhythmically beating time with the feet to the music of the song they
+were chanting. The chants--there were three of them, all told--were
+measured and rather slowly uttered melodies, varied with an occasional
+half-subdued shrill cry. The women continually uttered a kind of long-
+drawn wailing or droning; I am not enough of a musician to say whether
+it was an overtone or the sustaining of the burden of the ballad. The
+young boy sang better than any of the others. It was a strange and
+interesting sight to see these utterly wild, friendly savages circling
+in their slow dance, and chanting their immemorial melodies, in the
+brilliant tropical moonlight, with the river rushing by in the
+background, through the lonely heart of the wilderness.
+
+The Indians stayed with us, feasting, dancing, and singing until the
+early hours of the morning. They then suddenly and silently
+disappeared in the darkness, and did not return. In the morning we
+discovered that they had gone off with one of Colonel Rondon's dogs.
+Probably the temptation had proved irresistible to one of their
+number, and the others had been afraid to interfere, and also afraid
+to stay in or return to our neighborhood. We had not time to go after
+them; but Rondon remarked that as soon as he again came to the
+neighborhood he would take some soldiers, hunt up the Indians, and
+reclaim the dog. It has been his mixture of firmness, good nature, and
+good judgment that has enabled him to control these bold, warlike
+savages, and even to reduce the warfare between them and the Parecis.
+In spite of their good nature and laughter, their fearlessness and
+familiarity showed how necessary it was not to let them get the upper
+hand. They are always required to leave all their arms a mile or two
+away before they come into the encampment. They are much wilder and
+more savage, and at a much lower cultural level, than the Parecis.
+
+In the afternoon of the day following our arrival there was a heavy
+rain-storm which drove into the unglazed windows, and here and there
+came through the roof and walls of our daub-and-wattle house. The heat
+was intense and there was much moisture in this valley. During the
+downpour I looked out at the dreary little houses, showing through the
+driving rain, while the sheets of muddy water slid past their door-
+sills; and I felt a sincere respect for the lieutenant and his
+soldiers who were holding this desolate outpost of civilization. It is
+an unhealthy spot; there has been much malarial fever and beriberi--an
+obscure and deadly disease.
+
+Next morning we resumed our march. It soon began to rain and we were
+drenched when, some fifteen miles on, we reached the river where we
+were to camp. After the great heat we felt quite cold in our wet
+clothes, and gladly crowded round a fire which was kindled under a
+thatched shed, beside the cabin of the ferryman. This ferry-boat was
+so small that it could only take one mule, or at most two, at a time.
+The mules and a span of six oxen dragging an ox-cart, which we had
+overtaken, were ferried slowly to the farther side that afternoon, as
+there was no feed on the hither bank, where we ourselves camped. The
+ferryman was a soldier in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission.
+His good-looking, pleasant-mannered wife, evidently of both Indian and
+negro blood, was with him, and was doing all she could do as a
+housekeeper, in the comfortless little cabin, with its primitive
+bareness of furniture and fittings.
+
+Here we saw Captain Amilcar, who had come back to hurry up his rear-
+guard. We stood ankle-deep in mud and water, by the swollen river,
+while the rain beat on us, and enjoyed a few minutes' talk with the
+cool, competent officer who was doing a difficult job with such
+workman-like efficiency. He had no poncho, and was wet through, but
+was much too busy in getting his laden oxen forward to think of
+personal discomfort. He had had a good deal of trouble with his mules,
+but his oxen were still in fair shape.
+
+After leaving the Juruena the ground became somewhat more hilly, and
+the scrubby forest was less open, but otherwise there was no change in
+the monotonous, and yet to me rather attractive, landscape. The ant-
+hills, and the ant-houses in the trees--arboreal ant-hills, so to
+speak were as conspicuous as ever. The architects of some were red
+ants, of others black ants; and others, which were on the whole the
+largest, had been built by the white ants, the termites. The latter
+were not infrequently taller than a horseman's head.
+
+That evening round the camp-fire Colonel Rondon happened to mention
+how the brother of one of the soldiers with us--a Parecis Indian--had
+been killed by a jararaca snake. Cherrie told of a narrow escape he
+had from one while collecting in Guiana. At night he used to set traps
+in camp for small mammals. One night he heard one of these traps go
+off under his hammock. He reached down for it, and as he fumbled for
+the chain he felt a snake strike at him, just missing him in the
+darkness, but actually brushing his hand. He lit a light and saw that
+a big jararaca had been caught in the trap; and he preserved it as a
+specimen. Snakes frequently came into his camp after nightfall. He
+killed one rattlesnake which had swallowed the skinned bodies of four
+mice he had prepared as specimens; which shows that rattlesnakes do
+not always feed only on living prey. Another rattlesnake which he
+killed in Central America had just swallowed an opossum which proved
+to be of a species new to science. Miller told how once on the Orinoco
+he saw on the bank a small anaconda, some ten feet long, killing one
+of the iguanas, big, active, truculent, carnivorous lizards, equally
+at home on the land and in the water. Evidently the iguanas were
+digging out holes in the bank in which to lay their eggs; for there
+were several such holes, and iguanas working at them. The snake had
+crushed its prey to a pulp; and not more than a couple of feet away
+another iguana was still busily, and with entire unconcern, engaged in
+making its burrow. At Miller's approach the anaconda left the dead
+iguana and rushed into the water, and the live iguana promptly
+followed it. Miller also told of the stone gods and altars and temples
+he had seen in the great Colombian forests, monuments of strange
+civilizations which flourished and died out ages ago, and of which all
+memory has vanished. He and Cherrie told of giant rivers and
+waterfalls, and of forests never penetrated, and mountains never
+ascended by civilized man; and of bloody revolutions that devastated
+the settled regions. Listening to them I felt that they could write
+"Tales of Two Naturalists" that would be worth reading.
+
+They were short of literature, by the way--a party such as ours always
+needs books--and as Kermit's reading-matter consisted chiefly of
+Camoens and other Portuguese, or else Brazilian, writers, I strove to
+supply the deficiency with spare volumes of Gibbon. At the end of our
+march we were usually far ahead of the mule-train, and the rain was
+also usually falling. Accordingly we would sit about under trees, or
+under a shed or lean-to, if there was one, each solemnly reading a
+volume of Gibbon--and no better reading can be found. In my own case,
+as I had been having rather a steady course of Gibbon, I varied him
+now and then with a volume of Arsene Lupin lent me by Kermit.
+
+There were many swollen rivers to cross at this point of our journey.
+Some we waded at fords. Some we crossed by rude bridges. The larger
+ones, such as the Juina, we crossed by ferry, and when the approaches
+were swampy, and the river broad and swift, many hours might be
+consumed in getting the mule-train, the loose bullocks, and the ox-
+cart over. We had few accidents, although we once lost a ferry-load of
+provisions, which was quite a misfortune in a country where they could
+not be replaced. The pasturage was poor, and it was impossible to make
+long marches with our weakened animals.
+
+At one camp three Nhambiquaras paid us a visit at breakfast time. They
+left their weapons behind them before they appeared, and shouted
+loudly while they were still hid by the forest, and it was only after
+repeated answering calls of welcome that they approached. Always in
+the wilderness friends proclaim their presence; a silent advance marks
+a foe. Our visitors were men, and stark naked, as usual. One seemed
+sick; he was thin, and his back was scarred with marks of the grub of
+the loathsome berni fly. Indeed, all of them showed scars, chiefly
+from insect wounds. But the other two were in good condition, and,
+although they ate greedily of the food offered them, they had with
+them a big mandioc cake, some honey, and a little fish. One of them
+wore a high helmet of puma-skin, with the tail hanging down his back--
+handsome head-gear, which he gladly bartered for several strings of
+bright coral-red beads. Around the upper arms of two of them were
+bands bound so tightly as to cut into and deform the muscles--a
+singular custom, seemingly not only purposeless but mischievous, which
+is common among this tribe and many others.
+
+The Nhambiquaras are a numerous tribe, covering a large region. But
+they have no general organization. Each group of families acts for
+itself. Half a dozen years previously they had been very hostile, and
+Colonel Rondon had to guard his camp and exercise every precaution to
+guarantee his safety, while at the same time successfully endeavoring
+to avoid the necessity of himself shedding blood. Now they are, for
+the most part, friendly. But there are groups or individuals that are
+not. Several soldiers have been killed at these little lonely
+stations; and while in some cases the attack may have been due to the
+soldiers having meddled with Nhambiquara women, in other cases the
+killing was entirely wanton and unprovoked. Sooner or later these
+criminals or outlaws will have to be brought to justice; it will not
+do to let their crimes go unpunished. Twice soldiers have deserted and
+fled to the Nhambiquaras. The runaways were well received, were given
+wives, and adopted into the tribe.
+
+The country when opened will be a healthy abode for white settlers.
+But pioneering in the wilderness is grim work for both man and beast.
+Continually, as we journeyed onward, under the pitiless glare of the
+sun or through blinding torrents of rain, we passed desolate little
+graves by the roadside. They marked the last resting places of men who
+had died by fever, or dysentery, or Nhambiquara arrows. We raised our
+hats as our mules plodded slowly by through the sand. On each grave
+was a frail wooden cross, and this and the paling round about were
+already stained by the weather as gray as the tree trunks of the
+stunted forest that stretched endlessly on every side.
+
+The skeletons of mules and oxen were frequent along the road. Now and
+then we came across a mule or ox which had been abandoned by Captain
+Amilcar's party, ahead of us. The animal had been left with the hope
+that when night came it would follow along the trail to water.
+Sometimes it did so. Sometimes we found it dead, or standing
+motionless waiting for death. From time to time we had to leave behind
+one of our own mules.
+
+It was not always easy to recognize what pasturage the mules would
+accept as good. One afternoon we pitched camp by a tiny rivulet, in
+the midst of the scrubby upland forest; a camp, by the way, where the
+piums, the small, biting flies, were a torment during the hours of
+daylight, while after dark their places were more than taken by the
+diminutive gnats which the Brazilians expressively term "polvora," or
+powder, and which get through the smallest meshes of a mosquito-net.
+The feed was so scanty, and the cover so dense, at this spot that I
+thought we would have great difficulty in gathering the mules next
+morning. But we did not. A few hours later, in the afternoon, we
+camped by a beautiful open meadow; on one side ran a rapid brook, with
+a waterfall eight feet high, under which we bathed and swam. Here the
+feed looked so good that we all expressed pleasure. But the mules did
+not like it, and after nightfall they hiked back on the trail, and it
+was a long and arduous work to gather them next morning.
+
+I have touched above on the insect pests. Men unused to the South
+American wilderness speak with awe of the danger therein from jaguars,
+crocodiles, and poisonous snakes. In reality, the danger from these
+sources is trivial, much less than the danger of being run down by an
+automobile at home. But at times the torment of insect plagues can
+hardly be exaggerated. There are many different species of mosquitoes,
+some of them bearers of disease. There are many different kinds of
+small, biting flies and gnats, loosely grouped together under various
+titles. The ones more especially called piums by my companions were
+somewhat like our northern black flies. They gorged themselves with
+blood. At the moment their bites did not hurt, but they left an
+itching scar. Head-nets and gloves are a protection, but are not very
+comfortable in stifling hot weather. It is impossible to sleep without
+mosquito-biers. When settlers of the right type come into a new land
+they speedily learn to take the measures necessary to minimize the
+annoyance caused by all these pests. Those that are winged have plenty
+of kinsfolk in so much of the northern continent as has not yet been
+subdued by man. But the most noxious of the South American ants have,
+thank heaven, no representatives in North America. At the camp of the
+piums a column of the carnivorous foraging ants made its appearance
+before nightfall, and for a time we feared it might put us out of our
+tents, for it went straight through camp, between the kitchen-tent and
+our own sleeping tents. However, the column turned neither to the
+right nor the left, streaming uninterruptedly past for several hours,
+and doing no damage except to the legs of any incautious man who
+walked near it.
+
+On the afternoon of February 15 we reached Campos Novos. This place
+was utterly unlike the country we had been traversing. It was a large
+basin, several miles across, traversed by several brooks. The brooks
+ran in deep swampy valleys, occupied by a matted growth of tall
+tropical forest. Between them the ground rose in bold hills, bare of
+forest and covered with grass, on which our jaded animals fed eagerly.
+On one of these rounded hills a number of buildings were ranged in a
+quadrangle, for the pasturage at this spot is so good that it is
+permanently occupied. There were milch cows, and we got delicious
+fresh milk; and there were goats, pigs, turkeys, and chickens. Most of
+the buildings were made of upright poles with roofs of palm thatch.
+One or two were of native brick, plastered with mud, and before these
+there was an enclosure with a few ragged palms, and some pineapple
+plants. Here we halted. Our attendants made two kitchens: one was out
+in the open air, one was under a shelter of ox-hide. The view over the
+surrounding grassy hills, riven by deep wooded valleys, was lovely.
+The air was cool and fresh. We were not bothered by insects, although
+mosquitoes swarmed in every belt of timber. Yet there has been much
+fever at this beautiful and seemingly healthy place. Doubtless when
+settlement is sufficiently advanced a remedy will be developed. The
+geology of this neighborhood was interesting--Oliveira found fossil
+tree-trunks which he believed to be of cretaceous age.
+
+Here we found Amilcar and Mello, who had waited for us with the rear-
+guard of their pack-train, and we enjoyed our meeting with the two
+fine fellows, than whom no military service of any nation could
+produce more efficient men for this kind of difficult and responsible
+work. Next morning they mustered their soldiers, muleteers, and pack-
+ox men and marched off. Reinisch the taxidermist was with them. We
+followed in the late afternoon, camping after a few miles. We left the
+oxcart at Campos Novos; from thence on the trail was only for pack-
+animals.
+
+In this neighborhood the two naturalists found many birds which we had
+not hitherto met. The most conspicuous was a huge oriole, the size of
+a small crow, with a naked face, a black-and-red bill, and gaudily
+variegated plumage of green, yellow, and chestnut. Very interesting
+was the false bellbird, a gray bird with loud, metallic notes. There
+was also a tiny soft-tailed woodpecker, no larger than a kinglet; a
+queer humming-bird with a slightly flexible bill; and many species of
+ant-thrush, tanager, manakin, and tody. Among these unfamiliar forms
+was a vireo looking much like our solitary vireo. At one camp Cherrie
+collected a dozen perching birds; Miller a beautiful little rail; and
+Kermit, with the small Luger belt-rifle, a handsome curassow, nearly
+as big as a turkey--out of which, after it had been skinned, the cook
+made a delicious canja, the thick Brazilian soup of fowl and rice than
+which there is nothing better of its kind. All these birds were new to
+the collection--no naturalists had previously worked this region--so
+that the afternoon's work represented nine species new to the
+collection, six new genera, and a most excellent soup.
+
+Two days after leaving Campos Novos we reached Vilhena, where there is
+a telegraph station. We camped once at a small river named by Colonel
+Rondon the "Twelfth of October," because he reached it on the day
+Columbus discovered America--I had never before known what day it
+was!--and once at the foot of a hill which he had named after Lyra,
+his companion in the exploration. The two days' march--really one full
+day and part of two others--was through beautiful country, and we
+enjoyed it thoroughly, although there were occasional driving rain-
+storms, when the rain came in almost level sheets and drenched every
+one and everything. The country was like that around Campos Novos, and
+offered a striking contrast to the level, barren, sandy wastes of the
+chapadao, which is a healthy region, where great industrial centres
+can arise, but not suited for extensive agriculture as are the lowland
+flats. For these forty-eight hours the trail climbed into and out of
+steep valleys and broad basins and up and down hills. In the deep
+valleys were magnificent woods, in which giant rubber-trees towered,
+while the huge leaves of the low-growing pacova, or wild banana, were
+conspicuous in the undergrowth. Great azure butterflies flitted
+through the open, sunny glades, and the bellbirds, sitting
+motionless, uttered their ringing calls from the dark stillness of the
+columned groves. The hillsides were grassy pastures or else covered
+with low, open forest.
+
+A huge frog, brown above, with a light streak down each side, was
+found hiding under some sticks in a damp place in one of the
+improvised kitchens; and another frog, with disks on his toes, was
+caught on one of the tents. A coral-snake puzzled us. Some coral-
+snakes are harmless; others are poisonous, although not aggressive.
+The best authorities give an infallible recipe for distinguishing them
+by the pattern of the colors, but this particular specimen, although
+it corresponded exactly in color pattern with the description of the
+poisonous snakes, nevertheless had no poison-fangs that even after the
+most minute examination we could discover. Miller and one of the dogs
+caught a sariema, a big, long-legged, bustard-like bird, in rather a
+curious way. We were on the march, plodding along through as heavy a
+tropic downpour as it was our ill fortune to encounter. The sariema,
+evidently as drenched and uncomfortable as we were, was hiding under a
+bush to avoid the pelting rain. The dog discovered it, and after the
+bird valiantly repelled him, Miller was able to seize it. Its stomach
+contained about half a pint of grass-hoppers and beetles and young
+leaves. At Vilhena there was a tame sariema, much more familiar and at
+home than any of the poultry. It was without the least fear of man or
+dog. The sariema (like the screamer and the curassow) ought to be
+introduced into our barnyards and on our lawns, at any rate in the
+Southern States; it is a good-looking, friendly, and attractive bird.
+Another bird we met is in some places far more intimate, and
+domesticates itself. This is the pretty little honey-creeper. In
+Colombia Miller found the honey-creepers habitually coming inside the
+houses and hotels at meal-times, hopping about the table, and climbing
+into the sugar-bowl.
+
+Along this part of our march there was much of what at a hasty glance
+seemed to be volcanic rock; but Oliveira showed me that it was a kind
+of conglomerate, with bubbles or hollows in it, made of sand and iron-
+bearing earth. He said it was a superficial quaternary deposit formed
+by erosion from the cretaceous rocks, and that there were here no
+tertiary deposits. He described the geological structure of the lands
+through which we had passed as follows: The pantanals were of
+Pleistocene age. Along the upper Sepotuba, in the region of the
+rapids, there were sandstones, shales, and clays of Permian age. The
+rolling country east of this contained eruptive rocks--a porphyritic
+disbase, with zeolite, quartz, and agate of Triassic age. With the
+chapadao of the Parecis plateau we came to a land of sand and clay,
+dotted with lumps of sandstone and pieces of petrified wood; this,
+according to Oliveira, is of Mesozoic age, possibly cretaceous and
+similar to the South African formation. There are geologists who
+consider it as of Permian age.
+
+At Vilhena we were on a watershed which drained into the Gy-Parana,
+which itself runs into the Madeira nearly midway between its sources
+and its mouth. A little farther along and northward we again came to
+streams running ultimately into the Tapajos; and between them, and
+close to them, were streamlets which drained into the Duvida and
+Ananas, whose courses and outlets were unknown. This point is part of
+the divide between the basins of the Madeira and Tapajos. A singular
+topographical feature of the Plan Alto, the great interior sandy
+plateau of Brazil, is that at its westernmost end the southward
+flowing streams, instead of running into the Paraguay as they do
+farther east, form the headwaters of the Guapore, which may, perhaps,
+be called the upper main stream of the Madeira. These westernmost
+streams from the southern edge of the plateau, therefore, begin by
+flowing south; then for a long stretch they flow southwest; then
+north, and finally northeast into the Amazon. According to some
+exceptionally good geological observers, this is probably due to the
+fact that in a remote geologic past the ocean sent in an arm from the
+south, between the Plan Alto and what is now the Andean chain. These
+rivers then emptied into the Andean Sea. The gradual upheaval of the
+soil has resulted in substituting dry land for this arm of the ocean
+and in reversing the course of what is now the Madeira, just as,
+according to these geologists, in somewhat familiar fashion the Amazon
+has been reversed, it having once been, at least for the upper two
+thirds of its course, an affluent of the Andean Sea.
+
+From Vilhena we travelled in a generally northward direction. For a
+few leagues we went across the chapadao, the sands or clays of the
+nearly level upland plateau, grassy or covered with thin, stunted
+forest, the same type of country that had been predominant ever since
+we ascended the Parecis table-land on the morning of the third day
+after leaving the Sepotuba. Then, at about the point where the trail
+dipped into a basin containing the head-springs of the Ananas, we left
+this type of country and began to march through thick forest, not very
+high. There was little feed for the animals on the Chapadao. There was
+less in the forest. Moreover, the continual heavy rains made the
+travelling difficult and laborious for them, and they weakened.
+However, a couple of marches before we reached Tres Burity, where
+there is a big ranch with hundreds of cattle, we were met by ten fresh
+pack-oxen, and our serious difficulties were over.
+
+There were piums in plenty by day, but neither mosquitoes nor sand-flies
+by night; and for us the trip was very pleasant, save for moments of
+anxiety about the mules. The loose bullocks furnished us abundance of
+fresh beef, although, as was inevitable under the circumstances, of a
+decidedly tough quality. One of the biggest of the bullocks was
+attacked one night by a vampire bat, and next morning his withers were
+literally bathed in blood.
+
+With the chapadao we said good-by to the curious, gregarious, and
+crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which we found so abundant along the
+line of the telegraph wire. They have offered one of the small
+problems with which the commission has had to deal. They are not
+common in the dry season. They swarm during the rains; and, when their
+tough webs are wet, those that lead from the wire to the ground
+sometimes effectually short circuit the wire. They have on various
+occasions caused a good deal of trouble in this manner.
+
+The third night out from Vilhena we emerged for a moment from the
+endless close-growing forest in which our poor animals got such scanty
+pickings, and came to a beautiful open country, where grassy slopes,
+dotted with occasional trees, came down on either side of a little
+brook which was one of the headwaters of the Duvida. It was a pleasure
+to see the mules greedily bury their muzzles in the pasturage. Our
+tents were pitched in the open, near a shady tree, which sent out its
+low branches on every side. At this camp Cherrie shot a lark, very
+characteristic of the open upland country, and Miller found two bats
+in the rotten wood of a dead log. He heard them squeaking and dug them
+out; he could not tell by what method they had gotten in.
+
+Here Kermit, while a couple of miles from our tents, came across an
+encampment of Nhambiquaras. There were twenty or thirty of them--men,
+women, and a few children. Kermit, after the manner of honest folk in
+the wilderness, advanced ostentatiously in the open, calling out to
+give warning of his coming. Like surroundings may cause like manners.
+The early Saxons in England deemed it legal to kill any man who came
+through the woods without shouting or blowing a horn; and in
+Nhambiquara land at the present time it is against etiquette, and may
+be very unhealthy, to come through the woods toward strangers without
+loudly announcing one's presence. The Nhambiquaras received Kermit
+with the utmost cordiality, and gave him pineapple-wine to drink. They
+were stark naked as usual; they had no hammocks or blankets, and their
+huts were flimsy shelters of palm-branches. Yet they were in fine
+condition. Half a dozen of the men and a couple of boys accompanied
+Kermit back to our camp, paying not slightest heed to the rain which
+was falling. They were bold and friendly, good-natured--at least
+superficially--and very inquisitive. In feasting, the long reeds
+thrust through holes in their lips did not seem to bother them, and
+they laughed at the suggestion of removing them; evidently to have
+done so would have been rather bad manners--like using a knife as an
+aid in eating ice-cream. They held two or three dances, and we were
+again struck by the rhythm and weird, haunting melody of their
+chanting. After supper they danced beside the camp-fire; and finally,
+to their delight, most of the members of our own party, Americans and
+Brazilians, enthusiastically joined the dance, while the colonel and I
+furnished an appreciative and applauding audience. Next morning, when
+we were awakened by the chattering and screaming of the numerous
+macaws, parrots, and parakeets, we found that nearly all the Indians,
+men and women, were gathered outside the tent. As far as clothing was
+concerned, they were in the condition of Adam and Eve before the fall.
+One of the women carried a little squirrel monkey. She put it up the
+big tree some distance from the tents; and when she called, it came
+scampering to her across the grass, ran up her, and clung to her neck.
+They would have liked to pilfer; but as they had no clothes it was
+difficult for them to conceal anything. One of the women was observed
+to take a fork; but as she did not possess a rag of clothing of any
+kind all she did do was to try to bury the fork in the sand and then
+sit on it; and it was reclaimed without difficulty. One or two of the
+children wore necklaces and bracelets made of the polished wood of the
+tucum palm, and of the molars of small rodents.
+
+Next day's march led us across a hilly country of good pastureland.
+The valleys were densely wooded, palms of several kinds being
+conspicuous among the other trees; and the brooks at the bottoms we
+crossed at fords or by the usual rude pole bridges. On the open
+pastures were occasional trees, usually slender bacaba palms, with
+heads which the winds had dishevelled until they looked like mops. It
+was evidently a fine natural cattle country, and we soon began to see
+scores, perhaps hundreds, of the cattle belonging to the government
+ranch at Tres Burity, which we reached in the early afternoon. It is
+beautifully situated: the view roundabout is lovely, and certainly the
+land will prove healthy when settlements have been definitely
+established. Here we revelled in abundance of good fresh milk and
+eggs; and for dinner we had chicken canja and fat beef roasted on big
+wooden spits; and we even had watermelons. The latter were from seeds
+brought down by the American engineers who built the Madeira Marmore
+Railroad--a work which stands honorably distinguished among the many
+great and useful works done in the development of the tropics of
+recent years.
+
+Amilcar's pack-oxen, which were nearly worn out, had been left in
+these fertile pastures. Most of the fresh oxen which he took in their
+places were unbroken, and there was a perfect circus before they were
+packed and marched off; in every direction, said the gleeful
+narrators, there were bucking oxen and loads strewed on the ground.
+This cattle ranch is managed by the colonel's uncle, his mother's
+brother, a hale old man of seventy, white-haired but as active and
+vigorous as ever; with a fine, kindly, intelligent face. His name is
+Miguel Evangalista. He is a native of Matto Grosso, of practically
+pure Indian blood, and was dressed in the ordinary costume of the
+Caboclo--hat, shirt, trousers, and no shoes or stockings. Within the
+last year he had killed three jaguars, which had been living on the
+mules; as long as they could get mules they did not at this station
+molest the cattle.
+
+It was with this uncle's father, Colonel Rondon's own grandfather,
+that Colonel Rondon as an orphan spent the first seven years of his
+life. His father died before he was born, and his mother when he was
+only a year old. He lived on his grandfather's cattle-ranch, some
+fifty miles from Cuyaba. Then he went to live in Cuyaba with a kinsman
+on his father's side, from whom he took the name of Rondon; his own
+father's name was DaSilva. He studied in the Cuyaba Government School,
+and at sixteen was inscribed as one of the instructors. Then he went
+to Rio, served for a year in the army as an enlisted man in the ranks,
+and succeeded finally in getting into the military school. After five
+years as pupil he served three years as professor of mathematics in
+this school; and then, as a lieutenant of engineers in the Brazilian
+army, he came back to his home in Matto Grosso and began his life-work
+of exploring the wilderness.
+
+Next day we journeyed to the telegraph station at Bonofacio, through
+alternate spells of glaring sunshine and heavy rain. On the way we
+stopped at an aldea-village of Nhambiquaras. We first met a couple of
+men going to hunt, with bows and arrows longer than themselves. A
+rather comely young woman, carrying on her back a wickerwork basket,
+or creel, supported by a forehead band, and accompanied by a small
+child, was with them. At the village there were a number of men,
+women, and children. Although as completely naked as the others we had
+met, the members of this band were more ornamented with beads, and
+wore earrings made from the inside of mussel-shells or very big snail-
+shells. They were more hairy than the ones we had so far met. The
+women, but not the men, completely remove the hair from their bodies--
+and look more, instead of less, indecent in consequence. The chief,
+whose body was painted red with the juice of a fruit, had what could
+fairly be styled a mustache and imperial; and one old man looked
+somewhat like a hairy Ainu, or perhaps even more like an Australian
+black fellow. My companion told me that this probably represented an
+infusion of negro blood, and possibly of mulatto blood, from runaway
+slaves of the old days, when some of the Matto Grosso mines were
+worked by slave labor. They also thought it possible that this
+infiltration of African negroes might be responsible for the curious
+shape of the bigger huts, which were utterly unlike their flimsy,
+ordinary shelters, and bore no resemblance in shape to those of the
+other Indian tribes of this region; whereas they were not unlike the
+ordinary beehive huts of the agricultural African negroes. There were
+in this village several huts or shelters open at the sides, and two of
+the big huts. These were of closely woven thatch, circular in outline,
+with a rounded dome, and two doors a couple of feet high opposite each
+other, and no other opening. There were fifteen or twenty people to
+each hut. Inside were their implements and utensils, such as wicker
+baskets (some of them filled with pineapples), gourds, fire-sticks,
+wooden knives, wooden mortars, and a board for grating mandioc, made
+of a thick slab of wood inset with sharp points of a harder wood. From
+the Brazilians one or two of them had obtained blankets, and one a
+hammock; and they had also obtained knives, which they sorely needed,
+for they are not even in the stone age. One woman shielded herself
+from the rain by holding a green palm-branch down her back. Another
+had on her head what we at first thought to be a monkey-skin head-
+dress. But it was a little, live, black monkey. It stayed habitually
+with its head above her forehead, and its arms and legs spread so that
+it lay moulded to the shape of her head; but both woman and monkey
+showed some reluctance about having their photographs taken.
