est our weary bones for the
night.

On leaving the rapids the river took a direction of 310 deg. b.m. There was a
high hill to the east and another, equally high, to the west. The chain
of hills seen from the north showed much erosion in the centre, where the
rock was exposed underneath. On the south side the upper portion of the
hill range consisted of a vertical rocky cliff in strata each 6 ft.
thick.

Another cut, more unpleasant even than ours, had been made by the river
in that same range to the north-east of that through which we had taken
the canoe. An island of rock rose between those cuts.

A few hundred metres below the mouth of that ugly channel we found an
extensive beach, on which we made our camp for the night. The minimum
temperature during the night of August 2nd was 64 deg. F.

When we landed the men were proceeding to cut down the foliage on the
edge of the forest, so as to be able to hang their hammocks, when they
became greatly excited on discovering several nests of _maribondos_
(hornets), graceful cones of a parchment-like material enclosing a number
of superposed discs from one to three inches in diameter and about a
quarter of an inch apart. Each disc had a perforation in order to let the
dwellers in those little homes pass from one chamber to another from the
highest of the cone down to the lowest in the apex.

When we left at 7.30 in the morning and had gone but 1,800 m., the river
suddenly described a sharp angle and at that point went through a narrow
neck. Afterwards it widened once more to an average breadth of 800 m.,
which it kept for a distance of 3 kil. in a straight line, the channel
being there quite clear of rocks and the water beautifully smooth.

The river was indeed lovely in that part. I had a little more time there
to look round at the scenery on either side of us. I noticed that rubber
was still to be found, but in small quantities in that region. Rubber
trees were only to be seen every now and then. Looking back to the south
and south-west on the range of hills we had left behind, I could see that
it extended far to the north-west. The highest part of it, however,
seemed to be near the point where we had negotiated the dangerous rapid.

We had gone no more than 9,600 m., when we came to another bad rapid over
a barrier of rock across the river from north-east to south-west. A
tributary 10 m. wide at the mouth occurred on the right just before this
rapid. Beautiful trees