peared as limpid as crystal, while a few
moments before it looked of a dirty yellow--not because it was really
dirty, but because of the reflection from the rocky river bottom.

From Praia Formosa, which we then saw on our left side, the river was
once more strewn with rocks, but not in such quantities as at Mangabel.
High hills could be seen all along, which seemed as if they had been
formed by alluvial deposits left there when the drainage from the high
Matto Grosso plateau proceeded down toward the north in a disorderly
fashion, until it found its way into the great fissures in the earth's
crust which now form the beds of those great arteries, the Xingu, the
Tapajoz, and the Madeira rivers.

I noticed that all the hills and undulations ran from south to north or
from north-west to south-east, the southern slope being generally more
elongated. After passing on our left the trading sheds of Sobradinho and
S. Vicente, with their corrugated iron roofs--looking to us the most
civilized things we had ever seen--we approached the Montanha, where
another rapid had to be negotiated.

During the night I was sleeping inside the cabin of the boat, which Col.
Brazil had placed at my disposal, and where I had all the baggage which I
had saved from the forest. In the middle of the night all of a sudden the
boat sank in 5 or 6 ft. of water. It was all I could do to scramble out
of the cabin. The boat had sprung a great leak as big as a man's hand,
which had been stopped up, and which had suddenly opened--hence the
misfortune.

This sudden immersion in cold water gave me another bad attack of fever,
as I had to sit the entire night in wet pyjamas while the crews of all
the other boats were summoned in order to raise the boat once more, a
work which lasted several hours.

Next morning when we departed Col. Brazil lent me some of his clothes,
while all my things were spread on the roofs of the various boats to dry
in the sun, I never shall forget Col. Brazil's amusement and that of his
men when I unpacked some of the boxes, which had once been watertight,
and pulled out a dress-suit, frock-coat, and other such stylish garments,
now all wet and muddy, and some twenty pairs of shoes, all in a terrible
condition, mildewed and soaked with the moisture they had absorbed in the
forest and during the last immersion.

Near the tributary Montanha, on the left side of the main stream, were
two small rapids. A rich rubber-producing land was