+
+Bonofacio consisted of several thatched one-room cabins, connected by
+a stockade which was extended to form an enclosure behind them. A
+number of tame parrots and parakeets, of several different species,
+scrambled over the roofs and entered the houses. In the open pastures
+near by were the curious, extensive burrows of a gopher rat, which ate
+the roots of grass, not emerging to eat the grass but pulling it into
+the burrows by the roots. These burrows bore a close likeness to those
+of our pocket gophers. Miller found the animals difficult to trap.
+Finally, by the aid of Colonel Rondon, several Indians, and two or
+three of our men, he dug one out. From the central shaft several
+surface galleries radiated, running for many rods about a foot below
+the surface, with, at intervals of half a dozen yards, mounds where
+the loose earth had been expelled. The central shaft ran straight down
+for about eight feet, and then laterally for about fifteen feet, to a
+kind of chamber. The animal dug hard to escape, but when taken and put
+on the surface of the ground it moved slowly and awkwardly. It showed
+vicious courage. In looks it closely resembled our pocket gophers, but
+it had no pockets. This was one of the most interesting small mammals
+that we secured.
+
+After breakfast at Bonofacio a number of Nhambiquaras--men, women, and
+children--strolled in. The men gave us an exhibition of not very good
+archery; when the bow was bent, it was at first held so that the arrow
+pointed straight upwards and was then lowered so that the arrow was
+aimed at the target. Several of the women had been taken from other
+tribes, after their husbands or fathers had been killed; for the
+Nhambiquaras are light-hearted robbers and murderers. Two or three
+miserable dogs accompanied them, half-starved and mangy, but each
+decorated with a collar of beads. The headmen had three or four wives
+apiece, and the women were the burden-bearers, but apparently were not
+badly treated. Most of them were dirty, although well-fed looking, and
+their features were of a low type; but some, especially among the
+children, were quite attractive.
+
+From Bonofacio we went about seven miles, across a rolling prairie
+dotted with trees and clumps of shrub. There, on February 24, we
+joined Amilcar, who was camped by a brook which flowed into the
+Duvida. We were only some six miles from our place of embarkation on
+the Duvida, and we divided our party and our belongings. Amilcar,
+Miller, Mello, and Oliveira were to march three days to the Gy-Parana,
+and then descend it, and continue down the Madeira to Manaos. Rondon,
+Lyra, the doctor, Cherrie, Kermit, and I, with sixteen paddlers, in
+seven canoes, were to descend the Duvida, and find out whether it led
+into the Gy-Parana, our purpose was to return and descend the Ananas,
+whose outlet was also unknown. Having this in view, we left a
+fortnight's provisions for our party of six at Bonofacio. We took with
+us provisions for about fifty days; not full rations, for we hoped in
+part to live on the country--on fish, game, nuts, and palm-tops. Our
+personal baggage was already well cut down: Cherrie, Kermit, and I
+took the naturalist's fly to sleep under, and a very light little tent
+extra for any one who might fall sick. Rondon, Lyra, and the doctor
+took one of their own tents. The things that we carried were
+necessities--food, medicines, bedding, instruments for determining the
+altitude and longitude and latitude--except a few books, each in small
+compass: Lyra's were in German, consisting of two tiny volumes of
+Goethe and Schiller; Kermit's were in Portuguese; mine, all in
+English, included the last two volumes of Gibbon, the plays of
+Sophocles, More's "Utopia," Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, the two
+latter lent me by a friend, Major Shipton of the regulars, our
+military attache at Buenos Aires.
+
+If our canoe voyage was prosperous we would gradually lighten the
+loads by eating the provisions. If we met with accidents, such as
+losing canoes and men in the rapids, or losing men in encounters with
+Indians, or if we encountered overmuch fever and dysentery, the loads
+would lighten themselves. We were all armed. We took no cartridges for
+sport. Cherrie had some to be used sparingly for collecting specimens.
+The others were to be used--unless in the unlikely event of having to
+repel an attack--only to procure food. The food and the arms we
+carried represented all reasonable precautions against suffering and
+starvation; but, of course, if the course of the river proved very
+long and difficult, if we lost our boats over falls or in rapids, or
+had to make too many and too long portages, or were brought to a halt
+by impassable swamps, then we would have to reckon with starvation as
+a possibility. Anything might happen. We were about to go into the
+unknown, and no one could say what it held.
+
+  NOTE:
+  The first four days, before we struck the upper rapids, and during
+  which we made nearly seventy kilometres, are of course not included
+  when I speak of our making our way down the rapids.
+
+I hope that this year the Ananas, or Pineapple, will also be put on
+the map. One of Colonel Rondon's subordinates is to attempt the
+descent of the river. We passed the headwaters of the Pineapple on the
+high plateau, very possibly we passed its mouth, although it is also
+possible that it empties into the Canama or Tapajos. But it will not
+be "put on the map" until some one descends and finds out where, as a
+matter of fact, it really does go.
+
+It would be well if a geographical society of standing would
+investigate the formal and official charges made by Colonel Rondon, an
+officer and gentleman of the highest repute, against Mr. Savage
+Landor. Colonel Rondon, in an official report to the Brazilian
+Government, has written a scathing review of Mr. Landor. He states
+that Mr. Savage Landor did not perform, and did not even attempt to
+perform, the work he had contracted to do in exploration for the
+Brazilian Government. Mr. Landor had asserted and promised that he
+would go through unknown country along the line of eleven degrees
+latitude south, and, as Colonel Rondon states, it was because of this
+proposal of his that the Brazilian Government gave him material
+financial assistance in advance. However, Colonel Rondon sets forth
+that Mr. Landor did not keep his word or make any serious effort to
+fulfil his moral obligation to do as he had said he would do. In a
+letter to me under date of May 1, 1914--a letter which has been
+published in full in France--Colonel Rondon goes at length into the
+question of what territory Mr. Landor had traversed. Colonel Rondon
+states that--excepting on one occasion, when Mr. Landor, wandering off
+a beaten trail, immediately got lost and shortly returned to his
+starting-point without making any discoveries--he kept to old, well-
+travelled routes. One sentence of the colonel's letter to me runs as
+follows: "I can guarantee to you that in Brazil Mr. Landor did not
+cross a hand's breadth of land that had not been explored, the greater
+part of it many centuries ago." As regards Mr. Landor's sole and brief
+experience in leaving a beaten route, Colonel Rondon states that at
+Sao Manoel Mr. Landor engaged from Senhor Jose Sotero Barreto (the
+revenue officer of Matto Grosso, at Sao Manoel) a guide to lead him
+across a well-travelled trail which connects the Tapajos with the
+Madeira via the Canama. The guide, however, got lost, and after a few
+days they all returned to the point of departure instead of going
+through to the Canama.
+
+Senhor Barreto, a gentleman of high standing, related this last
+incident to Fiala when Fiala descended the Tapajos (and, by the way,
+Fiala's trip down the Papagaio, Juruena, and Tapajos was infinitely
+more important than all the work Mr. Landor did in South America put
+together). Lieutenants Pyrineus and Mello, mentioned in the body of
+this work, informed me that they accompanied Mr. Landor on most of his
+overland trip before he embarked on the Arinos, and that he simply
+followed the highroad or else the telegraph-line, and furthermore,
+Colonel Rondon states that the Indians whom Mr. Landor encountered and
+photographed were those educated at the missions.
+
+Colonel Rondon's official report to the Brazilian Government and his
+letter to me are of interest to all geographers and other scientific
+men who have any concern with the alleged discoveries of Mr. Landor.
+They contain very grave charges, with which it is not necessary for me
+to deal. Suffice it to say that Mr. Landor's accounts of his alleged
+exploration cannot be considered as entitled to the slightest serious
+consideration until he has satisfactorily and in detail answered
+Colonel Rondon; and this he has thus far signally failed to do.
+
+Fortunately, there are numerous examples of exactly the opposite type
+of work. From the days of Humboldt and Spix and Martius to the present
+time, German explorers have borne a conspicuous part in the
+exploration of South America. As representatives of the men and women
+who have done such capital work, who have fronted every hazard and
+hardship and labored in the scientific spirit, and who have added
+greatly to our fund of geographic, biologic, and ethnographic
+knowledge, I may mention Miss Snethlage and Herr Karl von den Steinen.
+
+
+
+                       VIII. THE RIVER OF DOUBT
+
+On February 27, 1914, shortly after midday, we started down the River
+of Doubt into the unknown. We were quite uncertain whether after a
+week we should find ourselves in the Gy-Parana, or after six weeks in
+the Madeira, or after three months we knew not where. That was why the
+river was rightly christened the Duvida.
+
+We had been camped close to the river, where the trail that follows
+the telegraph line crosses it by a rough bridge. As our laden dugouts
+swung into the stream, Amilcar and Miller and all the others of the
+Gy-Parana party were on the banks and the bridge to wave farewell and
+wish us good-by and good luck. It was the height of the rainy season,
+and the swollen torrent was swift and brown. Our camp was at about 12
+degrees 1 minute latitude south and 60 degrees 15 minutes longitude
+west of Greenwich. Our general course was to be northward toward the
+equator, by waterway through the vast forest.
+
+We had seven canoes, all of them dugouts. One was small, one was
+cranky, and two were old, waterlogged, and leaky. The other three were
+good. The two old canoes were lashed together, and the cranky one was
+lashed to one of the others. Kermit with two paddlers went in the
+smallest of the good canoes; Colonel Rondon and Lyra with three other
+paddlers in the next largest; and the doctor, Cherrie, and I in the
+largest with three paddlers. The remaining eight camaradas--there were
+sixteen in all--were equally divided between our two pairs of lashed
+canoes. Although our personal baggage was cut down to the limit
+necessary for health and efficiency, yet on such a trip as ours, where
+scientific work has to be done and where food for twenty-two men for
+an unknown period of time has to be carried, it is impossible not to
+take a good deal of stuff; and the seven dugouts were too heavily
+laden.
+
+The paddlers were a strapping set. They were expert rivermen and men
+of the forest, skilled veterans in wilderness work. They were lithe as
+panthers and brawny as bears. They swam like waterdogs. They were
+equally at home with pole and paddle, with axe and machete; and one
+was a good cook and others were good men around camp. They looked like
+pirates in the pictures of Howard Pyle or Maxfield Parrish; one or two
+of them were pirates, and one worse than a pirate; but most of them
+were hard-working, willing, and cheerful. They were white,--or,
+rather, the olive of southern Europe,--black, copper-colored, and of
+all intermediate shades. In my canoe Luiz the steersman, the headman,
+was a Matto Grosso negro; Julio the bowsman was from Bahia and of pure
+Portuguese blood; and the third man, Antonio, was a Parecis Indian.
+
+The actual surveying of the river was done by Colonel Rondon and Lyra,
+with Kermit as their assistant. Kermit went first in his little canoe
+with the sighting-rod, on which two disks, one red and one white, were
+placed a metre apart. He selected a place which commanded as long
+vistas as possible up-stream and down, and which therefore might be at
+the angle of a bend; landed; cut away the branches which obstructed
+the view; and set up the sighting-pole--incidentally encountering
+maribundi wasps and swarms of biting and stinging ants. Lyra, from his
+station up-stream, with his telemetre established the distance, while
+Colonel Rondon with the compass took the direction, and made the
+records. Then they moved on to the point Kermit had left, and Kermit
+established a new point within their sight. The first half-day's work
+was slow. The general course of the stream was a trifle east of north,
+but at short intervals it bent and curved literally toward every point
+of the compass. Kermit landed nearly a hundred times, and we made but
+nine and a third kilometres.
+
+My canoe ran ahead of the surveying canoes. The height of the water
+made the going easy, for most of the snags and fallen trees were well
+beneath the surface. Now and then, however, the swift water hurried us
+toward ripples that marked ugly spikes of sunken timber, or toward
+uprooted trees that stretched almost across the stream. Then the
+muscles stood out on the backs and arms of the paddlers as stroke on
+stroke they urged us away from and past the obstacle. If the leaning
+or fallen trees were the thorny, slender-stemmed boritana palms, which
+love the wet, they were often, although plunged beneath the river, in
+full and vigorous growth, their stems curving upward, and their frond-
+crowned tops shaken by the rushing water. It was interesting work, for
+no civilized man, no white man, had ever gone down or up this river or
+seen the country through which we were passing. The lofty and matted
+forest rose like a green wall on either hand. The trees were stately
+and beautiful. The looped and twisted vines hung from them like great
+ropes. Masses of epiphytes grew both on the dead trees and the living;
+some had huge leaves like elephants' ears. Now and then fragrant
+scents were blown to us from flowers on the banks. There were not many
+birds, and for the most part the forest was silent; rarely we heard
+strange calls from the depths of the woods, or saw a cormorant or
+ibis.
+
+My canoe ran only a couple of hours. Then we halted to wait for the
+others. After a couple of hours more, as the surveyors had not turned
+up, we landed and made camp at a spot where the bank rose sharply for
+a hundred yards to a level stretch of ground. Our canoes were moored
+to trees. The axemen cleared a space for the tents; they were pitched,
+the baggage was brought up, and fires were kindled. The woods were
+almost soundless. Through them ran old tapir trails, but there was no
+fresh sign. Before nightfall the surveyors arrived. There were a few
+piums and gnats, and a few mosquitoes after dark, but not enough to
+make us uncomfortable. The small stingless bees, of slightly aromatic
+odor, swarmed while daylight lasted and crawled over our faces and
+hands; they were such tame, harmless little things that when they
+tickled too much I always tried to brush them away without hurting
+them. But they became a great nuisance after a while. It had been
+raining at intervals, and the weather was overcast; but after the sun
+went down the sky cleared. The stars were brilliant overhead, and the
+new moon hung in the west. It was a pleasant night, the air almost
+cool, and we slept soundly.
+
+Next morning the two surveying canoes left immediately after
+breakfast. An hour later the two pairs of lashed canoes pushed off. I
+kept our canoe to let Cherrie collect, for in the early hours we could
+hear a number of birds in the woods near by. The most interesting
+birds he shot were a cotinga, brilliant turquoise-blue with a magenta-
+purple throat, and a big woodpecker, black above and cinnamon below
+with an entirely red head and neck. It was almost noon before we
+started. We saw a few more birds; there were fresh tapir and paca
+tracks at one point where we landed; once we heard howler monkeys from
+the depth of the forest, and once we saw a big otter in midstream. As
+we drifted and paddled down the swirling brown current, through the
+vivid rain-drenched green of the tropic forest, the trees leaned over
+the river from both banks. When those that had fallen in the river at
+some narrow point were very tall, or where it happened that two fell
+opposite each other, they formed barriers which the men in the leading
+canoes cleared with their axes. There were many palms, both the burity
+with its stiff fronds like enormous fans, and a handsome species of
+bacaba, with very long, gracefully curving fronds. In places the palms
+stood close together, towering and slender, their stems a stately
+colonnade, their fronds an arched fretwork against the sky.
+Butterflies of many hues fluttered over the river. The day was
+overcast, with showers of rain. When the sun broke through rifts in
+the clouds, his shafts turned the forest to gold.
+
+In mid-afternoon we came to the mouth of a big and swift affluent
+entering from the right. It was undoubtedly the Bandeira, which we had
+crossed well toward its head, some ten days before, on our road to
+Bonofacio. The Nhambiquaras had then told Colonel Rondon that it
+flowed into the Duvida. After its junction, with the added volume of
+water, the river widened without losing its depth. It was so high that
+it had overflowed and stood among the trees on the lower levels. Only
+the higher stretches were dry. On the sheer banks where we landed we
+had to push the canoes for yards or rods through the branches of the
+submerged trees, hacking and hewing. There were occasional bays and
+ox-bows from which the current had shifted. In these the coarse marsh
+grass grew tall.
+
+This evening we made camp on a flat of dry ground, densely wooded, of
+course, directly on the edge of the river and five feet above it. It
+was fine to see the speed and sinewy ease with which the choppers
+cleared an open space for the tents. Next morning, when we bathed
+before sunrise, we dived into deep water right from the shore, and
+from the moored canoes. This second day we made sixteen and a half
+kilometres along the course of the river, and nine kilometres in a
+straight line almost due north.
+
+The following day, March 1, there was much rain--sometimes showers,
+sometimes vertical sheets of water. Our course was somewhat west of
+north and we made twenty and a half kilometres. We passed signs of
+Indian habitation. There were abandoned palm-leaf shelters on both
+banks. On the left bank we came to two or three old Indian fields,
+grown up with coarse fern and studded with the burned skeletons of
+trees. At the mouth of a brook which entered from the right some
+sticks stood in the water, marking the site of an old fish-trap. At
+one point we found the tough vine hand-rail of an Indian bridge
+running right across the river, a couple of feet above it. Evidently
+the bridge had been built at low water. Three stout poles had been
+driven into the stream-bed in a line at right angles to the current.
+The bridge had consisted of poles fastened to these supports, leading
+between them and from the support at each end to the banks. The rope
+of tough vines had been stretched as a hand-rail, necessary with such
+precarious footing. The rise of the river had swept away the bridge,
+but the props and the rope hand-rail remained. In the afternoon, from
+the boat, Cherrie shot a large dark-gray monkey with a prehensile
+tail. It was very good eating.
+
+We camped on a dry level space, but a few feet above, and close
+beside, the river--so that our swimming-bath was handy. The trees were
+cleared and camp was made with orderly hurry. One of the men almost
+stepped on a poisonous coral-snake, which would have been a serious
+thing, as his feet were bare. But I had on stout shoes, and the fangs
+of these serpents--unlike those of the pit-vipers--are too short to
+penetrate good leather. I promptly put my foot on him, and he bit my
+shoe with harmless venom. It has been said that the brilliant hues of
+the coral-snake when in its native haunts really confer on it a
+concealing coloration. In the dark and tangled woods, and to an only
+less extent in the ordinary varied landscape, anything motionless,
+especially if partially hidden, easily eludes the eye. But against the
+dark-brown mould of the forest floor on which we found this coral-
+snake its bright and varied coloration was distinctly revealing;
+infinitely more so than the duller mottling of the jararaca and other
+dangerous snakes of the genus lachecis. In the same place, however, we
+found a striking example of genuine protective or mimetic coloration
+and shape. A rather large insect larva--at least we judged it to be a
+larval form, but we were none of us entomologists--bore a resemblance
+to a partially curled dry leaf which was fairly startling. The tail
+exactly resembled the stem or continuation of the midrib of the dead
+leaf. The flattened body was curled up at the sides, and veined and
+colored precisely like the leaf. The head, colored like the leaf,
+projected in front.
+
+We were still in the Brazilian highlands. The forest did not teem with
+life. It was generally rather silent; we did not hear such a chorus of
+birds and mammals as we had occasionally heard even on our overland
+journey, when more than once we had been awakened at dawn by the
+howling, screaming, yelping, and chattering of monkeys, toucans,
+macaws, parrots, and parakeets. There were, however, from time to
+time, queer sounds from the forest, and after nightfall different
+kinds of frogs and insects uttered strange cries and calls. In volume
+and frequency these seemed to increase until midnight. Then they died
+away and before dawn everything was silent.
+
+At this camp the carregadores ants completely devoured the doctor's
+undershirt, and ate holes in his mosquito-net; and they also ate the
+strap of Lyra's gun-case. The little stingless bees, of many kinds,
+swarmed in such multitudes, and were so persevering, that we had to
+wear our head-nets when we wrote or skinned specimens.
+
+The following day was almost without rain. It was delightful to drift
+and paddle slowly down the beautiful tropical river. Until mid-
+afternoon the current was not very fast, and the broad, deep, placid
+stream bent and curved in every direction, although the general course
+was northwest. The country was flat, and more of the land was under
+than above water. Continually we found ourselves travelling between
+stretches of marshy forest where for miles the water stood or ran
+among the trees. Once we passed a hillock. We saw brilliantly colored
+parakeets and trogons. At last the slow current quickened. Faster it
+went, and faster, until it began to run like a mill-race, and we heard
+the roar of rapids ahead. We pulled to the right bank, moored the
+canoes, and while most of the men pitched camp two or three of them
+accompanied us to examine the rapids. We had made twenty kilometres.
+
+We soon found that the rapids were a serious obstacle. There were many
+curls, and one or two regular falls, perhaps six feet high. It would
+have been impossible to run them, and they stretched for nearly a
+mile. The carry, however, which led through woods and over rocks in a
+nearly straight line, was somewhat shorter. It was not an easy portage
+over which to carry heavy loads and drag heavy dugout canoes. At the
+point where the descent was steepest there were great naked flats of
+friable sandstone and conglomerate. Over parts of these, where there
+was a surface of fine sand, there was a growth of coarse grass. Other
+parts were bare and had been worn by the weather into fantastic
+shapes--one projection looked like an old-fashioned beaver hat upside
+down. In this place, where the naked flats of rock showed the
+projection of the ledge through which the river had cut its course,
+the torrent rushed down a deep, sheer-sided, and extremely narrow
+channel. At one point it was less than two yards across, and for quite
+a distance not more than five or six yards. Yet only a mile or two
+above the rapids the deep, placid river was at least a hundred yards
+wide. It seemed extraordinary, almost impossible, that so broad a
+river could in so short a space of time contract its dimensions to the
+width of the strangled channel through which it now poured its entire
+volume.
+
+This has for long been a station where the Nhambiquaras at intervals
+built their ephemeral villages and tilled the soil with the rude and
+destructive cultivation of savages. There were several abandoned old
+fields, where the dense growth of rank fern hid the tangle of burnt
+and fallen logs. Nor had the Nhambiquaras been long absent. In one
+trail we found what gypsies would have called a "pateran," a couple of
+branches arranged crosswise, eight leaves to a branch; it had some
+special significance, belonging to that class of signals, each with
+some peculiar and often complicated meaning, which are commonly used
+by many wild peoples. The Indians had thrown a simple bridge,
+consisting of four long poles, without a hand-rail, across one of the
+narrowest parts of the rock gorge through which the river foamed in
+its rapid descent. This sub-tribe of Indians was called the Navaite;
+we named the rapids after them, Navaite Rapids. By observation Lyra
+found them to be (in close approximation to) latitude 11 degrees 44
+minutes south and longitude 60 degrees 18 minutes west from Greenwich.
+
+We spent March 3 and 4 and the morning of the 5th in portaging around
+the rapids. The first night we camped in the forest beside the spot
+where we had halted. Next morning we moved the baggage to the foot of
+the rapids, where we intended to launch the canoes, and pitched our
+tents on the open sandstone flat. It rained heavily. The little bees
+were in such swarms as to be a nuisance. Many small stinging bees were
+with them, which stung badly. We were bitten by huge horse-flies, the
+size of bumblebees. More serious annoyance was caused by the pium and
+boroshuda flies during the hours of daylight, and by the polvora, the
+sand-flies, after dark. There were a few mosquitoes. The boroshudas
+were the worst pests; they brought the blood at once, and left marks
+that lasted for weeks. I did my writing in head-net and gauntlets.
+Fortunately we had with us several bottles of "fly dope"--so named on
+the label--put up, with the rest of our medicine, by Doctor Alexander
+Lambert; he had tested it in the north woods and found it excellent. I
+had never before been forced to use such an ointment, and had been
+reluctant to take it with me; but now I was glad enough to have it,
+and we all of us found it exceedingly useful. I would never again go
+into mosquito or sand-fly country without it. The effect of an
+application wears off after half an hour or so, and under many
+conditions, as when one is perspiring freely, it is of no use; but
+there are times when minute mosquitoes and gnats get through head-nets
+and under mosquito-bars, and when the ointments occasionally renewed
+may permit one to get sleep or rest which would otherwise be
+impossible of attainment. The termites got into our tent on the sand-
+flat, ate holes in Cherrie's mosquito-net and poncho, and were
+starting to work at our duffel-bags, when we discovered them.
+
+Packing the loads across was simple. Dragging the heavy dugouts was
+labor. The biggest of the two water-logged ones was the heaviest. Lyra
+and Kermit did the job. All the men were employed at it except the
+cook, and one man who was down with fever. A road was chopped through
+the forest and a couple of hundred stout six-foot poles, or small
+logs, were cut as rollers and placed about two yards apart. With block
+and tackle the seven dugouts were hoisted out of the river up the
+steep banks, and up the rise of ground until the level was reached.
+Then the men harnessed themselves two by two on the drag-rope, while
+one of their number pried behind with a lever, and the canoe, bumping
+and sliding, was twitched through the woods. Over the sandstone flats
+there were some ugly ledges, but on the whole the course was down-hill
+and relatively easy. Looking at the way the work was done, at the
+good-will, the endurance, and the bull-like strength of the camaradas,
+and at the intelligence and the unwearied efforts of their commanders,
+one could but wonder at the ignorance of those who do not realize the
+energy and the power that are so often possessed by, and that may be
+so readily developed in, the men of the tropics. Another subject of
+perpetual wonder is the attitude of certain men who stay at home, and
+still more the attitude of certain men who travel under easy
+conditions, and who belittle the achievements of the real explorers
+of, the real adventures in, the great wilderness. The impostors and
+romancers among explorers or would-be explorers and wilderness
+wanderers have been unusually prominent in connection with South
+America (although the conspicuous ones are not South Americans, by the
+way); and these are fit subjects for condemnation and derision. But
+the work of the genuine explorer and wilderness wanderer is fraught
+with fatigue, hardship, and danger. Many of the men of little
+knowledge talk glibly of portaging as if it were simple and easy. A
+portage over rough and unknown ground is always a work of difficulty
+and of some risk to the canoe; and in the untrodden, or even in the
+unfrequented, wilderness risk to the canoe is a serious matter. This
+particular portage at Navaite Rapids was far from being unusually
+difficult; yet it not only cost two and a half days of severe and
+incessant labor, but it cost something in damage to the canoes. One in
+particular, the one in which I had been journeying, was split in a
+manner which caused us serious uneasiness as to how long, even after
+being patched, it would last. Where the canoes were launched, the bank
+was sheer, and one of the water-logged canoes filled and went to the
+bottom; and there was more work in raising it.
+
+We were still wholly unable to tell where we were going or what lay
+ahead of us. Round the camp-fire, after supper, we held endless
+discussions and hazarded all kinds of guesses on both subjects. The
+river might bend sharply to the west and enter the Gy-Parana high up
+or low down, or go north to the Madeira, or bend eastward and enter
+the Tapajos, or fall into the Canuma and finally through one of its
+mouths enter the Amazon direct. Lyra inclined to the first, and
+Colonel Rondon to the second, of these propositions. We did not know
+whether we had one hundred or eight hundred kilometres to go, whether
+the stream would be fairly smooth or whether we would encounter
+waterfalls, or rapids, or even some big marsh or lake. We could not
+tell whether or not we would meet hostile Indians, although no one of
+us ever went ten yards from camp without his rifle. We had no idea how
+much time the trip would take. We had entered a land of unknown
+possibilities.
+
+We started down-stream again early in the afternoon of March 5. Our
+hands and faces were swollen from the bites and stings of the insect
+pests at the sand-flat camp, and it was a pleasure once more to be in
+the middle of the river, where they did not come, in any numbers,
+while we were in motion. The current was swift, but the river was so
+deep that there were no serious obstructions. Twice we went down over
+slight riffles, which in the dry season were doubtless rapids; and
+once we struck a spot where many whirlpools marked the presence
+underneath of boulders which would have been above water had not the
+river been so swollen by the rains. The distance we covered in a day
+going down-stream would have taken us a week if we had been going up.
+The course wound hither and thither, sometimes in sigmoid curves; but
+the general direction was east of north. As usual, it was very
+beautiful; and we never could tell what might appear around any curve.
+In the forest that rose on either hand were tall rubber-trees. The
+surveying canoes, as usual, went first, while I shepherded the two
+pairs of lashed cargo canoes. I kept them always between me and the
+surveying canoes--ahead of me until I passed the surveying canoes,
+then behind me until, after an hour or so, I had chosen a place to
+camp. There was so much overflowed ground that it took us some little
+time this afternoon before we found a flat place high enough to be
+dry. Just before reaching camp Cherrie shot a jacu, a handsome bird
+somewhat akin to, but much smaller than, a turkey; after Cherrie had
+taken its skin, its body made an excellent canja. We saw parties of
+monkeys; and the false bellbirds uttered their ringing whistles in
+the dense timber around our tents. The giant ants, an inch and a
+quarter long, were rather too plentiful around this camp; one stung
+Kermit; it was almost like the sting of a small scorpion, and pained
+severely for a couple of hours. This half-day we made twelve
+kilometres.
+
+On the following day we made nineteen kilometres, the river twisting
+in every direction, but in its general course running a little west of
+north. Once we stopped at a bee-tree, to get honey. The tree was a
+towering giant, of the kind called milk-tree, because a thick milky
+juice runs freely from any cut. Our camaradas eagerly drank the white
+fluid that flowed from the wounds made by their axes. I tried it. The
+taste was not unpleasant, but it left a sticky feeling in the mouth.
+The helmsman of my boat, Luiz, a powerful negro, chopped into the
+tree, balancing himself with springy ease on a slight scaffolding. The
+honey was in a hollow, and had been made by medium-sized stingless
+bees. At the mouth of the hollow they had built a curious entrance of
+their own, in the shape of a spout of wax about a foot long. At the
+opening the walls of the spout showed the wax formation, but elsewhere
+it had become in color and texture indistinguishable from the bark of
+the tree. The honey was delicious, sweet and yet with a tart flavor.
+The comb differed much from that of our honey-bees. The honey-cells
+were very large, and the brood-cells, which were small, were in a
+single instead of a double row. By this tree I came across an example
+of genuine concealing coloration. A huge tree-toad, the size of a
+bullfrog, was seated upright--not squatted flat--on a big rotten limb.
+It was absolutely motionless; the yellow brown of its back, and its
+dark sides, exactly harmonized in color with the light and dark
+patches on the log; the color was as concealing, here in its natural
+surroundings, as is the color of our common wood-frog among the dead
+leaves of our woods. When I stirred it up it jumped to a small twig,
+catching hold with the disks of its finger-tips, and balancing itself
+with unexpected ease for so big a creature, and then hopped to the
+ground and again stood motionless. Evidently it trusted for safety to
+escaping observation. We saw some monkeys and fresh tapir sign, and
+Kermit shot a jacu for the pot.
+
+At about three o'clock I was in the lead, when the current began to
+run more quickly. We passed over one or two decided ripples, and then
+heard the roar of rapids ahead, while the stream began to race. We
+drove the canoe into the bank, and then went down a tapir trail, which
+led alongside the river, to reconnoiter. A quarter of a mile's walk
+showed us that there were big rapids, down which the canoes could not
+go; and we returned to the landing. All the canoes had gathered there,
+and Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit started down-stream to explore. They
+returned in an hour, with the information that the rapids continued
+for a long distance, with falls and steep pitches of broken water, and
+that the portage would take several days. We made camp just above the
+rapids. Ants swarmed, and some of them bit savagely. Our men, in
+clearing away the forest for our tents, left several very tall and
+slender accashy palms; the bole of this palm is as straight as an
+arrow and is crowned with delicate, gracefully curved fronds. We had
+come along the course of the river almost exactly a hundred
+kilometres; it had twisted so that we were only about fifty-five
+kilometres north of our starting-point. The rock was porphyritic.
+
+The 7th, 8th, and 9th we spent in carrying the loads and dragging and
+floating the dugouts past the series of rapids at whose head we had
+stopped.
+
+The first day we shifted camp a kilometre and a half to the foot of
+this series of rapids. This was a charming and picturesque camp. It
+was at the edge of the river, where there was a little, shallow bay
+with a beach of firm sand. In the water, at the middle point of the
+beach, stood a group of three burity palms, their great trunks rising
+like columns. Round the clearing in which our tents stood were several
+very big trees; two of them were rubber-trees. Kermit went down-stream
+five or six kilometres, and returned, having shot a jacu and found
+that at the point which he had reached there was another rapids,
+almost a fall, which would necessitate our again dragging the canoes
+over a portage. Antonio, the Parecis, shot a big monkey; of this I was
+glad because portaging is hard work, and the men appreciated the
+meat. So far Cherrie had collected sixty birds on the Duvida, all of
+them new to the collection, and some probably new to science. We saw
+the fresh sign of paca, agouti, and the small peccary, and Kermit with
+the dogs roused a tapir, which crossed the river right through the
+rapids; but no one got a shot at it.
+
+Except at one or perhaps two points a very big dugout, lightly loaded,
+could probably run all these rapids. But even in such a canoe it would
+be silly to make the attempt on an exploring expedition, where the
+loss of a canoe or of its contents means disaster; and moreover such a
+canoe could not be taken, for it would be impossible to drag it over
+the portages on the occasions when the portages became inevitable. Our
+canoes would not have lived half a minute in the wild water.
+
+On the second day the canoes and loads were brought down to the foot
+of the first rapids. Lyra cleared the path and laid the logs for
+rollers, while Kermit dragged the dugouts up the bank from the water
+with block and tackle, with strain of rope and muscle. Then they
+joined forces, as over the uneven ground it needed the united strength
+of all their men to get the heavy dugouts along. Meanwhile the colonel
+with one attendant measured the distance, and then went on a long
+hunt, but saw no game. I strolled down beside the river for a couple
+of miles, but also saw nothing. In the dense tropical forest of the
+Amazonian basin hunting is very difficult, especially for men who are
+trying to pass through the country as rapidly as possible. On such a
+trip as ours getting game is largely a matter of chance.
+
+On the following day Lyra and Kermit brought down the canoes and
+loads, with hard labor, to the little beach by the three palms where
+our tents were pitched. Many pacovas grew round about. The men used
+their immense leaves, some of which were twelve feet long and two and
+a half feet broad, to roof the flimsy shelters under which they hung
+their hammocks. I went into the woods, but in the tangle of vegetation
+it would have been a mere hazard had I seen any big animal. Generally
+the woods were silent and empty. Now and then little troops of birds
+of many kinds passed--wood-hewers, ant-thrushes, tanagers,
+flycatchers; as in the spring and fall similar troops of warblers,
+chickadees, and nuthatches pass through our northern woods. On the
+rocks and on the great trees by the river grew beautiful white and
+lilac orchids, the sobralia, of sweet and delicate fragrance. For the
+moment my own books seemed a trifle heavy, and perhaps I would have
+found the day tedious if Kermit had not lent me the Oxford Book of
+French Verse. Eustache Deschamp, Joachim du Bellay, Ronsard, the
+delightful La Fontaine, the delightful but appalling Villon, Victor
+Hugo's "Guitare," Madame Desbordes-Valmore's lines on the little girl
+and her pillow, as dear little verses about a child as ever were
+written--these and many others comforted me much, as I read them in
+head-net and gauntlets, sitting on a log by an unknown river in the
+Amazonian forest.
+
+On the 10th we again embarked and made a kilometre and a half,
+spending most of the time in getting past two more rapids. Near the
+first of these we saw a small cayman, a jacare-tinga. At each set of
+rapids the canoes were unloaded and the loads borne past on the
+shoulders of the camaradas; three of the canoes were paddled down by a
+couple of naked paddlers apiece; and the two sets of double canoes
+were let down by ropes, one of one couple being swamped but rescued
+and brought safely to shore on each occasion. One of the men was upset
+while working in the swift water, and his face was cut against the
+stones. Lyra and Kermit did the actual work with the camaradas.
+Kermit, dressed substantially like the camaradas themselves, worked in
+the water, and, as the overhanging branches were thronged with crowds
+of biting and stinging ants, he was marked and blistered over his
+whole body. Indeed, we all suffered more or less from these ants;
+while the swarms of biting flies grew constantly more numerous. The
+termites ate holes in my helmet and also in the cover of my cot. Every
+one else had a hammock. At this camp we had come down the river about
+102 kilometres, according to the surveying records, and in height had
+descended nearly 100 metres, as shown by the aneroid--although the
+figure in this case is only an approximation, as an aneroid cannot be
+depended on for absolute accuracy of results.
+
+Next morning we found that during the night we had met with a serious
+misfortune. We had halted at the foot of the rapids. The canoes were
+moored to trees on the bank, at the tail of the broken water. The two
+old canoes, although one of them was our biggest cargo-carrier, were
+water-logged and heavy, and one of them was leaking. In the night the
+river rose. The leaky canoe, which at best was too low in the water,
+must have gradually filled from the wash of the waves. It sank,
+dragging down the other; they began to roll, bursting their moorings;
+and in the morning they had disappeared. A canoe was launched to look
+for them; but, rolling over the boulders on the rocky bottom, they had
+at once been riven asunder, and the big fragments that were soon
+found, floating in eddies, or along the shore, showed that it was
+useless to look farther. We called these rapids Broken Canoe Rapids.
+
+It was not pleasant to have to stop for some days; thanks to the
+rapids, we had made slow progress, and with our necessarily limited
+supply of food, and no knowledge whatever of what was ahead of us, it
+was important to make good time. But there was no alternative. We had
+to build either one big canoe or two small ones. It was raining
+heavily as the men started to explore in different directions for good
+canoe trees. Three--which ultimately proved not very good for the
+purpose--were found close to camp; splendid-looking trees, one of them
+five feet in diameter three feet from the ground. The axemen
+immediately attacked this one under the superintendence of Colonel
+Rondon. Lyra and Kermit started in opposite directions to hunt. Lyra
+killed a jacu for us, and Kermit killed two monkeys for the men.
+Toward night fall it cleared. The moon was nearly full, and the
+foaming river gleamed like silver.
+
+Our men were "regional volunteers," that is, they had enlisted in the
+service of the Telegraphic Commission especially to do this wilderness
+work, and were highly paid, as was fitting, in view of the toil,
+hardship, and hazard to life and health. Two of them had been with
+Colonel Rondon during his eight months' exploration in 1909, at which
+time his men were regulars, from his own battalion of engineers. His
+four aides during the closing months of this trip were Lieutenants
+Lyra, Amarante, Alencarliense, and Pyrineus. The naturalist Miranda
+Ribeiro also accompanied him. This was the year when, marching on foot
+through an absolutely unknown wilderness, the colonel and his party
+finally reached the Gy-Parana, which on the maps was then (and on most
+maps is now) placed in an utterly wrong course, and over a degree out
+of its real position. When they reached the affluents of the Gy-Parana
+a third of the members of the party were so weak with fever that they
+could hardly crawl. They had no baggage. Their clothes were in
+tatters, and some of the men were almost naked. For months they had
+had no food except what little game they shot, and especially the wild
+fruits and nuts; if it had not been for the great abundance of the
+Brazil-nuts they would all have died. At the first big stream they
+encountered they built a canoe, and Alencarliense took command of it
+and descended to map the course of the river. With him went Ribeiro,
+the doctor Tanageira, who could no longer walk on account of the
+ulceration of one foot, three men whom the fever had rendered unable
+longer to walk, and six men who were as yet well enough to handle the
+canoe. By the time the remainder of the party came to the next
+navigable river eleven more fever-stricken men had nearly reached the
+end of their tether. Here they ran across a poor devil who had for
+four months been lost in the forest and was dying of slow starvation.
+He had eaten nothing but Brazil-nuts and the grubs of insects. He
+could no longer walk, but could sit erect and totter feebly for a few
+feet. Another canoe was built, and in it Pyrineus started down-stream
+with the eleven fever patients and the starving wanderer. Colonel
+Rondon kept up the morale of his men by still carrying out the forms
+of military discipline. The ragged bugler had his bugle. Lieutenant
+Pyrineus had lost every particle of his clothing except a hat and a
+pair of drawers. The half-naked lieutenant drew up his eleven fever
+patients in line; the bugle sounded; every one came to attention; and
+the haggard colonel read out the orders of the day. Then the dugout
+with its load of sick men started down-stream, and Rondon, Lyra,
+Amarante, and the twelve remaining men resumed their weary march. When
+a fortnight later they finally struck a camp of rubber-gatherers three
+of the men were literally and entirely naked. Meanwhile Amilcar had
+ascended the Jacyparana a month or two previously with provisions to
+meet them; for at that time the maps incorrectly treated this river as
+larger, instead of smaller, than the Gy-Parana, which they were in
+fact descending; and Colonel Rondon had supposed that they were going
+down the former stream. Amilcar returned after himself suffering much
+hardship and danger. The different parties finally met at the mouth of
+the Gy-Parana, where it enters the Madeira. The lost man whom they had
+found seemed on the road to recovery, and they left him at a ranch, on
+the Madeira, where he could be cared for; yet after they had left him
+they heard that he had died.
+
+On the 12th the men were still hard at work hollowing out the hard
+wood of the big tree, with axe and adze, while watch and ward were
+kept over them to see that the idlers did not shirk at the expense of
+the industrious. Kermit and Lyra again hunted; the former shot a
+curassow, which was welcome, as we were endeavoring in all ways to
+economize our food supply. We were using the tops of palms also. I
+spent the day hunting in the woods, for the most part by the river,
+but saw nothing. In the season of the rains game is away from the
+river and fish are scarce and turtles absent. Yet it was pleasant to
+be in the great silent forest. Here and there grew immense trees, and
+on some of them mighty buttresses sprang from the base. The lianas and
+vines were of every size and shape. Some were twisted and some were
+not. Some came down straight and slender from branches a hundred feet
+above. Others curved like long serpents around the trunks. Others were
+like knotted cables. In the shadow there was little noise. The wind
+rarely moved the hot, humid air. There were few flowers or birds.
+Insects were altogether too abundant, and even when travelling slowly
+it was impossible always to avoid them--not to speak of our constant
+companions the bees, mosquitoes, and especially the boroshudas or
+bloodsucking flies. Now while bursting through a tangle I disturbed a
+nest of wasps, whose resentment was active; now I heedlessly stepped
+among the outliers of a small party of the carnivorous foraging ants;
+now, grasping a branch as I stumbled, I shook down a shower of fire-
+ants; and among all these my attention was particularly arrested by
+the bite of one of the giant ants, which stung like a hornet, so that
+I felt it for three hours. The camarades generally went barefoot or
+only wore sandals; and their ankles and feet were swollen and inflamed
+from the bites of the boroshudas and ants, some being actually
+incapacitated from work. All of us suffered more or less, our faces
+and hands swelling slightly from the boroshuda bites; and in spite of
+our clothes we were bitten all over our bodies, chiefly by ants and
+the small forest ticks. Because of the rain and the heat our clothes
+were usually wet when we took them off at night, and just as wet when
+we put them on again in the morning.
+
+All day on the 13th the men worked at the canoe, making good progress.
+In rolling and shifting the huge, heavy tree-trunk every one had to
+assist now and then. The work continued until ten in the evening, as
+the weather was clear. After nightfall some of the men held candles
+and the others plied axe or adze, standing within or beside the great,
+half-hollowed logs, while the flicker of the lights showed the tropic
+forest rising in the darkness round about. The night air was hot and
+still and heavy with moisture. The men were stripped to the waist.
+Olive and copper and ebony, their skins glistened as if oiled, and
+rippled with the ceaseless play of the thews beneath.
+
+On the morning of the 14th the work was resumed in a torrential tropic
+downpour. The canoe was finished, dragged down to the water, and
+launched soon after midday, and another hour or so saw us under way.
+The descent was marked, and the swollen river raced along. Several
+times we passed great whirlpools, sometimes shifting, sometimes
+steady. Half a dozen times we ran over rapids, and, although they were
+not high enough to have been obstacles to loaded Canadian canoes, two
+of them were serious to us. Our heavily laden, clumsy dugouts were
+sunk to within three or four inches of the surface of the river, and,
+although they were buoyed on each side with bundles of burity-palm
+branch-stems, they shipped a great deal of water in the rapids. The
+two biggest rapids we only just made, and after each we had hastily to
+push ashore in order to bail. In one set of big ripples or waves my
+canoe was nearly swamped. In a wilderness, where what is ahead is
+absolutely unknown, alike in terms of time, space, and method--for we
+had no idea where we would come out, how we would get out, or when we
+would get out--it is of vital consequence not to lose one's outfit,
+especially the provisions; and yet it is of only less consequence to
+go as rapidly as possible lest all the provisions be exhausted and the
+final stages of the expedition be accomplished by men weakened from
+semi-starvation, and therefore ripe for disaster. On this occasion, of
+the two hazards, we felt it necessary to risk running the rapids; for
+our progress had been so very slow that unless we made up the time, it
+was probable that we would be short of food before we got where we
+could expect to procure any more except what little the country in the
+time of the rains and floods, might yield. We ran until after five, so
+that the work of pitching camp was finished in the dark. We had made
+nearly sixteen kilometres in a direction slightly east of north. This
+evening the air was fresh and cool.
+
+The following morning, the 15th of March, we started in good season.
+For six kilometres we drifted and paddled down the swift river without
+incident. At times we saw lofty Brazil-nut trees rising above the rest
+of the forest on the banks; and back from the river these trees grow
+to enormous proportions, towering like giants. There were great
+rubber-trees also, their leaves always in sets of threes. Then the
+ground on either hand rose into boulder-strewn, forest-clad hills and
+the roar of broken water announced that once more our course was
+checked by dangerous rapids. Round a bend we came on them; a wide
+descent of white water, with an island in the middle, at the upper
+edge. Here grave misfortune befell us, and graver misfortune was
+narrowly escaped.
+
+Kermit, as usual, was leading in his canoe. It was the smallest and
+least seaworthy of all. He had in it little except a week's supply of
+our boxed provisions and a few tools; fortunately none of the food for
+the camaradas. His dog Trigueiro was with him. Besides himself, the
+crew consisted of two men: Joao, the helmsman, or pilot, as he is
+called in Brazil, and Simplicio, the bowsman. Both were negroes and
+exceptionally good men in every way. Kermit halted his canoe on the
+left bank, above the rapids, and waited for the colonel's canoe. Then
+the colonel and Lyra walked down the bank to see what was ahead.
+Kermit took his canoe across to the island to see whether the descent
+could be better accomplished on the other side. Having made his
+investigation, he ordered the men to return to the bank he had left,
+and the dugout was headed up-stream accordingly. Before they had gone
+a dozen yards, the paddlers digging their paddles with all their
+strength into the swift current, one of the shifting whirlpools of
+which I have spoken came down-stream, whirled them around, and swept
+them so close to the rapids that no human power could avoid going over
+them. As they were drifting into them broadside on, Kermit yelled to
+the steersman to turn her head, so as to take them in the only way
+that offered any chance whatever of safety. The water came aboard,
+wave after wave, as they raced down. They reached the bottom with the
+canoe upright, but so full as barely to float, and the paddlers urged
+her toward the shore. They had nearly reached the bank when another
+whirlpool or whirling eddy tore them away and hurried them back to
+midstream, where the dugout filled and turned over. Joao, seizing the
+rope, started to swim ashore; the rope was pulled from his hand, but
+he reached the bank. Poor Simplicio must have been pulled under at
+once and his life beaten out on the boulders beneath the racing
+torrent. He never rose again, nor did we ever recover his body. Kermit
+clutched his rifle, his favorite 405 Winchester with which he had done
+most of his hunting both in Africa and America, and climbed on the
+bottom of the upset boat. In a minute he was swept into the second
+series of rapids, and whirled away from the rolling boat, losing his
+rifle. The water beat his helmet down over his head and face and drove
+him beneath the surface; and when he rose at last he was almost
+drowned, his breath and strength almost spent. He was in swift but
+quiet water, and swam toward an overhanging branch. His jacket
+hindered him, but he knew he was too nearly gone to be able to get it
+off, and, thinking with the curious calm one feels when death is but a
+moment away, he realized that the utmost his failing strength could do
+was to reach the branch. He reached, and clutched it, and then almost
+lacked strength to haul himself out on the land. Good Trigueiro had
+faithfully swum alongside him through the rapids, and now himself
+scrambled ashore. It was a very narrow escape. Kermit was a great
+comfort and help to me on the trip; but the fear of some fatal
+accident befalling him was always a nightmare to me. He was to be
+married as soon as the trip was over; and it did not seem to me that I
+could bear to bring bad tidings to his betrothed and to his mother.
+
+Simplicio was unmarried. Later we sent to his mother all the money
+that would have been his had he lived. The following morning we put on
+one side of the post erected to mark our camping-spot the following
+inscription, in Portuguese:
+
+                "IN THESE RAPIDS DIED POOR SIMPLICIO."
+
+On an expedition such as ours death is one of the accidents that may
+at any time occur, and narrow escapes from death are too common to be
+felt as they would be felt elsewhere. One mourns sincerely, but
+mourning cannot interfere with labor. We immediately proceeded with
+the work of the portage. From the head to the tail of this series of
+rapids the distance was about six hundred yards. A path was cut along
+the bank, over which the loads were brought. The empty canoes ran the
+rapids without mishap, each with two skilled paddlers. One of the
+canoes almost ran into a swimming tapir at the head of the rapids; it
+went down the rapids, and then climbed out of the river. Kermit
+accompanied by Joao, went three or four miles down the river, looking
+for the body of Simplicio and for the sunk canoe. He found neither.
+But he found a box of provisions and a paddle, and salvaged both by
+swimming into midstream after them. He also found that a couple of
+kilometres below there was another stretch of rapids, and following
+them on the left-hand bank to the foot he found that they were worse
+than the ones we had just passed, and impassable for canoes on this
+left-hand side.
+
+We camped at the foot of the rapids we had just passed. There were
+many small birds here, but it was extremely difficult to see or shoot
+them in the lofty tree tops, and to find them in the tangle beneath if
+they were shot. However, Cherrie got four species new to the
+collection. One was a tiny hummer, one of the species known as
+woodstars, with dainty but not brilliant plumage; its kind is never
+found except in the deep, dark woods, not coming out into the
+sunshine. Its crop was filled with ants; when shot it was feeding at a
+cluster of long red flowers. He also got a very handsome trogon and an
+exquisite little tanager, as brilliant as a cluster of jewels; its
+throat was lilac, its breast turquoise, its crown and forehead topaz,
+while above it was glossy purple-black, the lower part of the back
+ruby-red. This tanager was a female; I can hardly imagine that the
+male is more brilliantly colored. The fourth bird was a queer hawk of
+the genus ibycter, black, with a white belly, naked red cheeks and
+throat and red legs and feet. Its crop was filled with the seeds of
+fruits and a few insect remains; an extraordinary diet for a hawk.
+
+The morning of the 16th was dark and gloomy. Through sheets of
+blinding rain we left our camp of misfortune for another camp where
+misfortune also awaited us. Less than half an hour took our dugouts to
+the head of the rapids below. As Kermit had already explored the left-
+hand side, Colonel Rondon and Lyra went down the right-hand side and
+found a channel which led round the worst part, so that they deemed it
+possible to let down the canoes by ropes from the bank. The distance
+to the foot of the rapids was about a kilometre. While the loads were
+being brought down the left bank, Luiz and Antonio Correa, our two
+best watermen, started to take a canoe down the right side, and
+Colonel Rondon walked ahead to see anything he could about the river.
+He was accompanied by one of our three dogs, Lobo. After walking about
+a kilometre he heard ahead a kind of howling noise, which he thought
+was made by spider-monkeys. He walked in the direction of the sound
+and Lobo ran ahead. In a minute he heard Lobo yell with pain, and
+then, still yelping, come toward him, while the creature that was
+howling also approached, evidently in pursuit. In a moment a second
+yell from Lobo, followed by silence, announced that he was dead; and
+the sound of the howling when near convinced Rondon that the dog had
+been killed by an Indian, doubtless with two arrows. Probably the
+Indian was howling to lure the spider-monkeys toward him. Rondon fired
+his rifle in the air, to warn off the Indian or Indians, who in all
+probability had never seen a civilized man, and certainly could not
+imagine that one was in the neighborhood. He then returned to the foot
+of the rapids, where the portage was still going on, and, in company
+with Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Parecis, the Indian, walked back to
+where Lobo's body lay. Sure enough he found him, slain by two arrows.
+One arrow-head was in him, and near by was a strange stick used in the
+very primitive method of fishing of all these Indians. Antonio
+recognized its purpose. The Indians, who were apparently two or three
+in number, had fled. Some beads and trinkets were left on the spot to
+show that we were not angry and were friendly.
+
+Meanwhile Cherrie stayed at the head and I at the foot of the portage
+as guards. Luiz and Antonio Correa brought down one canoe safely. The
+next was the new canoe, which was very large and heavy, being made of
+wood that would not float. In the rapids the rope broke, and the canoe
+was lost, Luiz being nearly drowned.
+
+It was a very bad thing to lose the canoe, but it was even worse to
+lose the rope and pulleys. This meant that it would be physically
+impossible to hoist big canoes up even small hills or rocky hillocks,
+such as had been so frequent beside the many rapids we had
+encountered. It was not wise to spend the four days necessary to build
+new canoes where we were, in danger of attack from the Indians.
+Moreover, new rapids might be very near, in which case the new canoes
+would hamper us. Yet the four remaining canoes would not carry all the
+loads and all the men, no matter how we cut the loads down; and we
+intended to cut everything down at once. We had been gone eighteen
+days. We had used over a third of our food. We had gone only 125
+kilometres, and it was probable that we had at least five times,
+perhaps six or seven times, this distance still to go. We had taken a
+fortnight to descend rapids amounting in the aggregate to less than
+seventy yards of fall; a very few yards of fall makes a dangerous
+rapid when the river is swollen and swift and there are obstructions.
+We had only one aneroid to determine our altitude, and therefore could
+make merely a loose approximation to it, but we probably had between
+two and three times this descent in the aggregate of rapids ahead of
+us. So far the country had offered little in the way of food except
+palm-tops. We had lost four canoes and one man. We were in the country
+of wild Indians, who shot well with their bows. It behooved us to go
+warily, but also to make all speed possible, if we were to avoid
+serious trouble.
+
+The best plan seemed to be to march thirteen men down along the bank,
+while the remaining canoes, lashed two and two, floated down beside
+them. If after two or three days we found no bad rapids, and there
+seemed a reasonable chance of going some distance at decent speed, we
+could then build the new canoes--preferably two small ones, this time,
+instead of one big one. We left all the baggage we could. We were
+already down as far as comfort would permit; but we now struck off
+much of the comfort. Cherrie, Kermit, and I had been sleeping under a
+very light fly; and there was another small light tent for one person,
+kept for possible emergencies. The last was given to me for my cot,
+and all five of the others swung their hammocks under the big fly.
+This meant that we left two big and heavy tents behind. A box of
+surveying instruments was also abandoned. Each of us got his personal
+belongings down to one box or duffel-bag--although there was only a
+small diminution thus made; because we had so little that the only way
+to make a serious diminution was to restrict ourselves to the clothes
+on our backs.
+
+The biting flies and ants were to us a source of discomfort and at
+times of what could fairly be called torment. But to the camaradas,
+most of whom went barefoot or only wore sandals--and they never did or
+would wear shoes--the effect was more serious. They wrapped their legs
+and feet in pieces of canvas or hide; and the feet of three of them
+became so swollen that they were crippled and could not walk any
+distance. The doctor, whose courage and cheerfulness never flagged,
+took excellent care of them. Thanks to him, there had been among them
+hitherto but one or two slight cases of fever. He administered to each
+man daily a half-gram--nearly eight grains--of quinine, and every
+third or fourth day a double dose.
+
+The following morning Colonel Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, Cherrie, and nine
+of the camaradas started in single file down the bank, while the
+doctor and I went in the two double canoes, with six camaradas, three
+of them the invalids with swollen feet. We halted continually, as we
+went about three times as fast as the walkers; and we traced the
+course of the river. After forty minutes' actual going in the boats we
+came to some rapids; the unloaded canoes ran them without difficulty,
+while the loads were portaged. In an hour and a half we were again
+under way, but in ten minutes came to other rapids, where the river
+ran among islands, and there were several big curls. The clumsy,
+heavily laden dugouts, lashed in couples, were unwieldy and hard to
+handle. The rapids came just round a sharp bend, and we got caught in
+the upper part of the swift water and had to run the first set of
+rapids in consequence. We in the leading pair of dugouts were within
+an ace of coming to grief on some big boulders against which we were
+swept by a cross current at the turn. All of us paddling hard--
+scraping and bumping--we got through by the skin of our teeth, and
+managed to make the bank and moor our dugouts. It was a narrow escape
+from grave disaster. The second pair of lashed dugouts profited by our
+experience, and made the run--with risk, but with less risk--and
+moored beside us. Then all the loads were taken out, and the empty
+canoes were run down through the least dangerous channels among the
+islands.
+
+This was a long portage, and we camped at the foot of the rapids,
+having made nearly seven kilometres. Here a little river, a rapid
+stream of volume equal to the Duvida at the point where we first
+embarked, joined from the west. Colonel Rondon and Kermit came to it
+first, and the former named it Rio Kermit. There was in it a waterfall
+about six or eight feet high, just above the junction. Here we found
+plenty of fish. Lyra caught two pacu, good-sized, deep-bodied fish.
+They were delicious eating. Antonio the Parecis said that these fish
+never came up heavy rapids in which there were falls they had to jump.
+We could only hope that he was correct, as in that case the rapids we
+would encounter in the future would rarely be so serious as to
+necessitate our dragging the heavy dugouts overland. Passing the
+rapids we had hitherto encountered had meant severe labor and some
+danger. But the event showed that he was mistaken. The worst rapids
+were ahead of us.
+
+While our course as a whole had been almost due north, and sometimes
+east of north, yet where there were rapids the river had generally,
+although not always, turned westward. This seemed to indicate that to
+the east of us there was a low northward projection of the central
+plateau across which we had travelled on mule-back. This is the kind
+of projection that appears on the maps of this region as a sierra.
+Probably it sent low spurs to the west, and the farthest points of
+these spurs now and then caused rapids in our course (for the rapids
+generally came where there were hills) and for the moment deflected
+the river westward from its general downhill trend to the north. There
+was no longer any question that the Duvida was a big river, a river of
+real importance. It was not a minor affluent of some other affluent.
+But we were still wholly in the dark as to where it came out. It was
+still possible, although exceedingly improbable, that it entered the
+Gy-Parana, as another river of substantially the same size, near its
+mouth. It was much more likely, but not probable, that it entered the
+Tapajos. It was probable, although far from certain, that it entered
+the Madeira low down, near its point of junction with the Amazon. In
+this event it was likely, although again far from certain, that its
+mouth would prove to be the Aripuanan. The Aripuanan does not appear
+on the maps as a river of any size; on a good standard map of South
+America which I had with me its name does not appear at all, although
+a dotted indication of a small river or creek at about the right place
+probably represents it. Nevertheless, from the report of one of his
+lieutenants who had examined its mouth, and from the stories of the
+rubber-gatherers, or seringueiros, Colonel Rondon had come to the
+conclusion that this was the largest affluent of the Madeira, with
+such a body of water that it must have a big drainage basin. He
+thought that the Duvida was probably one of its head streams--although
+every existing map represented the lay of the land to be such as to
+render impossible the existence of such a river system and drainage
+basin. The rubber-gatherers reported that they had gone many days'
+journey up the river, to a point where there was a series of heavy
+rapids with above them the junction point of two large rivers, one
+entering from the west. Beyond this they had difficulties because of
+the hostility of the Indians; and where the junction point was no one
+could say. On the chance Colonel Rondon had directed one of his
+subordinate officers, Lieutenant Pyrineus, to try to meet us, with
+boats and provisions, by ascending the Aripuanan to the point of entry
+of its first big affluent. This was the course followed when Amilcar
+had been directed to try to meet the explorers who in 1909 came down
+the Gy-Parana. At that time the effort was a failure, and the two
+parties never met; but we might have better luck, and in any event the
+chance was worth taking.
+
+On the morning following our camping by the mouth of the Rio Kermit,
+Colonel Rondon took a good deal of pains in getting a big post set up
+at the entry of the smaller river into the Duvida. Then he summoned
+me, and all the others, to attend the ceremony of its erection. We
+found the camaradas drawn up in line, and the colonel preparing to
+read aloud "the orders of the day." To the post was nailed a board
+with "Rio Kermit" on it; and the colonel read the orders reciting that
+by the direction of the Brazilian Government, and inasmuch as the
+unknown river was evidently a great river, he formally christened it
+the Rio Roosevelt. This was a complete surprise to me. Both Lauro
+Miller and Colonel Rondon had spoken to me on the subject, and I had
+urged, and Kermit had urged, as strongly as possible, that the name be
+kept as Rio da Duvida. We felt that the "River of Doubt" was an
+unusually good name; and it is always well to keep a name of this
+character. But my kind friends insisted otherwise, and it would have
+been churlish of me to object longer. I was much touched by their
+action, and by the ceremony itself. At the conclusion of the reading
+Colonel Rondon led in cheers for the United States and then for me and
+for Kermit; and the camaradas cheered with a will. I proposed three
+cheers for Brazil and then for Colonel Rondon, and Lyra, and the
+doctor, and then for all the camaradas. Then Lyra said that everybody
+had been cheered except Cherrie; and so we all gave three cheers for
+Cherrie, and the meeting broke up in high good humor.
+
+Immediately afterward the walkers set off on their march downstream,
+looking for good canoe trees. In a quarter of an hour we followed with
+the canoes. As often as we overtook them we halted until they had
+again gone a good distance ahead. They soon found fresh Indian sign,
+and actually heard the Indians; but the latter fled in panic. They
+came on a little Indian fishing village, just abandoned. The three
+low, oblong huts, of palm leaves, had each an entrance for a man on
+all fours, but no other opening. They were dark inside, doubtless as a
+protection against the swarms of biting flies. On a pole in this
+village an axe, a knife, and some strings of red beads were left, with
+the hope that the Indians would return, find the gifts, and realize
+that we were friendly. We saw further Indian sign on both sides of the
+river.
+
+After about two hours and a half we came on a little river entering
+from the east. It was broad but shallow, and at the point of entrance
+rushed down, green and white, over a sharply inclined sheet of rock.
+It was a lovely sight and we halted to admire it. Then on we went,
+until, when we had covered about eight kilometres, we came on a
+stretch of rapids. The canoes ran them with about a third of the
+loads, the other loads being carried on the men's shoulders. At the
+foot of the rapids we camped, as there were several good canoe trees
+near, and we had decided to build two rather small canoes. After dark
+the stars came out; but in the deep forest the glory of the stars in
+the night of the sky, the serene radiance of the moon, the splendor of
+sunrise and sunset, are never seen as they are seen on the vast open
+plains.
+
+The following day, the 19th, the men began work on the canoes. The
+ill-fated big canoe had been made of wood so hard that it was
+difficult to work, and so heavy that the chips sank like lead in the
+water. But these trees were araputangas, with wood which was easier to
+work, and which floated. Great buttresses, or flanges, jutted out from
+their trunks at the base, and they bore big hard nuts or fruits which
+stood erect at the ends of the branches. The first tree felled proved
+rotten, and moreover it was chopped so that it smashed a number of
+lesser trees into the kitchen, overthrowing everything, but not
+inflicting serious damage. Hardworking, willing, and tough though the
+camaradas were, they naturally did not have the skill of northern
+lumberjacks.
+
+We hoped to finish the two canoes in three days. A space was cleared
+in the forest for our tents. Among the taller trees grew huge-leafed
+pacovas, or wild bananas. We bathed and swam in the river, although in
+it we caught piranhas. Carregadores ants swarmed all around our camp.
+As many of the nearest of their holes as we could we stopped with
+fire; but at night some of them got into our tents and ate things we
+could ill spare. In the early morning a column of foraging ants
+appeared, and we drove them back, also with fire. When the sky was not
+overcast the sun was very hot, and we spread out everything to dry.
+There were many wonderful butterflies round about, but only a few
+birds. Yet in the early morning and late afternoon there was some
+attractive bird music in the woods. The two best performers were our
+old friend the false bellbird, with its series of ringing whistles,
+and a shy, attractive ant-thrush. The latter walked much on the
+ground, with dainty movements, curtseying and raising its tail; and in
+accent and sequence, although not in tone or time, its song resembled
+that of our white-throated sparrow.
+
+It was three weeks since we had started down the River of Doubt. We
+had come along its winding course about 140 kilometres, with a descent
+of somewhere in the neighborhood of 124 metres. It had been slow
+progress. We could not tell what physical obstacles were ahead of us,
+nor whether the Indians would be actively hostile. But a river
+normally describes in its course a parabola, the steep descent being
+in the upper part; and we hoped that in the future we should not have
+to encounter so many and such difficult rapids as we had already
+encountered, and that therefore we would make better time--a hope
+destined to failure.
+
+
+
+         IX. DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER INTO THE EQUATORIAL FOREST
+
+The mightiest river in the world is the Amazon. It runs from west to
+east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from the Andes to the Atlantic.
+The main stream flows almost along the equator, while the basin which
+contains its affluents extends many degrees north and south of the
+equator. The gigantic equatorial river basin is filled with an immense
+forest, the largest in the world, with which no other forest can be
+compared save those of western Africa and Malaysia. We were within the
+southern boundary of this great equatorial forest, on a river which
+was not merely unknown but unguessed at, no geographer having ever
+suspected its existence. This river flowed northward toward the
+equator, but whither it would go, whether it would turn one way or
+another, the length of its course, where it would come out, the
+character of the stream itself, and the character of the dwellers
+along its banks--all these things were yet to be discovered.
+
+One morning while the canoes were being built Kermit and I walked a
+few kilometres down the river and surveyed the next rapids below. The
+vast still forest was almost empty of life. We found old Indian signs.
+There were very few birds, and these in the tops of the tall trees. We
+saw a recent tapir track; and under a cajazeira tree by the bank there
+were the tracks of capybaras which had been eating the fallen fruit.
+This fruit is delicious and would make a valuable addition to our
+orchards. The tree although tropical is hardy, thrives when
+domesticated, and propagates rapidly from shoots. The Department of
+Agriculture should try whether it would not grow in southern
+California and Florida. This was the tree from which the doctor's
+family name was taken. His parental grandfather, although of
+Portuguese blood, was an intensely patriotic Brazilian. He was a very
+young man when the independence of Brazil was declared, and did not
+wish to keep the Portuguese family name; so he changed it to that of
+the fine Brazilian tree in question. Such change of family names is
+common in Brazil. Doctor Vital Brazil, the student of poisonous
+serpents, was given his name by his father, whose own family name was
+entirely different; and his brother's name was again different.
+
+There were tremendous downpours of rain, lasting for a couple of hours
+and accompanied by thunder and lightning. But on the whole it seemed
+as if the rains were less heavy and continuous than they had been. We
+all of us had to help in building the canoes now and then. Kermit,
+accompanied by Antonio the Parecis and Joao, crossed the river and
+walked back to the little river that had entered from the east, so as
+to bring back a report of it to Colonel Rondon. Lyra took
+observations, by the sun and by the stars. We were in about latitude
+11 degrees 2 minutes south, and due north of where we had started. The
+river had wound so that we had gone two miles for every one we made
+northward. Our progress had been very slow; and until we got out of
+the region of incessant rapids, with their attendant labor and hazard,
+it was not likely that we should go much faster.
+
+On the morning of March 22 we started in our six canoes. We made ten
+kilometres. Twenty minutes after starting we came to the first rapids.
+Here every one walked except the three best paddlers, who took the
+canoes down in succession--an hour's job. Soon after this we struck a
+bees' nest in the top of a tree overhanging the river; our steersman
+climbed out and robbed it, but, alas! lost the honey on the way back.
+We came to a small steep fall which we did not dare run in our over-
+laden, clumsy, and cranky dugouts. Fortunately, we were able to follow
+a deep canal which led off for a kilometre, returning just below the
+falls, fifty yards from where it had started. Then, having been in the
+boats and in motion only one hour and a half, we came to a long
+stretch of rapids which it took us six hours to descend, and we camped
+at the foot. Everything was taken out of the canoes, and they were run
+down in succession. At one difficult and perilous place they were let
+down by ropes; and even thus we almost lost one.
+
+We went down the right bank. On the opposite bank was an Indian
+village, evidently inhabited only during the dry season. The marks on
+the stumps of trees showed that these Indians had axes and knives; and
+there were old fields in which maize, beans, and cotton had been
+grown. The forest dripped and steamed. Rubber-trees were plentiful. At
+one point the tops of a group of tall trees were covered with yellow-
+white blossoms. Others bore red blossoms. Many of the big trees, of
+different kinds, were buttressed at the base with great thin walls of
+wood. Others, including both palms and ordinary trees, showed an even
+stranger peculiarity. The trunk, near the base, but sometimes six or
+eight feet from the ground, was split into a dozen or twenty branches
+or small trunks which sloped outward in tent-like shape, each becoming
+a root. The larger trees of this type looked as if their trunks were
+seated on the tops of the pole frames of Indian tepees. At one point
+in the stream, to our great surprise, we saw a flying fish. It skimmed
+the water like a swallow for over twenty yards.
+
+Although we made only ten kilometres we worked hard all day. The last
+canoes were brought down and moored to the bank at nightfall. Our
+tents were pitched in the darkness.
+
+Next day we made thirteen kilometres. We ran, all told, a little over
+an hour and three-quarters. Seven hours were spent in getting past a
+series of rapids at which the portage, over rocky and difficult
+ground, was a kilometre long. The canoes were run down empty--a
+hazardous run, in which one of them upset.
+
+Yet while we were actually on the river, paddling and floating
+downstream along the reaches of swift, smooth water, it was very
+lovely. When we started in the morning the day was overcast and the
+air was heavy with vapor. Ahead of us the shrouded river stretched
+between dim walls of forest, half seen in the mist. Then the sun
+burned up the fog, and loomed through it in a red splendor that
+changed first to gold and then to molten white. In the dazzling light,
+under the brilliant blue of the sky, every detail of the magnificent
+forest was vivid to the eye: the great trees, the network of bush
+ropes, the caverns of greenery, where thick-leaved vines covered all
+things else. Wherever there was a hidden boulder the surface of the
+current was broken by waves. In one place, in midstream, a pyramidal
+rock thrust itself six feet above the surface of the river. On the
+banks we found fresh Indian sign.
+
+At home in Vermont Cherrie is a farmer, with a farm of six hundred
+acres, most of it woodland. As we sat at the foot of the rapids,
+watching for the last dugouts with their naked paddlers to swing into
+sight round the bend through the white water, we talked of the
+northern spring that was just beginning. He sells cream, eggs,
+poultry, potatoes, honey, occasionally pork and veal; but at this
+season it was the time for the maple sugar crop. He has a sugar
+orchard, where he taps twelve hundred trees and hopes soon to tap as
+many more in addition. Said Cherrie: "It's a busy time now for Fred
+Rice"--Fred Rice is the hired man, and in sugar time the Cherrie boys
+help him with enthusiasm, and, moreover, are paid with exact justice
+for the work they do. There is much wild life about the farm, although
+it is near Brattleboro. One night in early spring a bear left his
+tracks near the sugar house; and now and then in summer Cherrie has
+had to sleep in the garden to keep the deer away from the beans,
+cabbages, and beets.
+
+There was not much bird life in the forest, but Cherrie kept getting
+species new to the collection. At this camp he shot an interesting
+little ant-thrush. It was the size of a warbler, jet-black, with white
+under-surfaces of the wings and tail, white on the tail-feathers, and
+a large spot of white on the back, normally almost concealed, the
+feathers on the back being long and fluffy. When he shot the bird, a
+male, it was showing off before a dull-colored little bird, doubtless
+the female; and the chief feature of the display was this white spot
+on the back. The white feathers were raised and displayed so that the
+spot flashed like the "chrysanthemum" on a prongbuck whose curiosity
+has been aroused. In the gloom of the forest the bird was hard to see,
+but the flashing of this patch of white feathers revealed it at once,
+attracting immediate attention. It was an excellent example of a
+coloration mark which served a purely advertising purpose; apparently
+it was part of a courtship display. The bird was about thirty feet up
+in the branches.
+
+In the morning, just before leaving this camp, a tapir swam across
+stream a little way above us; but unfortunately we could not get a
+shot at it. An ample supply of tapir beef would have meant much to us.
+We had started with fifty days' rations; but this by no means meant
+full rations, in the sense of giving every man all he wanted to eat.
+We had two meals a day, and were on rather short commons--both our
+mess and the camaradas'--except when we got plenty of palm-tops. For
+our mess we had the boxes chosen by Fiala, each containing a day's
+rations for six men, our number. But we made each box last a day and a
+half, or at times two days, and in addition we gave some of the food
+to the camaradas. It was only on the rare occasions when we had killed
+some monkeys or curassows, or caught some fish, that everybody had
+enough. We would have welcomed that tapir. So far the game, fish, and
+fruit had been too scarce to be an element of weight in our food
+supply. In an exploring trip like ours, through a difficult and
+utterly unknown country, especially if densely forested, there is
+little time to halt, and game cannot be counted on. It is only in
+lands like our own West thirty years ago, like South Africa in the
+middle of the last century, like East Africa to-day that game can be
+made the chief food supply. On this trip our only substantial food
+supply from the country hitherto had been that furnished by the
+palmtops. Two men were detailed every day to cut down palms for food.
+
+A kilometre and a half after leaving this camp we came on a stretch of
+big rapids. The river here twists in loops, and we had heard the
+roaring of these rapids the previous afternoon. Then we passed out of
+earshot of them; but Antonio Correa, our best waterman, insisted all
+along that the roaring meant rapids worse than any we had encountered
+for some days. "I was brought up in the water, and I know it like a
+fish, and all its sounds," said he. He was right. We had to carry the
+loads nearly a kilometre that afternoon, and the canoes were pulled
+out on the bank so that they might be in readiness to be dragged
+overland next day. Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa explored
+both sides of the river. On the opposite or left bank they found the
+mouth of a considerable river, bigger than the Rio Kermit, flowing in
+from the west and making its entrance in the middle of the rapids.
+This river we christened the Taunay, in honor of a distinguished
+Brazilian, an explorer, a soldier, a senator, who was also a writer of
+note. Kermit had with him two of his novels, and I had read one of his
+books dealing with a disastrous retreat during the Paraguayan
+war.
+
+Next morning, the 25th, the canoes were brought down. A path was
+chopped for them and rollers laid; and half-way down the rapids Lyra
+and Kermit, who were overseeing the work as well as doing their share
+of the pushing and hauling, got them into a canal of smooth water,
+which saved much severe labor. As our food supply lowered we were
+constantly more desirous of economizing the strength of the men. One
+day more would complete a month since we had embarked on the Duvida as
+we had started in February, the lunar and calendar months coincided.
+We had used up over half our provisions. We had come only a trifle
+over 160 kilometres, thanks to the character and number of the rapids.
+We believed we had three or four times the distance yet to go before
+coming to a part of the river where we might hope to meet assistance,
+either from rubber-gatherers, or from Pyrineus, if he were really
+coming up the river which we were going down. If the rapids continued
+to be as they had been it could not be much more than three weeks
+before we were in straits for food, aside from the ever-present danger
+of accident in the rapids; and if our progress were no faster than it
+had been--and we were straining to do our best--we would in such event
+still have several hundreds of kilometres of unknown river before us.
+We could not even hazard a guess at what was in front. The river was
+now a really big river, and it seemed impossible that it could flow
+either into the Gy-Parana or the Tapajos. It was possible that it went
+into the Canuma, a big affluent of the Madeira low down, and next to
+the Tapajos. It was more probable that it was the headwaters of the
+Aripuanan, a river which, as I have said, was not even named on the
+excellent English map of Brazil I carried. Nothing but the mouth had
+been known to any geographer; but the lower course had long been known
+to rubber-gatherers, and recently a commission from the government of
+Amazonas had partway ascended one branch of it--not as far as the
+rubber-gatherers had gone, and, as it turned out, not the branch we
+came down.
+
+Two of our men were down with fever. Another man, Julio, a fellow of
+powerful frame, was utterly worthless, being an inborn, lazy shirk
+with the heart of a ferocious cur in the body of a bullock. The others
+were good men, some of them very good indeed. They were under the
+immediate supervision of Pedrinho Craveiro, who was first-class in
+every way.
+
+This camp was very lovely. It was on the edge of a bay, into which the
+river broadened immediately below the rapids. There was a beach of
+white sand, where we bathed and washed our clothes. All around us, and
+across the bay, and on both sides of the long water-street made by the
+river, rose the splendid forest. There were flocks of parakeets
+colored green, blue, and red. Big toucans called overhead, lustrous
+green-black in color, with white throats, red gorgets, red-and-yellow
+tail coverts, and huge black-and-yellow bills. Here the soil was
+fertile; it will be a fine site for a coffee-plantation when this
+region is open to settlement. Surely such a rich and fertile land
+cannot be permitted to remain idle, to lie as a tenantless wilderness,
+while there are such teeming swarms of human beings in the
+overcrowded, over-peopled countries of the Old World. The very rapids
+and waterfalls which now make the navigation of the river so difficult
+and dangerous would drive electric trolleys up and down its whole
+length and far out on either side, and run mills and factories, and
+lighten the labor on farms. With the incoming of settlement and with
+the steady growth of knowledge how to fight and control tropical
+diseases, fear of danger to health would vanish. A land like this is a
+hard land for the first explorers, and perhaps for their immediate
+followers, but not for the people who come after them.
+
+In mid-afternoon we were once more in the canoes; but we had paddled
+with the current only a few minutes, we had gone only a kilometre,
+when the roar of rapids in front again forced us to haul up to the
+bank. As usual, Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, with Antonio Correa,
+explored both sides while camp was being pitched. The rapids were
+longer and of steeper descent than the last, but on the opposite or
+western side there was a passage down which we thought we could get
+the empty dugouts at the cost of dragging them only a few yards at one
+spot. The loads were to be carried down the hither bank, for a
+kilometre, to the smooth water. The river foamed between great rounded
+masses of rock, and at one point there was a sheer fall of six or
+eight feet. We found and ate wild pineapples. Wild beans were in
+flower. At dinner we had a toucan and a couple of parrots, which were
+very good.
+
+All next day was spent by Lyra in superintending our three best
+watermen as they took the canoes down the west side of the rapids, to
+the foot, at the spot to which the camp had meantime been shifted. In
+the forest some of the huge sipas, or rope vines, which were as big as
+cables, bore clusters of fragrant flowers. The men found several
+honey-trees, and fruits of various kinds, and small cocoanuts; they
+chopped down an ample number of palms, for the palm-cabbage; and, most
+important of all, they gathered a quantity of big Brazil-nuts, which
+when roasted tasted like the best of chestnuts and are nutritious; and
+they caught a number of big piranhas, which were good eating. So we
+all had a feast, and everybody had enough to eat and was happy.
+
+By these rapids, at the fall, Cherrie found some strange carvings on a
+bare mass of rock. They were evidently made by men a long time ago. As
+far as is known, the Indians thereabouts make no such figures now.
+They were in two groups, one on the surface of the rock facing the
+land, the other on that facing the water. The latter were nearly
+obliterated. The former were in good preservation, the figures sharply
+cut into the rock. They consisted, upon the upper flat part of the
+rock, of four multiple circles with a dot in the middle (O), very
+accurately made and about a foot and a half in diameter; and below
+them, on the side of the rock, four multiple m's or inverted w's (M).
+What these curious symbols represented, or who made them, we could
+not, of course, form the slightest idea. It may be that in a very
+remote past some Indian tribes of comparatively advanced culture had
+penetrated to this lovely river, just as we had now come to it. Before
+white men came to South America there had already existed therein
+various semi-civilizations, some rude, others fairly advanced, which
+rose, flourished, and persisted through immemorial ages, and then
+vanished. The vicissitudes in the history of humanity during its stay
+on this southern continent have been as strange, varied, and
+inexplicable as paleontology shows to have been the case, on the same
+continent, in the history of the higher forms of animal life during
+the age of mammals. Colonel Rondon stated that such figures as these
+are not found anywhere else in Matto Grosso where he has been, and
+therefore it was all the more strange to find them in this one place
+on the unknown river, never before visited by white men, which we were
+descending.
+
+Next morning we went about three kilometers before coming to some
+steep hills, beautiful to look upon, clad as they were in dense, tall,
+tropical forest, but ominous of new rapids. Sure enough, at their foot
+we had to haul up and prepare for a long portage. The canoes we ran
+down empty. Even so, we were within an ace of losing two, the lashed
+couple in which I ordinarily journeyed. In a sharp bend of the rapids,
+between two big curls, they were swept among the boulders and under
+the matted branches which stretched out from the bank. They filled,
+and the racing current pinned them where they were, one partly on the
+other. All of us had to help get them clear. Their fastenings were
+chopped asunder with axes. Kermit and half a dozen of the men,
+stripped to the skin, made their way to a small rock island in the
+little falls just above the canoes, and let down a rope which we tied
+to the outermost canoe. The rest of us, up to our armpits and barely
+able to keep our footing as we slipped and stumbled among the boulders
+in the swift current, lifted and shoved while Kermit and his men
+pulled the rope and fastened the slack to a half-submerged tree. Each
+canoe in succession was hauled up the little rock island, baled, and
+then taken down in safety by two paddlers. It was nearly four o'clock
+before we were again ready to start, having been delayed by a rain-
+storm so heavy that we could not see across the river. Ten minutes'
+run took us to the head of another series of rapids; the exploring
+party returned with the news that we had an all day's job ahead of us;
+and we made camp in the rain, which did not matter much, as we were
+already drenched through. It was impossible, with the wet wood, to
+make a fire sufficiently hot to dry all our soggy things, for the rain
+was still falling. A tapir was seen from our boat, but, as at the
+moment we were being whisked round in a complete circle by a
+whirlpool, I did not myself see it in time to shoot.
+
+Next morning we went down a kilometre, and then landed on the other
+side of the river. The canoes were run down, and the loads carried to
+the other side of a little river coming in from the west, which
+Colonel Rondon christened Cherrie River. Across this we went on a
+bridge consisting of a huge tree felled by Macario, one of our best
+men. Here we camped, while Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa
+explored what was ahead. They were absent until mid-afternoon. Then
+they returned with the news that we were among ranges of low
+mountains, utterly different in formation from the high plateau region
+to which the first rapids, those we had come to on the 2nd of March,
+belonged. Through the first range of these mountains the river ran in
+a gorge, some three kilometres long, immediately ahead of us. The
+ground was so rough and steep that it would be impossible to drag the
+canoes over it and difficult enough to carry the loads; and the rapids
+were so bad, containing several falls, one of at least ten metres in
+height, that it was doubtful how many of the canoes we could get down
+them. Kermit, who was the only man with much experience of rope work,
+was the only man who believed we could get the canoes down at all; and
+it was, of course, possible that we should have to build new ones at
+the foot to supply the place of any that were lost or left behind. In
+view of the length and character of the portage, and of all the
+unpleasant possibilities that were ahead, and of the need of keeping
+every pound of food, it was necessary to reduce weight in every
+possible way and to throw away everything except the barest
+necessities.
+
+We thought we had reduced our baggage before; but now we cut to the
+bone. We kept the fly for all six of us to sleep under. Kermit's shoes
+had gone, thanks to the amount of work in the water which he had been
+doing; and he took the pair I had been wearing, while I put on my
+spare pair. In addition to the clothes I wore, I kept one set of
+pajamas, a spare pair of drawers, a spare pair of socks, half a dozen
+handkerchiefs, my wash-kit, my pocket medicine-case, and a little bag
+containing my spare spectacles, gun-grease, some adhesive plaster,
+some needles and thread, the "fly-dope," and my purse and letter of
+credit, to be used at Manaos. All of these went into the bag
+containing my cot, blanket, and mosquito-net. I also carried a
+cartridge-bag containing my cartridges, head-net, and gauntlets.
+Kermit cut down even closer; and the others about as close.
+
+The last three days of March we spent in getting to the foot of the
+rapids in this gorge. Lyra and Kermit, with four of the best watermen,
+handled the empty canoes. The work was not only difficult and
+laborious in the extreme, but hazardous; for the walls of the gorge
+were so sheer that at the worst places they had to cling to narrow
+shelves on the face of the rock, while letting the canoes down with
+ropes. Meanwhile Rondon surveyed and cut a trail for the burden-
+bearers, and superintended the portage of the loads. The rocky sides
+of the gorge were too steep for laden men to attempt to traverse them.
+Accordingly the trail had to go over the top of the mountain, both the
+ascent and the descent of the rock-strewn, forest-clad slopes being
+very steep. It was hard work to carry loads over such a trail. From
+the top of the mountain, through an opening in the trees on the edge
+of a cliff, there was a beautiful view of the country ahead. All
+around and in front of us there were ranges of low mountains about the
+height of the lower ridges of the Alleghenies. Their sides were steep
+and they were covered with the matted growth of the tropical forest.
+Our next camping-place, at the foot of the gorge, was almost beneath
+us, and from thence the river ran in a straight line, flecked with
+white water, for about a kilometre. Then it disappeared behind and
+between mountain ridges, which we supposed meant further rapids. It
+was a view well worth seeing; but, beautiful although the country
+ahead of us was, its character was such as to promise further
+hardships, difficulty, and exhausting labor, and especially further
+delay; and delay was a serious matter to men whose food supply was
+beginning to run short, whose equipment was reduced to the minimum,
+who for a month, with the utmost toil, had made very slow progress,
+and who had no idea of either the distance or the difficulties of the
+route in front of them.
+
+There was not much life in the woods, big or little. Small birds were
+rare, although Cherrie's unwearied efforts were rewarded from time to
+time by a species new to the collection. There were tracks of tapir,
+deer, and agouti; and if we had taken two or three days to devote to
+nothing else than hunting them we might perchance have killed
+something; but the chance was much too uncertain, the work we were
+doing was too hard and wearing, and the need of pressing forward
+altogether too great to permit us to spend any time in such manner.
+The hunting had to come in incidentally. This type of well nigh
+impenetrable forest is the one in which it is most difficult to get
+even what little game exists therein. A couple of curassows and a big
+monkey were killed by the colonel and Kermit. On the day the monkey
+was brought in Lyra, Kermit, and their four associates had spent from
+sunrise to sunset in severe and at moments dangerous toil among the
+rocks and in the swift water, and the fresh meat was appreciated. The
+head, feet, tail, skin, and entrails were boiled for the gaunt and
+ravenous dogs. The flesh gave each of us a few mouthfuls; and how good
+those mouthfuls tasted!
+
+Cherrie, in addition to being out after birds in every spare moment,
+helped in all emergencies. He was a veteran in the work of the tropic
+wilderness. We talked together often, and of many things, for our
+views of life, and of a man's duty to his wife and children, to other
+men, and to women, and to the state in peace and war, were in all
+essentials the same. His father had served all through the Civil War,
+entering an Iowa cavalry regiment as a private and coming out as a
+captain; his breast-bone was shattered by a blow from a musket-butt,
+in hand-to-hand fighting at Shiloh.
+
+During this portage the weather favored us. We were coming toward the
+close of the rainy season. On the last day of the month, when we moved
+camp to the foot of the gorge, there was a thunder-storm; but on the
+whole we were not bothered by rain until the last night, when it
+rained heavily, driving under the fly so as to wet my cot and bedding.
+However, I slept comfortably enough, rolled in the damp blanket.
+Without the blanket I should have been uncomfortable; a blanket is a
+necessity for health. On the third day Lyra and Kermit, with their
+daring and hard-working watermen, after wearing labor, succeeded in
+getting five canoes through the worst of the rapids to the chief fall.
+The sixth, which was frail and weak, had its bottom beaten out on the
+jagged rocks of the broken water. On this night, although I thought I
+had put my clothes out of reach, both the termites and the
+carregadores ants got at them, ate holes in one boot, ate one leg of
+my drawers, and riddled my handkerchief; and I now had nothing to
+replace anything that was destroyed.
+
+Next day Lyra, Kermit, and their camaradas brought the five canoes
+that were left down to camp. They had in four days accomplished a work
+of incredible labor and of the utmost importance; for at the first
+glance it had seemed an absolute impossibility to avoid abandoning the
+canoes when we found that the river sank into a cataract broken
+torrent at the bottom of a canyon-like gorge between steep mountains.
+On April 2 we once more started, wondering how soon we should strike
+other rapids in the mountains ahead, and whether in any reasonable
+time we should, as the aneroid indicated, be so low down that we
+should necessarily be in a plain where we could make a journey of at
+least a few days without rapids. We had been exactly a month going
+through an uninterrupted succession of rapids. During that month we
+had come only about 110 kilometres, and had descended nearly 150
+metres--the figures are approximate but fairly accurate. We had lost
+four of the canoes with which we started, and one other, which we had
+built, and the life of one man; and the life of a dog which by its
+death had in all probability saved the life of Colonel Rondon. In a
+straight line northward, toward our supposed destination, we had not
+made more than a mile and a quarter a day; at the cost of bitter toil
+for most of the party, of much risk for some of the party, and of some
+risk and some hardship for all the party. Most of the camaradas were
+downhearted, naturally enough, and occasionally asked one of us if we
+really believed that we should ever get out alive; and we had to cheer
+them up as best we could.
+
+There was no change in our work for the time being. We made but three
+kilometres that day. Most of the party walked all the time; but the
+dugouts carried the luggage until we struck the head of the series of
+rapids which were to take up the next two or three days. The river
+rushed through a wild gorge, a chasm or canyon, between two mountains.
+Its sides were very steep, mere rock walls, although in most places so
+covered with the luxuriant growth of the trees and bushes that clung
+in the crevices, and with green moss, that the naked rock was hardly
+seen. Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, who were in front, found a small level
+spot, with a beach of sand, and sent back word to camp there, while
+they spent several hours in exploring the country ahead. The canoes
+were run down empty, and the loads carried painfully along the face of
+the cliffs; so bad was the trail that I found it rather hard to
+follow, although carrying nothing but my rifle and cartridge bag. The
+explorers returned with the information that the mountains stretched
+ahead of us, and that there were rapids as far as they had gone. We
+could only hope that the aneroid was not hopelessly out of kilter, and
+that we should, therefore, fairly soon find ourselves in comparatively
+level country. The severe toil, on a rather limited food supply, was
+telling on the strength as well as on the spirits of the men; Lyra and
+Kermit, in addition to their other work, performed as much actual
+physical labor as any of them.
+
+Next day, the 3rd of April, we began the descent of these sinister
+rapids of the chasm. Colonel Rondon had gone to the summit of the
+mountain in order to find a better trail for the burden-bearers, but
+it was hopeless, and they had to go along the face of the cliffs. Such
+an exploring expedition as that in which we were engaged of necessity
+involves hard and dangerous labor, and perils of many kinds. To follow
+down-stream an unknown river, broken by innumerable cataracts and
+rapids, rushing through mountains of which the existence has never
+been even guessed, bears no resemblance whatever to following even a
+fairly dangerous river which has been thoroughly explored and has
+become in some sort a highway, so that experienced pilots can be
+secured as guides, while the portages have been pioneered and trails
+chopped out, and every dangerous feature of the rapids is known
+beforehand. In this case no one could foretell that the river would
+cleave its way through steep mountain chains, cutting narrow clefts in
+which the cliff walls rose almost sheer on either hand. When a rushing
+river thus "canyons," as we used to say out West, and the mountains
+are very steep, it becomes almost impossible to bring the canoes down
+the river itself and utterly impossible to portage them along the
+cliff sides, while even to bring the loads over the mountain is a task
+of extraordinary labor and difficulty. Moreover, no one can tell how
+many times the task will have to be repeated, or when it will end, or
+whether the food will hold out; every hour of work in the rapids is
+fraught with the possibility of the gravest disaster, and yet it is
+imperatively necessary to attempt it; and all this is done in an
+uninhabited wilderness, or else a wilderness tenanted only by
+unfriendly savages, where failure to get through means death by
+disease and starvation. Wholesale disasters to South American
+exploring parties have been frequent. The first recent effort to
+descend one of the unknown rivers to the Amazon from the Brazilian
+highlands resulted in such a disaster. It was undertaken in 1889 by a
+party about as large as ours under a Brazilian engineer officer,
+Colonel Telles Peres. In descending some rapids they lost everything--
+canoes, food, medicine, implements--everything. Fever smote them, and
+then starvation. All of them died except one officer and two men, who
+were rescued months later. Recently, in Guiana, a wilderness veteran,
+Andre, lost two-thirds of his party by starvation. Genuine wilderness
+exploration is as dangerous as warfare. The conquest of wild nature
+demands the utmost vigor, hardihood, and daring, and takes from the
+conquerors a heavy toll of life and health.
+
+Lyra, Kermit, and Cherrie, with four of the men, worked the canoes
+half-way down the canyon. Again and again it was touch and go whether
+they could get by a given point. At one spot the channel of the
+furious torrent was only fifteen yards across. One canoe was lost, so
+that of the seven with which we had started only two were left.
+Cherrie labored with the other men at times, and also stood as guard
+over them, for, while actually working, of course no one could carry a
+rifle. Kermit's experience in bridge building was invaluable in
+enabling him to do the rope work by which alone it was possible to get
+the canoes down the canyon. He and Lyra had now been in the water for
+days. Their clothes were never dry. Their shoes were rotten. The
+bruises on their feet and legs had become sores. On their bodies some
+of the insect bites had become festering wounds, as indeed was the
+case with all of us. Poisonous ants, biting flies, ticks, wasps, bees
+were a perpetual torment. However, no one had yet been bitten by a
+venomous serpent, a scorpion, or a centipede, although we had killed
+all of the three within camp limits.
+
+Under such conditions whatever is evil in men's natures comes to the
+front. On this day a strange and terrible tragedy occurred. One of the
+camaradas, a man of pure European blood, was the man named Julio, of
+whom I have already spoken. He was a very powerful fellow and had been
+importunately eager to come on the expedition; and he had the
+reputation of being a good worker. But, like so many men of higher
+standing, he had had no idea of what such an expedition really meant,
+and under the strain of toil, hardship, and danger his nature showed
+its true depths of selfishness, cowardice, and ferocity. He shirked
+all work. He shammed sickness. Nothing could make him do his share;
+and yet unlike his self-respecting fellows he was always shamelessly
+begging for favors. Kermit was the only one of our party who smoked;
+and he was continually giving a little tobacco to some of the
+camaradas, who worked especially well under him. The good men did not
+ask for it; but Julio, who shirked every labor, was always, and always
+in vain, demanding it. Colonel Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit each tried to
+get work out of him, and in order to do anything with him had to
+threaten to leave him in the wilderness. He threw all his tasks on his
+comrades; and, moreover, he stole their food as well as ours. On such
+an expedition the theft of food comes next to murder as a crime, and
+should by rights be punished as such. We could not trust him to cut
+down palms or gather nuts, because he would stay out and eat what
+ought to have gone into the common store. Finally, the men on several
+occasions themselves detected him stealing their food. Alone of the
+whole party, and thanks to the stolen food, he had kept in full flesh
+and bodily vigor.
+
+One of our best men was a huge negro named Paixao Paishon--a corporal
+and acting sergeant in the engineer corps. He had, by the way,
+literally torn his trousers to pieces, so that he wore only the
+tatters of a pair of old drawers until I gave him my spare trousers
+when we lightened loads. He was a stern disciplinarian. One evening he
+detected Julio stealing food and smashed him in the mouth. Julio came
+crying to us, his face working with fear and malignant hatred; but
+after investigation he was told that he had gotten off uncommonly
+lightly. The men had three or four carbines, which were sometimes
+carried by those who were not their owners.
+
+On this morning, at the outset of the portage, Pedrinho discovered
+Julio stealing some of the men's dried meat. Shortly afterward Paishon
+rebuked him for, as usual, lagging behind. By this time we had reached
+the place where the canoes were tied to the bank and then taken down
+one at a time. We were sitting down, waiting for the last loads to be
+brought along the trail. Pedrinho was still in the camp we had left.
+Paishon had just brought in a load, left it on the ground with his
+carbine beside it, and returned on the trail for another load. Julio
+came in, put down his load, picked up the carbine, and walked back on
+the trail, muttering to himself but showing no excitement. We thought
+nothing of it, for he was always muttering; and occasionally one of
+the men saw a monkey or big bird and tried to shoot it, so it was
+never surprising to see a man with a carbine.
+
+In a minute we heard a shot; and in a short time three or four of the
+men came up the trail to tell us that Paishon was dead, having been
+shot by Julio, who had fled into the woods. Colonel Rondon and Lyra
+were ahead; I sent a messenger for them, directed Cherrie and Kermit
+to stay where they were and guard the canoes and provisions, and
+started down the trail with the doctor--an absolutely cool and plucky
+man, with a revolver but no rifle--and a couple of the camaradas. We
+soon passed the dead body of poor Paishon. He lay in a huddle, in a
+pool of his own blood, where he had fallen, shot through the heart. I
+feared that Julio had run amuck, and intended merely to take more
+lives before he died, and that he would begin with Pedrinho, who was
+alone and unarmed in the camp we had left. Accordingly I pushed on,
+followed by my companions, looking sharply right and left; but when we
+came to the camp the doctor quietly walked by me, remarking, "My eyes
+are better than yours, colonel; if he is in sight I'll point him out
+to you, as you have the rifle." However, he was not there, and the
+others soon joined us with the welcome news that they had found the
+carbine.
+
+The murderer had stood to one side of the path and killed his victim,
+when a dozen paces off, with deliberate and malignant purpose. Then
+evidently his murderous hatred had at once given way to his innate
+cowardice; and, perhaps hearing some one coming along the path, he
+fled in panic terror into the wilderness. A tree had knocked the
+carbine from his hand. His footsteps showed that after going some rods
+he had started to return, doubtless for the carbine, but had fled
+again, probably because the body had then been discovered. It was
+questionable whether or not he would live to reach the Indian
+villages, which were probably his goal. He was not a man to feel
+remorse--never a common feeling; but surely that murderer was in a
+living hell, as, with fever and famine leering at him from the
+shadows, he made his way through the empty desolation of the
+wilderness. Franca, the cook, quoted out of the melancholy proverbial
+philosophy of the people the proverb: "No man knows the heart of any
+one"; and then expressed with deep conviction a weird ghostly belief I
+had never encountered before: "Paishon is following Julio now, and
+will follow him until he dies; Paishon fell forward on his hands and
+knees, and when a murdered man falls like that his ghost will follow
+the slayer as long as the slayer lives."
+
+We did not attempt to pursue the murderer. We could not legally put
+him to death, although he was a soldier who in cold blood had just
+deliberately killed a fellow soldier. If we had been near civilization
+we would have done our best to bring him in and turn him over to
+justice. But we were in the wilderness, and how many weeks' journey
+were ahead of us we could not tell. Our food was running low, sickness
+was beginning to appear among the men, and both their courage and
+their strength were gradually ebbing. Our first duty was to save the
+lives and the health of the men of the expedition who had honestly
+been performing, and had still to perform, so much perilous labor. If
+we brought the murderer in he would have to be guarded night and day
+on an expedition where there were always loaded firearms about, and
+where there would continually be opportunity and temptation for him to
+make an effort to seize food and a weapon and escape, perhaps
+murdering some other good man. He could not be shackled while climbing
+along the cliff slopes; he could not be shackled in the canoes, where
+there was always chance of upset and drowning; and standing guard
+would be an additional and severe penalty on the weary, honest men
+already exhausted by overwork. The expedition was in peril, and it was
+wise to take every chance possible that would help secure success.
+Whether the murderer lived or died in the wilderness was of no moment
+compared with the duty of doing everything to secure the safety of the
+rest of the party. For the two days following we were always on the
+watch against his return, for he could have readily killed some one
+else by rolling rocks down on any of the men working on the cliff
+sides or in the bottom of the gorge. But we did not see him until the
+morning of the third day. We had passed the last of the rapids of the
+chasm, and the four boats were going down-stream when he appeared
+behind some trees on the bank and called out that he wished to
+surrender and be taken aboard; for the murderer was an arrant craven
+at heart, a strange mixture of ferocity and cowardice. Colonel
+Rondon's boat was far in advance; he did not stop nor answer. I kept
+on in similar fashion with the rear boats, for I had no intention of
+taking the murderer aboard, to the jeopardy of the other members of
+the party, unless Colonel Rondon told me that it would have to be done
+in pursuance of his duty as an officer of the army and a servant of
+the Government of Brazil. At the first halt Colonel Rondon came up to
+me and told me that this was his view of his duty, but that he had not
+stopped because he wished first to consult me as the chief of the
+expedition. I answered that for the reasons enumerated above I did not
+believe that in justice to the good men of the expedition we should
+jeopardize their safety by taking the murderer along, and that if the
+responsibility were mine I should refuse to take him; but that he,
+Colonel Rondon, was the superior officer of both the murderer and of
+all the other enlisted men and army officers on the expedition, and in
+return was responsible for his actions to his own governmental
+superiors and to the laws of Brazil; and that in view of this
+responsibility he must act as his sense of duty bade him. Accordingly,
+at the next camp he sent back two men, expert woodsmen, to find the
+murderer and bring him in. They failed to find him.
+
+  NOTE:
+  The above account of all the circumstances connected with the murder
+  was read to and approved as correct by all six members of the
+  expedition.
+
+I have anticipated my narrative because I do not wish to recur to the
+horror more than is necessary. I now return to my story. After we
+found that Julio had fled, we returned to the scene of the tragedy.
+The murdered man lay with a handkerchief thrown over his face. We
+buried him beside the place where he fell. With axes and knives the
+camaradas dug a shallow grave while we stood by with bared heads. Then
+reverently and carefully we lifted the poor body which but half an
+hour before had been so full of vigorous life. Colonel Rondon and I
+bore the head and shoulders. We laid him in the grave, and heaped a
+mound over him, and put a rude cross at his head. We fired a volley
+for a brave and loyal soldier who had died doing his duty. Then we
+left him forever, under the great trees beside the lonely river.
+
+That day we got only half-way down the rapids. There was no good place
+to camp. But at the foot of one steep cliff there was a narrow,
+boulder-covered slope where it was possible to sling hammocks and
+cook; and a slanting spot was found for my cot, which had sagged until
+by this time it looked like a broken-backed centipede. It rained a
+little during the night, but not enough to wet us much. Next day Lyra,
+Kermit, and Cherrie finished their job, and brought the four remaining
+canoes to camp, one leaking badly from the battering on the rocks. We
+then went down-stream a few hundred yards, and camped on the opposite
+side; it was not a good camping-place, but it was better than the one
+we left.
+
+The men were growing constantly weaker under the endless strain of
+exhausting labor. Kermit was having an attack of fever, and Lyra and
+Cherrie had touches of dysentery, but all three continued to work.
+While in the water trying to help with an upset canoe I had by my own
+clumsiness bruised my leg against a boulder; and the resulting
+inflammation was somewhat bothersome. I now had a sharp attack of
+fever, but thanks to the excellent care of the doctor, was over it in
+about forty-eight hours; but Kermit's fever grew worse and he too was
+unable to work for a day or two. We could walk over the portages,
+however. A good doctor is an absolute necessity on an exploring
+expedition in such a country as that we were in, under penalty of a
+frightful mortality among the members; and the necessary risks and
+hazards are so great, the chances of disaster so large, that there is
+no warrant for increasing them by the failure to take all feasible
+precautions.
+
+The next day we made another long portage round some rapids, and
+camped at night still in the hot, wet, sunless atmosphere of the
+gorge. The following day, April 6, we portaged past another set of
+rapids, which proved to be the last of the rapids of the chasm. For
+some kilometres we kept passing hills, and feared lest at any moment
+we might again find ourselves fronting another mountain gorge; with,
+in such case, further days of grinding and perilous labor ahead of us,
+while our men were disheartened, weak, and sick. Most of them had
+already begun to have fever. Their condition was inevitable after over
+a month's uninterrupted work of the hardest kind in getting through
+the long series of rapids we had just passed; and a long further
+delay, accompanied by wearing labor, would have almost certainly meant
+that the weakest among our party would have begun to die. There were
+already two of the camaradas who were too weak to help the others,
+their condition being such as to cause us serious concern.
+
+However, the hills gradually sank into a level plain, and the river
+carried us through it at a rate that enabled us during the remainder
+of the day to reel off thirty-six kilometres, a record that for the
+first time held out promise. Twice tapirs swam the river while we
+passed, but not near my canoe. However, the previous evening, Cherrie
+had killed two monkeys and Kermit one, and we all had a few mouthfuls
+of fresh meat; we had already had a good soup made out of a turtle
+Kermit had caught. We had to portage by one short set of rapids, the
+unloaded canoes being brought down without difficulty. At last, at
+four in the afternoon, we came to the mouth of a big river running in
+from the right. We thought it was probably the Ananas, but, of course,
+could not be certain. It was less in volume than the one we had
+descended, but nearly as broad; its breadth at this point being
+ninety-five yards as against one hundred and twenty for the larger
+river. There were rapids ahead, immediately after the junction, which
+took place in latitude 10 degrees 58 minutes south. We had come 216
+kilometres all told, and were nearly north of where we had started. We
+camped on the point of land between the two rivers. It was
+extraordinary to realize that here about the eleventh degree we were
+on such a big river, utterly unknown to the cartographers and not
+indicated by even a hint on any map. We named this big tributary Rio
+Cardozo, after a gallant officer of the commission who had died of
+beriberi just as our expedition began. We spent a day at this spot,
+determining our exact position by the sun, and afterward by the stars,
+and sending on two men to explore the rapids in advance. They returned
+with the news that there were big cataracts in them, and that they
+would form an obstacle to our progress. They had also caught a huge
+iluroid fish, which furnished an excellent meal for everybody in camp.
+This evening at sunset the view across the broad river, from our camp
+where the two rivers joined, was very lovely; and for the first time
+we had an open space in front of and above us, so that after nightfall
+the stars, and the great waxing moon, were glorious over-head, and
+against the rocks in midstream the broken water gleamed like tossing
+silver.
+
+The huge catfish which the men had caught was over three feet and a
+half long, with the usual enormous head, out of all proportions to the
+body, and the enormous mouth, out of all proportion to the head. Such
+fish, although their teeth are small, swallow very large prey. This
+one contained the nearly digested remains of a monkey. Probably the
+monkey had been seized while drinking from the end of a branch; and
+once engulfed in that yawning cavern there was no escape. We Americans
+were astounded at the idea of a catfish making prey of a monkey; but
+our Brazilian friends told us that in the lower Madeira and the part
+of the Amazon near its mouth there is a still more gigantic catfish
+which in similar fashion occasionally makes prey of man. This is a
+grayish-white fish over nine feet long, with the usual
+disproportionately large head and gaping mouth, with a circle of small
+teeth; for the engulfing mouth itself is the danger, not the teeth. It
+is called the piraiba--pronounced in four syllables. While stationed
+at the small city of Itacoatiara, on the Amazon, at the mouth of the
+Madeira, the doctor had seen one of these monsters which had been
+killed by the two men it had attacked. They were fishing in a canoe
+when it rose from the bottom--for it is a ground fish--and raising
+itself half out of the water lunged over the edge of the canoe at
+them, with open mouth. They killed it with their falcons, as machetes
+are called in Brazil. It was taken round the city in triumph in an
+oxcart; the doctor saw it, and said it was three metres long. He said
+that swimmers feared it even more than the big cayman, because they
+could see the latter, whereas the former lay hid at the bottom of the
+water. Colonel Rondon said that in many villages where he had been on
+the lower Madeira the people had built stockaded enclosures in the
+water in which they bathed, not venturing to swim in the open water
+for fear of the piraiba and the big cayman.
+
+Next day, April 8, we made five kilometres only, as there was a
+succession of rapids. We had to carry the loads past two of them, but
+ran the canoes without difficulty, for on the west side were long
+canals of swift water through the forest. The river had been higher,
+but was still very high, and the current raced round the many islands
+that at this point divided the channel. At four we made camp at the
+head of another stretch of rapids, over which the Canadian canoes
+would have danced without shipping a teaspoonful of water, but which
+our dugouts could only run empty. Cherrie killed three monkeys and
+Lyra caught two big piranhas, so that we were again all of us well
+provided with dinner and breakfast. When a number of men, doing hard
+work, are most of the time on half-rations, they grow to take a lively
+interest in any reasonably full meal that does arrive.
+
+On the 10th we repeated the proceedings: a short quick run; a few
+hundred metres' portage, occupying, however, at least a couple of
+hours; again a few minutes' run; again other rapids. We again made
+less than five kilometres; in the two days we had been descending
+nearly a metre for every kilometre we made in advance; and it hardly
+seemed as if this state of things could last, for the aneroid showed
+that we were getting very low down. How I longed for a big Maine
+birch-bark, such as that in which I once went down the Mattawamkeag at
+high water! It would have slipped down these rapids as a girl trips
+through a country dance. But our loaded dugouts would have shoved
+their noses under every curl. The country was lovely. The wide river,
+now in one channel, now in several channels, wound among hills; the
+shower-freshened forest glistened in the sunlight; the many kinds of
+beautiful palm-fronds and the huge pacova-leaves stamped the peculiar
+look of the tropics on the whole landscape--it was like passing by
+water through a gigantic botanical garden. In the afternoon we got an
+elderly toucan, a piranha, and a reasonably edible side-necked river-
+turtle; so we had fresh meat again. We slept as usual in earshot of
+rapids. We had been out six weeks, and almost all the time we had been
+engaged in wearily working our own way down and past rapid after
+rapid. Rapids are by far the most dangerous enemies of explorers and
+travellers who journey along these rivers.
+
+Next day was a repetition of the same work. All the morning was spent
+in getting the loads to the foot of the rapids at the head of which we
+were encamped, down which the canoes were run empty. Then for thirty
+or forty minutes we ran down the swift, twisting river, the two lashed
+canoes almost coming to grief at one spot where a swirl of the current
+threw them against some trees on a small submerged island. Then we
+came to another set of rapids, carried the baggage down past them, and
+made camp long after dark in the rain--a good exercise in patience for
+those of us who were still suffering somewhat from fever. No one was
+in really buoyant health. For some weeks we had been sharing part of
+the contents of our boxes with the camaradas; but our food was not
+very satisfying to them. They needed quantity and the mainstay of each
+of their meals was a mass of palmitas; but on this day they had no
+time to cut down palms. We finally decided to run these rapids with
+the empty canoes, and they came down in safety. On such a trip it is
+highly undesirable to take any save necessary risks, for the
+consequences of disaster are too serious; and yet if no risks are
+taken the progress is so slow that disaster comes anyhow; and it is
+necessary perpetually to vary the terms of the perpetual working
+compromise between rashness and over-caution. This night we had a very
+good fish to eat, a big silvery fellow called a pescada, of a kind we
+had not caught before.
+
+One day Trigueiro failed to embark with the rest of us, and we had to
+camp where we were next day to find him. Easter Sunday we spent in the
+fashion with which we were altogether too familiar. We only ran in a
+clear course for ten minutes all told, and spent eight hours in
+portaging the loads past rapids down which the canoes were run; the
+balsa was almost swamped. This day we caught twenty-eight big fish,
+mostly piranhas, and everybody had all he could eat for dinner, and
+for breakfast the following morning.
+
+The forenoon of the following day was a repetition of this wearisome
+work; but late in the afternoon the river began to run in long quiet
+reaches. We made fifteen kilometres, and for the first time in several
+weeks camped where we did not hear the rapids. The silence was
+soothing and restful. The following day, April 14, we made a good run
+of some thirty-two kilometres. We passed a little river which entered
+on our left. We ran two or three light rapids, and portaged the loads
+by another. The river ran in long and usually tranquil stretches. In
+the morning when we started the view was lovely. There was a mist, and
+for a couple of miles the great river, broad and quiet, ran between
+the high walls of tropical forest, the tops of the giant trees showing
+dim through the haze. Different members of the party caught many fish,
+and shot a monkey and a couple of jacare-tinga birds kin to a turkey,
+but the size of a fowl--so we again had a camp of plenty. The dry
+season was approaching, but there were still heavy, drenching rains.
+On this day the men found some new nuts of which they liked the taste;
+but the nuts proved unwholesome and half of the men were very sick and
+unable to work the following day. In the balsa only two were left fit
+to do anything, and Kermit plied a paddle all day long.
+
+Accordingly, it was a rather sorry crew that embarked the following
+morning, April 15. But it turned out a red-letter day. The day before,
+we had come across cuttings, a year old, which were probably but not
+certainly made by pioneer rubbermen. But on this day--during which we
+made twenty-five kilometres--after running two hours and a half we
+found on the left bank a board on a post, with the initials J. A., to
+show the farthest up point which a rubberman had reached and claimed
+as his own. An hour farther down we came on a newly built house in a
+little planted clearing; and we cheered heartily. No one was at home,
+but the house, of palm thatch, was clean and cool. A couple of dogs
+were on watch, and the belongings showed that a man, a woman, and a
+child lived there, and had only just left. Another hour brought us to
+a similar house where dwelt an old black man, who showed the innate
+courtesy of the Brazilian peasant. We came on these rubbermen and
+their houses in about latitude 10 degrees 24 minutes.
+
+In mid-afternoon we stopped at another clean, cool, picturesque house
+of palm thatch. The inhabitants all fled at our approach, fearing an
+Indian raid; for they were absolutely unprepared to have any one come
+from the unknown regions up-stream. They returned and were most
+hospitable and communicative; and we spent the night there. Said
+Antonio Correa to Kermit: "It seems like a dream to be in a house
+again, and hear the voices of men and women, instead of being among
+those mountains and rapids." The river was known to them as the
+Castanho, and was the main affluent or rather the left or western
+branch, of the Aripuanan; the Castanho is a name used by the rubber-
+gatherers only; it is unknown to the geographers. We were, according
+to our informants, about fifteen days' journey from the confluence of
+the two rivers; but there were many rubbermen along the banks, some of
+whom had become permanent settlers. We had come over three hundred
+kilometres, in forty-eight days, over absolutely unknown ground; we
+had seen no human being, although we had twice heard Indians. Six
+weeks had been spent in steadily slogging our way down through the
+interminable series of rapids. It was astonishing before, when we were
+on a river of about the size of the upper Rhine or Elbe, to realize
+that no geographer had any idea of its existence. But, after all, no
+civilized man of any grade had ever been on it. Here, however, was a
+river with people dwelling along the banks, some of whom had lived in
+the neighborhood for eight or ten years; and yet on no standard map
+was there a hint of the river's existence. We were putting on the map
+a river, running through between five and six degrees of latitude--of
+between seven and eight if, as should properly be done, the lower
+Aripuanan is included as part of it--of which no geographer, in any
+map published in Europe, or the United States, or Brazil had even
+admitted the possibility of the existence; for the place actually
+occupied by it was filled, on the maps, by other--imaginary--streams,
+or by mountain ranges. Before we started, the Amazonas Boundary
+Commission had come up the lower Aripuanan and then the eastern
+branch, or upper Aripuanan, to 8 degrees 48 minutes, following the
+course which for a couple of decades had been followed by the
+rubbermen, but not going as high. An employee, either of this
+commission or of one of the big rubbermen, had been up the Castanho,
+which is easy of ascent in its lower course, to about the same
+latitude, not going nearly as high as the rubbermen had gone; this we
+found out while we ourselves were descending the lower Castanho. The
+lower main stream, and the lower portion of its main affluent, the
+Castanho, had been commercial highways for rubbermen and settlers for
+nearly two decades, and, as we speedily found, were as easy to
+traverse as the upper stream, which we had just come down, was
+difficult to traverse; but the governmental and scientific
+authorities, native and foreign, remained in complete ignorance; and
+the rubbermen themselves had not the slightest idea of the headwaters,
+which were in country never hitherto traversed by civilized men.
+Evidently the Castanho was, in length at least, substantially equal,
+and probably superior, to the upper Aripuanan; it now seemed even more
+likely that the Ananas was the headwaters of the main stream than of
+the Cardozo.
+
+For the first time this great river, the greatest affluent of the
+Madiera, was to be put on the map; and the understanding of its real
+position and real relationship, and the clearing up of the complex
+problem of the sources of all these lower right-hand affluents of the
+Madiera, was rendered possible by the seven weeks of hard and
+dangerous labor we had spent in going down an absolutely unknown
+river, through an absolutely unknown wilderness. At this stage of the
+growth of world geography I esteemed it a great piece of good fortune
+to be able to take part in such a feat--a feat which represented the
+capping of the pyramid which during the previous seven years had been
+built by the labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission.
+
+We had passed the period when there was a chance of peril, of
+disaster, to the whole expedition. There might be risk ahead to
+individuals, and some difficulties and annoyances for all of us; but
+there was no longer the least likelihood of any disaster to the
+expedition as a whole. We now no longer had to face continual anxiety,
+the need of constant economy with food, the duty of labor with no end
+in sight, and bitter uncertainty as to the future.
+
+It was time to get out. The wearing work, under very unhealthy
+conditions, was beginning to tell on every one. Half of the camaradas
+had been down with fever and were much weakened; only a few of them
+retained their original physical and moral strength. Cherrie and
+Kermit had recovered; but both Kermit and Lyra still had bad sores on
+their legs, from the bruises received in the water work. I was in
+worse shape. The after effects of the fever still hung on; and the leg
+which had been hurt while working in the rapids with the sunken canoe
+had taken a turn for the bad and developed an abscess. The good
+doctor, to whose unwearied care and kindness I owe much, had cut it
+open and inserted a drainage tube; an added charm being given the
+operation, and the subsequent dressings, by the enthusiasm with which
+the piums and boroshudas took part therein. I could hardly hobble, and
+was pretty well laid up. But "there aren't no 'stop, conductor,' while
+a battery's changing ground." No man has any business to go on such a
+trip as ours unless he will refuse to jeopardize the welfare of his
+associates by any delay caused by a weakness or ailment of his. It is
+his duty to go forward, if necessary on all fours, until he drops.
+Fortunately, I was put to no such test. I remained in good shape until
+we had passed the last of the rapids of the chasms. When my serious
+trouble came we had only canoe-riding ahead of us. It is not ideal for
+a sick man to spend the hottest hours of the day stretched on the
+boxes in the bottom of a small open dugout, under the well-nigh
+intolerable heat of the torrid sun of the mid-tropics, varied by
+blinding, drenching downpours of rain; but I could not be sufficiently
+grateful for the chance. Kermit and Cherrie took care of me as if they
+had been trained nurses; and Colonel Rondon and Lyra were no less
+thoughtful.
+
+The north was calling strongly to the three men of the north--Rocky
+Dell Farm to Cherrie, Sagamore Hill to me; and to Kermit the call was
+stronger still. After nightfall we could now see the Dipper well above
+the horizon--upside down, with the two pointers pointing to a north
+star below the world's rim; but the Dipper, with all its stars. In our
+home country spring had now come, the wonderful northern spring of
+long glorious days, of brooding twilights, of cool delightful nights.
+Robin and bluebird, meadow-lark and song sparrow, were singing in the
+mornings at home; the maple-buds were red; windflowers and bloodroot
+were blooming while the last patches of snow still lingered; the
+rapture of the hermithrush in Vermont, the serene golden melody of the
+woodthrush on Long Island, would be heard before we were there to
+listen. Each man to his home, and to his true love! Each was longing
+for the homely things that were so dear to him, for the home people
+who were dearer still, and for the one who was dearest of all.
+
+
+
+                X. TO THE AMAZON AND HOME; ZOOLOGICAL
+              AND GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION
+
+Our adventures and our troubles were alike over. We now experienced
+the incalculable contrast between descending a known and travelled
+river, and one that is utterly unknown. After four days we hired a
+rubberman to go with us as guide. We knew exactly what channels were
+passable when we came to the rapids, when the canoes had to unload,
+and where the carry-trails were. It was all child's play compared to
+what we had gone through. We made long days' journeys, for at night we
+stopped at some palm-thatched house, inhabited or abandoned, and
+therefore the men were spared the labor of making camp; and we bought
+ample food for them, so there was no further need of fishing and
+chopping down palms for the palmtops. The heat of the sun was blazing;
+but it looked as if we had come back into the rainy season, for there
+were many heavy rains, usually in the afternoon, but sometimes in the
+morning or at night. The mosquitoes were sometimes rather troublesome
+at night. In the daytime the piums swarmed, and often bothered us even
+when we were in midstream.
+
+For four days there were no rapids we could not run without unloading.
+Then, on the 19th, we got a canoe from Senhor Barboso. He was a most
+kind and hospitable man, who also gave us a duck and a chicken and
+some mandioc and six pounds of rice, and would take no payment; he
+lived in a roomy house with his dusky, cigar-smoking wife and his many
+children. The new canoe was light and roomy, and we were able to rig
+up a low shelter under which I could lie; I was still sick. At noon we
+passed the mouth of a big river, the Rio Branco, coming in from the
+left; this was about in latitude 9 degrees 38 minutes. Soon afterward
+we came to the first serious rapids, the Panela. We carried the boats
+past, ran down the empty canoes, and camped at the foot in a roomy
+house. The doctor bought a handsome trumpeter bird, very friendly and
+confiding, which was thenceforth my canoe companion.
+
+We had already passed many inhabited--and a still larger number of
+uninhabited--houses. The dwellers were rubbermen, but generally they
+were permanent settlers also, homemakers, with their wives and
+children. Some, both of the men and women, were apparently of pure
+negro blood, or of pure Indian or south European blood; but in the
+great majority all three strains were mixed in varying degrees. They
+were most friendly, courteous, and hospitable. Often they refused
+payment for what they could afford, out of their little, to give us.
+When they did charge, the prices were very high, as was but just, for
+they live back of the beyond, and everything costs them fabulously,
+save what they raise themselves. The cool, bare houses of poles and
+palm thatch contained little except hammocks and a few simple cooking
+utensils; and often a clock or sewing machine, or Winchester rifle,
+from our own country. They often had flowers planted, including
+fragrant roses. Their only live stock, except the dogs, were a few
+chickens and ducks. They planted patches of mandioc, maize, sugarcane,
+rice, beans, squashes, pineapples, bananas, lemons, oranges, melons,
+peppers; and various purely native fruits and vegetables, such as the
+kniabo--a vegetable-fruit growing on the branches of a high bush--
+which is cooked with meat. They get some game from the forest, and
+more fish from the river. There is no representative of the government
+among them--indeed, even now their very existence is barely known to
+the governmental authorities; and the church has ignored them as
+completely as the state. When they wish to get married they have to
+spend several months getting down to and back from Manaos or some
+smaller city; and usually the first christening and the marriage
+ceremony are held at the same time. They have merely squatter's right
+to the land, and are always in danger of being ousted by unscrupulous
+big men who come in late, but with a title technically straight. The
+land laws should be shaped so as to give each of these pioneer
+settlers the land he actually takes up and cultivates, and upon which
+he makes his home. The small homemaker, who owns the land which he
+tills with his own hands, is the greatest element of strength in any
+country.
+
+These are real pioneer settlers. They are the true wilderness-winners.
+No continent is ever really conquered, or thoroughly explored, by a
+few leaders, or exceptional men, although such men can render great
+service. The real conquest, the thorough exploration and settlement,
+is made by a nameless multitude of small men of whom the most
+important are, of course, the home-makers. Each treads most of the
+time in the footsteps of his predecessors, but for some few miles, at
+some time or other, he breaks new ground; and his house is built where
+no house has ever stood before. Such a man, the real pioneer, must
+have no strong desire for social life and no need, probably no
+knowledge, of any luxury, or of any comfort save of the most
+elementary kind. The pioneer who is always longing for the comfort and
+luxury of civilization, and especially of great cities, is no real
+pioneer at all. These settlers whom we met were contented to live in
+the wilderness. They had found the climate healthy and the soil
+fruitful; a visit to a city was a very rare event, nor was there any
+overwhelming desire for it.
+
+In short, these men, and those like them everywhere on the frontier
+between civilization and savagery in Brazil, are now playing the part
+played by our backwoodsmen when over a century and a quarter ago they
+began the conquest of the great basin of the Mississippi; the part
+played by the Boer farmers for over a century in South Africa, and by
+the Canadians when less than half a century ago they began to take
+possession of their Northwest. Every now and then some one says that
+the "last frontier" is now to be found in Canada or Africa, and that
+it has almost vanished. On a far larger scale this frontier is to be
+found in Brazil--a country as big as Europe or the United States--and
+decades will pass before it vanishes. The first settlers came to
+Brazil a century before the first settlers came to the United States
+and Canada. For three hundred years progress was very slow--Portuguese
+colonial government at that time was almost as bad as Spanish. For the
+last half-century and over there has been a steady increase in the
+rapidity of the rate of development; and this increase bids fair to be
+constantly more rapid in the future.
+
+The Paolistas, hunting for lands, slaves, and mines, were the first
+native Brazilians who, a hundred years ago, played a great part in
+opening to settlement vast stretches of wilderness. The rubber hunters
+have played a similar part during the last few decades. Rubber dazzled
+them, as gold and diamonds have dazzled other men and driven them
+forth to wander through the wide waste spaces of the world. Searching
+for rubber they made highways of rivers the very existence of which
+was unknown to the governmental authorities, or to any map-makers.
+Whether they succeeded or failed, they everywhere left behind them
+settlers, who toiled, married, and brought up children. Settlement
+began; the conquest of the wilderness entered on its first stage.
+
+On the 20th we stopped at the first store, where we bought, of course
+at a high price, sugar and tobacco for the camaradas. In this land of
+plenty the camaradas over-ate, and sickness was as rife among them as
+ever. In Cherrie's boat he himself and the steersman were the only men
+who paddled strongly and continuously. The storekeeper's stock of
+goods was very low, only what he still had left from that brought in
+nearly a year before; for the big boats, or batelaos-batelons--had not
+yet worked as far up-stream. We expected to meet them somewhere below
+the next rapids, the Inferno. The trader or rubberman brings up his
+year's supply of goods in a batelao, starting in February and reaching
+the upper course of the river early in May, when the rainy season is
+over. The parties of rubber-explorers are then equipped and
+provisioned; and the settlers purchase certain necessities, and
+certain things that strike them as luxuries. This year the Brazil-nut
+crop on the river had failed, a serious thing for all explorers and
+wilderness wanderers.
+
+On the 20th we made the longest run we had made, fifty-two kilometres.
+Lyra took observations where we camped; we were in latitude 8 degrees
+49 minutes. At this camping-place the great, beautiful river was a
+little over three hundred metres wide. We were in an empty house. The
+marks showed that in the high water, a couple of months back, the
+river had risen until the lower part of the house was flooded. The
+difference between the level of the river during the floods and in the
+dry season is extraordinary.
+
+On the 21st we made another good run, getting down to the Inferno
+rapids, which are in latitude 8 degrees 19 minutes south. Until we
+reached the Cardozo we had run almost due north; since then we had
+been running a little west of north. Before we reached these rapids we
+stopped at a large, pleasant thatch house, and got a fairly big and
+roomy as well as light boat, leaving both our two smaller dugouts
+behind. Above the rapids a small river, the Madeirainha, entered from
+the left. The rapids had a fall of over ten metres, and the water was
+very wild and rough. Met with for the first time, it would doubtless
+have taken several days to explore a passage and, with danger and
+labor, get the boats down. But we were no longer exploring,
+pioneering, over unknown country. It is easy to go where other men
+have prepared the way. We had a guide; we took our baggage down by a
+carry three-quarters of a kilometre long; and the canoes were run
+through known channels the following morning. At the foot of the
+rapids was a big house and store; and camped at the head were a number
+of rubber-workers, waiting for the big boats of the head rubbermen to
+work their way up from below. They were a reckless set of brown
+daredevils. These men lead hard lives of labor and peril; they
+continually face death themselves, and they think little of it in
+connection with others. It is small wonder that they sometimes have
+difficulties with the tribes of utterly wild Indians with whom they
+are brought in contact, although there is a strong Indian strain in
+their own blood.
+
+The following morning, after the empty canoes had been run down, we
+started, and made a rather short afternoon's journey. We had to take
+the baggage by one rapids. We camped in an empty house, in the rain.
+Next day we ran nearly fifty kilometres, the river making a long sweep
+to the west. We met half a dozen batelaos making their way up-stream,
+each with a crew of six or eight men; and two of them with women and
+children in addition. The crew were using very long poles, with
+crooks, or rather the stubs of cut branches which served as crooks, at
+the upper end. With these they hooked into the branches and dragged
+themselves up along the bank, in addition to poling where the depth
+permitted it. The river was as big as the Paraguay at Corumba; but, in
+striking contrast to the Paraguay, there were few water-birds. We ran
+some rather stiff rapids, the Infernino, without unloading, in the
+morning. In the evening we landed for the night at a large, open,
+shed-like house, where there were two or three pigs, the first live
+stock we had seen other than poultry and ducks. It was a dirty place,
+but we got some eggs.
+
+The following day, the 24th, we ran down some fifty kilometres to the
+Carupanan rapids, which by observation Lyra found to be in latitude 7
+degrees 47 minutes. We met several batelaos, and the houses on the
+bank showed that the settlers were somewhat better off than was the
+case farther up. At the rapids was a big store, the property of Senhor
+Caripe, the wealthiest rubberman who works on this river; many of the
+men we met were in his employ. He has himself risen from the ranks. He
+was most kind and hospitable, and gave us another boat to replace the
+last of our shovel-nosed dugouts. The large, open house was cool,
+clean, and comfortable.
+
+With these began a series of half a dozen sets of rapids, all coming
+within the next dozen kilometres, and all offering very real
+obstacles. At one we saw the graves of four men who had perished
+therein; and many more had died whose bodies were never recovered; the
+toll of human life had been heavy. Had we been still on an unknown
+river, pioneering our own way, it would doubtless have taken us at
+least a fortnight of labor and peril to pass. But it actually took
+only a day and a half. All the channels were known, all the trails
+cut. Senhor Caripe, a first-class waterman, cool, fearless, and brawny
+as a bull, came with us as guide. Half a dozen times the loads were
+taken out and carried down. At one cataract the canoes were themselves
+dragged overland; elsewhere they were run down empty, shipping a good
+deal of water. At the foot of the cataract, where we dragged the
+canoes overland, we camped for the night. Here Kermit shot a big
+cayman. Our camp was alongside the graves of three men who at this
+point had perished in the swift water.
+
+Senhor Caripe told us many strange adventures of rubber-workers he had
+met or employed. One of his men, working on the Gy-Parana, got lost
+and after twenty-eight days found himself on the Madeirainha, which he
+thus discovered. He was in excellent health, for he had means to start
+a fire, and he found abundance of Brazil-nuts and big land-tortoises.
+Senhor Caripe said that the rubbermen now did not go above the ninth
+degree, or thereabouts, on the upper Aripuanan proper, having found
+the rubber poor on the reaches above. A year previously five
+rubbermen, Mundurucu Indians, were working on the Corumba at about
+that level. It is a difficult stream to ascend or descend. They made
+excursions into the forest for days at a time after caoutchouc. On one
+such trip, after fifteen days they, to their surprise, came out on the
+Aripuanan. They returned and told their "patron" of their discovery;
+and by his orders took their caoutchouc overland to the Aripuanan,
+built a canoe, and ran down with their caoutchouc to Manaos. They had
+now returned and were working on the upper Aripuanan. The Mundurucus
+and Brazilians are always on the best terms, and the former are even
+more inveterate enemies of the wild Indians than are the latter.
+
+By mid-forenoon on April 26 we had passed the last dangerous rapids.
+The paddles were plied with hearty good will, Cherrie and Kermit, as
+usual, working like the camaradas, and the canoes went dancing down
+the broad, rapid river. The equatorial forest crowded on either hand
+to the water's edge; and, although the river was falling, it was still
+so high that in many places little islands were completely submerged,
+and the current raced among the trunks of the green trees. At one
+o'clock we came to the mouth of the Castanho proper, and in sight of
+the tent of Lieutenant Pyrineus, with the flags of the United States
+and Brazil flying before it; and, with rifles firing from the canoes
+and the shore, we moored at the landing of the neat, soldierly, well
+kept camp. The upper Aripuanan, a river of substantially the same
+volume as the Castanho, but broader at this point, and probably of
+less length, here joined the Castanho from the east, and the two
+together formed what the rubbermen called the lower Aripuanan. The
+mouth of this was indicated, and sometimes named, on the maps, but
+only as a small and unimportant stream.
+
+We had been two months in the canoes; from the 27th of February to the
+26th of April. We had gone over 750 kilometres. The river from its
+source, near the thirteenth degree, to where it became navigable and
+we entered it, had a course of some 200 kilometres--probably more,
+perhaps 300 kilometres. Therefore we had now put on the map a river
+nearly 1,000 kilometres in length of which the existence was not
+merely unknown but impossible if the standard maps were correct. But
+this was not all. It seemed that this river of 1,000 kilometres in
+length was really the true upper course of the Aripuanan proper, in
+which case the total length was nearly 1,500 kilometres. Pyrineus had
+been waiting for us over a month, at the junction of what the
+rubbermen called the Castanho and of what they called the upper
+Aripuanan. (He had no idea as to which stream we would appear upon, or
+whether we would appear upon either.) On March 26 he had measured the
+volume of the two, and found that the Castanho, although the narrower,
+was the deeper and swifter, and that in volume it surpassed the other
+by 84 cubic metres a second. Since then the Castanho had fallen; our
+measurements showed it to be slightly smaller than the other; the
+volume of the river after the junction was about 4,500 cubic metres a
+second. This was in 7 degrees 34 minutes.
+
+We were glad indeed to see Pyrineus and be at his attractive camp. We
+were only four hours above the little river hamlet of Sao Joao, a port
+of call for rubber-steamers, from which the larger ones go to Manaos
+in two days. These steamers mostly belong to Senhor Caripe. From
+Pyrineus we learned that Lauriado and Fiala had reached Manaos on
+March 26. On the swift water in the gorge of the Papagaio Fiala's boat
+had been upset and all his belongings lost, while he himself had
+narrowly escaped with his life. I was glad indeed that the fine and
+gallant fellow had escaped. The Canadian canoe had done very well. We
+were no less rejoiced to learn that Amilcar, the head of the party
+that went down the Gy-Parana, was also all right, although his canoe
+too had been upset in the rapids, and his instruments and all his
+notes lost. He had reached Manaos on April 10. Fiala had gone home.
+Miller was collecting near Manaos. He had been doing capital work.
+
+The piranhas were bad here, and no one could bathe. Cherrie, while
+standing in the water close to the shore, was attacked and bitten; but
+with one bound he was on the bank before any damage could be done.
+
+We spent a last night under canvas, at Pyrineus' encampment. It rained
+heavily. Next morning we all gathered at the monument which Colonel
+Rondon had erected, and he read the orders of the day. These recited
+just what had been accomplished: set forth the fact that we had now by
+actual exploration and investigation discovered that the river whose
+upper portion had been called the Duvida on the maps of the
+Telegraphic Commission and the unknown major part of which we had just
+traversed, and the river known to a few rubbermen, but to no one else,
+as the Castanho, and the lower part of the river known to the
+rubbermen as the Aripuanan (which did not appear on the maps save as
+its mouth was sometimes indicated, with no hint of its size) were all
+parts of one and the same river; and that by order of the Brazilian
+Government this river, the largest affluent of the Madeira, with its
+source near the 13th degree and its mouth a little south of the 5th
+degree, hitherto utterly unknown to cartographers and in large part
+utterly unknown to any save the local tribes of Indians, had been
+named the Rio Roosevelt.
+
+We left Rondon, Lyra, and Pyrineus to take observations, and the rest
+of us embarked for the last time on the canoes, and, borne swiftly on
+the rapid current, we passed over one set of not very important rapids
+and ran down to Senhor Caripe's little hamlet of Sao Joao, which we
+reached about one o'clock on April 27, just before a heavy afternoon
+rain set in. We had run nearly eight hundred kilometres during the
+sixty days we had spent in the canoes. Here we found and boarded
+Pyrineus's river steamer, which seemed in our eyes extremely
+comfortable. In the senhor's pleasant house we were greeted by the
+senhora, and they were both more than thoughtful and generous in their
+hospitality. Ahead of us lay merely thirty-six hours by steamer to
+Manaos. Such a trip as that we had taken tries men as if by fire.
+Cherrie had more than stood every test; and in him Kermit and I had
+come to recognize a friend with whom our friendship would never falter
+or grow less.
+
+Early the following afternoon our whole party, together with Senhor
+Caripe, started on the steamer. It took us a little over twelve hours'
+swift steaming to run down to the mouth of the river on the upper
+course of which our progress had been so slow and painful; from source
+to mouth, according to our itinerary and to Lyra's calculations, the
+course of the stream down which we had thus come was about 1,500
+kilometres in length--about 900 miles, perhaps nearly 1,000 miles--
+from its source near the 13th degree in the highlands to its mouth in
+the Madeira, near the 5th degree. Next morning we were on the broad
+sluggish current of the lower Madeira, a beautiful tropical river.
+There were heavy rainstorms, as usual, although this is supposed to be
+the very end of the rainy season. In the afternoon we finally entered
+the wonderful Amazon itself, the mighty river which contains one tenth
+of all the running water of the globe. It was miles across, where we
+entered it; and indeed we could not tell whether the farther bank,
+which we saw, was that of the mainland or an island. We went up it
+until about midnight, then steamed up the Rio Negro for a short
+distance, and at one in the morning of April 30 reached Manaos.
+
+Manaos is a remarkable city. It is only three degrees south of the
+equator. Sixty years ago it was a nameless little collection of
+hovels, tenanted by a few Indians and a few of the poorest class of
+Brazilian peasants. Now it is a big, handsome modern city, with Opera
+house, tramways, good hotels, fine squares and public buildings, and
+attractive private houses. The brilliant coloring and odd architecture
+give the place a very foreign and attractive flavor in northern eyes.
+Its rapid growth to prosperity was due to the rubber trade. This is
+now far less remunerative than formerly. It will undoubtedly in some
+degree recover; and in any event the development of the immensely rich
+and fertile Amazonian valley is sure to go on, and it will be
+immensely quickened when closer connections are made with the
+Brazilian highland country lying south of it.
+
+Here we found Miller, and glad indeed we were to see him. He had made
+good collections of mammals and birds on the Gy-Parana, the Madeira,
+and in the neighborhood of Manaos; his entire collection of mammals
+was really noteworthy. Among them was the only sloth any of us had
+seen on the trip. The most interesting of the birds he had seen was
+the hoatzin. This is a most curious bird of very archaic type. Its
+flight is feeble, and the naked young have spurs on their wings, by
+the help of which they crawl actively among the branches before their
+feathers grow. They swim no less easily, at the same early age. Miller
+got one or two nests, and preserved specimens of the surroundings of
+the nests; and he made exhaustive records of the habits of the birds.
+Near Megasso a jaguar had killed one of the bullocks that were being
+driven along for food. The big cat had not seized the ox with its
+claws by the head, but had torn open its throat and neck.
+
+Every one was most courteous at Manaos, especially the governor of the
+state and the mayor of the city. Mr. Robiliard, the British consular
+representative, and also the representative of the Booth line of
+steamers, was particularly kind. He secured for us passages on one of
+the cargo boats of the line to Para, and thence on one of the regular
+cargo-and-passenger steamers to Barbados and New York. The Booth
+people were most courteous to us.
+
+I said good-by to the camaradas with real friendship and regret. The
+parting gift I gave to each was in gold sovereigns; and I was rather
+touched to learn later that they had agreed among themselves each to
+keep one sovereign as a medal of honor and token that the owner had
+been on the trip. They were a fine set, brave, patient, obedient, and
+enduring. Now they had forgotten their hard times; they were fat from
+eating, at leisure, all they wished; they were to see Rio Janeiro,
+always an object of ambition with men of their stamp; and they were
+very proud of their membership in the expedition.
+
+Later, at Belen, I said good-by to Colonel Rondon, Doctor Cajazeira,
+and Lieutenant Lyra. Together with my admiration for their hardihood,
+courage, and resolution, I had grown to feel a strong and affectionate
+friendship for them. I had become very fond of them; and I was glad to
+feel that I had been their companion in the performance of a feat
+which possessed a certain lasting importance.
+
+On May 1 we left Manaos for Belen-Para, as until recently it was
+called. The trip was interesting. We steamed down through tempest and
+sunshine; and the towering forest was dwarfed by the giant river it
+fringed. Sunrise and sunset turned the sky to an unearthly flame of
+many colors above the vast water. It all seemed the embodiment of
+loneliness and wild majesty. Yet everywhere man was conquering the
+loneliness and wresting the majesty to his own uses. We passed many
+thriving, growing towns; at one we stopped to take on cargo.
+Everywhere there was growth and development. The change since the days
+when Bates and Wallace came to this then poor and utterly primitive
+region is marvellous. One of its accompaniments has been a large
+European, chiefly south European, immigration. The blood is everywhere
+mixed; there is no color line, as in most English-speaking countries,
+and the negro and Indian strains are very strong; but the dominant
+blood, the blood already dominant in quantity, and that is steadily
+increasing its dominance, is the olive-white.
+
+Only rarely did the river show its full width. Generally we were in
+channels or among islands. The surface of the water was dotted with
+little islands of floating vegetation. Miller said that much of this
+came from the lagoons such as those where he had been hunting, beside
+the Solimoens--lagoons filled with the huge and splendid Victoria
+lily, and with masses of water hyacinths. Miller, who was very fond of
+animals and always took much care of them, had a small collection
+which he was bringing back for the Bronx Zoo. An agouti was so bad-
+tempered that he had to be kept solitary; but three monkeys, big,
+middle-sized, and little, and a young peccary formed a happy family.
+The largest monkey cried, shedding real tears, when taken in the arms
+and pitied. The middle-sized monkey was stupid and kindly, and all the
+rest of the company imposed on it; the little monkey invariably rode
+on its back, and the peccary used it as a head pillow when it felt
+sleepy.
+
+Belen, the capital of the state of Para, was an admirable illustration
+of the genuine and almost startling progress which Brazil has been
+making of recent years. It is a beautiful city, nearly under the
+equator. But it is not merely beautiful. The docks, the dredging
+operations, the warehouses, the stores and shops, all tell of energy
+and success in commercial life. It is as clean, healthy, and well
+policed a city as any of the size in the north temperate zone. The
+public buildings are handsome, the private dwellings attractive; there
+are a fine opera-house, an excellent tramway system, and a good museum
+and botanical gardens. There are cavalry stables, where lights burn
+all night long to protect the horses from the vampire bats. The parks,
+the rows of palms and mango-trees, the open-air restaurants, the gay
+life under the lights at night, all give the city its own special
+quality and charm. Belen and Manaos are very striking examples of what
+can be done in the mid-tropics. The governor of Para and his charming
+wife were more than kind.
+
+Cherrie and Miller spent the day at the really capital zoological
+gardens, with the curator, Miss Snethlage. Miss Snethlage, a German
+lady, is a first rate field and closet naturalist, and an explorer of
+note, who has gone on foot from the Xingu to the Tapajos. Most wisely
+she has confined the Belen zoo to the animals of the lower Amazon
+valley, and in consequence I know of no better local zoological
+gardens. She has an invaluable collection of birds and mammals of the
+region; and it was a privilege to meet her and talk with her.
+
+We also met Professor Farrabee, of the University of Pennsylvania, the
+ethnologist. He had just finished a very difficult and important trip,
+from Manaos by the Rio Branco to the highlands of Guiana, across them
+on foot, and down to the seacoast of British Guiana. He is an
+admirable representative of the men who are now opening South America
+to scientific knowledge.
+
+On May 7 we bade good-by to our kind Brazilian friends and sailed
+northward for Barbados and New York.
+
+Zoologically the trip had been a thorough success. Cherrie and Miller
+had collected over twenty-five hundred birds, about five hundred
+mammals, and a few reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. Many of them
+were new to science; for much of the region traversed had never
+previously been worked by any scientific collector.
+
+Of course, the most important work we did was the geographic work, the
+exploration of the unknown river, undertaken at the suggestion of the
+Brazilian Government, and in conjunction with its representatives. No
+piece of work of this kind is ever achieved save as it is based on
+long continued previous work. As I have before said, what we did was
+to put the cap on the pyramid that had been built by Colonel Rondon
+and his associates of the Telegraphic Commission during the six
+previous years. It was their scientific exploration of the chapadao,
+their mapping the basin of the Juruena, and their descent of the Gy-
+Parana that rendered it possible for us to solve the mystery of the
+River of Doubt.
+
+The work of the commission, much the greatest work of the kind ever
+done in South America, is one of the many, many achievements which the
+republican government of Brazil has to its credit. Brazil has been
+blessed beyond the average of her Spanish-American sisters because she
+won her way to republicanism by evolution rather than revolution. They
+plunged into the extremely difficult experiment of democratic, of
+popular, self-government, after enduring the atrophy of every quality
+of self-control, self-reliance, and initiative throughout three
+withering centuries of existence under the worst and most foolish form
+of colonial government, both from the civil and the religious
+standpoint, that has ever existed. The marvel is not that some of them
+failed, but that some of them have eventually succeeded in such
+striking fashion. Brazil, on the contrary, when she achieved
+independence, first exercised it under the form of an authoritative
+empire, then under the form of a liberal empire. When the republic
+came, the people were reasonably ripe for it. The great progress of
+Brazil--and it has been an astonishing progress--has been made under
+the republic. I could give innumerable examples and illustrations of
+this. The change that has converted Rio Janeiro from a picturesque
+pest-hole into a singularly beautiful, healthy, clean, and efficient
+modern great city is one of these. Another is the work of the
+Telegraphic Commission.
+
+We put upon the map a river some fifteen hundred kilometres in length,
+of which the upper course was not merely utterly unknown to, but
+unguessed at by, anybody; while the lower course, although known for
+years to a few rubbermen, was utterly unknown to cartographers. It is
+the chief affluent of the Madeira, which is itself the chief affluent
+of the Amazon.
+
+The source of this river is between the 12th and 13th parallels of
+latitude south and the 59th and 60th degrees of longitude west from
+Greenwich. We embarked on it at about latitude 12 degrees 1 minute
+south, and about longitude 60 degrees 15 minutes west. After that its
+entire course lay between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude,
+approaching the latter most closely about latitude 8 degrees 15
+minutes. The first rapids we encountered were in latitude 11 degrees
+44 minutes, and in uninterrupted succession they continued for about a
+degree, without a day's complete journey between any two of them. At
+11 degrees 23 minutes the Rio Kermit entered from the left, at 11
+degrees 22 minutes the Rio Marciano Avila from the right, at 11
+degrees 18 minutes the Taunay from the left, at 10 degrees 58 minutes
+the Cardozo from the right. In 10 degrees 24 minutes we encountered
+the first rubbermen. The Rio Branco entered from the left at 9 degrees
+38 minutes. Our camp at 8 degrees 49 minutes was nearly on the
+boundary between Matto Grosso and Amazonas. The confluence with the
+Aripuanan, which joined from the right, took place at 7 degrees 34
+minutes. The entrance into the Madeira was at about 5 degrees 20
+minutes (this point we did not determine by observation, as it is
+already on the maps). The stream we had followed down was from the
+river's highest sources; we had followed its longest course.
+
+
+
+                             APPENDIX A.
+
+                   The Work of the Field Zoologist
+                and Field Geographer in South America
+
+Portions of South America are now entering on a career of great social
+and industrial development. Much remains to be known, so far as the
+outside world is concerned, of the social and industrial condition in
+the long-settled interior regions. More remains to be done, in the way
+of pioneer exploring and of scientific work, in the great stretches of
+virgin wilderness. The only two other continents where such work, of
+like volume and value, remains to be done are Africa and Asia; and
+neither Africa nor Asia offers a more inviting field for the best kind
+of field worker in geographical exploration and in zoological,
+geological, and paleontological investigation. The explorer is merely
+the most adventurous kind of field geographer; and there are two or
+three points worth keeping in mind in dealing with the South American
+work of the field geographer and field zoologist.
+
+Roughly, the travellers who now visit (like those who for the past
+century have visited) South America come in three categories--
+although, of course, these categories are not divided by hard-and-fast
+lines.
+
+First, there are the travellers who skirt the continent in comfortable
+steamers, going from one great seaport to another, and occasionally
+taking a short railway journey to some big interior city not too far
+from the coast. This is a trip well worth taking by all intelligent
+men and women who can afford it; and it is being taken by such men and
+women with increasing frequency. It entails no more difficulty than a
+similar trip to the Mediterranean--than such a trip which to a learned
+and broad-minded observer offers the same chance for acquiring
+knowledge and, if he is himself gifted with wisdom, the same chance of
+imparting his knowledge to others that is offered by a trip of similar
+length through the larger cities of Europe or the United States.
+Probably the best instance of the excellent use to which such an
+observer can put his experience is afforded by the volume of Mr.
+Bryce. Of course, such a trip represents travelling of essentially the
+same kind as travelling by railroad from Atlanta to Calgary or from
+Madrid to Moscow.
+
+Next there are the travellers who visit the long-settled districts and
+colonial cities of the interior, travelling over land or river
+highways which have been traversed for centuries but which are still
+primitive as regards the inns and the modes of conveyance. Such
+travelling is difficult in the sense that travelling in parts of Spain
+or southern Italy or the Balkan states is difficult. Men and women who
+have a taste for travel in out-of-way places and who, therefore, do
+not mind slight discomforts and inconveniences have the chance
+themselves to enjoy, and to make others profit by, travels of this
+kind in South America. In economic, social, and political matters the
+studies and observations of these travellers are essential in order to
+supplement, and sometimes to correct, those of travellers of the first
+category; for it is not safe to generalize overmuch about any country
+merely from a visit to its capital or its chief seaport. These
+travellers of the second category can give us most interesting and
+valuable information about quaint little belated cities; about
+backward country folk, kindly or the reverse, who show a mixture of
+the ideas of savagery with the ideas of an ancient peasantry; and
+about rough old highways of travel which in comfort do not differ much
+from those of mediaeval Europe. The travellers who go up or down the
+highway rivers that have been travelled for from one to four hundred
+years--rivers like the Paraguay and Parana, the Amazon, the Tapajos,
+the Madeira, the lower Orinoco--come in this category. They can add
+little to our geographical knowledge; but if they are competent
+zoologists or archaeologists, especially if they live or sojourn
+long in a locality, their work may be invaluable from the scientific
+standpoint. The work of the archaeologists among the immeasurably
+ancient ruins of the low-land forests and the Andean plateaux is of
+this kind. What Agassiz did for the fishes of the Amazon and what
+Hudson did for the birds of the Argentine are other instances of the
+work that can thus be done. Burton's writings on the interior of
+Brazil offer an excellent instance of the value of a sojourn or trip
+of this type, even without any especial scientific object.
+
+Of course travellers of this kind need to remember that their
+experiences in themselves do not qualify them to speak as wilderness
+explorers. Exactly as a good archaeologist may not be competent to
+speak of current social or political problems, so a man who has done
+capital work as a tourist observer in little-visited cities and along
+remote highways must beware of regarding himself as being thereby
+rendered fit for genuine wilderness work or competent to pass judgment
+on the men who do such work. To cross the Andes on mule-back along the
+regular routes is a feat comparable to the feats of the energetic
+tourists who by thousands traverse the mule trails in out-of-the-way
+nooks of Switzerland. An ordinary trip on the highway portions of the
+Amazon, Paraguay, or Orinoco in itself no more qualifies a man to
+speak of or to take part in exploring unknown South American rivers
+than a trip on the lower Saint Lawrence qualifies a man to regard
+himself as an expert in a canoe voyage across Labrador or the Barren
+Grounds west of Hudson Bay.
+
+A hundred years ago, even seventy or eighty years ago, before the age
+of steamboats and railroads, it was more difficult than at present to
+define the limits between this class and the next; and, moreover, in
+defining these limits I emphatically disclaim any intention of thereby
+attempting to establish a single standard of value for books of
+travel. Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" is to me the best book of the
+kind ever written; it is one of those classics which decline to go
+into artificial categories, and which stand by themselves; and yet
+Darwin, with his usual modesty, spoke of it as in effect a yachting
+voyage. Humboldt's work had a profound effect on the thought of the
+civilized world; his trip was one of adventure and danger; and yet it
+can hardly be called exploration proper. He visited places which had
+been settled and inhabited for centuries and traversed places which
+had been travelled by civilized men for years before he followed in
+their footsteps. But these places were in Spanish colonies, and access
+to them had been forbidden by the mischievous and intolerant tyranny--
+ecclesiastical, political, and economic--which then rendered Spain the
+most backward of European nations; and Humboldt was the first
+scientific man of intellectual independence who had permission to
+visit them. To this day many of his scientific observations are of
+real value. Bates came to the Amazon just before the era of Amazonian
+steamboats. He never went off the native routes of ordinary travel.
+But he was a devoted and able naturalist. He lived an exceedingly
+isolated, primitive, and laborious life for eleven years. Now, half a
+century after it was written, his "Naturalist on the Amazon" is as
+interesting and valuable as it ever was, and no book since written has
+in any way supplanted it.
+
+Travel of the third category includes the work of the true wilderness
+explorers who add to our sum of geographical knowledge and of the
+scientific men who, following their several bents, also work in the
+untrodden wilds. Colonel Rondon and his associates have done much in
+the geographical exploration of unknown country, and Cherrie and
+Miller have penetrated and lived for months and years in the wastes,
+on their own resources, as incidents to their mammalogical and
+ornithological work. Professor Farrabee, the anthropologist, is a
+capital example of the man who does this hard and valuable type of
+work.
+
+An immense amount of this true wilderness work, geographical and
+zoological, remains to be done in South America. It can be
+accomplished with reasonable thoroughness only by the efforts of very
+many different workers, each in his own special field. It is desirable
+that here and there a part of the work should be done in outline by
+such a geographic and zoological reconnaissance as ours; we would, for
+example, be very grateful for such work in portions of the interior of
+the Guianas, on the headwaters of the Xingu, and here and there along
+the eastern base of the Andes.
+
+But as a rule the work must be specialized; and in its final shape it
+must be specialized everywhere. The first geographical explorers of
+the untrodden wilderness, the first wanderers who penetrate the wastes
+where they are confronted with starvation, disease, and danger and
+death in every from, cannot take with them the elaborate equipment
+necessary in order to do the thorough scientific work demanded by
+modern scientific requirements. This is true even of exploration done
+along the courses of unknown rivers; it is more true of the
+exploration, which must in South America become increasingly
+necessary, done across country, away from the rivers.
+
+The scientific work proper of these early explorers must be of a
+somewhat preliminary nature; in other words the most difficult and
+therefore ordinarily the most important pieces of first-hand exploration
+are precisely those where the scientific work of the accompanying
+cartographer, geologist, botanist, and zoologist must be furthest
+removed from finality. The zoologist who works to most advantage in
+the wilderness must take his time, and therefore he must normally
+follow in the footsteps of, and not accompany, the first explorers.
+The man who wishes to do the best scientific work in the wilderness
+must not try to combine incompatible types of work nor to cover too
+much ground in too short a time.
+
+There is no better example of the kind of zoologist who does first-
+class field-work in the wilderness than John D. Haseman, who spent
+from 1907 to 1910 in painstaking and thorough scientific investigation
+over a large extent of South American territory hitherto only
+partially known or quite unexplored. Haseman's primary object was to
+study the characteristics and distribution of South American fishes,
+but as a matter of fact he studied at first hand many other more or
+less kindred subjects, as may be seen in his remarks on the Indians
+and in his excellent pamphlet on "Some Factors of Geographical
+Distribution in South America."
+
+Haseman made his long journey with a very slender equipment, his
+extraordinarily successful field-work being due to his bodily health
+and vigor and his resourcefulness, self-reliance, and resolution. His
+writings are rendered valuable by his accuracy and common sense. The
+need of the former of these two attributes will be appreciated by
+whoever has studied the really scandalous fictions which have been
+published as genuine by some modern "explorers" and adventurers in
+South America; and the need of the latter by whoever has studied
+some of the wild theories propounded in the name of science concerning
+the history of life on the South American continent. There is,
+however, one serious criticism to be made on Haseman: the extreme
+obscurity of his style--an obscurity mixed with occasional bits of
+scientific pedantry, which makes it difficult to tell whether or not
+on some points his thought is obscure also. Modern scientists, like
+modern historians and, above all, scientific and historical educators,
+should ever keep in mind that clearness of speech and writing is
+essential to clearness of thought and that a simple, clear, and, if
+possible, vivid style is vital to the production of the best work in
+either science or history. Darwin and Huxley are classics, and they
+would not have been if they had not written good English. The thought
+is essential, but ability to give it clear expression is only less
+essential. Ability to write well, if the writer has nothing to write
+about, entitles him to mere derision. But the greatest thought is
+robbed of an immense proportion of its value if expressed in a mean or
+obscure manner. Mr. Haseman has such excellent thought that it is a
+pity to make it a work of irritating labor to find out just what the
+thought is. Surely, if he will take as much pains with his writing as
+he has with the far more difficult business of exploring and
+collecting, he will become able to express his thought clearly and
+forcefully. At least he can, if he chooses, go over his sentences
+until he is reasonably sure that they can be parsed. He can take pains
+to see that his whole thought is expressed, instead of leaving
+vacancies which must be filled by the puzzled and groping reader. His
+own views and his quotations from the views of others about the static
+and dynamic theories of distribution are examples of an important
+principle so imperfectly expressed as to make us doubtful whether it
+is perfectly apprehended by the writer. He can avoid the use of those
+pedantic terms which are really nothing but offensive and,
+fortunately, ephemeral scientific slang. There has been, for instance,
+a recent vogue for the extensive misuse, usually tautological misuse,
+of the word "complexus"--an excellent word if used rarely and for
+definite purposes. Mr. Haseman drags it in continually when its use is
+either pointless and redundant or else serves purely to darken wisdom.
+He speaks of the "Antillean complex" when he means the Antilles, of
+the "organic complex" instead of the characteristic or bodily
+characteristics of an animal or species, and of the "environmental
+complex" when he means nothing whatever but the environment. In short,
+Mr. Haseman and those whose bad example he in this instance follows
+use "complexus" in much the same spirit as that displayed by the
+famous old lady who derived religious--instead of scientific--
+consolation from the use of "the blessed word Mesopotamia."
+
+The reason that it is worth while to enter this protest against Mr.
+Haseman's style is because his work is of such real and marked value.
+The pamphlet on the distribution of South American species shows that
+to exceptional ability as a field worker he adds a rare power to draw,
+with both caution and originality, the necessary general conclusions
+from the results of his own observations and from the recorded studies
+of other men; and there is nothing more needed at the present moment
+among our scientific men than the development of a school of men who,
+while industrious and minute observers and collectors and cautious
+generalizers, yet do not permit the faculty of wise generalization to
+be atrophied by excessive devotion to labyrinthine detail.
+
+Haseman upholds with strong reasoning the theory that since the
+appearance of all but the lowest forms of life on this globe there
+have always been three great continental masses, sometimes solid
+sometimes broken, extending southward from the northern hemisphere,
+and from time to time connected in the north, but not in the middle
+regions or the south since the carboniferous epoch. He holds that life
+has been intermittently distributed southward along these continental
+masses when there were no breaks in their southward connection, and
+intermittently exchanged between them when they were connected in the
+north; and he also upholds the view that from a common ancestral form
+the same species has been often developed in entirely disconnected
+localities when in these localities the conditions of environment were
+the same.
+
+The opposite view is that there have been frequent connections between
+the great land masses, alike in the tropics, in the south temperate
+zone, and in the Antarctic region. The upholders of this theory base
+it almost exclusively on the distribution of living and fossil forms
+of life; that is, it is based almost exclusively on biological and not
+geological considerations. Unquestionably, the distribution of many
+forms of life, past and present, offers problems which with our
+present paleontological knowledge we are wholly unable to solve. If we
+consider only the biological facts concerning some one group of
+animals it is not only easy but inevitable to conclude that its
+distribution must be accounted for by the existence of some former
+direct land bridge extending, for instance, between Patagonia and
+Australia, or between Brazil and South Africa, or between the West
+Indies and the Mediterranean, or between a part of the Andean region
+and northeastern Asia. The trouble is that as more groups of animals
+are studied from the standpoint of this hypothesis the number of such
+land bridges demanded to account for the existing facts of animal
+distribution is constantly and indefinitely extended. A recent book by
+one of the most learned advocates of this hypothesis calls for at
+least ten such land bridges between South America and all the other
+continents, present and past, of the world since a period geologically
+not very remote. These land bridges, moreover, must, many of them,
+have been literally bridges; long, narrow tongues of land thrust in
+every direction across the broad oceans. According to this view the
+continental land masses have been in a fairly fluid condition of
+instability. By parity of reasoning, the land bridges could be made a
+hundred instead of merely ten in number. The facts of distribution are
+in many cases inexplicable with our present knowledge; yet if the
+existence of widely separated but closely allied forms is habitually
+to be explained in accordance with the views of the extremists of this
+school we could, from the exclusive study of certain groups of
+animals, conclude that at different periods the United States and
+almost every other portion of the earth were connected by land and
+severed from all other regions by water--and, from the study of
+certain other groups of animals, arrive at directly opposite and
+incompatible conclusions.
+
+The most brilliant and unsafe exponent of this school was Ameghino,
+who possessed and abused two gifts, both essential to the highest type
+of scientist, and both mischievous unless this scientist possess a
+rare and accurate habit of thought joined to industry and mastery of
+detail:--namely, the gift of clear and interesting writing, and the
+gift of generalization. Ameghino rendered marked services to
+paleontology. But he generalized with complete recklessness from the
+slenderest data; and even these data he often completely misunderstood
+or misinterpreted. His favorite thesis included the origin of
+mammalian life and of man himself in southernmost South America, with,
+as incidents, the belief that the mammalian-bearing strata of South
+America were of much greater age than the strata with corresponding
+remains elsewhere; that in South America various species and genera of
+men existed in tertiary times, some of them at least as advanced as
+fairly well advanced modern savages; that there existed various land
+bridges between South America and other southern continents, including
+Africa; and that the ancestral types of modern mammals and of man
+himself wandered across one of these bridges to the old world, and
+that thence their remote descendants, after ages of time, returned to
+the new. In addition to valuable investigations of fossil-bearing beds
+in the Argentine, he made some excellent general suggestions, such as
+that the pithecoid apes, like the baboons, do not stand in the line of
+man's ancestral stem but represent a divergence from it away from
+humanity and toward a retrogressive bestialization. But of his main
+theses he proves none, and what evidence we have tells against them.
+At the Museum of La Plata I found that the authorities were
+practically a unit in regarding his remains of tertiary men and proto-
+men as being either the remains of tertiary American monkeys or of
+American Indians from strata that were long post-tertiary. The
+extraordinary discovery, due to that eminent scientist and public
+servant Doctor Moreno, of the remains of man associated with the
+remains of the great extinct South American fauna, of the mylodon, of
+a giant ungulate, of a huge cat like the lion, and of an extraordinary
+aberrant horse (of a wholly different genus from the modern horse)
+conclusively shows that in its later stages the South American fauna
+consisted largely of types that elsewhere had already disappeared and
+that these types persisted into what was geologically a very recent
+period only some tens of thousands of years ago, when savage man of
+practically a modern type had already appeared in South America. The
+evidence we have, so far as it goes, tends to show that the South
+American fauna always has been more archaic in type than the arctogeal
+fauna of the same chronological level.
+
+To loose generalizations, and to elaborate misinterpretations of
+paleontological records, the kind of work done by Mr. Haseman
+furnishes an invaluable antiscorbutic. To my mind, he has established
+a stronger presumption in favor of the theory he champions than has
+been established in favor of the theories of any of the learned and
+able scientific men from whose conclusions he dissents. Further
+research, careful, accurate, and long extended, can alone enable us to
+decide definitely in the matter; and this research, to be effective,
+must be undertaken by many men, each of whom shall in large measure
+possess Mr. Haseman's exceptional power of laborious work both in the
+field and in the study, his insight and accuracy of observation, and
+his determination to follow truth with inflexible rectitude wherever
+it may lead--one of the greatest among the many great qualities which
+lifted Huxley and Darwin above their fellows.
+
+
+
+                             APPENDIX B.
+
+      The Outfit for Travelling in the South American Wilderness
+
+South America includes so many different kinds of country that it is
+impossible to devise a scheme of equipment which shall suit all. A
+hunting-trip in the pantanals, in the swamp country of the upper
+Paraguay, offers a simple problem. An exploring trip through an
+unknown tropical forest region, even if the work is chiefly done by
+river, offers a very difficult problem. All that I can pretend to do
+is to give a few hints as the results of our own experience.
+
+For bedding there should be a hammock, mosquito-net, and light
+blanket. These can be obtained in Brazil. For tent a light fly is
+ample; ours were brought with us from New York. In exploring only the
+open fly should be taken; but on trips where weight of luggage is no
+objection, there can be walls to the tent and even a canvas floor-
+cloth. Camp-chairs and a camp table should be brought--any good
+outfitter in the United States will supply them--and not thrown away
+until it becomes imperative to cut everything down. On a river trip,
+first-class pulleys and ropes--preferably steel, and at any rate very
+strong--should be taken. Unless the difficulties of transportation are
+insuperable, canvas-and-cement canoes, such as can be obtained from
+various firms in Canada and the United States, should by all means be
+taken. They are incomparably superior to the dugouts. But on different
+rivers wholly different canoes, of wholly different sizes, will be
+needed; on some steam or electric launches may be used; it is not
+possible to lay down a general rule.
+
+As regards arms, a good plain 12-bore shotgun with a 30-30 rifle-
+barrel underneath the others is the best weapon to have constantly in
+one's hand in the South American forests, where big game is rare and
+yet may at any time come in one's path. When specially hunting the
+jaguar, marsh-deer, tapir, or big peccary, an ordinary light repeating
+rifle--the 30-30, 30-40, or 256--is preferable. No heavy rifle is
+necessary for South America. Tin boxes or trunks are the best in which
+to carry one's spare things. A good medicine-chest is indispensable.
+Nowadays doctors know so much of tropical diseases that there is no
+difficulty in fitting one out. It is better not to make the trip at
+all than to fail to take an ample supply of quinine pills. Cholera
+pills and cathartic pills come next in importance. In liquid shape
+there should be serum to inject for the stoppage of amoebic dysentery,
+and anti-snake-venom serum. Fly-dope should be taken in quantities.
+
+For clothing Kermit and I used what was left over from our African
+trip. Sun helmets are best in the open; slouch-hats are infinitely
+preferable in the woods. There should be hobnailed shoes--the nails
+many and small, not few and large; and also moccasins or rubber-soled
+shoes; and light, flexible leggings. Tastes differ in socks; I like
+mine of thick wool. A khaki-colored shirt should be worn, or, as a
+better substitute, a khaki jacket with many pockets. Very light
+underclothes are good. If one's knees and legs are unfortunately
+tender, knickerbockers with long stockings and leggings should be worn;
+ordinary trousers tend to bind the knee. Better still, if one's legs
+will stand the exposure, are shorts, not coming down to the knee. A
+kilt would probably be best of all. Kermit wore shorts in the
+Brazilian forest, as he had already worn them in Africa, in Mexico,
+and in the New Brunswick woods. Some of the best modern hunters always
+wear shorts; as for example, that first-class sportsman the Duke of
+Alva.
+
+Mr. Fiala, after the experience of his trip down the Papagaio, the
+Juruena, and the Tapajos, gives his judgment about equipment and
+provisions as follows:
+
+The history of South American exploration has been full of the losses
+of canoes and cargoes and lives. The native canoe made from the single
+trunk of a forest giant is the craft that has been used. It is durable
+and if lost can be readily replaced from the forest by good men with
+axes and adzes. But, because of its great weight and low free-board,
+it is unsuitable as a freight carrier and by reason of the limitations
+of its construction is not of the correct form to successfully run the
+rapid and bad waters of many of the South American rivers. The North
+American Indian has undoubtedly developed a vastly superior craft in
+the birch-bark canoe and with it will run rapids that a South American
+Indian with his log canoe would not think of attempting, though, as a
+general thing, the South American Indian is a wonderful waterman, the
+equal and, in some ways, the superior of his northern contemporary. At
+the many carries or portages the light birch-bark canoe or its modern
+representative, the canvas-covered canoe, can be picked up bodily and
+carried by from two to four men for several miles, if necessary, while
+the log canoe has to be hauled by ropes and back-breaking labor over
+rollers that have first to be cut from trees in the forest, or at
+great risk led along the edge of the rapids with ropes and hooks and
+poles, the men often up to their shoulders in the rushing waters,
+guiding the craft to a place of safety.
+
+The native canoe is so long and heavy that it is difficult to navigate
+without some bumps on the rocks. In fact, it is usually dragged over
+the rocks in the shallow water near shore in preference to taking the
+risk of a plunge through the rushing volume of deeper water, for
+reasons stated above. The North American canoe can be turned with
+greater facility in critical moments in bad water. Many a time I heard
+my steersman exclaim with delight as we took a difficult passage
+between two rocks with our loaded Canadian canoe. In making the same
+passage the dugout would go sideways toward the rapid until by a
+supreme effort her three powerful paddlers and steersman would right
+her just in time. The native canoe would ship great quantities of
+water in places the Canadian canoe came through without taking any
+water on board. We did bump a few rocks under water, but the canoe was
+so elastic that no damage was done.
+
+Our nineteen-foot canvas-covered freight canoe, a type especially
+built for the purpose on deep, full lines with high free-board,
+weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds and would carry a ton of
+cargo with ease--and also take it safely where the same cargo
+distributed among two or three native thirty or thirty-five foot
+canoes would be lost. The native canoes weigh from about nine hundred
+to two thousand five hundred pounds and more.
+
+In view of the above facts the explorer-traveller is advised to take
+with him the North American canoe if he intends serious work. Two
+canoes would be a good arrangement for from five to seven men, with
+at least one steersman and two paddlers to each canoe. The canoes can
+be purchased in two sizes and nested for transportation, an
+arrangement which would save considerable expense in freight bills. At
+least six paddles should be packed with each boat, in length four and
+one half, four and three fourths, and five feet. Other paddles from
+six and one half feet to eight and one half feet should be provided
+for steering oars. The native paddler, after he has used the light
+Canadian paddle, prefers it to the best native make. My own paddlers
+lost or broke all of their own paddles so as to get the North American
+ones, which they marked with their initials and used most carefully.
+
+To each canoe it would be well to have two copper air tanks, one fore,
+one aft, a hand-hole in each with a water-tight screw cover on hatch.
+In these tanks could be kept a small supply of matches, the
+chronometer or watch which is used for position, and the scientific
+records and diary. Of course, the fact should be kept in mind that
+these are air tanks, not to be used so as to appreciably diminish
+their buoyancy. Each canoe should also carry a small repair kit
+attached to one of the thwarts, containing cement, a piece of canvas
+same as cover of canoe, copper tacks, rivets, and some galvanized
+nails; a good hatchet and a hammer; a small can of canoe paint, spar
+varnish, and copper paint for worn places would be a protection
+against termites and torrential downpours. In concluding the subject
+of canoes I can state that the traveller in South America will find no
+difficulty in disposing of his craft at the end of his trip.
+
+MOTORS--We had with us a three and one half horse-power motor which
+could be attached to stern or gunwale of canoe or boat. It was made by
+the Evinrude Motor Company, who had a magneto placed in the flywheel
+of the engine so that we never had to resort to the battery to run the
+motor. Though the motor was left out in the rain and sun, often
+without a cover, by careless native help, it never failed us. We found
+it particularly valuable in going against the strong current of the
+Sepotuba River where several all-night trips were made up-stream, the
+motor attached to a heavy boat. For exploration up-stream it would be
+valuable, particularly as it is easily portable, weighing for the two
+horse-power motor fifty pounds, for three and one half horse-power one
+hundred pounds. If a carburetor could be attached so that kerosene
+could be used it would add to its value many times, for kerosene can
+be purchased almost anywhere in South America.
+
+TENTS--There is nothing better for material than the light waterproof
+Sea Island cotton of American manufacture, made under the trade name
+of waterproof silk. It keeps out the heaviest rain and is very light.
+Canvas becomes water-soaked, and cravenetted material lets the water
+through. A waterproof canvas floor is a luxury, and, though it adds to
+the weight, it may with advantage be taken on ordinary trips. The tent
+should be eight by eight or eight by nine feet, large enough to swing
+a comfortable hammock. A waterproof canvas bag, a loose-fitting
+envelope for the tent should be provided. Native help is, as a rule,
+careless, and the bag would save wear and tear.
+
+HAMMOCKS--The hammock is the South American bed, and the traveller
+will find it exceedingly comfortable. After leaving the larger cities
+and settlements a bed is a rare object. All the houses are provided
+with extra hammock hooks. The traveller will be entertained hospitably
+and after dinner will be given two hooks upon which to hang his
+hammock, for he will be expected to have his hammock and, in insect
+time, his net, if he has nothing else. As a rule, a native hammock and
+net can be procured in the field. But it is best to take a comfortable
+one along, arranged with a fine-meshed net.
+
+In regard to the folding cot: It is heavy and its numerous legs form a
+sort of highway system over which all sorts of insects can crawl up to
+the sleeper. The ants are special pests and some of them can bite with
+the enthusiastic vigor of beasts many times their size. The canvas
+floor in a tent obviates to a degree the insect annoyance.
+
+The headwaters of the rivers are usually reached by pack-trains of
+mules and oxen. The primitive ox-cart also comes in where the trail is
+not too bad. One hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty pounds is
+a good load for the pack-animals, and none of the cases should weigh
+more than fifty or sixty pounds. Each case should be marked with its
+contents and gross and net weight in kilos.
+
+For personal baggage the light fibre sample case used by travelling
+men in the United States does admirably. The regulation fibre case
+with its metal binding sold for the purpose is too heavy and has the
+bad feature of swelling up under the influence of rain and dampness,
+often necessitating the use of an axe or heavy hammer to remove cover.
+
+The ordinary fibre trunk is good for rail and steamer travel, but it
+is absolutely unpractical for mule-back or canoe. The fibre sample
+case could be developed into a container particularly fitted for
+exploration. The fibre should be soaked in hot paraffin and then hot-
+calendered or hot-pressed. This case could then be covered with
+waterproof canvas with throat opening like a duffel-bag.
+
+The waterproof duffel-bags usually sold are too light in texture and
+wear through. A heavier grade should be used. The small duffel-bag is
+very convenient for hammock and clothing, but generally the thing
+wanted will be at the bottom of the bag! We took with us a number of
+small cotton bags. As cotton is very absorbent, I had them paraffined.
+Each bag was tagged and all were placed in the large duffel-bag. The
+light fibre case described above, made just the right size for mule
+pack, divided by partitions, and covered with a duffel-bag, would
+prove a great convenience.
+
+The light steel boxes made in England for travellers in India and
+Africa would prove of value in South American exploration. They have
+the advantage of being insect and water proof and the disadvantage of
+being expensive.
+
+It would be well if the traveller measured each case for personal
+equipment and computed the limit of weight that it could carry and
+still float. By careful distribution of light and heavy articles in
+the different containers, he could be sure of his belongings floating
+if accidentally thrown into the water.
+
+It is not always possible to get comfortable native saddles. They are
+all constructed on heavy lines with thick padding which becomes water-
+soaked in the rainy season. A United States military saddle, with
+Whitman or McClellan tree, would be a positive luxury. Neither of them
+is padded, so would be the correct thing for all kinds of weather. The
+regulation army saddle-blanket is also advised as a protection for the
+mule's back. The muleteer should wash the saddle-blanket often. For a
+long mule-back trip through a game country, it would be well to have a
+carbine boot on the saddle (United States Army) and saddle-bags with
+canteen and cup. In a large pack-train much time and labor are lost
+every morning collecting the mules which strayed while grazing. It
+would pay in the long run to feed a little corn at a certain hour
+every morning in camp, always ringing a bell or blowing a horn at the
+time. The mules would get accustomed to receiving the feed and would
+come to camp for it at the signal.
+
+All the rope that came to my attention in South America was three-
+strand hemp, a hard material, good for standing rigging but not good
+for tackle or for use aboard canoes. A four-ply bolt rope of best
+manilla, made in New Bedford, Mass., should be taken. It is the finest
+and most pliable line in the world, as any old whaler will tell you.
+Get a sailor of the old school to relay the coils before you go into
+the field so that the rope will be ready for use. Five eighths to
+seven eighths inch diameter is large enough. A few balls of marline
+come in conveniently as also does heavy linen fish-line.
+
+A small-sized duffel-bag should be provided for each of the men as a
+container for hammock and net, spare clothing, and mess-kit. A very
+small waterproof pouch or bag should be furnished also for matches,
+tobacco, etc.
+
+The men should be limited to one duffel-bag each. These bags should be
+numbered consecutively. In fact, every piece in the entire equipment
+should be thus numbered and a list kept in detail in a book.
+
+The explorer should personally see that each of his men has a hammock,
+net, and poncho; for the native, if left unsupervised, will go into
+the field with only the clothing he has on.
+
+FOOD--Though South America is rich in food and food possibilities,
+she has not solved the problem of living economically on her
+frontiers. The prices asked for food in the rubber districts we passed
+through were amazing. Five milreis (one dollar and fifty cents) was
+cheap for a chicken, and eggs at five hundred reis (fifteen cents)
+apiece were a rarity. Sugar was bought at the rate of one to two
+milreis a kilo--in a country where sugar-cane grows luxuriantly. The
+main dependence is the mandioc, or farina, as it is called. It is the
+bread of the country and is served at every meal. The native puts it
+on his meat and in his soup and mixes it with his rice and beans. When
+he has nothing else he eats the farina, as it is called, by the
+handful. It is seldom cooked. The small mandioc tubers when boiled are
+very good and are used instead of potatoes. Native beans are nutritious
+and form one of the chief foods.
+
+In the field the native cook wastes much time. Generally provided with
+an inadequate cooking equipment, hours are spent cooking beans after
+the day's work, and then, of course, they are often only partially
+cooked. A kettle or aluminum Dutch oven should be taken along, large
+enough to cook enough beans for both breakfast and dinner. The beans
+should be cooked all night, a fire kept burning for the purpose. It
+would only be necessary then to warm the beans for breakfast and
+dinner, the two South American meals.
+
+For meat the rubber hunter and explorer depends upon his rifle and
+fish-hook. The rivers are full of fish which can readily be caught,
+and, in Brazil, the tapir, capybara, paca, agouti, two or three
+varieties of deer, and two varieties of wild pig can occasionally be
+shot; and most of the monkeys are used for food. Turtles and turtle
+eggs can be had in season and a great variety of birds, some of them
+delicious in flavor and heavy in meat. In the hot, moist climate fresh
+meat will not keep and even salted meat has been known to spoil. For
+use on the Roosevelt expedition I arranged a ration for five men for
+one day packed in a tin box; the party which went down the Duvida made
+each ration do for six men for a day and a half, and in addition gave
+over half the bread or hardtack to the camaradas. By placing the day's
+allowance of bread in this same box, it was lightened sufficiently to
+float if dropped into water. There were seven variations in the
+arrangement of food in these boxes and they were numbered from 1 to 7,
+so that a different box could be used every day of the week. In
+addition to the food, each box contained a cake of soap, a piece of
+cheese-cloth, two boxes of matches, and a box of table salt. These tin
+boxes were lacquered to protect from rust and enclosed in wooden cases
+for transportation. A number in large type was printed on each. No. 1
+was cased separately; Nos. 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 were cased
+together. For canoe travel the idea was to take these wooden cases
+off. I did not have an opportunity personally to experience the
+management of these food cases. We had sent them all ahead by pack-
+train for the explorers of the Duvida River. The exploration of the
+Papagaio was decided upon during the march over the plateau of Matto
+Grosso and was accomplished with dependence upon native food only.
+
+  DAILY RATION FOR FIVE MEN
+
+                             SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THUR. FRI. SAT.
+  Rice                        16         16              16
+  Oatmeal                          13              13         13
+  Bread                      100  100   100  100  100   100  100
+  Tea-biscuits                18         18        18
+  Gingersnaps                      21         21         21   21
+  Dehydrated potatoes         11   11    11   11   11    11
+  Dehydrated onions            5    5     5    5    5     5
+  Erbswurst                         8          8          8
+  Evaporated soups             6          6                    6
+  Baked beans                                      25         25
+  Condensed milk              17   17    17   17   17    17   17
+  Bacon                       44   44    44   44   44    44   44
+  Roast beef                       56
+  Braised beef                           56                   56
+  Corned beef                                 70
+  Ox tongue                                        78
+  Curry and chicken                                      72
+  Boned chicken               61
+  Fruits: evaporated berries        5          5    5          5
+  Figs                        20         20
+  Dates                                                  16
+  Sugar                       32   32    32   32   32    32   32
+  Coffee                      10   10    10   10   10    10   10
+  Tea                          5    5     5    5    5     5    5
+  Salt                         4    4     4    4    4     4    4
+  Sweet chocolate                             16
+
+  EACH BOX ALSO CONTAINED
+
+  Muslin, one yard             1    1     1    1    1     1    1
+  Matches, boxes               2    2     2    2    2     2    2
+  Soap, one cake               1    1     1    1    1     1    1
+
+Above weights of food are net in avoirdupois ounces. Each complete
+ration with its tin container weighed nearly twenty-seven pounds. The
+five pounds over net weight of daily ration was taken up in tin
+necessary for protection of food. The weight of component parts of
+daily ration had to be governed to some extent by the size of the
+commercial package in which the food could be purchased on short
+notice. Austin, Nichols & Co., of New York, who supplied the food
+stores for my polar expedition, worked day and night to complete the
+packing of the rations on time.
+
+The food cases described above were used on Colonel Roosevelt's
+descent of the Rio da Duvida and also by the party who journeyed down
+the Gy-Parana and Madeira Rivers. Leo Miller, the naturalist, who was
+a member of the last-named party, arrived in Manaos, Brazil, while I
+was there and, in answer to my question, told me that the food served
+admirably and was good, but that the native cooks had a habit of
+opening a number of cases at a time to satisfy their personal desire
+for special delicacies. Bacon was the article most sought for.
+Speaking critically, for a strenuous piece of work like the
+exploration of the Duvida, the food was somewhat bulky. A ration
+arrangement such as I used on my sledge trips North would have
+contained more nutritious elements in a smaller space. We could have
+done without many of the luxuries. But the exploration of the Duvida
+had not been contemplated and had no place in the itinerary mapped out
+in New York. The change of plan and the decision to explore the Duvida
+River came about in Rio Janeiro, long after our rations had been made
+out and shipped.
+
+"Matte" the tea of Brazil and Paraguay, used in most of the states of
+South America, should not be forgotten. It is a valuable beverage.
+With it a native can do a wonderful amount of work on little food.
+Upon the tired traveller it has a very refreshing effect.
+
+Doctor Peckolt, celebrated chemist of Rio de Janeiro, has compared the
+analysis of matte with those of green tea, black tea, and coffee and
+obtained the following result:
+
+  IN 1,000 PARTS OF     GREEN TEA     BLACK TEA     COFFEE      MATTE
+  Natural oil              7.90          0.06         0.41       0.01
+  Chlorophyl              22.20         18.14        13.66      62.00
+  Resin                   22.20         34.40        13.66      20.69
+  Tannin                 178.09        128.80        16.39      12.28
+  Alkaloids:
+  Mateina                  4.50          4.30         2.66       2.50
+  Extractive substances  464.00        390.00       270.67     238.83
+  Cellulose and fibres   175.80        283.20       178.83     180.00
+  Ashes                   85.60         25.61        25.61      38.11
+
+Manner of preparation: The matte tea is prepared in the same manner as
+the Indian tea, that is to say, by pouring upon it boiling water
+during ten to fifteen minutes before using. To obtain a good infusion
+five spoonfuls of matte are sufficient for a litre of water.
+
+Some experiments have been made lately with the use of matte in the
+German army, and probably it would be a valuable beverage for the use
+of our own troops. Two plates and a cup, knife, fork, and spoon should
+be provided for each member of the party. The United States Army mess-
+kit would serve admirably. Each man's mess-kit should be numbered to
+correspond with the number on his duffel-bag.
+
+An aluminum (for lightness) cooking outfit, or the Dutch oven
+mentioned, with three or four kettles nested within, a coffee pot or a
+teapot would suffice. The necessary large spoons and forks for the
+cook, a small meat grinder, and a half dozen skinning knives could all
+be included in the fibre case. These outfits are usually sold with the
+cups, plates, etc., for the table. As before suggested, each member of
+the party should have his own mess-kit. It should not be carried with
+the general cooking outfit. By separating the eating equipments thus,
+one of the problems of hygiene and cleanliness is simplified.
+
+RIFLES--AMMUNITION--A heavy rifle is not advised. The only animals
+that can be classed as dangerous are the jaguar and white-jawed
+peccary, and a 30-30 or 44 calibre is heavy enough for such game. The
+44-calibre Winchester or Remington carbine is the arm generally used
+throughout South America, and 44 calibre is the only ammunition that
+one can depend upon securing in the field. Every man has his own
+preference for an arm. However, there is no need of carrying a nine or
+ten pound weapon when a rifle weighing only from six and three fourths
+to seven and one half pounds will do all that is necessary. I,
+personally, prefer the small-calibre rifle, as it can be used for
+birds also. The three-barrelled gun, combining a double shotgun and a
+rifle, is an excellent weapon, and it is particularly valuable for the
+collector of natural-history specimens. A new gun has just come on the
+market which may prove valuable in South America where there is such a
+variety of game, a four-barrel gun, weighing only eight and one fourth
+pounds. It has two shotgun barrels, one 30 to 44 calibre rifle and the
+rib separating the shotgun barrels is bored for a 22-calibre rifle
+cartridge. The latter is particularly adapted for the large food
+birds, which a heavy rifle bullet might tear. Twenty-two calibre
+ammunition is also very light and the long 22 calibre exceedingly
+powerful. Unless in practice it proves too complicated, it would seem
+to be a good arm for all-round use--sixteen to twenty gauge is large
+enough for the shotgun barrels. Too much emphasis cannot be placed
+upon the need of being provided with good weapons. After the loss of
+all our arms in the rapids we secured four poor, rusty rifles which
+proved of no value. We lost three deer, a tapir, and other game, and
+finally gave up the use of the rifles, depending upon hook and line. A
+25 or 30 calibre high power automatic pistol with six or seven inch
+barrel would prove a valuable arm to carry always on the person. It
+could be used for large game and yet would not be too large for food
+birds. It is to be regretted that there is nothing in the market of
+this character.
+
+We had our rifle ammunition packed by the U. M. C. Co. in zinc cases
+of one hundred rounds each, a metallic strip with pull ring closing
+the two halves of the box. Shot-cartridge, sixteen gauge, were packed
+the same way, twenty-five to the box.
+
+The explorer would do well always to have on his person a compass, a
+light waterproof bag containing matches, a waterproof box of salt, and
+a strong, light, linen or silk fish-line with several hooks, a knife,
+and an automatic at his belt, with several loaded magazines for the
+latter in his pocket. Thus provided, if accidentally lost for several
+days in the forest (which often happens to the rubber hunters in
+Brazil), he will be provided with the possibility of getting game and
+making himself shelter and fire at night.
+
+FISH--For small fish like the pacu and piranha an ordinary bass hook
+will do. For the latter, because of its sharp teeth, a hook with a
+long shank and phosphor-bronze leader is the best; the same character
+of leader is best on the hook to be used for the big fish. A tarpon
+hook will hold most of the great fish of the rivers. A light rod and
+reel would be a convenience in catching the pacu. We used to fish for
+the latter variety in the quiet pools while allowing the canoe to
+drift, and always saved some of the fish as bait for the big fellows.
+We fished for the pacu as the native does, kneading a ball of mandioc
+farina with water and placing it on the hook as bait. I should not be
+surprised, though, if it were possible, with carefully chosen flies,
+to catch some of the fish that every once in a while we saw rise to
+the surface and drag some luckless insect under.
+
+CLOTHING--Even the experienced traveller when going into a new field
+will commit the crime of carrying too much luggage. Articles which he
+thought to be camp necessities become camp nuisances which worry his
+men and kill his mules. The lighter one can travel the better. In the
+matter of clothing, before the actual wilderness is reached the
+costume one would wear to business in New York in summer is practical
+for most of South America, except, of course, the high mountain
+regions, where a warm wrap is necessary. A white or natural linen suit
+is a very comfortable garment. A light blue unlined serge is desirable
+as a change and for wear in rainy weather.
+
+Strange to relate, the South American seems to have a fondness for
+stiff collars. Even in Corumba, the hottest place I have ever been in,
+the native does not think he is dressed unless he wears one of these
+stiff abominations around his throat. A light negligee shirt with
+interchangeable or attached soft collars is vastly preferable. In the
+frontier regions and along the rivers the pajama seems to be the
+conventional garment for day as well as night wear. Several such suits
+of light material should be carried--the more ornamented and
+beautifully colored the greater favor will they find along the way. A
+light cravenetted mackintosh is necessary for occasional cool evenings
+and as a protection against the rain. It should have no cemented
+rubber seams to open up in the warm, moist climate. Yachting oxfords
+and a light pair of leather slippers complete the outfit for steamer
+travel. For the field, two or three light woollen khaki-colored
+shirts, made with two breast pockets with buttoned flaps, two pairs
+of long khaki trousers, two pairs of riding breeches, a khaki coat cut
+military fashion with four pockets with buttoned flaps, two suits of
+pajamas, handkerchiefs, socks, etc., would be necessary. The poncho
+should extend to below the knees and should be provided with a hood
+large enough to cover the helmet. It should have no cemented seams;
+the material recently adopted by the United States Army for ponchos
+seems to be the best. For footgear the traveller needs two pairs of
+stout, high hunting shoes, built on the moccasin form with soles. Hob
+nails should be taken along to insert if the going is over rocky
+places. It is also advisable to provide a pair of very light leather
+slipper boots to reach to just under the knee for wear in camp. They
+protect the legs and ankles from insect stings and bites. The
+traveller who enters tropical South America should protect his head
+with a wide-brimmed soft felt hat with ventilated headband, or the
+best and lightest pith helmet that can be secured, one large enough to
+shade the face and back of neck. There should be a ventilating space
+all around the head-band; the wider the space the better. These
+helmets can be secured in Rio and Buenos Aires. Head-nets with face
+plates of horsehair are the best protection against small insect
+pests. They are generally made too small and the purchaser should be
+careful to get one large enough to go over his helmet and come down to
+the breast. Several pairs of loose gloves rather long in the wrist
+will be needed as protection against the flies, piums and boroshudas
+which draw blood with every bite and are numerous in many parts of
+South America. A waterproof sun umbrella, with a jointed handle about
+six feet long terminating in a point, would be a decided help to the
+scientist at work in the field. A fine-meshed net fitting around the
+edge of the umbrella would make it insect proof. When folded it would
+not be bulky and its weight would be negligible. Such an umbrella
+could also be attached, with a special clamp, to the thwart of a canoe
+and so prove a protection from both sun and rain.
+
+There are little personal conveniences which sometimes grow into
+necessities. One of these in my own case was a little electric flash-
+light taken for the purpose of reading the verniers of a theodolite or
+sextant in star observations. It was used every night and for many
+purposes. As a matter of necessity, where insects are numerous one
+turns to the protection of his hammock and net immediately after the
+evening meal. It was at such times that I found the electric lamp so
+helpful. Reclining in the hammock, I held the stock of the light under
+my left arm and with diary in my lap wrote up my records for the day.
+I sometimes read by its soft, steady light. One charge of battery, to
+my surprise, lasted nearly a month. When forced to pick out a camping
+spot after dark, an experience which comes to every traveller in the
+tropics in the rainy season, we found its light very helpful. Neither
+rain nor wind could put it out and the light could be directed
+wherever needed. The charges should be calculated on the plan of one
+for every three weeks. The acetylene lamp for camp illumination is an
+advance over the kerosene lantern. It has been found that for equal
+weight the carbide will give more light than kerosene or candle. The
+carbide should be put in small containers, for each time a box is
+opened some of the contents turns into gas from contact with the moist
+air.
+
+TOOLS--Three or four good axes, several bill-hooks, a good hatchet
+with hammer head and nail-puller should be in the tool kit. In
+addition, each man should be provided with a belt knife and a machete
+with sheath. Collins makes the best machetes. His axes, too, are
+excellent. The bill-hook, called foice in Brazil, is a most valuable
+tool for clearing away small trees, vines, and under-growths. It is
+marvellous how quickly an experienced hand can clear the ground in a
+forest with one of these instruments. All of these tools should have
+handles of second-growth American hickory of first quality; and
+several extra handles should be taken along. The list of tools should
+be completed with a small outfit of pliers, tweezers, files, etc.--the
+character, of course, depending upon the mechanical ability of the
+traveller and the scientific instruments he has with him that might
+need repairs.
+
+SURVEY INSTRUMENTS--The choice of instruments will depend largely
+upon the character of the work intended. If a compass survey will
+suffice, there is nothing better than the cavalry sketching board used
+in the United States Army for reconnaissance. With a careful hand it
+approaches the high degree of perfection attained by the plane-table
+method. It is particularly adapted for river survey and, after one
+gets accustomed to its use, it is very simple. If the prismatic
+compass is preferred, nothing smaller than two and one half inches in
+diameter should be used. In the smaller sizes the magnet is not
+powerful enough to move the dial quickly or accurately.
+
+Several good pocket compasses must be provided. They should all have
+good-sized needles with the north end well marked and degrees engraved
+in metal. If the floating dial is preferred it should be of aluminum
+and nothing smaller than two and one half inches, for the same reason
+as mentioned above regarding the prismatic compass.
+
+Expense should not be spared if it is necessary to secure good
+compasses. Avoid paper dials and leather cases which absorb moisture.
+The compass case should allow taking apart for cleaning and drying.
+
+The regular chronometer movement, because of its delicacy, is out of
+the question for rough land or water travel. We had with us a small-
+sized half-chronometer movement recently brought out by the Waltham
+Company as a yacht chronometer. It gave a surprisingly even rate under
+the most adverse conditions. I was sorry to lose it in the rapids of
+the Papagaio when our canoes went down.
+
+The watches should be waterproof with strong cases, and several should
+be taken. It would be well to have a dozen cheap but good watches and
+the same number of compasses for use around camp and for gifts or
+trade along the line of travel. Money is of no value after one leaves
+the settlements. I was surprised to find that many of the rubber
+hunters were not provided with compasses, and I listened to an
+American who told of having been lost in the depths of the great
+forest where for days he lived on monkey meat secured with his rifle
+until he found his way to the river. He had no compass and could not
+get one. I was sorry I had none to give; I had lost mine in the
+rapids.
+
+For the determination of latitude and longitude there is nothing
+better than a small four or five inch theodolite not over fifteen
+pounds in weight. It should have a good prism eyepiece with an angle
+tube attached so it would not be necessary to break one's neck in
+reading high altitudes. For days we travelled in the direction the sun
+was going, with altitudes varying from 88 deg. to 90 deg.. Because of these
+high altitudes of the sun the sextant with artificial horizon could
+not be used unless one depended upon star observations altogether, an
+uncertain dependence because of the many cloudy nights.
+
+BAROMETERS--The Goldsmith form of direct-reading aneroid is the most
+accurate portable instrument and, of course, should be compared with a
+standard mercurial at the last weather-bureau station.
+
+THERMOMETERS--A swing thermometer, with wet and dry bulbs for
+determination of the amount of moisture in the air, and the maximum
+and minimum thermometer of the signal-service or weather-bureau type
+should be provided, with a case to protect them from injury.
+
+A tape measure with metric scale of measurements on one side and feet
+and inches on the other is most important. Two small, light waterproof
+cases could be constructed and packed with scientific instruments,
+data, and spare clothing and yet not exceed the weight limit of
+flotation. In transit by pack-train these two cases would form but one
+mule load.
+
+PHOTOGRAPHIC--From the experience gained in several fields of
+exploration it seems to me that the voyager should limit himself to
+one small-sized camera, which he can always have with him, and then
+carry a duplicate of it, soldered in tin, in the baggage. The
+duplicate need not be equipped with as expensive a lens and shutter as
+the camera carried for work; 31/4 x 41/4 is a good size. Nothing
+larger than 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 is advised. We carried the 3A special Kodak
+and found it a light, strong, and effective instrument. It seems to me
+that the ideal form of instrument would be one with a front board
+large enough to contain an adapter fitted for three lenses. For the
+3 1/4 x 4 1/4:
+
+  One lens                                 4 or 4 1/2 focus
+  One lens                                 6 or 7 focus
+  One lens telephoto or telecentric        9 to 12 focus
+
+The camera should be made of metal and fitted with focal-plane shutter
+and direct view-finder.
+
+A sole leather case with shoulder-strap should contain the camera and
+lenses, with an extra roll of films, all within instant reach, so that
+a lens could be changed without any loss of time.
+
+Plates, of course, are the best, but their weight and frailty, with
+difficulty of handling, rule them out of the question. The roll film
+is the best, as the film pack sticks together and the stubs pull off
+in the moist, hot climate. The films should be purchased in rolls of
+six exposures, each roll in a tin, the cover sealed with surgical
+tape. Twelve of these tubes should be soldered in a tin box. In places
+where the air is charged with moisture a roll of films should not be
+left in a camera over twenty-four hours.
+
+Tank development is best for the field. The tanks provided for
+developing by the Kodak Company are best for fixing also. A nest of
+tanks would be a convenience; one tank should be kept separate for the
+fixing-bath. As suggested in the Kodak circular, for tropical
+development a large-size tank can be used for holding the freezing
+mixture of hypo. This same tank would become the fixing tank after
+development. In the rainy season it is a difficult matter to dry
+films. Development in the field, with washing water at 80 degrees F.,
+is a patience-trying operation. It has occurred to me that a small
+air-pump with a supply of chloride of calcium in small tubes might
+solve the problem of preserving films in the tropics. The air-pump and
+supply of chloride of calcium would not be as heavy or bulky as the
+tanks and powders needed for development. By means of the air-pump the
+films could be sealed in tin tubes free from moisture and kept thus
+until arrival at home or at a city where the air was fairly dry and
+cold water for washing could be had.
+
+While I cordially agree with most of the views expressed by Mr. Fiala,
+there are some as to which I disagree; for instance, we came very
+strongly to the conclusion, in descending the Duvida, where bulk was
+of great consequence, that the films should be in rolls of ten or
+twelve exposures. I doubt whether the four-barrel gun would be
+practical; but this is a matter of personal taste.
+
+
+
+                             APPENDIX C.
+
+              My Letter of May 1 to General Lauro Muller
+
+The first report on the expedition, made by me immediately after my
+arrival at Manaos, and published in Rio Janeiro upon its receipt, is
+as follows:
+
+                                                  MAY 1st, 1914.
+
+  TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE MINISTER OF
+  FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
+  RIO-DE-JANEIRO.
+  MY DEAR GENERAL LAURO MULLER:
+
+  I wish first to express my profound acknowledgments to you personally
+  and to the other members of the Brazilian Government whose generous
+  courtesy alone rendered possible the Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt-
+  Rondon. I wish also to express my high admiration and regard for
+  Colonel Rondon and his associates who have been my colleagues in this
+  work of exploration. In the third place I wish to point out that what
+  we have just done was rendered possible only by the hard and perilous
+  labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission in the unexplored
+  western wilderness of Matto Grosso during the last seven years. We
+  have had a hard and somewhat dangerous but very successful trip. No
+  less than six weeks were spent in slowly and with peril and exhausting
+  labor forcing our way down through what seemed a literally endless
+  succession of rapids and cataracts. For forty-eight days we saw no
+  human being. In passing these rapids we lost five of the seven canoes
+  with which we started and had to build others. One of our best men
+  lost his life in the rapids. Under the strain one of the men went
+  completely bad, shirked all his work, stole his comrades' food and
+  when punished by the sergeant he with cold-blooded deliberation
+  murdered the sergeant and fled into the wilderness. Colonel Rondon's
+  dog running ahead of him while hunting, was shot by two Indians; by
+  his death he in all probability saved the life of his master. We have
+  put on the map a river about 1500 kilometres in length running from
+  just south of the 13th degree to north of the 5th degree and the
+  biggest affluent of the Madeira. Until now its upper course has been
+  utterly unknown to every one, and its lower course although known for
+  years to the rubbermen utterly unknown to all cartographers. Its
+  source is between the 12th and 13th parallels of latitude south, and
+  between longitude 59 degrees and longitude 60 degrees west from
+  Greenwich. We embarked on it about at latitude 12 degrees 1 minute
+  south and longitude 60 degrees 18 west. After that its entire course
+  was between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude approaching the
+  latter most closely about in latitude 8 degrees 15 minutes. The first
+  rapids were at Navaite in 11 degrees 44 minutes and after that they
+  were continuous and very difficult and dangerous until the rapids
+  named after the murdered sergeant Paishon in 11 degrees 12 minutes. At
+  11 degrees 23 minutes the river received the Rio Kermit from the left.
+  At 11 degrees 22 minutes the Marciano Avila entered it from the right.
+  At 11 degrees 18 minutes the Taunay entered from the left. At 10
+  degrees 58 minutes the Cardozo entered from the right. At 10 degrees
+  24 minutes we encountered the first rubberman. The Rio Branco entered
+  from the left at 9 degrees 38 minutes. We camped at 8 degrees 49
+  minutes or approximately the boundary line between Matto Grosso and
+  Amazonas. The confluence with the upper Aripuanan, which entered from
+  the right, was in 7 degrees 34 minutes. The mouth where it entered the
+  Madeira was in about 5 degrees 30 minutes. The stream we have followed
+  down is that which rises farthest away from the mouth and its general
+  course is almost due north.
+
+  My dear Sir, I thank you from my heart for the chance to take part in
+  this great work of exploration.
+
+  With high regard and respect, believe me
+
+       Very sincerely yours,
+            THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Brazilian Wilderness
+by Theodore Roosevelt
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